MP3 player?

[northwind]

I'm at some risk of actually stepping into the present day with this MP3 thing... I'm not a downloader, but I've found myself accumulating tracks on PC... Run an interconnect to my stereo, lovely- no more hunting for singles.

So, it makes sense to abandon my beloved MD, and get one of these newfangled things. Just wondered if anyone can point me in the right directions...

First of all, what format? I'm told ogg/vorbis is superior than MP3- most of the stuff I've transferred, I've done as .wma lossless, but there'd be no issue with switching format now. Since i'll be using the transfers for home audio as well as portable, a big loss would be an issue.

And that decided, what player to go for? It doens't have to be cool, and tiny size isn't a huge selling point- I'm used to a MD player a bit bigger than a fag packet. I'd sooner have a bit more capacity to play with, and a decent interface- my main dislike of the concept is that with, say, 1500 songs and a rubbish interface, I'll never find what I want. I'm not an organised person... Battery life could be important too.

[the_runt69]

Try, http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=14331
Good little unit, 60 GIG drive, plays MP3, WMA, Dont know about ACC, also plays video so you can store and watch films on it and you can buy a cable to attach it to the telly, is about £200ish quid if you look around

H

[the_runt69]

Sorry that should have been 30 gig

H

[amarko5]

I can thouroughly recoment the sony unit 20gig looks like a pebble

bought the wife one for xmas and she loves it

defo plays mp3 wma and sony's format.

also my daughter has a creative 20 gig player that is also very very good

there are so many on the market now but when i researched these two came out tops.

sony was near 200 quid and the creative at the time was 179

this is a newer model of the one my daughter has

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/171214/art/creative/zen-sleek-photo-20-gb-mp3.html

and the sony one is here


http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPF-Sony_Sony_NWA3000S_MP3_Player

[Filipe M.]

Can't tell for sure but it seems like the Sony isn't recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device; IIRC, it can't be accessed from the Windows Explorer™ :wink: which effectively limits its use as a portable hard drive (if you even intended to use it as such, mind). Check it out before you decide, though.

[Warren]

Can't tell for sure but it seems like the Sony isn't recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device; IIRC, it can't be accessed from the Windows Explorer™ :wink: which effectively limits its use as a portable hard drive (if you even intended to use it as such, mind). Check it out before you decide, though.

same with the ipod which is a shame.
hence me not getting one.

BTW - i got a k750i phone, and just upgraded the memory card to 1gig that i got off ebay for a tenner.

now it can hold about 10 albums :)

[Kate]

Can't tell for sure but it seems like the Sony isn't recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device; IIRC, it can't be accessed from the Windows Explorer™ :wink: which effectively limits its use as a portable hard drive (if you even intended to use it as such, mind). Check it out before you decide, though.

same with the ipod which is a shame.
hence me not getting one.

Erm, I'm pretty sure you can, at least, I do all the time. My iPod is usually used for music but I've also used it to transfer files about too.

Can't beat the iPod and iTunes for ease of use imo, and the newer ones have a decent battery too.

[Warren]

Can't tell for sure but it seems like the Sony isn't recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device; IIRC, it can't be accessed from the Windows Explorer™ :wink: which effectively limits its use as a portable hard drive (if you even intended to use it as such, mind). Check it out before you decide, though.

same with the ipod which is a shame.
hence me not getting one.

Erm, I'm pretty sure you can, at least, I do all the time. My iPod is usually used for music but I've also used it to transfer files about too.

Can't beat the iPod and iTunes for ease of use imo, and the newer ones have a decent battery too.

you cant with my mums one, and my mates one.

but there new ones. (the ipod video) you gotta have itunes installed for it to work and it has to be firewire.

[Filipe M.]

Can't tell for sure but it seems like the Sony isn't recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device; IIRC, it can't be accessed from the Windows Explorer™ :wink: which effectively limits its use as a portable hard drive (if you even intended to use it as such, mind). Check it out before you decide, though.

same with the ipod which is a shame.
hence me not getting one.

Erm, I'm pretty sure you can, at least, I do all the time. My iPod is usually used for music but I've also used it to transfer files about too.

Can't beat the iPod and iTunes for ease of use imo, and the newer ones have a decent battery too.

you cant with my mums one, and my mates one.

but there new ones. (the ipod video) you gotta have itunes installed for it to work and it has to be firewire.

Check for formatting, the Windows formatted ones allow it. And btw, they're all USB now, iirc up to the 2Gen it was all firewire, 3 and 4Gen were firewire + USB and the 5Gen (Video) is USB only. Music sync is done via iTunes, but it does work as a Mass Storage Device under Windows.

[jonboy]

My daughter just bought one of these:

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=215&product=9672

Only uses one AAA cell and has a USB 2.0 port. Just plugs straight in to your PC's USB port (needs no installation) and is simply seen as an external hard drive.

She got it off Ebay (almost new) for £21.


.

[tomjones2]

Got the creative zen touch 20gb which is good, has a genuine 15hr plus battery life too.

The interface is alright providing your songs have been labeled properly. at a minimum you need all the albums labeled, and having artists and tracks help a great deal.

Plugs straight into media player as well.

[amarko5]

Got the creative zen touch 20gb which is good, has a genuine 15hr plus battery life too.

The interface is alright providing your songs have been labeled properly. at a minimum you need all the albums labeled, and having artists and tracks help a great deal.

Plugs straight into media player as well.

thats the one my daughter has :wink: but it's discontinued now :(

bet you could find one on ebay though :wink:

[Smiffy]

The sony software has been universally panned as a big pile of fetid dingo's kidneys that ruins an otherwise good player. My preference is for an iAudio X5. Traditional windows like file structure, rather than sorting by mp3 tags and it can be used as a USB host so you can transfer your digital pictures to it straight from the camera if you sun out of storage on the camera's card. And it will play pretty much any format, even FLAC! Brilliant.

[GSXR Carlos]

Not that it should ever cause a problem for personal use, but i tunes doesn't let you copy music onto, say another computer, you basically 'check out' the song from your computer to avoid illegal distribution

unless anyone knows different, makes thing a bit of a pain in the ****, especially if you use a couple of computers

[Razor]

I dunno, I feel like I'm in the stone age with my CD walkman.
Not tooo sure about all this 21st century everything you own in one basket stuff.

[mysteryjimbo]

Got the creative zen touch 20gb which is good, has a genuine 15hr plus battery life too.

The interface is alright providing your songs have been labeled properly. at a minimum you need all the albums labeled, and having artists and tracks help a great deal.

Plugs straight into media player as well.

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=10274

Can agree with this one. After much deliberation i bought it for my mrs for Christmas. Better than the Ipod as in many ways and cheaper.

The labeling issue can be said for virtually all player. Garbage in, garbage out applies as usual

[Warren]

My daughter just bought one of these:

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=215&product=9672

Only uses one AAA cell and has a USB 2.0 port. Just plugs straight in to your PC's USB port (needs no installation) and is simply seen as an external hard drive.

She got it off Ebay (almost new) for £21.


.

i had one of those, infact i had 3 of those, as they all were replaced under warranty. ive given up on em now.

[northwind]

I'm torn between getting a humungous one and just dumping everything onto it, or getting a small one and using it basically like a big walkman... First the Great Ripping will take place, to get some idea of volume. But before I can do that, I'll need to sort out my CDs. And before i can do that, I've had to tidy up the rest of the room so I can reach them.

This may take some time :)

[tomjones2]

Not that it should ever cause a problem for personal use, but i tunes doesn't let you copy music onto, say another computer, you basically 'check out' the song from your computer to avoid illegal distribution

unless anyone knows different, makes thing a bit of a pain in the @rse, especially if you use a couple of computers

I think the rights managment on itunes becomes an issue if you have replaced your computer.

[northwind]

Hmm. So, having ripped the first 1/18th of my albums, looks like even a 60gb one won't be big enough. So, there's a compromise to be made there as to what I put on it obviously. The question now is how far I should take that- get a 60gb and carry maybe 3/4 of all my music (if even that)? Of which much will be stuff I'll likely never listen to. Or drop it down to a 20 or 30 and just carry highlights- still be thousands of tracks, though. Or, get a wee tiny one and just carry bits.

I've a feeling it'd be just as annoying to have to filter content to decide what rates a place on the player and what doesn't, whether I have to choose 20, 30 or 60gb worth. And tbh I don't anticipate suddenly having a burning desire to listen to Metal Christmas (featuring Paul DiAnno from Iron Maiden) or that Alkaline Trio album that I can't remember any of the songs off, even when I've literally just listened to it 5 minutes ago.

Don't fancy iTunes much, none of the "features" seem to be anything I'd use, and the drawbacks are all things that'd annoy me. So is it true that you can only use a new-gen iPod with it? You can't update it using, say, Windows Media Player's sync function, or just copy items onto it like a regular device? If so, that's that binned. I get scorned for this, but I'm pretty keen on the WMP10 interface, I seem to be compatible with it.

I've heard many good things about iRiver players, and they're extremely cheap... Seems to be that or some flavour of Zen. My stingy side may be about to strike.

Thanks for all the suggestions folks- I asked this same question on a mailing list I'm on, and now it's deteriorated into Format Wars. 20 audiophiles screaming at each other because the difference between 256Kbps MP3 and blah blah blah should be painfully obvious, and you'd have to be deaf to miss it :roll:

[Grinch]

Whens your phone contact up... you could get your self a W800 and a stero cable... I have that setup for my k750i and it works rather well. You can get 1 and 2GB memory cards for them, which you can just plug into your PC like a little dirve... or use the bluetooth or (if slow) IR or usb cable.

[Grinch]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks- I asked this same question on a mailing list I'm on, and now it's deteriorated into Format Wars. 20 audiophiles screaming at each other because the difference between 256Kbps MP3 and blah blah blah should be painfully obvious, and you'd have to be deaf to miss it :roll:

tell them your going to put it all on a big wave file... :twisted:

[Filipe M.]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks- I asked this same question on a mailing list I'm on, and now it's deteriorated into Format Wars. 20 audiophiles screaming at each other because the difference between 256Kbps MP3 and blah blah blah should be painfully obvious, and you'd have to be deaf to miss it :roll:

tell them your going to put it all on a big wave file... :twisted:

Yep, tell them you'll actually convert it back to 96 KHz, 24 bit... to get some more quality out of the MP3 :wink:

[northwind]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks- I asked this same question on a mailing list I'm on, and now it's deteriorated into Format Wars. 20 audiophiles screaming at each other because the difference between 256Kbps MP3 and blah blah blah should be painfully obvious, and you'd have to be deaf to miss it :roll:

tell them your going to put it all on a big wave file... :twisted:

I miss the humble .wav, it was the last music format I understood. Now it's all aac/ogg/mp3/wma, it's all gibberish. Bring back the analogue tape, that's what I say.

[Filipe M.]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks- I asked this same question on a mailing list I'm on, and now it's deteriorated into Format Wars. 20 audiophiles screaming at each other because the difference between 256Kbps MP3 and blah blah blah should be painfully obvious, and you'd have to be deaf to miss it :roll:

tell them your going to put it all on a big wave file... :twisted:

I miss the humble .wav, it was the last music format I understood. Now it's all aac/ogg/mp3/wma, it's all gibberish. Bring back the analogue tape, that's what I say.

AAAaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! Everything but tapes!!!! :x

[northwind]

Tapes were great... As soon s you had more than 2 songs on them, it was utterly impossible to ever find the start of the one you were looking for. And that's even before you consider the charming way the sound quality deteriorated every time you played them. Oh, happy days.

[Warren]

Tapes were great... As soon s you had more than 2 songs on them, it was utterly impossible to ever find the start of the one you were looking for. And that's even before you consider the charming way the sound quality deteriorated every time you played them. Oh, happy days.

esp when the tape player decides it likes the taste of your brand new album you bought on tape. rendering it a weighted piece of silly string.

[northwind]

On the other hand, I never had a tape that suddenly decided not to work on my mate's stereo because of copy protection :evil:

[Warren]

On the other hand, I never had a tape that suddenly decided not to work on my mate's stereo because of copy protection :evil:

true.
and it was never frowned upon to "borrow" your mates tapes and make back-up copys.