mp3 players...little help needed

[Willith]

I have the 2GB version of this player:

Sandisk 512MB Player

I really like how small the player is and it was very easy to use. I use Windows Media Player most of the time and just used that to rip the Cd's to my hard drive and then just picked the songs and transferred them to the player. I loaded about 250 songs on my player, I have more room but ran out of songs I liked that much to take to the gym. I also like this player because it runs on regular batteries and has a built in FM tuner so if she wants to watch the shows on TV at the gym she's all set for that too. Many choices out there, but I didn't want the iPod because it was larger and takes many propriety things.

[watcher71]

Thank you all...lots of useful info!

[jkerouac]

I've found that mp3 players with hard drives last about a year, maybe two, before the drives die. If you get a 512mb or 1gb player with solid state only (no hard drive) then it'll have a longer life.

Figure about 1mb / minute of music. At 512mb you've got about 500 minutes, give or take a little. That's 8 hours, more than enough for a long day of music, then she changes it for the next day.

I prefer players that take AA or AAA format batteries, then if the batteries die I can replace them. $20 for 4 AA NiMH batteries is good for a couple years use. Else you throw away the player because its internal batteries are dead.

I hope this helps! Enjoy!

1G for your wife is probably the right size. But there are lots of good players besides the iPod, usually for much better prices. Ipods are cool, but people seem brainwashed into thinking its the only cool mp3 player. Check cnet.com or similar for information and reviews of the latest models.

As for hard drive-based models, I've had my 30G Creative for 2.5 years and it is still going strong. Swappable rechargeable battery lasts about eight hours. My main gripe is that after about a year I maxed out the space, so I fave to regularly delete things in order to add new music. Next time around I want a 40-60G.

[sssurfer]

Just take it:

http://www.dretschler.com/catalog/product_...dcb243bb0f8b98a

...and for a fraction of the price of an iPod you will be happy.

[mhemm]

To clarify: iPods, whether Nano or normal, can play MP3s of any kind. They can also play Windows WAV files and Windows WMA files as long as they have no DRM, or copy-protection. They can also play MPEG4 audio (known as AAC) either with or without copy-protection DRM.

While you need to use iTunes to put the songs on the iPod, this in no way limits you to just using songs converted with iTunes or bought on the iTunes Music Store.

iPods are more 'open' to other formats than any of the Windows players or the Sony ATRAC players.

For a non-techie person, an iPod is by far the logical choice. For a techie, the choice is already made and is most likely iPod.

They are the best selling MP3 player for a reason ... and it's not because of their price.

(edited because I pressed the button too soon, danmed laptop keyboard)

I'm just verifying what Pugwash said. While I'm sure there are other choices that would be cheaper, if the look of the player is important to your wife, I think it is best to go with an ipod nano.

[Guest shutter_bug]

I want to get my wife an mp3 player for mothers day, but have no clue about them. I see ones with memory of 512mb, 1gb, and so on...

The 512 mb ones are tiny, which is what she will want for her intended use at the gym and stuff, so does anyone know if 512mb is big enought to hold about 50 songs.

thanks

You cannot go wrong with an ipod. The mp3 player market it shaped around the ipod. I would suggest that you buy the most memory that you can afford. I made the mistake of buying a 4GB Ipod Mini last year,-it was sixty dollars cheapier than a 20 GB. Needless to say, I bought I new 30GB this year.

[watcher71]

I ended up getting her the iRiver T10 1GB. I cannot believe how small the darn thing is. It is tiny! It has 1GB storage, has an FM receiver, and allows for voice recording. I am sure she will be stoked. Thanks again to all...

[Finepics]

Just to add my experience to this generally as I have a very large music collection and was an early pioneer of the first gen iPod. I had the very first Windows iPod 20g when it first came out several years ago. It died within a week (the little sad face iPod icon was very alarming!!). It took hours to find out from Apple website what that fault was (they don't tell you in the manual what the symbols are) but apple did replace it very quickly. The Music Match software that it shipped with was absolutely dire and no-one could get it to work. Luckily a German chap developed some freeware called Ephod which was absoluely brilliant, easy to use, perfect job everytime (iPod does handle all sorts of mp3 formats - not just DRM) and there was a ton of other software available as well.

So after 3 years of ownership and one replacement battery (this was something apple were heavily criticised for as the batteries lasted about 1 year and they charged £199 to replace them - almost the same cost as a new iPod - so one high profile court case later and they dropped the price to £70 but £15 on ebay got me a higher powered battery) all was well until it dropped on its headphone socket and died with a broken circuit board. Time for a replacement - step up Sony!!

Now I have a Sony HD-5 20g player and it really rocks. Not as cool as iPod, not as nice menu/scroll wheel as iPod but crucially it has a 40 hour battery life which is removable through an external door and more importantl will handle a great many file types including WMA (which are generally considered better than mp3), it does not lock you into Atrac (Sony's achiles heel) and best feature af all is the ability to switch the headphone socket to a proper line out in the menu - brilliant in my car, and it has a universal type charger socket so no need for expensive Apple accessories (my TomTom charger fits it). Crappy software (sonic stage) but the Vaio music transfer app works beautifully for just a quick drag and drop and is free from the Vaio website.

My advice is get the Sony 5g player - you cannot go wrong as it has the same features as the bigger one, is cheaper than a nano, will not scratch like a nano and has better audio output quality!!! The nano is very cool looking I admit - but that's about it and sadly Ephod does not work with either the nano or the mini as there is some sort of copyright thing now.

Finally do not use the standard headphones - choose the in ear type (I have Sure E3c's) such as Sony EX71's or similar. They give a silent output so no creating a noise nuisance in public and the difference in the music range has to be heard to be believed.

[slay]

That's kind of what I'm saying. With an iPod, you're locked into using iTunes as your unique source for music files.

For instance, my whole music collection has been downloaded off of other sources, and I'm under the impression that they will not be accepted by an iPod - which is why I've held off from buying one. Presuming that Watcher's wife already has a collection of music files, she's going to need an open-format player which will accept them. Either that, or purchase a new music collection through iTunes.

Once again, correct me if I'm wrong...

that is bullcrap ipod accepts every mp3 file, besides microsoft DRM content (usualy WMA and not Mp3).

you can also use your ipod with winamp. you dont have to use itunes!

ipods accepts: AAC, MP3 and AAC-DRM files. if you have other files, itunes converts them to AAC for you. very easy! i have about 20.000 mp3's from the net and every single one worked fine on my ipod!

They can also play Windows WAV files and Windows WMA files as long as they have no DRM, or copy-protection.

that is not correct ipod does NOT play WMA (windows media audio) files. they have to be transcoded into another format (itunes usualy does this). speaking of transcoding, you can transcode EVERY audio file into a different format (besides DRM protected files maybe)

btw. www.allofmp3.com is the source i use for my audio files. it lets me pic codec and bitrate. and it's not expensive either (about 5cents per song)

Edited May 14, 2006 by slay

[tech]

While you need to use iTunes to put the songs on the iPod, this in no way limits you to just using songs converted with iTunes or bought on the iTunes Music Store.

Not true...there are a lot 3rd party appz that can be installed on your winbloze machine and your mp3 files can be dumped to the ipod via a MS Exploder er Explorer type interface or via their software. I think its called XPLAY

XPLAY

I used this app early on while playing with my nearly 1TB of mp3z...I've since added a MAC to the house and I exclusively use iTunes.

But just wanted to let you know that you do not have to use iTunes to get your music onto your ipud...

cheers

[groobash]

I have a Sony 20gb too. I generally hate Sony, but got a really good deal on it and love the battery life and sound.

The software (SonicStage) sucks too, but I only use it once a week or so to move files to the player.

Would have never bought it if they were still locked into that proprietary Atrac crap.

Edited May 15, 2006 by groobash