MP3 Players

[Arsene About]

I’m thinking of buying an MP3 player and have been looking at I-pods recently. Just wondering if anyone could recommend which type of player is best as im not too well up on the subject! Also, my mate id going to the states in a few weeks so would it be better to get one over there price wise, or what would happen if a problem developed with it over here. Thanks

[Drumcondra Red]

I have an iPod, 20GB, and I have say I've never had any problems with it at all, love always use it and couldn't recommend it more!!! I know 2 lads that got an iRiver, both had to be returned for repair sharpish!!!

[Peadar]

Go with an iPod if you want all its limitations or go with one of the coolest products on the market.
The Sony HDD Network WALKMAN NW-HD3 (http://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/SonyStyle/b2c/deeplink.do?&countryId=GB&languageId=EN&s=external&ss=show&id=nwhd3&campaignID=GBSPEX-PR&servername=www.sonystyle-europe.com&redirected=true&&countryId=GB&languageId=EN&s=external&ss=show&id=nwhd3&campaignID=GBSPEX-PR)

[sligoman]

I bought a 1GB MP3 player off e-bay about three months ago for about 80euros. That is a great deal considering it's 1gb. It's a good mp3 too but you should go for an ipod as they are, obviously, way better.

[paul_oshea]

I bought a 1GB MP3 player off e-bay about three months ago for about 80euros


no its not a great deal, i bought a 20gb rio player for £70

[Eire06]

I love my iPod constantly have it with me, no problems to report as yet and have had no issues with putting any of my music on it..
very easy to use :D

[anto1208]

ive a creative 4 gb one its the business but so are the ipods but if i was you get the sony one mentioned above its miles better , memory wise , its batteries last 40 hours not 12 plus its new tecnoligy while i pod is 3 or 4 years old now ,

but they are well worth getting ive loads of live mp3 etc that i would never have heard only for it plus its like carring 100 albums around inside a 10 pack of fags !!! :D

[Babysis]

I got a Rio Karma - excellent sound,looks a bit different - I love it :)

[dahamsta]

no its not a great deal, i bought a 20gb rio player for £70Yes, it is a great deal. Sligoman's player is most likely a flash memory player, and €80 is a great price for a flash player that'll be probably a third or a quarter the size of most HDD players.

Looking for a 1GB flash player myself at the moment, decided to get rid of my 40GB iRiver because I just don't need that capacity. Recommendations welcome.

(BTW, that's the only reason I got rid of the iRiver. It was a great player, solid as a rock. Firmware update frequency sucked though.)

adam

[Dawn_Run]

no its not a great deal, i bought a 20gb rio player for £70

Where?

[paul_oshea]

ebayy

[pete]

What portable mp3 player can you tune into ypur radio? Alwasy thought that would be very handy for the car...

[dahamsta]

None of them, the laws regarding transmitters vary too much around the world for them to be able to do it; like Ireland, where strictly speaking they're illegal. However you can buy addon transmitters in the UK and use them here -- they can't even shut down the pirate radio stations here so you're not going to be arrested for using it. :)

adam

[pete]

However you can buy addon transmitters in the UK and use them here

Thanks.

Anyone got the Creative Zen? They seem to be selling well & while not as many features as the IRiver as good value.

[dcfc_1928]

Yeah I have one.

As a player I can't fault it - however to access the files stored on the player, you need to use Creative's own software.

I would have preferred it showing up like a USB hard drive in Windows which you could browse and store other files on. I believe the iPod and iRiver both allow you to do this?


Thanks.

Anyone got the Creative Zen? They seem to be selling well & while not as many features as the IRiver as good value.

[superfrank]

iPod way better. It's really well organised.

Whatever you do, don't get a mini-disc.

[tiktok]

What portable mp3 player can you tune into ypur radio? Alwasy thought that would be very handy for the car...

I have a tape deck in my car and I use one of those converters used for CD players, it's pretty handy and tidy too as the battery on the player means I don't have to run anything off the cigarette player. Cost about €20 in argos, and you have 8 hours of music for long trips off the battery.

Of course, if you have a car with CD player, that's no use to you

I have a Creative Zen by the way. I think it's far superior to the ipod (but then if I didn't, I wouldn't have got it) very very happy with it.

[tetsujin1979]

I have a Zen too, it's actually my second after the first one died after just over a year, and Creative supplied with a new one free of charge.


O would have preferred it showing up like a USB hard drive in Windows which you could browse and store other files on. I believe the iPod and iRiver both allow you to do this?

There is an update to the drivers you can get to use it as an external drive that appears in Explorer, but only on machines that have the drivers installed

[deecay]

you should have gone to lidl. i got one there as a birthday present for my brother. cheap and good quality

[Eire06]

What portable mp3 player can you tune into ypur radio? Alwasy thought that would be very handy for the car...
You can get theiTrip (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72902/wo/XU173o1iWaB03U8f8Yv1HhwAoiW/1.0.0.11.1.0.6.9.3.19.0.1.0.1.1.0.1.0.1) for iPods which tunes to your FM radio..

There are loads of other ones you can get for the iPod too here (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72902/wo/XU173o1iWaB03U8f8Yv1HhwAoiW/0.0.0.11.1.0.6.7.0.2.1.3.0.3.1.2.1.1.0) I use the tape because I heard with the FM tuner one you tend to loose frequency sometimes

[Arsene About]

Cheers everyone for all the replies! Has anybody bought an i-pod in the states though and is there much of a saving to be made? I'd just be worried if i got one from there and then some type of problem developed, be pretty expensive to get it fixed/replaced?

[paul_oshea]

What portable mp3 player can you tune into ypur radio?

im not fully sure what people mean to tune it into your radio? can someone explain? :confused:

they did a survey on prices arsene they are about 25% cheaper, id say if anything happens full stop they would be very hard to fix. no matter where you bought it! :)

[dcfc_1928]

Cheers I didn't realise that - however it would still be nice if it was recognised automatically as a USB Mass Storage device.

By the way, I forgot to say how great the battery life is on the Zen.


I have a Zen too, it's actually my second after the first one died after just over a year, and Creative supplied with a new one free of charge.



There is an update to the drivers you can get to use it as an external drive that appears in Explorer, but only on machines that have the drivers installed

[paul_oshea]

however it would still be nice if it was recognised automatically as a USB Mass Storage device.

thats the same problem with my dumbo rio. it doesnt see it as an external device, it is however possbile to create some c code to do this, with a lot of libraries available at hand, but you would need a lot of comms development.

[Eire06]

Cheers everyone for all the replies! Has anybody bought an i-pod in the states though and is there much of a saving to be made? I'd just be worried if i got one from there and then some type of problem developed, be pretty expensive to get it fixed/replaced?

I got my 20GB one for €210 in the states when it was €319 here..
Have had no problems with it but I'm sure you can bring in into an apple dealer here or post it away if you have a problem with it..

im not fully sure what people mean to tune it into your radio? can someone explain?

Paul you can get an attachment for the iPod and you sit it near your radio, then tune your radio to a set channel and it will pick up the iPods frequency and play the songs on the radio :D

[Drumcondra Red]

I got an iTrip (Radio frequency thingy) on e-bay, best invention ever!!! :eek:

[dublinred]

None of them, the laws regarding transmitters vary too much around the world for them to be able to do it; like Ireland, where strictly speaking they're illegal. However you can buy addon transmitters in the UK and use them here -- they can't even shut down the pirate radio stations here so you're not going to be arrested for using it. :)

adam

Recommend the Samsung 1G player about the size of a box of matches with colour screen and FM radio cost $200 not sure of the euro price.

[paul_oshea]

then tune your radio to a set channel and it will pick up the iPods frequency and play the songs on the radio


cheers thats what i thought, but i thought someone told me about thsi before, whereby you can take over what a station broadcasts if you do this? not fully sure whether you ahd to be near the transmitter, or whether it changed for people listening in on teh same frequency in the area you are in??? that would explain the point made by dahamasta earlier, can anyone explain further?? thanks again. :)

[paul_oshea]

do know players have line outs???? im not sure but i think mine does.

[crc]

cheers thats what i thought, but i thought someone told me about thsi before, whereby you can take over what a station broadcasts if you do this? not fully sure whether you ahd to be near the transmitter, or whether it changed for people listening in on teh same frequency in the area you are in??? that would explain the point made by dahamasta earlier, can anyone explain further?? thanks again. :)
I got my 20GB iPod in the States for $299 which was a lot cheaper than here. I also bought the Griffin iTrip transmitter for $39.
The iTrip FM broadcaster has a range of up to about 5 meters, but it dependes a lot on whether there's local interference (like large objects, people or other electrical devices). I use mine in the car a lot - I sit the iPod in one of the cup holders, and it plays fine.

The iTrip is not powerful enough to take over any normal radio station (like Radio 1, 2FM...), unless its literally inches from the aerial. Therefore, you need to find a "clean" frequency with no other stations around it. I currently 88.0FM, but it depends on what part of the country you're in. Again, the range is small, so even if a car was parked beside me, I'd say they'd have trouble picking up my iPod on their radio.

[Slash/ED]

I heartily recommend the iRiver, it's never let me down

[Peadar]

I heartily recommend the iRiver, it's never let me down

If it did though, you'd be up the iRiver without a paddle. :D

I'm getting worse with every day I spend in London. :o

[shedite]

This might be a bit above what people want but for me it's been the best thing I ever bought. Works out about E570.

http://www.archos.com/products/overview/av400_series.html

Some of the features:
It's 100Gb
Playse mp3 and radio
Plays video files
Stores and displays photos
Can be plugged into a TV to record TV
Can record off the radio
Can be used as a USB key

It's a bit bulky alright (I don't take it jogging etc), but as a portable entertainment system it's perfect. I had about 20 hours of travelling over the weekend so I put all my DVD's onto it as well as some Family Guy that I had recorded off TV over the past few weeks. Listened to music then for another while. On the way home, I plugged my memory card from my camera in and it stored all my pics.

I was gonna buy a mp3 player and a removable hard drive, but then I found this which did both. Sounds like a lot of money, but not much more than what I would have spent of a 20Gb iPod.

[Wolfhound]

That yoke sounds good shedite, but I'm thinking about buying a PSP when it comes out which would be the ultimate in portable entertainment!
For (I think) less than €300 you can get the best portable games console around, and yopu can put mp3, video, and photos on the memory stick. Obviosly it couldnt touch your 100Gb capacity but it still seems good and you can always buy movies and music on UMD and buy more memory sticks.

[Anto McC]

I got one of the U2 Ipods for Christmas and i've never had any problems with it,except for the fact i know very little about computers

[pete]

Go with an iPod if you want all its limitations or go with one of the coolest products on the market.
The Sony HDD Network WALKMAN NW-HD3 (http://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/SonyStyle/b2c/deeplink.do?&countryId=GB&languageId=EN&s=external&ss=show&id=nwhd3&campaignID=GBSPEX-PR&servername=www.sonystyle-europe.com&redirected=true&&countryId=GB&languageId=EN&s=external&ss=show&id=nwhd3&campaignID=GBSPEX-PR)

Thats looks the business alright.

Sony (http://www.sony.ie/PageView.do?section=en_IE_Products&productcategory=%2FAudio%2FPortable+Audio+-+Walkman%2FPAW+Network+Walkman&productmodel=%2FAudio%2FPortable+Audio+-+Walkman%2FPAW+Network+Walkman%2FNW-HD5&productsku=NWHD5S.CEK&site=odw_en_IE&page=ProductHome)

[aidz1]

the girlfriend has decided to buy me a mp3 player . :D
looking around and basically have it down to these 3....

iaudio x5 20gb (costing €380)
ipod photo 30gb (€340)
iriver h10 or h320? (€240/440)

any suggestions from those that have these models ?
i will most probably be listening to it in the car. i also seem to have built up quite a few digital photos on the pc at this stage too, so photo storage would probably be a good addition too...

[dcfcsteve]

This might be a bit above what people want but for me it's been the best thing I ever bought. Works out about E570.

http://www.archos.com/products/overview/av400_series.html

Some of the features:
It's 100Gb
Playse mp3 and radio
Plays video files
Stores and displays photos
Can be plugged into a TV to record TV
Can record off the radio
Can be used as a USB key

It's a bit bulky alright (I don't take it jogging etc), but as a portable entertainment system it's perfect. I had about 20 hours of travelling over the weekend so I put all my DVD's onto it as well as some Family Guy that I had recorded off TV over the past few weeks. Listened to music then for another while. On the way home, I plugged my memory card from my camera in and it stored all my pics.

I was gonna buy a mp3 player and a removable hard drive, but then I found this which did both. Sounds like a lot of money, but not much more than what I would have spent of a 20Gb iPod.

Glad you mentioned the Archos Shedite, as I've been chewing over getting one for a while.

It'd save me getting a RAM recorder for my TV/DVD player as wall, so would work out well financially.

Just how bulky is it though ? Would you not be able to take it jogging ? And how easy to use and reliable is it ? Thanks

[Lionel Ritchie]

iPod way better. It's really well organised.

Whatever you do, don't get a mini-disc.


WWWWWWWWell now that depends on what you want to do with it. I fyou just want to listen to music the MP3 player's fine.

I got a MD a while back coz I'm a musician and a writer and it's handy to do demos on and that ...like a digital dictaphone. Advised a niece of mine who would be in a similar situation to do the same when she was thinking of getting an MP3 player. You can still use it for pretty much the same job as an Mp3 player.

One thing -stay the hell away from SONY. grand players but terrible, terrible, godawful sub W95 software.

Frankly I've never understood why someone would need a 20GB MP3 thing or why someone would bother transfering their entire music collection onto it. Sounds like a bit of a hassle and abit OTT to me.

I got a Mobile Phone upgrade recently (I was due an upgrade ...hate Mobiles passionately btw) and got a free mp3 player/flash reader thing with it and must say it's very handy. I think it takes about 100MB which is fine ...couple of LPs worth of stuff ...just click and drag to change your tunes. Stores pics, mpegs and the like too.

[Ruairi]

None of them, the laws regarding transmitters vary too much around the world for them to be able to do it; like Ireland, where strictly speaking they're illegal. However you can buy addon transmitters in the UK and use them here -- they can't even shut down the pirate radio stations here so you're not going to be arrested for using it. :)

adam

i saw one on sale in a computer bits store in cork, i pointed out to the fella behind the counter that they're not exactly legal, and his response was "meh"...


anyway, i've had my 20gig ipod for abput ten months and it's absolutely magic, i dont leave home without it (except today, when i left home, umm... without it).. no problems with it (well it crashed twice, but i didnt lose any data.. one time i was uploading music onto it and my pc crashed, fcuking up the ipod.. none of the buttons would work although the screen was on.. so after a few days the battery went dead andwhen i charged it, hey presto she was back in business)

i also got an i-trip, which is a pretty handy little gizmo i have to admit.. quailty aint top notch but it gets the job done, can be pretty tricky finding a good frequency though.. i use 95.3 in cork, which is grand except around the mahon blackrock area where there's a pirate about those parts and i can hear some dodgy dance beat behind my Tchaikovsky, which right p!isses me off but shure what can ya do..

dont really use it at home, just plug into the hifi, and for upstairs i bought a cheap pair of pc speakers in argos which does the job...

only tyhing is the ipod scratches like a mo-fo, but silver back is in bits and theres scratches on the screen too, but shure fcuk it, its in my pocket all the time and no-one sees it so why should i care about scratches?

[bigmac]

i saw one on sale in a computer bits store in cork, i pointed out to the fella behind the counter that they're not exactly legal, and his response was "meh"...

It's probably legal to own one but illegal to use one or something stupid like that. 20G a bit too much capacity for me, going to get one soon but want a flash drive so I can bring files and presentations to work with me without having to burn them onto a cd. also want the smallest one possible so I can have it in the gym and not feel the weight when jogging. Has anyone bought one of the Hong Kong ones from ebay?

[Réiteoir]

only tyhing is the ipod scratches like a mo-fo, but silver back is in bits and theres scratches on the screen too, but shure fcuk it, its in my pocket all the time and no-one sees it so why should i care about scratches?

Apparently Silver Polish on both the back and the screen gets rid of the scratches like a treat.

Had my 40Gb since November 2004 - the battery is starting to go something chronic (only get 2hrs out of it now off a full charge) - I think a Service Request is to be raised

[Ruairi]

i take back all the good things i said about ipods.

mine crashed on me this morning on the way to work, sitting at the bus stop, decided to change albums as you do selected one, pressed the select button, put it on to track nine.. pressed the select button...

and now its frozen on the track select screen, cant force a reset as all the buttons are frozen too.. so i'm just staring at a screeen which looks like its on a demo model...

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH

I need the shagging thing for dj'in too

[Drumcondra Red]

Plug it in and charge it up, that should do the trick

[Ruairi]

Its just started working again for no apparant reason.. stoopid ipods...

[Drumcondra Red]

Its just started working again for no apparant reason.. stoopid ipods...

Surely thats a good thing??? :confused: :confused:


I need the shagging thing for dj'in too

Huh??? Like in the simpsons last night at Bart and Lisa's prom?? :D :D

[Ruairi]

Huh??? Like in the simpsons last night at Bart and Lisa's prom?? :D :D


ha ha, that was a funny episode, Nelson getting both the twins pregnant had me in stitches..

i use it for djin as it's so feckin handy, saves me lugging about a ton of cds.. if i had 2 ipods i wouldnt need cds at all...

[ThatGuy]

I have the Sony HD-1, it is a great machine though I have two problems with the sony models.

Firstly, and very significantly, the volume restriction is a pain in the arss at times. Some albums simply are not loud enough when released and whatever way Sony designed its products, it doesn't take this into account. There is a secret way of unlocking the volume restrictions, which makes it a lot better, but it is still not loud enough on some albums.

Secondly, the navigation through the tracks is not as quick and easy as the Ipod or Zen models.

That aside, it looks great, the sound quality is great too. Nice size, and a good machine.

[pete]

Too Good a Deal? (http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=302205&cks=WYO)

Creative Zen Touch 20GB USB2.0, TouchPad €199

:confused: