View Full Version : MP3 players...
Pauro 76
12/10/2006, 11:54 AM
Right, im hoping to buy a mp3 player over the next few weeks and don't want to get stung. any recommendations... space wise 20GB will do the job. been thinking the obvious choice iPod, but im hearing that lookswise, they're the businesss but easily damaged and a rumour that with iTunes, if a new version of iTunes launches, hardware wont be able to download from them and certain formats of MP3 wont work with them.. i have iTunes from my pc at home, so so is iPod the obvious choice or are there far more reliable models out there without having to change from iTunes...
The Stars
12/10/2006, 5:15 PM
just bought a new I-pod today.
30GB with video for €289.50.
was gonna buy the 4GB for €209.50...but for an extra €80 you get 26GB more so went for that.
max power
17/10/2006, 2:49 PM
pauro go for i river or creative, stay away from i pods, rubbish and over hyped.
they have had a number of problems, the main one being the system freezing and being unable to reset it.
i have an i river for almost 3 years and never a problem, same with friends who have creative.
Have a creative zen micro (6 GB) the past year. No problems at all
Peadar
17/10/2006, 2:55 PM
Microsoft will launch their own player in the US around Christmas (maybe afterwards) This is likely to have a big impact on the market, in terms or pricing. Personally, I'm not a fan of iPod but each to their own.
I've used Creative products since I started working in IT and they're always top notch.
DmanDmythDledge
17/10/2006, 3:01 PM
I've heard that the I River software has major problems regarding viruses. Is this true?
Creative Zen Vision M 30GB for maybe 60 months now & no problems. I will say though I have virtually never used the video playback so that part is a bit of a waste & only using 16GB of space too. I just use for music playback & the radio the odd time.
max power
17/10/2006, 3:13 PM
I've used Creative products since I started working in IT and they're always top notch.well said, i've used their sound cards on all my pc's and they are great.
i have some of the soundwork speakers as well and the sound is great off them.
I've heard that the I River software has major problems regarding viruses. Is this true?not that i've experienced, its the most simple MP3 player i've ever used. just copy and paste like moving to another drive.
Marked Man
17/10/2006, 6:40 PM
Whatever you're interested in purchasing, go to amazon.com and check out customer reviews. Whatever problems the players have will show up there. Personally I have an old Creative Nomad 20gb. They don't make that model anymore, but I'd be comfortable buying from them again. The sound in particular is excellent.
Pauro 76
17/10/2006, 6:43 PM
im getting the iPod backlash all right. Housemate had problems with iTunes updating, making it now impossible for him to download tunes. Ill probably go the iRiver/Creative route. Most of the music i need to download is in iTunes, can River/Creative download ok from iTunes? or do i need another music playlist package?
BohsPartisan
17/10/2006, 9:19 PM
I've got the Sony connect. The machine itself is great but the software is problematic. i.e. it refuses to work anymore and I can't deal with the customer "support" people at Sony. (you pay peanuts you get monkeys etc.) I'm using an old version of the software with it that my wife has for her MP3 player and while it does the job its not compatable with some of the features so you're not getting the full benefit from it.
Anyone I know with the creative zen seems happy with it though.
DmanDmythDledge
18/10/2006, 1:57 PM
im getting the iPod backlash all right. Housemate had problems with iTunes updating, making it now impossible for him to download tunes. Ill probably go the iRiver/Creative route. Most of the music i need to download is in iTunes, can River/Creative download ok from iTunes? or do i need another music playlist package?
With I river you just copy and paste, with Creative it works with Windows Media player.
John83
18/10/2006, 2:02 PM
I've heard that the I River software has major problems regarding viruses. Is this true?
Dunno about that, but the video iPod has been shipping with a virus (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/18/apple_ipod_virus_infection/) for weeks. Apple blame Microsoft's **** security. :)
SligoBrewer
18/10/2006, 3:45 PM
stay away from sony
Pauro 76
20/10/2006, 9:49 AM
With I river you just copy and paste, with Creative it works with Windows Media player.
So if you have iTunes you copy and paste the playlist to your I river? thats perfect as im too lazy to convert the playlist to Windows Media player....
RogerMilla
25/10/2006, 10:41 AM
can i just defend the IPOD ??
had mine 60GB over a year and never a worry.
it is a brilliant piece of machinery , simple to use , looks great
i would recommend them to anyone , and have done !
I have purchased accessories and all have added to the experience
i-trip , radio tuner , microphone , etc etc
off to NY soon and will be purchasing an 80GB , completely hooked now !
I have purchased accessories and all have added to the experience - i-trip , radio tuner , microphone , etc etc
Indeed you are hooked, most of those accessories included as standard with other players. Any 20GB+ player has radio tuner. Sneaky Apple pricing.
Creative Zen Micro 6GB has radio tuner and Microphone. Prresume the larger ones do too. Don't see the point in having an entire collection on it.
Marked Man
25/10/2006, 3:04 PM
Creative Zen Micro 6GB has radio tuner and Microphone. Prresume the larger ones do too. Don't see the point in having an entire collection on it.
The point is that there'll come a time when you'll just have to listen to Portishead's "Sour Times," but you won't have it on your mp3 player, because you haven't uploaded it, because you didn't see the point. And then what? You'll be slightly miffed, that's what.
Well I just use the random function so I'd have to wait anyway.... Have them all on the PC, change them every know and again
Pauro 76
30/10/2006, 2:18 PM
nearing a decision. If i was going purely on a pc, Creative or iRiver would win out. but cos neither of them are Mac compatible, might be wrong here though... (I work as a mac operator and it’d be handy if i ever go freelance) and iPod obviously is, leaning towards an iPod. but question, 30GB iPod can hold 7,500 songs but other 30GBs rival models can store 15,000....why is this? and is it true that iPods are sold without chargers?
DmanDmythDledge
30/10/2006, 2:51 PM
but question, 30GB iPod can hold 7,500 songs but other 30GBs rival models can store 15,000....why is this? and is it true that iPods are sold without chargers?
You shouldn't take notice of that. Usually when this is said there is an asterisk which says if all songs are X kbps.
Ipods are sold without a charger because it charges when you connect it to your PC via USB. You can buy a charger for something like €20.
Pauro 76
30/10/2006, 3:16 PM
You shouldn't take notice of that. Usually when this is said there is an asterisk which says if all songs are X kbps.
Ipods are sold without a charger because it charges when you connect it to your PC via USB. You can buy a charger for something like €20.
so the amount of songs advertised is irrelevant, 20Gb will hold the same amount on any model then?
DmanDmythDledge
30/10/2006, 4:06 PM
so the amount of songs advertised is irrelevant, 20Gb will hold the same amount on any model then?
Yeah, I'm 99% sure.
DmanDmythDledge
30/10/2006, 9:26 PM
The 15000 songs would most likely be wma format, whereas the 7500 would be mp3 format.
Are you sure? I have songs the same length and bit rate in WMA and MP3 and they are the same size.
No idea about compatibility between ipods and wma formats, as I've never used an ipod.
Ipod only takes MP3, but I-tunes can convert from WMA to MP3.
...If i was going purely on a pc, Creative or iRiver would win out. but cos neither of them are Mac compatible, might be wrong here though... (I work as a mac operator and it’d be handy if i ever go freelance) and iPod obviously is...
iPods are compatible with both PC and Mac, but IIRC you can't use it on a Mac and then switch to a PC (or vice-versa) - the iPod has to be formatted to be either Mac OR PC (although you can probably re-format it if you need to, but I'm not sure).
That said, I'm an iPod fan. Good design and easy to use (but I don't have that much experience of other brands). The Sony purple thing looks nice, but I'd be wary of Sony as some of their other stuff has gone funny on me (DVD recorder in particular). The best thing I can say about Apple is that my original iPod broke after about a month (it just froze and wouldn't come back on), but the Apple guys were very nice about and replaced it with no quibble. The replacement has been working fine for over two years. I suppose this might depend on where you buy it (I bought mine in Virginia, USA), but the customer support was great and I have used Apple for a couple of things since (despite the fact that I'm a PC user.
Marked Man
31/10/2006, 2:15 AM
Are you sure? I have songs the same length and bit rate in WMA and MP3 and they are the same size.
.
You're right. The comparison is usually between mp3's at 128kb, and wma's at 64kb.
Pauro 76
15/11/2006, 12:54 PM
just to conclude the thread, finally plumped for an iPod 30GB. (7,500 songs) Big enough to throw the entire colleciton on if i dont bother with the video and pic function on. Great bit of kit, works like a dream, the click wheel is a piece of design genuis, didnt even need to look at the intstructions, sound quality great but battery life is a bit crap as expected, and not many extras included either, all accessories like covers, chargers are separate. Planning to get a mac next year which swung the decision.... chuffed to bits with it, thanks for all your advice! :)
paul_oshea
15/11/2006, 3:43 PM
pauro, what do you operate? gods sake man you should know what 20 gig is....................the rate is the only thing that determine sizes of songs.
if a song is 3 mins long it generally means its about 3mb
if a song is 4 mins long it generally means its about 4mb
in any format, mp3, wma, opd, ogg etc. there is talk of a new format with about a 1/5 of the size of normal mp3s and the same quality...
as i said its the rate that generally determins the size differences...and the quality of the mp3!
pauro if you listen to bands like agalloch or old metallica stuff, then it wont hold anything near 7500 songs!!! point being that its all relative to the length of the song ( and rate to a small extent""" )!!!!
Pauro 76
15/11/2006, 4:14 PM
Tad harsh mate. Im a newcomer to the MP3 format so not familiar with the jargon.... I went for 30GB, and im aware that its not the exact amount of songs.... what is the new format by the way? and will it work on iPods when they come out or the new Zune?
pauro, what do you operate? gods sake man you should know what 20 gig is....................the rate is the only thing that determine sizes of songs.
if a song is 3 mins long it generally means its about 3mb
if a song is 4 mins long it generally means its about 4mb
in any format, mp3, wma, opd, ogg etc. there is talk of a new format with about a 1/5 of the size of normal mp3s and the same quality...
as i said its the rate that generally determins the size differences...and the quality of the mp3!
pauro if you listen to bands like agalloch or old metallica stuff, then it wont hold anything near 7500 songs!!! point being that its all relative to the length of the song ( and rate to a small extent""" )!!!!
John83
17/11/2006, 3:57 PM
pauro, what do you operate? gods sake man you should know what 20 gig is....................<snip>
Ye gods man, what do you operate? You should know that when someone says that an mp3 player holds 7,500 songs, they mean that it holds something like 7,500 average length songs.
Oh, wait... now I see what you mean. Damn that car salesman. He told me that my car would do 30mpg, but it doesn't do exactly that. I should sue.
DmanDmythDledge
17/11/2006, 4:01 PM
Planning to get a mac next year which swung the decision....
Is this actually an advantage. Surely it's the same as installing I-Tunes on windows?:confused:
Pauro 76
17/11/2006, 4:27 PM
Is this actually an advantage. Surely it's the same as installing I-Tunes on windows?:confused:
The exact same...But the computer ive all music on is my housemate’s pc and if i get my own mac next year, i can use i-tunes and compatibility. next question: how to get a iTunes collection from PC to Mac?is it possible?
DmanDmythDledge
17/11/2006, 4:30 PM
next question: how to get a iTunes collection from PC to Mac?is it possible?
Just get a USB memory stick, put the songs onto that, then transfer the songs from there to your Mac.:)
Pauro 76
17/11/2006, 4:37 PM
Just get a USB memory stick, put the songs onto that, then transfer the songs from there to you're Mac.:)
Ta! :)
John83
17/11/2006, 4:50 PM
you're Mac.:)
:eek: That's it. I'm giving up the internet.
paul_oshea
18/11/2006, 3:19 PM
LOL john, there is never a flaw in the structure and semantics ( spelling comes under syntax ;) ) of my posts though so don't be so smart....in relation to my above post that is.....
its obvious that an ipod is on about 3.5 - 4.5 min songs when it says that....tut tut tut
RogerMilla
21/11/2006, 10:31 AM
lads , on i-tunes you can also convert your songs to AAC format which is much smaller than mp3 format , it says you lose some sound qualitry but i honestly did not notice the difference and it saved me about 10G
if you look in the i-tunes menu there is a "convert to aac" tab that you can select , you then need to delete all the MP3 format songs from your i-tunes
Pauro 76
26/11/2006, 10:11 AM
lovely stuff, that'll be a handy option. Incidentally you know when you're recharging your iPod and it says "Do not disconnect", i actually disconnected somehow and now its stuck like that, any ideas on how to get out of it?
The Stars
26/11/2006, 11:23 AM
lovely stuff, that'll be a handy option. Incidentally you know when you're recharging your iPod and it says "Do not disconnect", i actually disconnected somehow and now its stuck like that, any ideas on how to get out of it?
try putting it back into the charger,and wait for it to update fully.Should go away then.
Beavis
26/11/2006, 10:23 PM
I've got the Sony connect. The machine itself is great but the software is problematic. i.e. it refuses to work anymore and I can't deal with the customer "support" people at Sony. (you pay peanuts you get monkeys etc.) I'm using an old version of the software with it that my wife has for her MP3 player and while it does the job its not compatable with some of the features so you're not getting the full benefit from it.
.
Agree the software with the Sony Mp3 is total bol*ock. Not user friendly at all. Loads of my albums have for no apparent reason decided to separate into several of the same and I've checked the exact spellings and capital letters do correspond. As for the thing itself, I've had it little over a month and its always freezing and when its not frozen its operating at snails pace.
Pauro 76
27/11/2006, 8:43 AM
try putting it back into the charger,and wait for it to update fully.Should go away then.
Held down centre of wheel and MENU and that gets out of it too...
Kingdom
27/11/2006, 11:33 AM
Right there's loads of advice on this thread but I'm an idiot so I'll have to pose the question myself.
I want some form of portable music player (one that will fit in a standard coat pocket). Preferably one that can hold quite a few thousand songs, one that doesn't need too much attention, with the option of purchasing additional songs over the internet. Oh and I've a max of €250 to spend. What should I get?
Thanks
K.
Pauro 76
27/11/2006, 12:01 PM
Id recommend iPod no problem. I was sceptical at first, but runs like a dream and ive had no complaints whatsoever. not sure what 250yoyos can buy you, but probably a 4GB nano at that price...
The Stars
30/11/2006, 9:02 AM
30gb cost €290....where as 8gb cost €220. I went for the 30GB, just because it is better value for money.You can also get video on it which i will use someday maybe.
Kingdom
02/12/2006, 12:26 PM
Thanks lads.
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