MP3 Player Recommendations

[Steve Mehs]

I’m looking for an MP3 player that can hold 4-6 gigs worth of files. I’m interested in the Zen from Creative, but am open to anything except for the iPod or the Dell DJ. I just want the thing to be an MP3 player, I don’t want photo capability or contacts list or any of that fluff, my PDA does a great job at that, but between the 1GB limitations of SD card and the fact that by the time I get somewhere that I could use my PDA at I get a low battery warning because I’ve been playing music on it in the car for the past 2 hours.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[cclement]

I know you said, but I really like my Pocket DJ from Dell. 5 gigs is plenty. The way I see it, by the time I fill up a 60 gig MP3 player, it would be so out dated and obsolete it wouldn't be worth it. $200 for the Pocket DJ suits me fine.

[lvkewlkid]

i know you said no iPods, but the iPod mini is great. Great sound quality, great battery life, great customer service.

[DonLandis]

Re the car problem. I made a nice dash mount that powers the PDA and connects to my car's sound system. When I get in the car, I drop the PDA into the cradle and I'm connected and powered. When I arrive, my PDA is fully charged and good to go for 16 hours!

[Geronimo]

My son loves his Nomad Zen 30 GB. It was 4189 at Walmart.

[Tom_P]

I got a Sony NW-HD1 at Sears for $180. This is a discontinued model(new one NW-HD3). The only thing that goes against this unit is the fact that it doesn't use the MP3 format, it uses ATRAC(just convert the MP3s), but for $20 I can send it to Texas for a software update so it can handle MP3 directly. As a minidisc user I'm pretty familiarized with the format.
I was going for a Ipod but they are way too expensive, at the battery life is only 15 hours vs Sony's 30. Also it is signifcally smaller that the Ipod.
My wife has a Ipod Shuffle(512MB) but I don't like the fact that it doesn't have a display.

[JohnGfun]

My vote is for Dell.

[MarkA]

I know you don't like Apple, but the iPod mini IS fantastic in every way.

[CoriBright]

I specifically looked for players that didn't want to install a whole load of crap on my PC in order for me to transfer files over. www.playsforsure.com has a whole list of them.

[lazaruspup]

Apple has set the bar on this one... anything less is just substandard now. I would highly suggest the iPod Mini, it's simple and has all the features you want for a reasonable price.

[Geronimo]

I know you don't like Apple, but the iPod mini IS fantastic in every way.


iPod has too many limitations. Go with Creative LAbs. Apple has the name recognition and the edge in variety of accessories but the other players are more flexible.

[Steve Mehs]

I forgot all about this thread until I was reading PC Mag just now.

I just fell in love

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1854616,00.asp

A coworker of mine just bought a 20GB iRiver which is pretty nice and I thought about getting one, but now I'm pretty much set on the Philips when it comes out. But I wish you could get these things as a MP3 player with a color screen. I'd rather pay $5 bucks less not to have the photo capability and all that other crap.

[TheRatPatrol]

I have a question about ipods, are you required to subscribe to itunes, or can you just upload CD's that you've ripped from your hard drive?

[CoriBright]

I have a question about ipods, are you required to subscribe to itunes, or can you just upload CD's that you've ripped from your hard drive?

You have to use the iTunes software. And the tracks must be MP3 or AAC format. It won't play WMAs!

[Geronimo]

As I mentioned above the iPod is limited in that regard----and pricey. It is easier toi buy accessories and I think that alot of people buy based on brand recognition.

[Steve Mehs]

I couldn’t wait any longer, I needed a real MP3 player so this afternoon I swallowed my Microsoft pride and bought an fruit..err..I mean an Apple. I went to Best Buy a few hours ago and picked up a new 30GB iPod, the one that does video as well. It pains me to say this, but the iPod is a pretty cool device. I was surprised at how fast it took to transfer all of my 615 MP3s, sound quality is excellent. Although I can't stand iTunes, horrible program, never been so lost while trying to figure out a media application before. I downloaded ml_iPod, a plug in for Winamp that lets you transfer Music using Winamp instead of that God awful iTunes, which is no longer on my computer.

[Ric]

My wife has had an MP3 and then I got the Ipod Mini - needless to say I had to buy a second one. The biggest limitation is that it doesn't play WMAs and you can't play mp3s that are set up with Media Player Authentication (say tunes puchased through Walmart downloads). iTunes is simply one place you can buy music but for the interface - love the Ipod.

[Bogy]

Thursday my son came over to ask for some money while I was eating dessert with one of our women's groups. He had the earphones for his Sony Atrac AD around his neck, so the gals (a few of the younger ones might only be in their 60s) were asking him about it. One of them said she was sure that he wouldn't have anything on the thing that she would like. I said I would bet he did. Few people have a wider range of musical tastes than my 17 year old son. She said she liked Country/Western, so he pulled one up and gave her the earphones. She could not believe the sound quality. Not like that old earphone you stuck in one ear with the transistor radio. :lol:

[rnbmusicfan]

My wife has had an MP3 and then I got the Ipod Mini - needless to say I had to buy a second one. The biggest limitation is that it doesn't play WMAs and you can't play mp3s that are set up with Media Player Authentication (say tunes puchased through Walmart downloads). iTunes is simply one place you can buy music but for the interface - love the Ipod.

What I do between different formats is burn to CD from Media Player, and then rip back to PC, from itunes. The other way works also, if somebody has lot of itunes purchased songs, but plans to buy a non Apple product. I use MusicMatch to fill in Artist/Song info, a painful process, but MusicMatch Plus has an Internet lookup that can fill and correct info (like Album), and it can do many MP3s at once.

I prefer everything being in MP3 format, as I also have a portable MP3 player that doesn't play itunes purchased MP4 songs. I'll keep the burned CD in my car, when I want to listen to music. A CD-RW can be used to, and then erased, otherwise. A few songs I've found on Wal-Mart I couldn't find on itunes. The same is true the other way. Some artists like Seether aren't on either, that I know of.

[airpolgas]

Congratulations, Steve, on finally getting an iPod. I waited and waited until I got the 60 GB color. After a month, they released the video capable iPod. Bastards! :D

Although there are lots of iPod haters, I still think the iPod's market share is not a fluke. The reason I sprung for the bigger hard drive is the fact that there are accessories out for the unit that I can use to offload my photos.

Musicwise, I'm 15GB and rising. Having 3000 songs in the car plus my choice of talk radio (from podcasts) in the car is awesome.

[Steve Mehs]

Wednesday I did something I'd never thought I'd do, I actually paid to download something. I installed iTunes again to try out the video capabilities. I missed the first 2 episodes of Night Stalker on ABC so I downloaded them to my iPod. The quality (both audio and video) was amazing, for a 2" screen. This morning after work I went to Denny’s, while waiting for my order and while eating I got my iPod and watched most of the first episode.

[DonLandis]

Steve- Is the itunes video in MP4 format?

I have been downloading video off of Yahoo (only the free stuff) and it's all in mp4 so far. I was hoping for some video podcasts in wm9. Maybe that's an oxymoron given the "pod" is an apple product. :) Also, been looking for a way to play mp4 on my ipaq.

[Steve Mehs]

For purchased content it's MPEG 4, the extension of the file is .MV4. I never downloaded any video podcasts up until now for test purposes, the three random video podcasts I downloaded just now are all in .MOV QuickTime format.

Not sue if you know this or not but, I did a quick search and it appears there is no easy way to play MPEG 4 on a Pocket PC. You can however convert the MPEG 4 file to DIVX, not sure if WMP9 will play DIVX but there are other programs that will for Pocket PC.

[Geronimo]

So Steve what led to a choice so different from the player you mentioned in the first post?

[Steve Mehs]

That’s a good question. There are a few reasons that I will give, but the root of it is for one purchase I came to my senses and put aside the hatred I have for Apple and admitted they have a sweet product that others imitate. A lot of the other hard drive based MP3 players seem more like iPod clones trying to get a glimpse of glory. Subconsciously it might be brand recognition. Do I eat genuine General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios or Brand X Sweet Os that taste like cardboard? Honestly other then Dell whose primary market is not audio, and Creative who’s primary market is not MP3 players but it’s what they’re pushing, I don’t see many of these other companies lasting. On one of Leo Laporte’s Podcasts I learned Rio, the company who made the first MP3 Player I ever saw, was sold, iRiver appears to be struggling and after last week I’m through with Sony products.

After comparing prices between the smaller hard drive players and the 20-30GB models, the price difference is only $50-$75. Well worth it IMO. The video capability was also a factor as well has discovering the Winamp ml_iPod plug in. I am not a fan of using bundled software with hardware. Other then AOL 2.0, in nearly 9 years of dial up internet I never installed an ISPs software. If I couldn’t connect via plain old Windows DUN, I don’t want it. After playing with iTunes, I still think as a media player it sucks, but to interface with the iPod it’s okay.

[DonLandis]

I could never understand the "hatred" people express for Apple. Personally they never did anything to me. In fact, they led the way for Microsoft to make better products :)

The ipod is not an Apple innovation as the concept was done before Apple did theres. What is an Apple innovation is the way they are marketing it to the masses, tapping into the well known large group of brainwashed Mac Heads who believe EVERYTHING Apple makes is superior to all other things. I know a few people like that who bow down and pray infront of their Mac Shrine. They are agahst that I "worship more than one god. I try to explain it is just a tool and I don't worship Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or the MAC. 12 years ago it was the Toaster, today it's the ipod. One hi tech pundant said that If Steve Jobs got a paper clip, painted it white and called it the "iclip" he could sell it to all the Mac heads for a dollar each, bragging that Apple has finally invented a low cost way to bind papers together in a superior way.

Another good thing about the ipod and the way Apple is marketing it is that it finally is guiding the entertainment music industry into understanding what the 21st century is all about. Jobs will teach the music industry they they can make huge profits with downloaded media to the sacrifice of their core bread and butter the record industry.

The video ipod casts are also going to have a rough go of it soon too. The ones that will suffer the most are the local broadcast stations as yet one more media distribution enters the picture that eats away at it's audience and it's 30 second commercial revenue model.

I sure am glad I chose to stay out of the local broadcast / 30 secod spot business. At least what I do, half hour infomercials are still a huge money maker. We know that people who watch infomercials are people who actually want to watch. Unlike the local TV station 30 second commercial where people have gone to great lengths to bypass those spots, with anything from bathroom breaks to DVR's with 30 second skip buttons. The podcasts in video are soon to be the next nail in the local Broadcast coffin!

Anyway, I got off on my latest peeve. Steve, thanks for your input with the mp4 - ipaq capability. I wonder if windows mobile 5 products like the 6715 will have this capability?
I'll be planting lots of seeds at CES in January.

I've been watching several video podcasts (FREE) from the desktop. The NerdTV PBS sponsored video podcast has a good collection you should check out.

BTW- I will do an Apple ipod product when they offer a better one device is all I need product. Currently, my ipaq is still the only way I can go. Treo is a close second!

[Steve Mehs]

My hatred for Apple is a result to the hatred Macheads and a lot of others have for Microsoft. Microsoft is not the center of all evil and Bill Gates is not Satan. Microsoft is an incredible company and Bill Gates is an idol of mine, I like what he did.

Microsoft was never a monopoly to me. Big deal they bundle Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player with Windows, it’s their operating system they can do what they want. The government has no business telling Microsoft what they can or cannot include. I don’t see how ‘forcing’ Windows users to have (but not use) Internet Explorer and WMP is some kind of monopolistic abusive power. How is that so different the Apple ‘forcing’ me to have AND use iTunes in conjunction with the iPod, it’s not. Windows users are not forced into anything, despite what MS bashers want you to believe there are choices, get a Mac or reformat your hard drive with Linux. It was your choice to buy and use Windows, when there are alternatives just like it was my choice to get an iPod instead of an iRiver that can be interfaced with using just My Computer.

The completion between Windows and Mac is great, but don’t think Mac is the little underdog and Microsoft is the big bully. They are both corporations that want to maximize their profits and I say let them do what they want and let the consumer decide.

I went on a field trip to the Buffalo/Niagara Frontier Linux User Group (NFLUG) meeting earlier this year for school. These are very smart individuals, but these guys have so much anger geared up at MS, you could see veins popping out of foreheads, I swear I thought this one guy was going to have a heart attack when arguing with a classmate of mine about the origins of the on screen GUI calculator. It was unreal.

Like you said a few times Don, the iPod is in essence nothing new or ground breaking. Something you and I can relate to, PDAs. 3Com gets the credit for the Palm Pilot, but it wasn’t anything new or groundbreaking. Apple had the Newton years before Palm came around and a few years later when Microsoft came on board they perfected the PDA by creating their own platform and using top computer manufactures like HP and Compaq and using top electronics manufactures like Toshiba and Casio. 3Com later spun off Palm and started licensing the OS to Sony, IBM and Handspring. At first Palms were just glorified electronic pocket organizers which where also around for years.

I’ll be sure to check out Nerd TV. I subscribe to a few podcasts now and I love the content and convenience. I have a few of Leo Laportes shows, This Week In Tech, Security Now, the KFI show and a few from others The Geekcast and some paranormal shows. When you brought up Art Bell the other day it got me thinking, I always forget about C2C so I subscribe to a few ghosts and alien hunter shows. Don’t believe in any of it, but I find it interesting.

An all in one device may not be too far off. Moto has the ROKR, all that needs is PDA functionality, but I doubt you’ll see Windows Mobile 5.0 on a phone that features Apple innovation :)

[djlong]

You won't find too many people over 40 with an intense hatred of MS - at least not those who make a living off of computers, programming, etc.

Why?

Before Bill Gates, you had to be your career on one of a number of different standards and technologies and hope 'your' vendor wouldn't go out of business. In the 1970s, I "made my bed" with DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) and that lasted a good long while but colleagues of mine were in different technologies with different vendors and their careers suffered.

The one thing that MS has brought to IT is that you can now "bet your career" on a technology and be reasonably assured it will be around - even if it's not MS, like java or Oracle.

[DonLandis]

Steve- OK- I just wanted to know where your head was at. Like all religions, I'm essentially agnostic toward the tools I use to get the job done. BTW- I met Bill Gates once as I got invited to his birthday party in Atlanta years ago. He is one heck of a nice guy and a fun person to be around. He is very inspirational and a real positive thinker yet practical at the same time.
Glad you got the Leo video cast to work. Did you get it via bit Torrent? I tried that but had little luck with it. It for their first video podcast. If there is another way to see it I would like to try again but I'm through with Bit Torrent as it is too much like joining Napster to my liking. I appreciate P2P serving but for now it's just not for me.

djlong-
I agree about betting your career on Microsoft- I finally convinced my Brother in Law who is a highly educated code writer to go get his MS certifications. He was convinced that it was just some corporate gimmick and all he needed was his college degree. Then I exampled how several of my friends, one of whom didn't even have a HS diploma were eating his lunch in the job market and salary at 2X what he was getting with 9 years experience and a degree. So last year he began the certification testing and now has 3 of the MS certs. His career took off with the first one. Before he was unemployed most of the year, today he has companies seeking him! Say what you want about MS but he is now a believer in certification credentials.

[stonecold]

I have a question about ipods, are you required to subscribe to itunes, or can you just upload CD's that you've ripped from your hard drive?


You have a number of options. Yes you can use itunes to rip your cds and put them on your ipod. There is no subscription fee to ITMS also ipod owners get a special track a week free from itunes music store. I get a total of 2 free songs a week. 1. Artist Discovery which is free to anyone with itunes and then the single of the week for ipod users.


There also is a number of non itunes programs to transfer mp3s or aac files to your ipod. For legal music downloads though that use DRM you can only use Itunes.