Comments | savethewave: MP3 players. Any ideas for me?

savethewave

MP3 players. Any ideas for me?

Dec 06, 2006 12:12

I don't want a video player with a mini screen, but I have about 20-30 gigs worth of my CDs and LPs that I have turned into MP3s, with more on the way. What I have been doing until now is burning about 200 songs at a time onto CDs, and playing them on my CD/MP3 Walkman. In the case of DJ gigs, I have been occasionally using a laptop in ( Read more... )

Comments 36

nofate301 December 6 2006, 17:18:45 UTC

If you rip your entire collection to mp3, which is a near universal format, it will play on the ipod. If it doesn't, I haven't run into it yet. Someone probably ran out of authorizations for their purchased music and gave it to someone.

Ipod's will last extremely long, unless beaten up like anything. It will easily last over 2 years and probably longer. Also, if anything breaks like the harddrive or battery, you can replace those. Simply invalidating an ipod because it has more moving parts is rediculous. Flash players are more stable, but you can't get the capacity. I've dropped my first ipod several times from at least 3+ feet up and didn't have a problem. I only started getting a problem when I hung it on my bike instead of on my person.

But I digress, the best way to decide is to figure out how much variety you need in your mp3 player. Do you really need every song by one band, or would one album be fine? Do you want to carry a few O&A or R&F shows in there too?

savethewave December 6 2006, 17:36:23 UTC

The problem I have is that people do not grasp how big my collection actually is. At one point, I had one of the 25 largest privately owned collections in New Jersey. I still have 8-9,000 LPs, 2,500 CDs, 3,000 45s, 2,000 12" singles, and around 500 cassettes.

Variety I have. I need ease of operation (which the iPod appears to have), but without any problems. I do not WANT to have iTunes installed on my PC. Ever. I only want to be able to click and drag what I want into the player, with no learning curve.

I have had older iPods on my bench, and they appeared to be of extremely flimsy internal construction. Perhaps things have been improved by then.

If I can do a simple point, click and drag with an iPod with nothing else to learn, I would take one in a second.

nofate301 December 6 2006, 17:46:50 UTC

how is Itunes not point and click/drag and drop ( ... )

savethewave December 7 2006, 18:17:25 UTC

Thank you for this. I guess ignorance on my part and half-truths were keeping me from making a decision.

Thread 5

dudeitsawesome December 6 2006, 17:31:16 UTC

I have had a 30gb creative nomad jukebox zen xtra since december 2004. I've had no problems with it. I currently have about 25GB of music on it, I've found it easy to use. It's not as popular or sleek as an ipod, but I'm more about function than style, honestly. I've gone jogging with this thing, it's gone with me on numerous road trips. The advertised battery life is 8 or 12 hours (i forget), but that's if you NEVER advance to the next track. I've found that the actual battery life is really more like 5-6 hours ( ... )

savethewave December 6 2006, 17:38:37 UTC

I get 40 hours of playback with my CD walkman on 2 AA cells, and that is the kind of battery life I want to have. Otherwise, I am not interested.

I agree with you that a car charger would be the way to go.

dudeitsawesome December 6 2006, 17:41:05 UTC

I don't think you're going to get that kind of battery life out of an ipod OR out of a creative mp3 player. I have a friend who was recently bitching about the difference between the advertised battery life of an ipod and the ACTUAL battery life of an ipod, and while I forget what kind of numbers he quoted, it wasn't far off at all from the battery life of my mp3 player.

If you're in a position where you can plug it into the ac adapter, then it'd be fine, but otherwise, you're not gonna get that kinda battery life.

savethewave December 6 2006, 17:45:13 UTC

Then I shall continue to wait, because as far as luxury items go, if something does not do exactly what I want, I do not want it.

Thread 8

mastercontrol20 December 6 2006, 17:41:53 UTC

I love iTunes. I love the iTunes Music/Movie/TV Show/Music Video/Podcast/Audio Book store. There is no other multimedia player that makes it easier to create and manage playlists, buy music, play ripped music from your CDs and downloaded from peer-to-peer online services, and also burn audio CDs and burn MP3 CDs.

Having said that, my father impulsively bought a Creative Labs Zen and now is stuck with their proprietary software -- and I feel bad for him.

When you buy an iPod, you are also buying into Apple's music system, from iTunes to their Music Store. You are buying the market leader which developed the entire digital music arena from a niche market to a major player. And they will continue to build on their success while the others fight for the scraps.

savethewave December 6 2006, 17:49:05 UTC

I NEVER want to use iTunes for anything. I have too much on my plate to learn a new thing that is only for luxury purposes.

I already own a collection or alternative rock comparible to iTunes music store, with the exception of newer material, in which I am not that interested anyway. The iTunes service is something I will never use.

mastercontrol20 December 6 2006, 19:03:47 UTC

How about Microsoft's newly released Zune? It ties in with Windows Media Player which you already have if you own a Windows XP machine (though you need to upgrade to Windows Media Player 11).

It is new and has a bigger LCD display than the 5G iPod.

-- and it's cheaper.

savethewave December 6 2006, 22:15:29 UTC

I shall look into the Zune, but as with all Microsoft products, I am a bit leery.

Just so that you know, I appreciate the help; I do not mean to be giving such pushback, but I need no more things to think about currently.

ex_the_idea_555 December 6 2006, 18:56:01 UTC

The iPod does play files not purchased via iTunes; my entire CD collection is on my iPod and I'd estimate that maybe 2% of all total music on my iPod is from iTunes.

iTunes software is not complicated to install or to use. It's pretty much drag and drop from your My Music folder to iTunes.

As far as actual construction, the 5th gen iPods have come a long way. I drop mine on a regular basis and it still works. The battery life doesn't appear to be a huge issue for me, I charge it via an external AC adapter (it's faster as opposed to doing it via your computer)once a week and it lasts for pretty much the entire week and I am never without my iPod.

The 80gb capacity doesn't hurt much, either.

savethewave December 6 2006, 22:01:31 UTC

I am concerned that iTunes will change the information of my files.

ex_the_idea_555 December 6 2006, 22:04:47 UTC

It changes them from mp3's to m4a's but if you click "do not convert," they remain mp3's.

savethewave December 6 2006, 22:11:44 UTC

But then, will the MP3's work on my iPod, and can I play them on my MP3/CD players?

Thread 8

mastercontrol20 December 6 2006, 19:01:35 UTC

He's never going to use iTunes. So the iPod is out. (BTW, I totally agree with everything you said and happily own a 5G iPod)

nofate301 December 6 2006, 21:25:35 UTC

you don't have to use Itunes, there are several programs out there that can manage an ipod.

There's even a plugin for winamp that allows you to manage your ipod, takes care of all the play counts, ratings, etc. too.

Even think it does automatic organization of folders too, not sure. Been a long time since I used it.

savethewave December 6 2006, 22:00:24 UTC

I love Win Amp, and have used it for years. I shall look into this option.