MP3 players ?

[drednox]

hi

recently i have been thinking about buying one of the MP3 players available on the market. i dont like iPOD cause its just too propriatary. i am looking for one that is relatively small of course, doesnt require much power so it can work a long time, rechargable is a HUGE plus, has decent memory at least 128 megs, and is easy to use. if it comes with software that lets you transfer songs from CDs to it, that woudl also be great.

any thoughts pointers suggestions ?


also looking for software for it. as i am going to start to use Napster again (legally this time of course), and also i would like to be able to transfer some songs from my CDs to the player device which i will be using.


thanks.

 

[jynxs]

The Rio Karma holds 20 gig, is smaller than the regular iPod and is cheaper. The cradle has a built in ethernet card, so you can use the Karma as an MP3 server on your network when it's in the dock.

A another Rio that's decent is the Rio Cali. It's a flash based MP3 player but it uses the same interface as the Karma. The battery life is 15 hours vs. 8 for the ipod and both come with decent software.

 

[Dman877]

1 vote for the iPod

Whadda ya mean about proprietary anyway? It works with a pc...

 

[Anubis]

vote for anything other then an ipod because they are just as good and cost a ton less

 

[hausdave]

I have an old Archos 6GB that works well

 

[Gurck]

I had been looking at (forgive me!) the Dell 40gb model, what turned me off most about it was that you need to install the proprietary software for the drive to be recognized when hooked up via USB. Are any of the hard drive based players plug & play in this manner? ie. hook them up to any computer and they're recognized as an external drive...?

 

[IanthePez]

The Rio Nitrus is pretty cool as well.

VERY small, 1.5gb, just awesome if you ask me.

$199

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Gurck
I had been looking at (forgive me!) the Dell 40gb model, what turned me off most about it was that you need to install the proprietary software for the drive to be recognized when hooked up via USB. Are any of the hard drive based players plug & play in this manner? ie. hook them up to any computer and they're recognized as an external drive...?

i have a 30 gig creative zen xtra and you need to use its softwqare to put music on it, but its not bad at all and its fast and clean looking interface, i beleive they all have software you must use

 

[ForceCalibur]

I would vote Ipod if I was getting it for free. lol...

Otherwise, somethin else.

 

[Gurck]

Yeah, it's not so much that as I don't like the idea of having a portable external hard drive and having the maker tell me I can't use it as such Plus I generally lug around a big ol' cd case when going to fix friends' computers and such, chock full of updates, patches, etc... would be nice to have all that on a pocket-sized mp3 player and be able to just plug it in to a USB port.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Gurck
Yeah, it's not so much that as I don't like the idea of having a portable external hard drive and having the maker tell me I can't use it as such Plus I generally lug around a big ol' cd case when going to fix friends' computers and such, chock full of updates, patches, etc... would be nice to have all that on a pocket-sized mp3 player and be able to just plug it in to a USB port.

i know my sen mounts as a HD you can just drag stuff to it like data and such and if you have windows XP it "usially" just finds it fine, but when you do that sometimes teh music doesnt show up right in the player, it actuall has a folder on it called Data to put stuff like ISOs onto and such

 

[Anubis]

actually i think you can add music to the drive on mine just make sure you have your tag right, heres a screen shot of what it looks liek in windows explorer
http://www.dickinson.edu/~skillina/whatnot.jpg

 

[Gurck]

Hrm, well I don't mind using their software and such, but if I were to want to physically bring the thing to a friend's place I wouldn't want to bring the software CD with me just to have someone else's computer recognize it... I've been looking around some more and another thing I noticed is that none seem to have AM radios, though some have FM.. Are there any that are universally recognized as a USB hard drive *and* have an AM radio tuner?

 

[SuperFreaky]

I have a list a some good ones here

 

[pm]

I have the RCA Lyra and I like it. 128MB, expandable with SD/MMC memory, and has an FM radio. I paid $99 for it. Song transfer is pretty easy, usually I just drag and drop, but using Musicmatch of Windows Media Player for transfer works fine as well. The controls are intuitive enough. The backlit screen is nice and works fine in the dark. The screen is easy to read in direct sunlight. The size is awesome... it feels very small and light. I can put it in my back pocket and go out for a jog and not even notice that it's there. The battery life is ok... I use two store-bought (not included) 700mAh NiMH rechargeable AAA's in it and it seems to last 4-5 hours or so between recharges. It's a bit picky on the type of headphones used - I've been told this has to do with improving battery life and that there's a new standard on headphones that covers this. I didn't like the included headphones very much for jogging, so I wanted to switch to another set. Using older headphones - even high quality ones - results in poor audio. Since I can't seem to find a list anywhere that says which headphones work well, this was a little frustrating until I found a pair that I like that seem to work well. It doesn't support legal downloads as well as I might have liked. Legally downloaded songs from either iTunes or Musicmatch do not work with it directly - which doesn't make any sense to me from a commercial standpoint (I understand the technical reasons) and seems pretty silly. I had to burn the songs onto a CD and re-rip them to get them to play.

Overall, I'm reasonably pleased with it. The radio tuner seems a little wimpy and so I seem to find myself carrying around my Sony AM/FM radio and my Lyra on longer runs/bike rides so that I can tune in more distant stations (and AM). The business with not supporting legal downloads directly is irritating, but I have other problems with legal downloads too (nothing like trying to listen to them on my Linux workstation at work too) and place more of the blame for this incompatibility on the shoulders of Apple and Microsoft. I find myself using my Lrya a lot, however, and am very happy that I bought it.

Before this I had an iRiver 256 which I ended up returning. There were several things that I didn't like about it but the biggest problem was that the drivers somehow resulted in my otherwise "never-reboot-for-a-month" system getting noticiceably more flaky if I left the transfer software accidently running while doing something else.

 

[Pauli]

First of all, you mentioned the iPod and "at least 128MB capacity" in your post. To me, this suggests that you are in the very beginning phase of your MP3 player search and you need to get a clear idea of what's available and what will suit your needs best.

I think you must first decide whether you want a (1) HD player, (2) flash memory player, or (3) MicroHD player.

HD players: you will be storing your entire MP3 collection on the thing. They are inherently larger and more fragile.

Flash players: Much smaller but you will only be able to store a small fraction of your song collection on it and will require constant changing of songs. These are more durable, though.

MicroHD: All the advantages of flash players, but can store alot more and is more fragile.

 

[Doggiedog]

I've got a Rio Karma.

The battery lasts about 9 hours in real world usage. The sound quality is good but I wish there was a bass boost feature. It's pretty simple to use and set up but be warned, it has a known crashing problem. I've had it crash on me twice and after doing some research found out it is quite common.

 

[Gurck]

How fragile are the hard drive based players? Jogging with them is out, I take it?

 

[darXoul]

I would recommend either Apple iPod Mini or Creative Muvo2 4GB.

Advantages of both players:

- VERY small and light (iPod somewhat longer but thinner);
- great capacity for a mini player - 4 GB ain't shabby.

iPod's advantages:

- design (metal case, lots of style - although this argument is IMO very subjective and a matter of taste, 5 different colors);
- very easy and comfortable interface with a nice scroll multifunction wheel and a large LCD;
- more functions.

Muvo's advantages:

- replaceable, better battery (14h vs 8h);
- slightly better, more powerful and "juicy" sound (according to some reports/reviews);
- lower price.

IMHO, the choice is a matter of personal preference. I guess Muvo's a bit in the shadow of iPod's huge popularity but in terms of practical use, it's not really inferior. It does have a smallish display and a bit worse overall interface/feeling but it's still easy to use and it provides what's most important - huge capacity, great sound, good battery and superb size.

 

[SickBeast]

the ipod is NOT "proprietary" (where did you get that word from, anyway?? you obviously don't know much about the ipod).

in fact, it would do everything you're looking to do. why do you want to use napster? by choosing your legal music service you're limiting what player you can use, as currently only the samsung hd player can play napster songs. itunes is much better imo.

i've used md players, flash-mp3 players, cd-mp3 players, and the ipod, and there is no comparison: the ipod is bar-none the best portable music player ever created. period.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
the ipod is NOT "proprietary" (where did you get that word from, anyway?? you obviously don't know much about the ipod).

in fact, it would do everything you're looking to do. why do you want to use napster? by choosing your legal music service you're limiting what player you can use, as currently only the samsung hd player can play napster songs. itunes is much better imo.

i've used md players, flash-mp3 players, cd-mp3 players, and the ipod, and there is no comparison: the ipod is bar-none the best portable music player ever created. period.

Ever try to back up the contents or exrtract music from it? Or copy music you purchased off of Itunes to your HD and play it back without having to use itunes or have the PC registered to playback the tune? I think thats what they mean by "proprietary".

 

[imported_Ziggy]

Why has no one said Iriver!!!??? Why!!!


They rock...
Ihp 120 owner here.


Here is a forum with lots of info

http://www.misticriver.ws/index.php?f=1&op=modload&name=PNphpBB2&file=viewforum&sid=

 

[ed21x]

another vote for Iriver. Works as USB Mass storage (how much more proprietary can you get? ) for shuffling music and files around, integrated FM, Voice recorder, optical in/out, twice the battery life of an ipod, and the same exact size. Unfortunately... not that much cheaper either =\

 

[Bolvangar]

+ 1 vote for zen.
just got a zen xtra and love it so far.

 

[Paulson]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: SickBeast

the ipod is NOT "proprietary" (where did you get that word from, anyway?? you obviously don't know much about the ipod).



in fact, it would do everything you're looking to do. why do you want to use napster? by choosing your legal music service you're limiting what player you can use, as currently only the samsung hd player can play napster songs. itunes is much better imo.



i've used md players, flash-mp3 players, cd-mp3 players, and the ipod, and there is no comparison: the ipod is bar-none the best portable music player ever created. period.

Ever try to back up the contents or exrtract music from it? Or copy music you purchased off of Itunes to your HD and play it back without having to use itunes or have the PC registered to playback the tune? I think thats what they mean by "proprietary".

So why don't you just turn your purchased music into an mp3... that's what I do with all my itunes songs... and they all sound great (believe me I have a decent audio system to test them out on)... sounds good still. It's easy copying over music from the ipod... in fact there's nothing hard about it, plus it's plug and play pretty much...