New Mp3 Player

[Fish-Finger-er]

now dont shout me down, as i know theres a good few topics like this, but times change so quick, and my situation is different to most.

i haved owned for 3 years, a 3g 40gb ipod. its starting to give up the ghost now, time for me to retire it and get summit newer i think.

dont want a zen, so choices to me look like

sony.

another ipod.

zune.

+ a few others.

trouble is i got 29gb of music, so counts the sony, and most others out. so comes down to the zune, and another ipod.

what are the current ipods like, not so much video functions, but strength,battery life,reliability etc. (a lot of my mates 4g ipods gave up the ghost within a year. wherease me and my mate who got them before they wer cool, in 3g form, outlasted about 1/2 of the 4g ipods the rest of my mates had, and his 3g is still goin strong,and mine is just gettin tempermental. )

and the zune. whats the deal with it, anyone got one. i know it only comes in 30gb, but can get replacement 60gb hard drives for it. runs an altered windows media player doesnt it.so.

1) can i plug it into me tv? and if so, will it just play mpegs/avis. and have options to go fullscreen.

2) is there anyway of importing my itunes library into it, so its organised in the same fashion(i.e i just have about 400 playlists, all albums, song collections by the same artist- just use those playlists but on the zune)

and if anyones got one, what do they think of them.battery life, hardwearingness,any freezing problems.

[delusional]

iRiver H340. I haven't yet seen another mp3 player with as much useful functionality as these. They're a bit chunkier than the other options, but there are awesome LCD remotes available that mean you never have to take it out of your bag.

It:

• functions as a standard usb hdd, so you don't need any rubbish software to copy files over and can simply plug it into any computer and have it show up as an external hdd. This makes it great for carrying around files/back-ups/etc, you can even put an OS on it and boot most modern PCs from it.
• has a USB 1.1 host built in, so you can plug other USB devices (like digi-cams, external hdds, etc.) into it and copy files across without a computer. Especially good for taking pictures off a digi-cam without the need for a computer (like when you're on holiday, or out riding)
• fm radio built in
• great looking colour screen
• video support out of the box
• internal mike and aux in for recording to mp3 (so you can record direct from tape/md/etc)
• proper aux out for connecting to an amp/stereo
• decent sound quality (generally reported as being better quality than the iPod)
• and cool carbon effect look!

The only issue I've had with mine is that the default software is a little slow on startup, but installing RockBox is a quick and easy job, and is really rather nice to use. Also has the added bonus of being a file based system rather than tag based, which is an advantage if, like me, you have thousands of mp3s that aren't correctly tagged and no inclination to spend weeks tagging them all.

Mines been going for about a year now without any problems. I know some people who've had them for a couple of years with the only problem being the batteries eventually wearing out (as all batteries do), but they're apparently very cheap to replace on eBay. Also possible to upgrade to 80gig drive if you feel like opening it up (hopefully I'll be doing this soon).

[CurtisRider]

dont bother with sony, they are a bag of wank, ive had 3 now, and well, they are just so fecking annoying, the software terrible and crashes every computer ive tried it on, and once you finally manage to get some music on, the latest sony i have (20gig jobbie) is soooo slow and as soon as you get a few light marks on the screen, it becomes inpossible to read needless to say, its going back as soon as possible and the moneys going towards a tv

im not the only one, my friends who have the other models also have the same problems

i really would stick with creative....they may be bulky and a tad ugly, but function wise, you cant really get any better i think, and in the end thats what counts seeing as it sits in your pocket most of the time

[Joel]

Not a zune cause 1 they are only avible in america and 2 cuse its made by microsoft, it will fu*k up! Funny fact. A usb ipod charger beat sales of the zune on amzon in america.

[JTM]

Whats with everyone using shit software these days. What happened to bloody drag and drop? I mmyself want a new mp3 player, and the new nano would be perfectly sized etc, but I REFUSE to use itunes as it is THE shittest program ive ever had to use.

[Joe Papasnap Maher]

get what i just bought then...

a fake nano hahaha

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=160058528701

[Matthew_Gibson]

dont bother with sony, they are a bag of wank, ive had 3 now, and well, they are just so fecking annoying, the software terrible and crashes every computer ive tried it on, and once you finally manage to get some music on, the latest sony i have (20gig jobbie) is soooo slow and as soon as you get a few light marks on the screen, it becomes inpossible to read needless to say, its going back as soon as possible and the moneys going towards a tv

im not the only one, my friends who have the other models also have the same problems

i really would stick with creative....they may be bulky and a tad ugly, but function wise, you cant really get any better i think, and in the end thats what counts seeing as it sits in your pocket most of the time

Yeah too ture. I also have had a samsung (one like That with out the colour screen

My dad ordered 2, one for me and one for my brother. They both failed in the same week with the same problem. The batteries are designed to fail after about a year of use.

I now have a ZEN Micro Photo 8GB and have had it for about. 5 months, nothing has gone wrong with it. I've dropped it a few times and nothing has happed just a few scratches

[Fish-Finger-er]

Not a zune cause 1 they are only avible in america and 2 cuse its made by microsoft, it will fu*k up! Funny fact. A usb ipod charger beat sales of the zune on amzon in america.

can get a zune for around £150 on my door, and can then get the HD to convert it to 60gb(if i needed too) for an extra 85. so eithr way, rivals ipod price wise. and the fact its only available in america.kinda makes it that little bit more exclusive.

[Tomm]

The Zune actually looks pretty nice (a bit bigger than iPods but cool blue-green metal colour), but the reviews for it aren't that favourable. Mainly the fact that the software is really, really buggy (Though I guess that can be fixed with updates). The Creatives that I have had experience with have been a bit rubbish. Again, rubbish software and chunky hardware. Say what you will about iTunes, it does work and I've had no problems with it. Although I don't really agree with the way it works (Basically taking over all your music and forcing you to let it store the music etc), I don't think that's a good enough reason to not buy an iPod.

Whatever you may or may not think about Apple, there's no point shooting yourself in the foot by being anti-iPod. Counter-culture means you miss out on good things sometimes. I like my iPod

[Broomer]

in 9 months i had 8 ipod replacements on warranty until my last one they would not replace,most expensive pile of crap i have ever bought. it was two years ago when they were becoming "Popular" so maybe there was alot of problems with them, i dont no.

borrowing my girlfriends samsung YH-J70 and its been good soo far.

so a for a samsung from me.

[Joel]

iPod's just work! iTunes just work! Don't see why people hate it. iTunes is the most eastiest program out there. If you tried it for 3 seconds and say its crap are shooting themself in the foot.

in 9 months i had 8 ipod replacements on warranty until my last one they would not replace,most expensive pile of crap i have ever bought. it was two years ago when they were becoming "Popular" so maybe there was alot of problems with them, i dont no.

borrowing my girlfriends samsung YH-J70 and its been good soo far.

so a for a samsung from me.

If its physicaly broken then thats your fault? If its the actully iPod, restore it.

Edited December 6, 2006 by Joelio

[Si-man]

dont bother with sony, they are a bag of wank, ive had 3 now, and well, they are just so fecking annoying, the software terrible and crashes every computer ive tried it on, and once you finally manage to get some music on, the latest sony i have (20gig jobbie) is soooo slow and as soon as you get a few light marks on the screen, it becomes inpossible to read needless to say, its going back as soon as possible and the moneys going towards a tv

im not the only one, my friends who have the other models also have the same problems

i really would stick with creative....they may be bulky and a tad ugly, but function wise, you cant really get any better i think, and in the end thats what counts seeing as it sits in your pocket most of the time

Had my sony 20gb one for a year now, nothing wrong with it so far.

Not that hard to read with scuffs, turn the brightness up

Also, you using the sony shite or sonic stage to put songs on?

I know you have 29GB of music, but seriosuly, theres no point having that on the player, it will just slow it down.

I used to have 50gb of music, i only used about 12 gb of it on player...

Edited December 6, 2006 by Si-man