Posted July 9, 2007 I've only just considering buying an MP3 player and i don't know much about them yet so i have a few basic q's, sorry if they've been covered but i don't have time to read all 9 pages of this thread, and i want my player as soon as poss! Am i right in thinking there are two catagories of player, the small slimline 'stick' style ones such as the iriver iFP 8xx and multitude of cheapo type MP3 players you can pick up from the tech section in Argos or Asda for £10+ which typically have either a very simple/small display screen, or none at all. And then the more high end players like the Zen Touch, etc that have eloborate displays, backlighting, etc? I'm a bit confused about the battery issue. The smaller players run on regular batteries (AA for example) and last up to 40 hours right? So why then do the more high end players run on rechargable batteries that only last up to 16 hours (and that's including some that don't have mega energy-draining displays)? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 The high-capacity ones use a hard drive which takes a lot more power than Flash memory which is what the smaller ones use. When I got my iPod at Christmas I got the Nano as it uses Flash memory and therefore has a really good battery life (advertised at 24 hours) whereas the 80GB iPod only has about 15 hours. The internal batteries are more powerful than AA as the player needs a lot more power. If you have a lot of music it's worth going for one of the 'big' ones. Battery life doesn't matter all that much as long as its more than 12 hours. There aren't many times when you actually need more than that. The iPod Nano's are actually very good and I'm very pleased with mine, the battery life is great and it can hold a lot of music (I've got the 4gb model but there is an 8gb model) and the battery life is very good. I needed it to last a long time as I went to Malawi a few weeks back and had a very long journey. Changing the music on it was a hassle though, I could never put on all the albums I want and have a lot of artists with only 1 song under their name. It's well worth splashing out on the big hard drive if you have a lot of music. I won an 80gb iPod recently (from Coca Cola) and can't wait to get it as I don't need the extended battery life anymore and I'll be able to fit all of my music onto it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 So what's the biggest memory you could get for a flash one? Around 8gb? How many songs can that hold? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 The biggest flash iPod is 8gb. I don't think there are any bigger ones by other companies. I really hate answering the 'how many songs question', I definitely don't get the advertised 1000 songs on my 4gb Nano but Apple say you should get about 2000 songs on the 8gb version. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 If you want a guideline, my music collection which is mostly high-quality mp3s is 12.9gb, for around 2500 songs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 If you want a guideline, my music collection which is mostly high-quality mp3s is 12.9gb, for around 2500 songs. I can't resist joining in the fun too... Giving each song an average of 4.76 MB. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 My library only consists of good music. Therefore it's only 2067 items, 6 days, ~9 hours. Altogether it's 12.69 GB. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 9, 2007 My collections only 3.65GB. I hardly get any music though. I listen to the same thing every day, what I was listening to a couple years back. It's always background music I sometimes sing along to. So I havnt felt the need of getting any more. If I were to get a Zen Vision M then I would go on a spree and get quite a bit more music. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 10, 2007 Can anyone recommend a player with minimal non-audio additional features (like video) but that has a larger storage capacity than flash based players? I don't understand why people need videos, pics, recorders, on an MP3 player and it'd be wasteful in my case since i just want it for music, but i would like at least 2000 songs on there, preferably 5000. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 10, 2007 any of the 20-30gb mp3 players would be what your looking for then, although most of the HDD mp3 players do come with some form of video capabilities, but you don't have to use them Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 11, 2007 Pancake: I recommend the Zen Touch 20GB. It's a bit large, physically, but it's rather cheap for a 20GB, and it can take quite a beating due to its tough build. Black-and-white screen, easy-to-use touchpad scrolling. Plus, it has a Random-button that plays all your tracks on shuffle. How cool is that? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 13, 2007 YanRuo: I heard that the touchpad can go wrong on the Zen Touch after so long so that's putting me off that one. Cos that could get really frustrating if you just want to walk and chill with your music. Also, like you say, it IS a bit clunky. Are there any other players with a shuffle? I'd have thought that would come as standard. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 13, 2007 i know you don't really want video but this is a really nice bit of kit for £120: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/414939/art/archos/404-30-gb-multimedia-play.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 13, 2007 McPhee - That IS nice, shame i'd only use about 20% of it! Bit too much of a power-guzzler for me. I think i'll stick strictly to an mp3 player so i know they've concentrated on that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 18, 2007 Are there any other players with a shuffle? I'd have thought that would come as standard. I would think all of them do. Don't know why he made it out to be something special on the Zen Touch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 21, 2007 I ended up getting an iriver H10 and here's my mini review based on a few days with it: Looks: It looks ordinary, but is nice and smooth and at least has some colour (it's a red one). Price: £89.99, bit pricey considering it's only 5gb. Plus was very hard to track down a non-used one and by the time i did i was just thankful to have FOUND one, at any price. Software/Windows compatibility:: NOT good. This is where it starts to fail. Once the music is on there then it's perfectly fine, but my Windows Media Player has crashed multiple times while transfering songs, it's also fiddly to configure. For exemple it's been syncronizing a lot of songs i didn't even order it to. And a couple of times it's managed to get a whole albums worth of songs on there before i noticed. God, thanks WMP for assuming i want every single song on my computer on my MP3 player. I thought that maybe the updates from the iriver site would solve this prob, but THAT site is clearly useless, half the links don't work, the download section is mish mash, and it's been like that for days. Shoddy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 27, 2007 I'm considering getting a Creative Zen Stone Plus? Is it any good? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 29, 2007 I got a black 2nd edition nano when it first came out. As amazing as it is, I'm bored with it now. Cummon Apple, release new ipods! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted July 30, 2007 I got a ikasu, basically takes the same shape as an Ipod Nano, maybe a bit thicker but with no touch sensitive buttons. Beter Sound and it's 2gb and was £20... Lol jordan how much of you is left!!! Just a black piece of coal with it's own heart beat! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 8, 2007 With me breaking (Accidently) my Creative Zen M, I'm on the lookout for a player, I Loved the zen, but I never used the video so it was pointless of me having the video aspect of it, just wondering if theres anything along the lines f it, just lookinghere and I can only see Creatives with 1gb-4gb I need about 10 or 20 =/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 9, 2007 Got an Ipid video today. Pretty good. Though one annoying thing is unlike on the Zune the album art is pretty tiny/unlike zune(software) it sometimes doesn't find the album art for you. The wheel is going to take some time getting used too aswell. Other than that I'm happy with it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 9, 2007 Ouch, probably not the best time to buy an ipod video when new generation ones are rumoured to be coming out soon...? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 9, 2007 Ouch, probably not the best time to buy an ipod video when new generation ones are rumoured to be coming out soon...? Got it for £115 and had the money to spare, also wanted one with more space than my Zune so got this. Also, rumoured means exactly that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 9, 2007 Got it for £115 and had the money to spare, also wanted one with more space than my Zune so got this. Also, rumoured means exactly that. Fair enough. Rumoured ie... in the next few weeks to a month. Apple rumours are usually pretty acurate. Can't wait! Except that I can and have to. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted August 9, 2007 Fair enough. Rumoured ie... in the next few weeks to a month. Apple rumours are usually pretty acurate. Can't wait! Except that I can and have to. lol, well yeah, I had the money to get one finally so thought, why not. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
