advice on MP3 players

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
I wanna get my daughter an Ipod/MP3/whatever player for Christmas but I'm totally in the dark about them.

What do most kids look for in the MP3 player? I realize the bigger the capacity the more songs but does it really need to hold 10,000 songs?

Rechargeable battery seems to be a priority...how about the ability to hold photos as well as songs?

Ipods? Are they the best? I was looking at one called Creative Zen that had 20 gigabytes.

I don't want to say money is no object cuz I don't like spending money on features that will never be used. Can I get one that will prevent RAP music from being played?:lol:

I hope to hear from some of our younger members...what's hot and what's not? And from the parents who may have already bought one, what's practical and what's a total waste.

What the hell happened to those $5 Japanese transitor radios?
Thanks in advance!:wave:
 

maelstrom

Well-Known Member
iPods are hot. I think the iPod Nano is going to be the big hit this holiday season. My boyfriend's brother (17) is getting one for Christmas.
 

rentNdisney

New Member
iPods are hot, and kdis my age (17) sadly consider status of an item over quality.

i got an iPod for christmas last year. when it works, i love it. BUT...i'm on my 4th iPod right now...in less than a year. They keep breaing and apple cant do anything to help except give me a new one.

i know that there are people who have one and it works fine, i guess im just an iMurderer and i dont know it. but i think that if your daughter doesnt need to have "whats in" because "everyone has one" it might be better to go with something else that isnt as hyped so the quality would be better and not as rushed as iPods around christmas.
 

maelstrom

Well-Known Member
I've had two iPods and haven't had a problem with either. My first one was a 3rd gen 10gb and my current one is a 4th gen 30gb photo. The only reason I sold the first one was to upgrade to one with a bigger hard drive and colour screen.

What you have to remember about the iPod problems is that people are going to talk more about their product if it malfunctions than if it works good. I don't care what the product is - a percentage of them will just be lemons - this goes for mp3 players, computers, tv's, cars, stereos, appliances, etc. The fact of the matter is that the iPod is a superior mp3 player. It is incredibly easy to use and comes with the easy to use iTunes software. It has a great & simple design. I just helped a woman at Target the other day choose an iPod for her disabled daughter.
 

LSUxStitch

Well-Known Member
I have a 20gig Ipod Photo and love it. Best money I have ever spent actually. If your daughter does not own many cds or download a bunch of songs, the nano would be the best choice. (it views photos as well)

While watching CNN the other night, they had a special on MP3 players and what will be the big thing for christmas. They mentioned a little 1 gb cube which I though was cool if you do not feel like lugging something large around. Here is the link to it if you want to check it out. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4320910
 

crazycalf

New Member
I just got the new 30 gig ipod with video.
I haven't used the video at all and don't really use the photo that much.

I have over 600 cds and my ipod is only half full. I do not put entire albums on, just the songs I really like. For me one of the nanos would be too small since I have over 4000 songs on it. The good thing about having so much storage space is you don't have to worry about running out of room. If you want to save $100 and your daughter doesn't have that much music the smaller nano could work for her. It doesn't play video but it is still an ipod.
 

no2apprentice

Well-Known Member
I just recently bought my two teenage sons iPod Nanos, the 4 GB models. Here was my decision process:

- Originally I was going to avoid the whole "Apple" thing, thinking I could get something just as good for less money.

- After reading reviews, and checking prices and features for a couple of months, I decided on the iPod Nanos. Yes, I was probably paying a little more than another brand with similar features, but the sound quality of the Nano was very good and iTunes is well established. Four GB's of MP3 music is about 1,000 songs (plenty for my kids). It works on flash memory, not a hard drive, so I felt I was getting the both of best worlds. A system that could stand bumping and jarring without skipping, and very small size.

- No radio on iPod Nano, but my kids aren't into listening to the radio. They are not interested into the whole video thing on a tiny little screen, and haven't downloaded any pictures yet.

- If you order the Nano from Apple's site, you can get free engraving (two lines) on the back. This helps with any conflicts of who's iPod is who's (adds to the cool factor, as well).

- iTunes is good. Works well with the Nano, and the boys seem very pleased with the choice of songs they can purchase. Apple has gone to some steps to fight piracy. For instance, you can't load a song into your iTunes library that you've downloaded from a CD to your computer. You have to download the song directly from the CD to the library. Not a bad thing, but more task intensive to download songs from your individual CDs.

Probably the bottom line with the Nano was the cool factor. My boys were almost giddy (as much as teenagers can be) when they got them. MP3 players are not allowed in their school, and they were trying to figure out how to keep them safe in their backpacks until school was out, so they could show them off to their friends.

Something you mentioned about batteries, it's kind of a double edged sword. If you buy a MP3 player that uses a AAA or AA battery, that's great if you're on a trip. Battery runs low, replace it, no problem. But with iPods, you have to charge from the USB cable from a computer. You can buy an accessory that plugs into an A/C outlet, and plug the USB cable into that to charge the iPod.

That's one thing about the iPods and some of the other MP3 players that come with the rechargable batteries...they are factory sealed. With an iPod, after two to three years when the battery wears out, you have to send it in to Apple to have the battery replaced. Yech.

Hope some of this info helps. Good luck on your decision!
 

LSUxStitch

Well-Known Member
no2apprentice said:
But with iPods, you have to charge from the USB cable from a computer. You can buy an accessory that plugs into an A/C outlet, and plug the USB cable into that to charge the iPod.

That's one thing about the iPods and some of the other MP3 players that come with the rechargable batteries...they are factory sealed. With an iPod, after two to three years when the battery wears out, you have to send it in to Apple to have the battery replaced. Yech.

Hope some of this info helps. Good luck on your decision!

You do not HAVE to plug the ipod into the computer to charge nor do you have to buy the A/C adapter thing because that was in my packaging for my Ipod.

The battery idea does suck, but if you do buy an apple, just make sure you run the battery down to the end then recharge it. It helps on the longevity of your battery life.
 

no2apprentice

Well-Known Member
LSUxStitch said:
You do not HAVE to plug the ipod into the computer to charge nor do you have to buy the A/C adapter thing because that was in my packaging for my Ipod.
If your iPod doesn't carge by USB cable, how do you charge it? For the Nano, it charges by USB cable from computer, docking station (which is attached by USB to computer), or plugging USB cable into A/C adapter which does not ship with Nano.
 

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
no2apprentice said:
- iTunes is good. Works well with the Nano, and the boys seem very pleased with the choice of songs they can purchase. Apple has gone to some steps to fight piracy. For instance, you can't load a song into your iTunes library that you've downloaded from a CD to your computer. You have to download the song directly from the CD to the library. Not a bad thing, but more task intensive to download songs from your individual CDs.

Thank you to all that have replied so far. Ken, can you elaborate a bit more on what you have said about not being able to download songs from my computer to the IPOD. I have well over a thousand MP3s on my computer, most of which I have ripped from CDs and, additionally, I have hundreds of songs that I have purchased from legitimate sources. Are you saying I will not be able to transfer these songs to the IPOD? Do I have to only use Itunes to get music or music directly from a CD?

Sorry, very dense here, and don't quite understand. I don't want to be limited to buying songs from Itunes cuz I can get songs cheaper from other legit sources. And what will I do with all the songs on my computer now that we will want to transfer to the Ipod?

This has been a great help.
 

no2apprentice

Well-Known Member
I wish I could give you a definite answer now, but the songs that we already had on the computer were in Windows Media, and were not converted to MP3 format, so we did not have to deal with that issue. We had about a hundred songs to move to the iTunes library, so it didn't take my son very long to load the songs from his CD's to iTunes. It would probably take you weeks!

I looked at the Help directory in iTunes, and it does talk about loading songs from other sources, and lists MP3 formats. From what I read, you should be able to move the MP3 songs over without a problem.

Hopefully, there is someone who has been working longer with iTunes than we have to give you a more detailed answer. I'll research it some more tomorrow in case no one has more information.
 

Madison

New Member
You can load any and all MP3s from any source into your iTunes library and, similarly, load them all onto your iPod.

I've had an iPod for about a year now and it's a nice convenience. It's simple to use, plays music when I ask it to, and hasn't yet broken. I like it for that -- I could care less about status.
 

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
no2apprentice said:
Hopefully, there is someone who has been working longer with iTunes than we have to give you a more detailed answer. I'll research it some more tomorrow in case no one has more information.


LOL....thanks...I've been going thru the tutorials on the Apple site and various IPOD forums and it's hard to find a direct answer. It's probably such a stupid question that no one talks about what they consider as obvious. :lol:
 

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
Madison said:
You can load any and all MP3s from any source into your iTunes library and, similarly, load them all onto your iPod.

I've had an iPod for about a year now and it's a nice convenience. It's simple to use, plays music when I ask it to, and hasn't yet broken. I like it for that -- I could care less about status.


Great...thank you, Madison...that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Appreciate your clarifying that for me. :)
 

GenerationX

Well-Known Member
I'm in the market for an MP3 player myself. I've already ripped 4000+ songs from my own CDs and Albums ("big CDs", as my kids call them) into MP3 format. I already have Windows Media Player 10, which I like. Would it be easier from a set-up and management perspective to get a SanDisk MP3 player rather than an iPod?
 

Woody13

New Member
GenerationX said:
I'm in the market for an MP3 player myself. I've already ripped 4000+ songs from my own CDs and Albums ("big CDs", as my kids call them) into MP3 format. I already have Windows Media Player 10, which I like. Would it be easier from a set-up and management perspective to get a SanDisk MP3 player rather than an iPod?
I have several MP3 players, but my favorite is the MyMusix PD-205. Instead of using flash memory, this device uses SD memory cards to store your songs. It supports MP3 and WMA formats and a 1GB card (included) holds about 1,000 songs. It can use up to a 2GB card (2,000 songs). So, you can put as many songs as you like on various cards and pop them into the machine as you wish. With Windows XP, it requires no software drivers.

It's easy to copy songs from the computer to the card. You can plug the device into a USB port and copy songs to it or you can just put the card in a card reader and copy the songs direct from the computer folders. The songs copy from computer to the card as fast as your computer USB speed (i.e. 1.1 or 2).

The PD-205 uses one AAA battery that will play for 12 hours. It's on sale now at Radio Shack for $69.99 (it normally sells for $119.99). I'm very pleased with mine. I really prefer the WMA format over all others.
 

dxwwf3

Well-Known Member
I'd really like to get an MP3 player, but I'm afraid to get a hard drive based unit. I know how fragile those things can be (or at least that's what I've heard) and if I payed serious money for a player I would want it to be dependable and hold my entire library (which is exactly at 15 gigs right now) and have room for the future.

So that doesn't bode well for me does it? :)
 

GenerationX

Well-Known Member
Woody13 said:
I have several MP3 players, but my favorite is the MyMusix PD-205. Instead of using flash memory, this device uses SD memory cards to store your songs. It supports MP3 and WMA formats and a 1GB card (included) holds about 1,000 songs. It can use up to a 2GB card (2,000 songs). So, you can put as many songs as you like on various cards and pop them into the machine as you wish. With Windows XP, it requires no software drivers.

It's easy to copy songs from the computer to the card. You can plug the device into a USB port and copy songs to it or you can just put the card in a card reader and copy the songs direct from the computer folders. The songs copy from computer to the card as fast as your computer USB speed (i.e. 1.1 or 2).

The PD-205 uses one AAA battery that will play for 12 hours. It's on sale now at Radio Shack for $69.99 (it normally sells for $119.99). I'm very pleased with mine. I really prefer the WMA format over all others.
:wave: Thanks for the info, Woody13! I will add this one to my short list of contenders.
 

crazycalf

New Member
GenerationX said:
I'm in the market for an MP3 player myself. I've already ripped 4000+ songs from my own CDs and Albums ("big CDs", as my kids call them) into MP3 format. I already have Windows Media Player 10, which I like. Would it be easier from a set-up and management perspective to get a SanDisk MP3 player rather than an iPod?

It would be easier to buy a player with that can play .wma files if you are already using wmp10. However it is not that hard to convert your files. It is just time consuming. Just go to File and then add folder to library and choose your my music folder. Itunes will convert the files to AAC automatically. With 4000 songs it took me about 16 hrs though. You can use your computer while they are converting.

As for file protection, as long as you have unproceteced .wma files (the ones you put on from a cd not bought from an online music store) they will convert. I had a problem with like 3 songs not being converted all the way, they cut off halfway through the song. Otherwise, I can't tell the difference between those and the ones bought from itunes.

If your files are already in mp3 you don't have to do the conversion process if you got an ipod.
 

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
Woody13 said:
I have several MP3 players, but my favorite is the MyMusix PD-205. Instead of using flash memory, this device uses SD memory cards to store your songs. It supports MP3 and WMA formats and a 1GB card (included) holds about 1,000 songs. It can use up to a 2GB card (2,000 songs). So, you can put as many songs as you like on various cards and pop them into the machine as you wish. With Windows XP, it requires no software drivers.


Cool, Woody...I like the idea of having some other options. I'm going to go to Circuit City tomorrow and check them out and I might as well look in Radio Shack while I'm at it. :wave:
 

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