Mp3

[Jyn]

So I've been wanting to finally get an iPod or other MP3 player, and I wanted to ask some questions...

With MP3 players, can I put any audio file on them, or do I have to buy them off of iTunes, etc.? Basically, I have a lot of downloaded music on my comp from the past. I also have a lot of CDs I'd like to load onto my comp and then put onto the player. Is this doable?

Also, are there any good brands besides iPod, or should I pretty much just go with that?

Thanks.

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Jyn
So I've been wanting to finally get an iPod or other MP3 player, and I wanted to ask some questions...

With MP3 players, can I put any audio file on them, or do I have to buy them off of iTunes, etc.? Basically, I have a lot of downloaded music on my comp from the past. I also have a lot of CDs I'd like to load onto my comp and then put onto the player. Is this doable?

Also, are there any good brands besides iPod, or should I pretty much just go with that?

Thanks.

There's plenty of good MP3 players around. So many that I can't give any specific recommendations... just look at the specs (size in GB, size in millimeters, price) and pick something you like.

Any MP3 player will play any MP3 file (with a few stupid exceptions if you have bad format or something). You don't have to get them from itunes. As to ripping a CD to MP3 to put it on your player - easy. I use leech and lame to do the job; there's plenty of other programs that will, too - free ones.

Possibly the easiest thing to overlook is your earphones. Generally you'll get a player that takes a standard 3.5mm plug; some may come with cheap earphones. How much of the time are you going to be listening to music? All day, or just a few minutes of commute? Do you need to be able to hear what's going on around you? Fortunately, if you don't like your headphones, you can usually change them without much expense or trouble.

[Jidoe]

Most simple MP3 players these days work with a USB plug, so all you need to do is drag files to the player and you can play them.

Personally, I am a big fan of iPod. The audio quality is great, and while iTunes is indeed very annoying, I can live with it. It is important to remember the iPod Classic is not suitable for sports, so if that is one of the reasons you are looking for a player, then I'd say iPod Nano is probably better. So it's just a matter of budget and convenience - if you're looking for something that can host ALOT of music in good quality, go for iPod. If quality comes second to convenience, go for a smaller and cheaper player.

And I'd like to second Rosuav, earphones are extremely important. With the iPod, you receive good earphones, so you needn't worry about it, but if you go for something different, I'd recommend also putting extra 50$ for good Sennheiser earphones (I'm actually looking for a recommendation on earphones myself).

[Gesslar]

My only complaint about iTunes is that it can be a bit slow. Other than that, it works for my uses. You can import your music library. Though, you'd want to still keep a backup of your music because iPods are one-way-only. You can't retrieve stuff from your iPod (if you can, i'm sure it's not trivial).

[Jidoe]

Originally posted by Gesslar
My only complaint about iTunes is that it can be a bit slow. Other than that, it works for my uses. You can import your music library. Though, you'd want to still keep a backup of your music because iPods are one-way-only. You can't retrieve stuff from your iPod (if you can, i'm sure it's not trivial).

What you can do, though it's still a little risky, but good for a backup, is copy files from your HD to the iPod directly. You won't be able to play them and they will take place from the iPod's memory, but it gives you a safety measure in case something happens to your comp. When you copy files directly to the iPod's HD it works both way like any other HD.

[Halyanne]

My husband gets very frustrated with iTunes. We have lots of music we have collected over the years and its on our harddrives. He finds it extremely annoying to upload to the iPod. He often gets duplicate titles being listed. And sometimes it doesn't play everything. He also finds it hard to navigate around. We did get our iPod a few years ago and maybe things have changed since then. We also don't use it very often, mostly because he found it too frustrating to get music to play.

[Pae]

Originally posted by Halyanne
He often gets duplicate titles being listed. And sometimes it doesn't play everything.

I get this A LOT as well. Managing the actual iTunes files is really difficult - especially when you often convert files from .wav to .mp3 to other file formats for other various uses.

Backing up your itunes music is rough as well, the file structure is a headache and a half.

The biggest problem I find is... it's still the best one out there.

[Khaosai]

I've had both a Creative and Samsung MP3 player before I got my iPod. Out of the three, the ipod has been the best one for me. I use iTunes already so there was no transition, and the interface on the player is so easy. Plus there are hundreds (probably thousands) of accessories all ipod-only. My car even has a ipod dock option.

I was looking at the Zune as well, the FM Tuning and Wireless Sync are some options that I believe would be great, but I didn't check to see if you had to use Windows Media Player to manage it. If you do then I wouldn't bother, due to the stress involved.

I don't find any big problem with iTunes, though I am a self proclaimed iTunes nazi. I will update every tag for every song so it has the correct info, and when I place something on my ipod, I ensure all the data transfered correctly (album order, cover art, ect).

The biggest thing with iTunes is you should always convert your music when you import it, don't just import it and let it sit where it was. I import from where I downloaded from, convert to MP3, so that itunes puts it in it's own file structre and delete the originals (unless you wish to keep them).

Once your library is all using iTune's file structre (MyMusic/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist/Album/) the speed increase in it's operation is noticible. Also it will save you space if you use a common bitrate, not have ones that are 128Kbs and some at 320Kbs or lossless.

[Gadiantor]

http://www.sansa.com/

I am not a fan of iPod or iTunes, or generally anything that starts with "i". I used to have a Zen Micro, but was faced with having to upgrade the firmware to get it to work on my new computer, and decided to replace it, upgrade it and give it to my kids. I'm not a fan of the new Zen styling, so I did some research and for my money I went with the Sansa Fuze.

The entire Sansa line offers more features and flexibility than the comparable iPod, but at less cost. One of my favorite features on my Sansa is that I can add memory through a microSD card. I also LOVE the ease at which it syncs music. I just plug in my Sansa through usb, and it automatically syncs with the music library on my computer. It is super easy.

The advantage iPod has is that there are tons of accessories you can get for them. Some people say that iPod has better sound and video quality. I don't notice any difference in sound quality (we have three iPods as well as the Zen and the Sansa), but I will give a slight nod to the video quality on the iPod.

To answer the initial question... Most MP3 players will play most audio formats. For me the decision came down to which player would give me the most bang for the buck, and it was Sansa for the win!

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Gadiantor
I am not a fan of iPod or iTunes, or generally anything that starts with "i".

There's a joke about the first person singular pronoun here, but I'm not going to make it.

To be honest, though, my views on Apple products are pretty similar to yours.