In The Market For A New Mp3 Player

[andius]

So far I'm interested in this: Clicky Here or a new ipod.

and i was wondering if anyone knew anything good or bad about it, im also open to opinions. please don't turn this into a 'ipod vs world" thread, i just want lots of music with me and easily too. B)

 

[Funkaholic]

I have the F series of those players. It's been really good since the firmware update. Check out www.mygigabeat.com. On the front page, there is a link to an even better deal on the S series. Also check out the forums for information about the players.

As for which one you should get, it really depends on what you're looking for in a player. If you're looking for just a music player, an F series Gigabeat would be nice. They are very cheap since the S series came out, but they are a little thicker. For movies and videos I use my Zen Vison. It has a bigger screen and longer battery life than the Gigabeat, ipod, and Vision M. I don't think watching movies on the small screens of the ipod video and S series Gigabeat would be very easy. The 3.7" on my Vision is just about right, and it's 640X480 too.

If I were you, I would get neither the S series Gigabeat, nor an ipod. There's too much proprietary crap with Microsoft and the S series and Apple and the ipod. My advice is to go for a Zen Vision M if you are more interested in music, regular Vision if you are interested in movies (the Zen Vision W is coming out soon, but all it is is a regular Vision with a wide screen and better viewing angles), or if money is a concern, an F series Gigabeat. People are working on porting Rockbox to the F series. Rockbox is an open source firmware that might be able to play videos on the F series. It has also been ported to the ipod.

Zen Vision(M) boards:
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board?board.id=pmc

Rockbox:
http://www.rockbox.org/

 

[g4m3r]

My brother got one of those for his birthday a couple months ago. I personally think is it superior to an iPod, and it's a bit cheaper.

 

[andius]

Ok, so after long delibiration i think i've mainly decided on the gigabeat s30 mainly because of its tv out feature which would be really useful for me not to mention its cool interface, size, stlye etc and fitting capacity.

But i have a couple questions, are there any annoying restrictions on using "illegally" obtained materials on it? and can it play mpeg4 videos? I dunno, i've looked at lots of forums and such, and it seems i can get a clear answer on these.

 

[kardasan]

Just one advice from my experience: never, I repeat, NEVER buy an MP3 player that requires special software to transfer music onto it. Choose only those, which storadge is simply formated as a hard drive and you can just copy your music onto it. All the special filesystems you can find on Creative MicroZen or iPod are pain in the ass. You can't put your music on it if you're away from PC with special software and every breakdown of the filesystem needs special software to be fixed (if such software is available to end users). There are no such problems with players that just read songs from the drive formated in FAT or some other common filesystem. You have problems with hard drive? You connect the player, format the drive via standard system utilities and it's done. In worst cases you can usually take hard drive out of the player and if it's a standard microdrive you can connect it to the PC via CF slot.

 

[Anonymous D]

I agree, and also, if like me you have to take documents etc. into school/college then you dont have to use a seperate memory stick. Also you can change your music on any computer.

 

[Montsubai]

Microsoft will be releasing their own MP3-player, Zune, soon. Maybe wait for that? But it probably won't be 'plug-n-play'

 

[iignotus]

Microsoft will be releasing their own MP3-player, Zune, soon. Maybe wait for that? But it probably won't be 'plug-n-play'

Zune is crap. Sandisk is one of the best retailers out there, as far as I'm concerned, along with Cowon and iRiver. You could always just do the hack thing and get a Karma, but that's a bit silly.

 

[BaDToaD]

A whole thread about music players and where are the comments on the sound quality?

Bloody MP3 is killing good sound

 

[iignotus]

Bloody MP3 is killing good sound

qft but what can you do? Even vorbis is starting to annoy me under 256

 

[BaDToaD]

I can't listen to MP3 under 320 (ie max for those that don't know) on my decent headphones without cringing. Especially when the music gets busy.

It sounds ok on earbuds and the like. But not good I hasten to add.

I'm looking to buy a new CD player and have my eye on NAD c521bee My mates ask, "Can it play MP3s?" to which I reply no just CDs and they kind of look at me strange and say "I'd rather save a hundred notes and get cheap one that plays everything."

... Sigh.

 

[jmetal88]

I'd like to know why they don't start releasing audio discs based on the Laserdisc technology.

Laserdisc supported analogue audio, so that'd be heaven for all the audiophiles out there that obsess over their vinyl collections. It'd be pretty much the same thing as listening to their records, but without the pop and crackle of dust in the grooves.

 

[Funkaholic]

The S series Gigabeats can't play mpeg-4... or divx or xvid. They can only play .wmv.

 

[iignotus]

I'd like to know why they don't start releasing audio discs based on the Laserdisc technology.

Laserdisc supported analogue audio, so that'd be heaven for all the audiophiles out there that obsess over their vinyl collections. It'd be pretty much the same thing as listening to their records, but without the pop and crackle of dust in the grooves.

Because laserdisc is huge like xbox.

 

[clarky2o2o]

i personally like the M:robe 100 (5gb) its not that big for a HD mp3 (only)but its all touch screen and every1 who sees its like wow .


www.mrobe.org


sadly the software you HAVE to use is a little on the CRAP side... but the homebrew scene have made better ones


theres the 20gb M:robe 500i which allows photos and videos...but doesnt look as stylish.

 

[AcidiC]

I have a Toshiba Gigabeat from the previous series.. probably 'F' or whatever - I don't care.

It's a great mp3 player - a waste of a screen though. 2 units both had blue stuck pixels (returned the first because it was right in the middle). Casing is a bit dodgy, as well as the headphone jack.
Now that I think about it, I'm lucky it was so cheap