MP3 Players...

[creamfan]

I'm looking to buy one approx 1-2GB storage.

Can anybody point me in the direction for a decent one.
Would like a USB charger & it to be compatible with speakers & docking thingy!!

Any recomendations??

Cheers

[Justin]

Go Creative over Apple everytime, Ipods are good but have horrible restricted software and tend to be unreliable later down the line, I have a Creative Zen Microphoto now and couldn't be happier with it, will be overkill for your needs though.

I'm actually in a building at the moment thats right next to Creative's European HQ, European Distribution centre and European Support centre.

[indx]

I've had a creative Muvo TX for a few years and love it... mine is only 512MB but they go up to 1.5 GB I believe.. really small, nice sound quality and v. good price.

2 months ago I got myself a 60GB Ipod Video though and love it.. don't care what anyone says about ipods!

[HxBro]

my personal preference is an iriver, they usually have more features than the others and for less cost.

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/ has a huge range

[AndyBites]

Ebuyer are doing a iRiver T30 1GB mp3 player for 69.99 inc VAT and delivery.. fantastic mp3 player if you have Windows XP (requires Windows Media Player 10 to operate)

as justin said i've a creative zen touch, and can't fault it.. fantastic in every way (though at 20gigs probably more than you'd need!)

[Justin]

Loads of the guys from creative next door have got ZEN Visions which are the video versions, haven't seen them in action myself but they look pretty good.

[AndyBites]

Mmmm shame i cant justify the cost for modest increase in capacity, now if i could get 60gigs in a slightly smaller shell i'd be happy!

[Karl Prince]

An extra consideration, if you want to integrate it into your car stereo at some time (so it looks like a CD multichanger for instance), most of the kits that do this support mainly IPOD and and less frequently Creative

[aos101]

Originally Posted by indx

2 months ago I got myself a 60GB Ipod Video though and love it.. don't care what anyone says about ipods!

Yeah I recently got myself an iPod Nano 2GB and they are great. I think the podcasting support is very good as it synchronises whether you've played a podcast with iTunes, and I'm not sure the podcast support of other players is as good.

[Xenith]

I've had:

Creative 128mb unbranded 128mb -> V good quality, still works to this day and is a good 5 years old

Logitech 1gb -> Broke after 3months, fairly small but the audio port is crap =/

Currently using a Phillips 512mb which ive had for 3 months and works perfect for me, 'GoGear' I think is the name.

Logitech personally id avoid ( but thats from my personal experience ) Creative from both experience and reviews are sound and this Phillips has so far surpassed my original creative, however, the 5years might be the reason

Oh and, I avoid I-pods like the plague, but then again, I hate being part of trends

[macca1969]

Originally Posted by aos101

Yeah I recently got myself an iPod Nano 2GB and they are great. I think the podcasting support is very good as it synchronises whether you've played a podcast with iTunes, and I'm not sure the podcast support of other players is as good.

I have a 30gb video ipod the main problem is if you touch it,play with it,or even look at it the wrong way it will get scratched apart from that its great.

[aos101]

Originally Posted by macca1969

I have a 30gb video ipod the main problem is if you touch it,play with it,or even look at it the wrong way it will get scratched apart from that its great.

I know. The Nano is very easily scratched. I've already bought a cover for it.

[indx]

My video ipod is scratchless... I have an 'invisible shield'

http://shop.ipodworld.co.uk/iPodWorl...ookie%5Ftest=1

You can get them for nano as well... if you already have scratches then you can use a scratch remover beofre you put the shield on

[macca1969]

Originally Posted by indx

My video ipod is scratchless... I have an 'invisible shield'

http://shop.ipodworld.co.uk/iPodWorl...ookie%5Ftest=1

You can get them for nano as well... if you already have scratches then you can use a scratch remover beofre you put the shield on

yeah got an invisible shield and a silicon case and used a product call DISPLEX to remove scratches before i put it on does the job really well.

[creamfan]

Narrows it down to 2 brands, either Creative Zen nano plus OR iRiver, can either be connected to little PC type speakers i.e. music played notthrough the headphones, sounds daft but i can find the answer on amazon

Cheers

[AndyBites]

both can... just buy some small self powered speakers.. any that connect to headphone socket will do the job

[Crafty]

I've got a creative vision:m.

I looked at iPods, seeing as I'm not a sheep and buy the same as everyone else I looked purely from a functionality point of view and the creative wipes the floor with ipod photo units - higher resolution for images, more colours, stuff like view slideshows whilst listening to music, works with a wider range of file formats (wma for one). The software you receive with it is better than the (imho dreadful) iTunes. You don't have to use the software that comes with it to sync it ( windows media player does it just fine and MS announced extra support for it in WMP 11 that was released last week on beta ) If I remember rightly winamp can be used to sync too. If you aren't worried about syncing then you can just shove files on through explorer.

Someone made the point about ipod interfaces for car stereos being more available - this is true but you can still do it, FM transmitters are available (creative site) and places like ebay etc.
There are also a couple of companies that provide "auxiliary input adapters" - these basically plug into your head unit and allow you to feed anything in to it (via phono plugs ). Once such company is connects2 ( www.connects2.com

A bloke at work wants to get an iPod simply because (in his words) "Its a design icon" - form over function, I'd much prefer to have something that still looks ok but works much better...

[macca1969]

There is loads and loads of 3rd party software for ipods you dont need to use itunes and the software modding you can find on the net is fantastic,but i think your right some ppl do buy it because it is the best looking player out there. imho.

[Matt]

Some of you might have seen some "viral" advertising for this site: http://www.idont.com/ some of you might approve There is loads of it on the london underground.

Anyway - I've got a 2gb ipod nano, upgraded from a Creative Muvo NX 128meg (which I still use for the gym). Never really that bothered by the iPods before, but I got one because at the time and with a student discount the Ipod was really cheap in comparison...it was either a 2gb ipod for about £120 delivered, or a Sony or Creative or Philips thing (either 512meg or 1gig) for about £90-110! Not a hard decision to make!

Have to admit though, I do like the ipod wheel thing when it comes to navigating the software - its nice to be able to move "quickly" through lists without having to press buttons and stuff.

My main gripe is with the awful itunes... its pretty bad bit of software for certain things - if you store your music on a different computer (i.e. mp3s on a server in the loft or something), or you fill up your ipod, or you want to rip a CD or otherwise do something else processor intensive with it it is a complete load of rubbish!

[Dead_1nside]

For your purposes "Creative Muvo TX FM" for HDD players go with iRiver (H340... possibly the best DAP ever.)