Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player

chinavasion · May 23rd, 2007

Here's my list of top 10 factors to look for in an mp3 player, regardless of brand or capacity:

1. Ease of connection to computer and simple transfer of music. By far the best option is an MP3 that will plug and play and display as an additional drive letter in Windows. Then there's no need for software like iTunes.
2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format.
3. Good battery life.
4. Sturdy construction but not heavy - you want it in your pocket. And you might sit on it.
5. Easy, quick control for increasing and decreasing volume.
6. Video. An MP3 player that has video isn't an MP3 Player any more, it's an MP4 player. But even if you never watch videos, a 1 - 3 inch color screen means a better readout for song titles and lyrics.
7. Support for displaying ID3 tags in a variety of alphabets/ characters if you want to see song titles in Chinese or lyrics in Czech.
8. A good shuffle / random mode.
9. Built in FM radio.
10. And make sure it's not an apple ipod. (IMHO)

**SPeedY_B** · May 23rd, 2007

So basically, you just hate iPods?

**Evil Marge** · May 23rd, 2007

I love my iPod, best money ever spent

**ming** · May 23rd, 2007

Originally Posted by SPeedY_B

So basically, you just hate iPods?

so do I. lol

**Mastershakes** · May 23rd, 2007

Originally Posted by chinavasion

Here's my list of top 10 factors to look for in an mp3 player, regardless of brand or capacity:

1. Ease of connection to computer and simple transfer of music. By far the best option is an MP3 that will plug and play and display as an additional drive letter in Windows. Then there's no need for software like iTunes.
2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format.
3. Good battery life.
4. Sturdy construction but not heavy - you want it in your pocket. And you might sit on it.
5. Easy, quick control for increasing and decreasing volume.
6. Video. An MP3 player that has video isn't an MP3 Player any more, it's an MP4 player. But even if you never watch videos, a 1 - 3 inch color screen means a better readout for song titles and lyrics.
7. Support for displaying ID3 tags in a variety of alphabets/ characters if you want to see song titles in Chinese or lyrics in Czech.
8. A good shuffle / random mode.
9. Built in FM radio.
10. And make sure it's not an apple ipod. (IMHO)

All of those options are available to you in an IPOD (except # 10

)

#1 is taken care of by a program called Anapod Explorer.

I'm not a fan boy, but just like others, feel it's the best money I've ever spent. (IPOD purchase)

**perris** · May 23rd, 2007

I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason

could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player?

does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer?

tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users

thanks in advance

**LordOfLA** · May 23rd, 2007

My SE W800i works fine for me

Drag and drop MP3's from windows on to the flash card with my cardreader and I'm done. Can't ask for any easier

**Mastershakes** · May 23rd, 2007

Originally Posted by perris

I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason

could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player?

does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer?

tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users

thanks in advance

I wouldn't say better.... as I've owned only a discman / walkman until this IPOD nano (2nd gen)

it's solid state memory, no moving parts.

battery is rediculous..... 24 hour playback.... I've charged it about 10 times
since I got it last Sept. (usage low, walk to work / back)

Popular among Windows users? - Itunes works alright I guess, it charges via
USB and is recognized easily - and 3rd party apps have modified the way we
can use an IPOD - I use Anapod Explorer (share tunes with friends, drag drop ... copy from IPOD back to PC HDD... )

It's terribly small, I sometimes pat my inside breast pocket to make sure it's there when not wearing / listening to it.

Many of the above benefits I'm sure are realized on the 'others' - that Zen looks great, has decent reviews ... etc ... millions of tiny mp3 players are out there... that I'm sure are great value.

Bottom line for me - 4 gigs is ample to put one hell of a shuffle on - some 740 tunes I've shoved on mine.... the patented wheel once I figured it out feels natural ... it's loud to combat urban noise - screen is big enough for what I need it to do... pretty much just tell me who's on....

Negative - the headphones suck. I've replaced mine already with my old buds from my discman. They start to buzz in no time if you like your tunes slightly on the loud side.

**Sazar** · May 23rd, 2007

My iaudio displays foreign characters just fine.

**madmatt** · May 23rd, 2007

Zoom, zoom, Zune!

**bobsalot** · May 23rd, 2007

Creative Zen V 4GB....suits me and it is very easy.

**Aprox** · May 23rd, 2007

Love my 30GB Creative Zen. Its really old to and I still get ~15 hours of playback out of it. Parts of it are metal, and dented and slightly scratched but the thing is a battleship.

I'm thinking about getting one of those 60GB Creative Vision's, but they use a propitiatory USB plug which makes me angry, and they don't come with a AC wall charger either!

**zeke_mo** · May 23rd, 2007

Originally Posted by chinavasion

2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format.

Not to mention a standard USB cable, thats what has kept me from buying a Zen vision:m

Originally Posted by Aprox

...but the thing is a battleship.

You should buy another one and stage a battle!!!! *BOOM* "You sunk my battleship!"

**Petros** · May 23rd, 2007

An iPod would have been my choice except for two things:
1. Unnecessarily high price
2. iTunes

Why do they have to make it impossible to load an iPod without a first- or third-party program? As much as Apple works to make their products user-friendly, it seems counterintuitive not to at least include this simple functionality.

**Brad** · May 24th, 2007

There are many other programs out there that you can use to manage your iPod

**falconguard** · May 24th, 2007

Are there Ipods out there with a built in fm tuner, I know you can buy the addon, but I was not aware of any with built in tuners.

**epk** · May 24th, 2007

ipods are ok... but there are much better choices out there and not as overexpensive as the ipod

**SPeedY_B** · May 24th, 2007

Originally Posted by perris

I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason

could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player?

does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer?

tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users

thanks in advance

The fact that it's "cool" to have one seems to be a major selling factor for many people (mainly the younger audience).

I remember having my first iPod before anyone knew what one was, those were the days

I think all 4 of my iPods are fantastic, but I'll never deny that they're not perfect and also not for everyone, there are better and cheaper solutions out there.

If you're just after a player, I'd seriously recommend buying a nice cheap plug-n-play $30 player with a 2-line display, about 1GB of memory, rechargable battery, and maybe even an FM radio... you may find that it suits your needs perfectly, if not, then venture into the more expensive world of iPods and 'branded' players

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #1
chinavasion OSNN Junior Addict Joined: May 2007 Posts: 2 Reputation: 10 Power: 0	Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player Here's my list of top 10 factors to look for in an mp3 player, regardless of brand or capacity: 1. Ease of connection to computer and simple transfer of music. By far the best option is an MP3 that will plug and play and display as an additional drive letter in Windows. Then there's no need for software like iTunes. 2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format. 3. Good battery life. 4. Sturdy construction but not heavy - you want it in your pocket. And you might sit on it. 5. Easy, quick control for increasing and decreasing volume. 6. Video. An MP3 player that has video isn't an MP3 Player any more, it's an MP4 player. But even if you never watch videos, a 1 - 3 inch color screen means a better readout for song titles and lyrics. 7. Support for displaying ID3 tags in a variety of alphabets/ characters if you want to see song titles in Chinese or lyrics in Czech. 8. A good shuffle / random mode. 9. Built in FM radio. 10. And make sure it's not an apple ipod. (IMHO)

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #2
SPeedY_B I may actually be insane. Joined: March 2002 Location: Midlands, England Posts: 15,800 Reputation: 2877 Power: 310	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player So basically, you just hate iPods? 1. SPeedYB.co.uk 2. CamPortal.co.uk 3. MacIRC.co.uk

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #3
Evil Marge I Rule Joined: July 2002 Location: Teesside, the land of smog Posts: 6,547 Reputation: 2337 Power: 209	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player I love my iPod, best money ever spent . Google+

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #4
ming OSNN Advanced Joined: June 2003 Location: UK Posts: 4,252 Reputation: 1160 Power: 162	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player Originally Posted by SPeedY_B So basically, you just hate iPods? so do I. lol Curent system: Intel Quad Core 9450 \| 4GB RAM \| WD Raptor 36GB \| nVidia 8800GT 512mb

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #5
Mastershakes OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: July 2004 Location: Montreal Posts: 1,721 Reputation: 1040 Power: 124	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player Originally Posted by chinavasion Here's my list of top 10 factors to look for in an mp3 player, regardless of brand or capacity: 1. Ease of connection to computer and simple transfer of music. By far the best option is an MP3 that will plug and play and display as an additional drive letter in Windows. Then there's no need for software like iTunes. 2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format. 3. Good battery life. 4. Sturdy construction but not heavy - you want it in your pocket. And you might sit on it. 5. Easy, quick control for increasing and decreasing volume. 6. Video. An MP3 player that has video isn't an MP3 Player any more, it's an MP4 player. But even if you never watch videos, a 1 - 3 inch color screen means a better readout for song titles and lyrics. 7. Support for displaying ID3 tags in a variety of alphabets/ characters if you want to see song titles in Chinese or lyrics in Czech. 8. A good shuffle / random mode. 9. Built in FM radio. 10. And make sure it's not an apple ipod. (IMHO) All of those options are available to you in an IPOD (except # 10 ) #1 is taken care of by a program called Anapod Explorer. I'm not a fan boy, but just like others, feel it's the best money I've ever spent. (IPOD purchase) So many idiots - so little time

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May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #6
perris OSNN Godlike Veteran Joined: January 2002 Location: new york Posts: 12,258 Reputation: 4333 Power: 291	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player? does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer? tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users thanks in advance IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'VE DONE IT'S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #7
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 213	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player My SE W800i works fine for me Drag and drop MP3's from windows on to the flash card with my cardreader and I'm done. Can't ask for any easier If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #8
Mastershakes OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: July 2004 Location: Montreal Posts: 1,721 Reputation: 1040 Power: 124	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player Originally Posted by perris I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player? does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer? tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users thanks in advance I wouldn't say better.... as I've owned only a discman / walkman until this IPOD nano (2nd gen) it's solid state memory, no moving parts. battery is rediculous..... 24 hour playback.... I've charged it about 10 times since I got it last Sept. (usage low, walk to work / back) Popular among Windows users? - Itunes works alright I guess, it charges via USB and is recognized easily - and 3rd party apps have modified the way we can use an IPOD - I use Anapod Explorer (share tunes with friends, drag drop ... copy from IPOD back to PC HDD... ) It's terribly small, I sometimes pat my inside breast pocket to make sure it's there when not wearing / listening to it. Many of the above benefits I'm sure are realized on the 'others' - that Zen looks great, has decent reviews ... etc ... millions of tiny mp3 players are out there... that I'm sure are great value. Bottom line for me - 4 gigs is ample to put one hell of a shuffle on - some 740 tunes I've shoved on mine.... the patented wheel once I figured it out feels natural ... it's loud to combat urban noise - screen is big enough for what I need it to do... pretty much just tell me who's on.... Negative - the headphones suck. I've replaced mine already with my old buds from my discman. They start to buzz in no time if you like your tunes slightly on the loud side. So many idiots - so little time

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #9
Sazar F@H - Is it in you? Joined: April 2002 Location: Between Austin and Tampa Posts: 14,888 Reputation: 4110 Power: 313	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player My iaudio displays foreign characters just fine. Help to find cures for Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers. Folding@Home, is it in you?

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #10
madmatt Bow Down to the King Joined: April 2002 Location: New York Posts: 13,312 Reputation: 4090 Power: 297	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player Zoom, zoom, Zune!

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #11
bobsalot Boooooooooooooooooooom Joined: June 2005 Location: Broadstairs, UK Posts: 1,584 Reputation: 690 Power: 106	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player Creative Zen V 4GB....suits me and it is very easy. XBOX LIVE GAMERTAG = Risky Square PC ~ Intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz ~ 3gb Ram ~ 1400GB HDD ~ ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics~Dell UltraSharp 2707WFP 27-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD LAPTOP ~ Toshiba A200I ~ Inter Pentium Dual Core 1.73ghz ~ 2GB Ram ~ 160GB HDD~Creative HD Audio

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #12
Aprox OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: August 2004 Location: California, USA Posts: 2,735 Blog Entries: 1 Reputation: 2036 Power: 142	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player Love my 30GB Creative Zen. Its really old to and I still get ~15 hours of playback out of it. Parts of it are metal, and dented and slightly scratched but the thing is a battleship. I'm thinking about getting one of those 60GB Creative Vision's, but they use a propitiatory USB plug which makes me angry, and they don't come with a AC wall charger either!

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #13
zeke_mo (value not set) Joined: August 2004 Location: Placerville, CA Posts: 1,965 Reputation: 1290 Power: 126	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player Originally Posted by chinavasion 2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format. Not to mention a standard USB cable, thats what has kept me from buying a Zen vision:m Originally Posted by Aprox ...but the thing is a battleship. You should buy another one and stage a battle!!!! BOOM "You sunk my battleship!" "My Mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas" ~Sam Zeitgeist Money as Debt, educate yourself.

May 23rd, 2007	Top \| #14
Petros Thief IV Joined: May 2003 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 3,038 Reputation: 1647 Power: 156	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player An iPod would have been my choice except for two things: 1. Unnecessarily high price 2. iTunes Why do they have to make it impossible to load an iPod without a first- or third-party program? As much as Apple works to make their products user-friendly, it seems counterintuitive not to at least include this simple functionality.

May 24th, 2007	Top \| #15
Brad OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: March 2002 Location: Cary, NC Posts: 2,276 Blog Entries: 1 Reputation: 1552 Power: 161	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player There are many other programs out there that you can use to manage your iPod

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May 24th, 2007	Top \| #16
falconguard Carbon based lifeform Joined: February 2004 Location: SoCal Posts: 3,406 Reputation: 2305 Power: 158	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player Are there Ipods out there with a built in fm tuner, I know you can buy the addon, but I was not aware of any with built in tuners.

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epk OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: October 2006 Location: Buenos Aires Posts: 1,242 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 951 Power: 90	Re: Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player ipods are ok... but there are much better choices out there and not as overexpensive as the ipod My Battlefield 2 Stats Page My Youtube account, I have some cool game videos there << check it!! (:

May 24th, 2007	Top \| #18
SPeedY_B I may actually be insane. Joined: March 2002 Location: Midlands, England Posts: 15,800 Reputation: 2877 Power: 310	Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player Originally Posted by perris I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player? does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer? tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users thanks in advance The fact that it's "cool" to have one seems to be a major selling factor for many people (mainly the younger audience). I remember having my first iPod before anyone knew what one was, those were the days I think all 4 of my iPods are fantastic, but I'll never deny that they're not perfect and also not for everyone, there are better and cheaper solutions out there. If you're just after a player, I'd seriously recommend buying a nice cheap plug-n-play $30 player with a 2-line display, about 1GB of memory, rechargable battery, and maybe even an FM radio... you may find that it suits your needs perfectly, if not, then venture into the more expensive world of iPods and 'branded' players 1. SPeedYB.co.uk 2. CamPortal.co.uk 3. MacIRC.co.uk