mp3 players

OK, I want an mp3 player. I'm trying to do some research so that I don't get something that I end up not liking. My question is, does anybody else have an mp3 player (I'm thinking yes), and if you do, what is it like? A particular detail that I am interested in is what is shown on a players display when you play a file with no track tags, i.e. is named something like 'The White Stripes - Elephant - 11 - Hypnotize.mp3'. Do they normally just scrole the name? Will the player play your mp3s in alphabetical order if there are no track tags? Any info/thoughts/pitfalls/recomendations would be most appreciated! :smile:

i don't wanna sound stupid here, but are you asking about mechanical MP3 players, or software ones?

I think he means hardware.

I have an Archos Jukebox Recorder, 10GB Mp3 player. It takes info from the ID Tags you can set in the files. When it's playing, it looks like this:

Artist
Song Name
Album Name
Left Speaker Volume
Right Speaker Volume

It also shows the time, a menu option to setup configs, and a browse button to have a look at the other files while one is playing (you can do this anyway when ther isn't one playing).

Otherwise, it's a very simple file browser. It lists all the folders and files in alphabetical order on a small LCD display. once a song finishes, it will always automatically play the next file (in alphabetical order) in the folder you're in. There are different play modes though:

Normal -- Same as above
Repeat All -- Same as above, but when the last file finishes, it starts from the beginning of the folder again in a loop
Single -- Only plays one file, over and over
Shuffle -- Plays files in a folder randomly, starting with one that you choose
Queue -- When playing a song, you can browse the contents of the HDD. Usually when you try to play another song while one is already playing, the latter is played. However, this lets you queue one file behind another. Now if only they let you create playlists on this thing.
Scan -- Same as normal, but only plays the first 15 seconds of a song.

I'ts also almost full after just over a year and a half in service. Hope all that helps :smile:

I've got a RCA Lyra with like 256meg HD. I got it to use in the gym as it's small and tough. As for the special features I'm kinda clueless, but I do know it's an FM radio as well.

It will display the filename of the songs, not any of the ID3 stuff, and it will scroll the name initially, but only once. I only got 66 songs on it and very few songs by the same bands, so that's not such a big deal. It will do randomize, programmed tracklists, go in alphabetical order, and a bunch of other stuff I am not aware of. Two AAA batteries last about 8-10 hours.

It's not ideal for general MP3 player use, but it serves my purposes well.

I've had a Nomad Jukebox 3 (20gb- can upgrade it just by sticking in laptop HDs!) for the past year and a half, but I think that most MP3 players use a short 8-letter filename format so not having tagged songs is going to be a bit of an arse :/ It has an FM tuner/mic addon too, and the only real downfall with it is that it only plays playlists you create, you don't have a 'play all' option. But I'm not sure what newer Zens are like...

In any case, I'm waiting until the summer/xmas to get a new one, the colour-video revolution is hopefully about to start :biggrin:

I've got a nomad jukebox 4 gb (oldschool heh). Now they're up to something
ridiculous like 40 gb, and likely the technology has improved. However,
here is my take on it:

1: The batteries dont last very long, and they take a ridiculously long
time to recharge. On a good day one set will last about 2 hours, and
you get 2 sets. 4 hours may seem like more than enough on one charge,
but Ive found that it can be limiting.

2: After a little over 1 year the internal battery recharger on my
device broke. I sent the device back and they said they "fixed" it, but
after about a week it stopped working again! That royally pissed me
off. So now I have to charge the batteries on a separate charger I got
at radioshack.

3: It has a lot of space. My music collection is about 30 gb all told,
and although it can't hold all of that, it can hold 4 very good gb of
music. Plus the newer ones have much more storage space so that isnt an
issue.

4: One big advantage that Creative didnt capitalize on was the ability
to turn it into a portable hard drive. Having a multiple gb portable
device with fast usb2 transfer is very useful when you dont want to
burn cds to transfer big files. However, the software on my device
explicitly does not allow this, with a few exceptions. I guess the idea
was to stop piracy, but come on, thats ridiculous. You can get around
the problem by giving your files the wrong extension, but thats still
bothersome. Apparently people have hacked the firmware and there are
versions to let you transfer files, but I havent looked into it. The
newer devices might support this functionality, so what I've said may
be obsolete.

5: The interface is acceptable, it shows the song titles and artists as
much as can fit, and shows the whole thing when you check the info.
Finding the song you want quickly can be tough, so playlists are a good
idea. However, I think that is a function of how much music there is on
the device, not how good the UI is.

6: The device is about as tough as a cd player. Quite good for what
amounts to a hard-drive in a box. However, I wouldn't try dropping it
from any significant height, and it isn't weatherproof. Further, its
kind of bulky - a little bit more so than the average cd player. For
this reason you can't use it while doing significant physical activity,
like skiing. Running would be ok, if you have something to hold it like
a small backpack or waist pouch. This is a disadvantage considering
that a lot of other mp3 players are very small, light, and robust.

Overall, its a good device, but with several flaws. It would be move
suited to a task like in-dash mp3 player for a car, or player for a
sound system than a portable device. Again, the newer versions may have
fixed some of these problems.

I never leave my room, so I see little need for one.

Go for a CD player and buy some music

scary_jeff said:
OK, I want an mp3 player. I'm trying to do some research so that I don't get something that I end up not liking. My question is, does anybody else have an mp3 player (I'm thinking yes), and if you do, what is it like? A particular detail that I am interested in is what is shown on a players display when you play a file with no track tags, i.e. is named something like 'The White Stripes - Elephant - 11 - Hypnotize.mp3'. Do they normally just scrole the name? Will the player play your mp3s in alphabetical order if there are no track tags? Any info/thoughts/pitfalls/recomendations would be most appreciated! :smile:

iPod - very expensive and there a problem with the battery, but as far as digital music goes, these things are very stylish. I think even the cheapest one (10Gb) is like ?200+ Although you can also get the small 64Mb match box style MP3 players I believe. Like your taste in music, the white stripes are great.

Thanks for the info so far. I think I am looking more at the solid state players than the big HD ones, as I want something quite small, and don't really need to take all my music around with me :smile: I was looking at something like this, but would prefer something USB2. My friend has a creative jukebox zen or something, it's good for what he needs (he only has a 20 gig laptop so wanted somewhere to put all his music), but It is a bit big and well... I want something small :smile: I like the fact that a lot of players don't need any drivers and just appear as a removable drive when you plug them in as well.

Sexy,sleek, little black player loaded with features. The build quality of this player is excellent, with a nice combination of high quality black plastic and a chrome metal surround....firm easy to operate jog switch, and the menus are very simple to negotiate. If the play button is a little small...The menu function is very user friendly, and with the help of the manual, i was quickly changing the settings and storing fm radio stations...

Wish I had a credit card.

Well, I wants me one of these when they come out-
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?prodid=9882

And Jeff, I had a 128mb player a few years ago, and after a while it gets frustrating having to live like poxy CD/MD bitches. Get a 512mb MuVo TX or something.

And Maze, my Jukebox 3 has 2 batteries, with a total life of about 16 hours now. Plus there are Nomad programs that let you download anything you want to them, try http://www.nomadness.net

ZEN lep?

/methinks, you have been playing halflife waaaaay to long when you wish for an MP3 player with a name like zen :biggrin:

Why, Half-Life is spelt 'Xen' :razz: I'm quite into my MP3 players and I really like the Creative line, the Zens are their top-of-the-range HD versions, and the Muvos are really really good in general ultra-portable ones :smile: pets Creative

my point was humor, but seriously tho, i never really noticed the word "Apex" till i released a map of the same title.. i wonder why one never notices stuff like that, till you acquire one :smile:

i just found it funny, that a HL player, who has a dedicated HL site, would happen upon a machine using as its name a variation of an HL theme :smile:

Curse you thread hijackers!

I like the look of this MuVo NX/TX... anybody got a muvo of any kind?

Check this out:
http://www.jensofsweden.com

Jens of Sweden... very good looking.

wow! It looks fantastic, I wonder how much it will be (the mp300).

i have one of those portable cd player kind

i got it at wallmart for loke 60 bucks and it came with a car kit

it does scroll the name of songs and albums
it does play the files alphabetically so i put the albums in folders and label the songs in order with thier track number at the start.

it is the biggest in size compared to those usb style ones. but size isnt really important to me, i just think of it as one less thing i will forget to take out of my pocket before i do the wash

Is there any difference in quality between a mp3 song and a usual "cd-song"?

Yeah... But it's not really that noticable unless you have a really high end sound system... But you do loose quality on certain levels depending on what bitrate you burn it at, but towards the higer end (i.e. 256 - 320 kbps) the difference becomes pretty insignificant.

It depends what sort of quality you encode your MP3s at, there's practically no difference between CD and 160-192kbps quality on head/earphones. On a proper sound system you will notice the difference at anything below a ridiculous 512kbps or so though :razz:

I have Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20

with 20 Gigs, and it plays .mepg's.I got an accessory for it that lets me hook it up to my TV and record off of it.

I gave up on creative players (they are the most expensive, and in most cases have less functionality than competitors), and ordered the one I linked to in the first post. Should be in my hands tomorow. It's only 256 megs, and I know that if I spent ?70 more, I could have got 15 times the capacity, but I wanted to stay on budget, and it's got a radio on it which most bigger players don't (I like the radio).

/me pets my s**tty laptec crap-o-rama speakers

A good pair of headphones will kick any sound systems ass in my mind. I dunno, I just think they sound the best.

I have an old Rio 500 (64mb), which is a bit annoyingly limited in how much it can hold, but is otherwise nice enough. Sound quality is, for the most part, fine, but battery life is horribly short. Another unfortunate problem that has developed in the last year (I've had this about 3 years I'd guess) is that if I knock it with my hand in the right place, which happens quite a lot when it is in my pocket when ice skating / snowboarding / whatever, it turns off. So I think I'm gonna replace it reasonably soon, most likely for a MuVo or something small.

MP3 player radios tend to be a bit crap, reception wise, and usually limited to FM :/

Well it arrived, and I'm really pleased with it. The radio isn't good if you are moving around, but that's not what I'm going to be using mine for (I ride everywhere so it would be dangerous). While stationary reception is fine, plus I don't like any AM channels :smile:

battery life is horribly short

I am betting that you are using NiCad AAA batteries? These only store 250mAh compared to 600mAh for a NiMH rechargable AAA.