Looking for an MP3 player

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Currently I have a Sirius Stilletto 2 which has an 8Gb microSDHC card which has all my MP3s. Unfortunatly, although this unit will play my MP3s it is rather primative as an MP3 player. You can go to a specific artist, or song title, or shuffle all the songs but you cannot do a playlist from the unit and not very easily from the PC. You cannot designate songs as 'unshuffleable' or lock in to tracks together (We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions or the album The Wall - Pink Floyd are examples of why I would want this). As this was my first MP3 player, I initially found this adaquate. I am now finding it lacking in this area.

So I am looking at possibly getting an MP3 player with more features. Ideally it would play songs off the same 8Gb card although this is not a 100% requirement. It should handle both dynamic playlists created on the unit and playlists created on my PC (preferably by WMP11 as this is the program I use to manage my music). It should support tagging a song as no-shuffle or link 2 tracks (I can get around this last one if I had to). I also want a readable screen, perhaps in colour and lots ot memory (> 8Gb). It also has to be available in Canada.

I looked at iPods since these are ballyhood my Apple worshipers as the best thing since sliced bread but these seem to be locked into iTunes as a music manager. Is this true or can I sync an iPod with WMP11? Can they do the other functionallity? What are the other options?

What do you like about your MP3 player that would make me want to get it? What do you dislike?

 

[semipenguin]

I have an iPod Nano 8GB 2nd Generation. It's a nice player. I have no issues with it. I like iTunes, It's easy to work with...

The new iPod Nano 4G's look nice. More memory & play video. If you go to the Apple Store you can check out a video on the Nanos...

I hope I helped...
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I have an iPod Nano 8GB 2nd Generation. It's a nice player. I have no issues with it. I like iTunes, It's easy to work with...

The new iPod Nano 4G's look nice. More memory & play video. If you go to the Apple Store you can check out a video on the Nanos...

I hope I helped...
Posted via Mobile Device

Whats the difference between a Nano and a Classic?

 

[TOM C.]

Whats the difference between a Nano and a Classic?

The Classics are Hard drive based not flash, come as 80,120, and 160. I think the 120 is the this year model like $250. I just upgraded my 30g Zune to 80g ipod, used on eBay for $110.
p.s.- my 30g Zune rocks, and are cheap on ebay.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Thanx all for responding.

I am picking up a Creative Labs Zen 32Gb MP3 Player tonight at Best Buy. It seems to handle most of my requirements.

 

[semipenguin]

Good stuff. I hope you enjoy your Zen...
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Well, its been a week and I love my Zen. It took about a week to find out the optimum way I wanted to use it and sort out issues. The issues were caused by me jumping in and doing things the most difficult way (as it turns out) rather than reading the manual and using a simpler way.

But now that that is all behind me, I rediscovered something I had forgotten I lost but in a different sort of way. Back in the 80s an 90s when I had a Walkman I used to record my own cassettes. I was very anal about it and made text files outlining the cassette contents and making sure I used all 50 minutes to the second. When cassettes became passe, I forgot about them and didn't go back to portable listening until I got XM back in 2005. But I discovered that a playlist is a modern version of a cassette. I have re-created (and improved) my cassette orders and turned them into playlists. I find creating the playlist can give me as much pleasure as making a cassette did in the 90s except now it doesn't take me 1 weekend to do 1 or 2. I can do 2 in 1 evening thanx to modern methods. And I don't have to worry about timing.

 

[DAB]

OH making playlist can give you pleasure and old DAB was always crazy and overreacting for wanting the ability to make playlist on the SL2. Imagine that! LOL

The Zen line from Creative Lab's have always been very nice. I had one for awhile, but eventually opted for the iPod Touch due to the fact that it will do so, so much more than the Zen. It is all those other things that it can do that has given it the WOW factor. There are several programs out there now that you can use to manage the iPod so you aren't stuck with iTunes. Though like Semi I like iTunes I've never had a minutes trouble with it.

The main thing is that you are happy with the Zen!

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

OH making playlist can give you pleasure and old DAB was always crazy and overreacting for wanting the ability to make playlist on the SL2. Imagine that! LOL

You don't get out of being crazy that easy. But I do see what you mean about playlists. Of course, I didn't then.

The Zen line from Creative Lab's have always been very nice. I had one for awhile, but eventually opted for the iPod Touch due to the fact that it will do so, so much more than the Zen. It is all those other things that it can do that has given it the WOW factor. There are several programs out there now that you can use to manage the iPod so you aren't stuck with iTunes. Though like Semi I like iTunes I've never had a minutes trouble with it.

The main thing is that you are happy with the Zen!

I don't like mixing my music procurement programs with my music management programs.
Since iTunes is a procurement tool, I didn't want it doing the management. Plus I probably have a slightly anti-Apple bias. So no i-anything for me.

 

[Jon]

Playlists are awesome. That's what makes me like the smart playlists in itunes so much. Just plug in a few requirements and it does the work for you. I've learned the perfect way to handle smart playlists to fit my 45GB collection on to an 8gb Nano and 16gb iPhone.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[no1hedberg]

I'm not wild about Apple either, even though I own an iphone. The wonderful thing about iphone is the convergence aspect. You have a phone, and mp3 player, a web browser/email, a video player, calendar/contact manager, and portable game system in one small device. You can also easily add to the device through downloadable apps from the app store. Don't discount the fact that everything is compatible with ipod. You can't find much of anything to go with a Zen. I never buy any music from any download site except Amazon. They are DRM free, and sound great. I also agree with one of the previous posters, the Zune is a great mp3 player, except the aforementioned lack of accesories.

 

[TheScionicMan]

My son just bought an iRiver E100. I'm semi-anti-Apple so that was the closest I could get to an i-Product. It's pretty cool so far and after rebate was only 40 bucks for 4 gigs. It's his first real music device so he is excited.

 

[Jon]

My Apple fanaticism is solely based on my experiences with Windows (none good). It was my iPod that drove me to purchase a Macbook (what I'm typing on now) and then an iPhone 3G. This laptop's seen better days and will be replaced soon. With another Apple, likely a Pro this time.

What I like about the iPod and iPhone is just overall ease of use. And when you have 90 percent Apple products like me, that makes it moreso. I can almost understand the hatred, since the fanboys are everywhere. I try not to be a fanboy but I am a fan.

 

[RyeGuy]

I recently picked up a Creative Zen 16GB and LOVE it, so I'm right there with you, Skiing. I came from an iRiver Clix (2nd gen) which I liked, but was buggy. It suffered from random symptoms like songs skipping/hiccuping and SLOOOW navigation through song lists. Firmware upgrades and device reformats would solve the problems for a while, but then they would come creeping back. Plus, physically it just seemed fragile.

So far I am very impressed with the Zen. Seems much sturdier / more robust and so far no firmware or performance issues. Pics and vids look awesome on its display, too!

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I recently picked up a Creative Zen 16GB and LOVE it, so I'm right there with you, Skiing. I came from an iRiver Clix (2nd gen) which I liked, but was buggy. It suffered from random symptoms like songs skipping/hiccuping and SLOOOW navigation through song lists. Firmware upgrades and device reformats would solve the problems for a while, but then they would come creeping back. Plus, physically it just seemed fragile.

So far I am very impressed with the Zen. Seems much sturdier / more robust and so far no firmware or performance issues. Pics and vids look awesome on its display, too!

It has some bugs. Nothing that hasn't been recovered by a reset or cleanup.

I like the clarity of the pictures too. I also like I can use a picture of my son as a wallpaper.

 

[RyeGuy]

What bugs have you found? I haven't noticed any. So far, a solid player IMHO.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

What bugs have you found? I haven't noticed any. So far, a solid player IMHO.

The bugs appear to by in the Sync Manager and the Zen Media Explorer. I see filenames that appear corrupted and it always wants to sync 5 songs I already have synced. It dies of an exeption every now and again.

It also has issues deleting tracks on occassion. If you delete too many and will hang.

The unit itself is pretty solid. And none of these are earth shattering. I am also reasonably sure if I want to take the time to do a 'cleanup' and reset my preferences, that they will disappear.

One feature I LOVE is the Smart Volume. I don't have to constantly adjust volume up or down like I have to on the SL2 to compensate for different volumed MP3s. It does this all automatically. Wonderful feature.

 

[topcats69]

does the zen do FLAC?? I would like to find a mp3 player that does FLAC

 

[RyeGuy]

Oh, I use WMP11 to manage my music and sync, so I haven't even touched the software that came with the Zen yet.

Since having it for about a week, I have noticed a couple of very minor bugs:

1) Some of the artist names got truncated when syncing. For instance, "The Postal Service" shows up as "The Postal" on my Zen (but not in WMP).

2) When listing by artist, sometimes there is a single letter in the list. If you try to select it, it says, "No tracks in this category". I assumed it was to designate when changing over from one letter to the next alphabetically, (Like "M" shows up at the end of the "L's" and the beginning of the "M's", but it doesn't do this consistently, only for certain letters.

Other than those minor annoyances, it's a great player. Thanks for the tip on the Smart Volume, I wasn't even aware of that feature! I'll have to check it out.

R

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I had the visibly corrupted artist happen once. I did a cleanup and it fixed it.