ipod or MP3

[jennis9]

Re: ipod or MP3

TD , I have the 40 gig "wheel" (love it but want a "touch").

Since you are used to sirius... You're spoiled with variety. You may want to consider bigger -- at least an 8 gig. It's like buying a computer - get as much space (RAM) as you can afford. I have 8gb of music loaded on mine... to give you an idea of space and time; I can push play and leave Cleveland Ohio and go to Cumberland KY - 8 days later when I return home - I would not have heard a duplicate song on continuous 24/7 play. That's almost 3000 songs. But if I wanted to hear the same song over again, could do that too...

I can also download every photo of all of the stripers I caught onto my iPod and store pics if my SD camera card gets loaded while on vacation. Sams Club has them at great prices. To make it more versatile - the iPod touch version has wifi - you'll never miss a thread if you can get a signal.

Interface is quite user friendly--know that you can only use iTunes with iPod as your resource (or software music manager program) for downloading music to the iPod. You load your disks into the computer and then iTunes catalogs the music for you by artist and genre. Then you hook up the iPod and the music syncs with the iPod. easy. Load more music - update the iPod. You can also play the music on your computer. I have a home office and play music from my Harman Karden speakers for parties... and can also play through my receiver.

Since you are a basics kind of guy - and I think I read that you use car stereos in your boats - you can get a jPort to hook up the iPod directly to your unit(s) on your boat.

 

[ilmostro99]

Re: ipod or MP3

One more thing about iPods, or more specifically iTunes. Many people incorrectly think that you can only get music for an iPod by purchasing through iTunes. Not true. I have about 100 gig of music and have purchased a grand total of 4 songs through iTunes. Just insert your music CD into computer and iTunes will ask if you would like to add them to your library. That easy. I have both mp3's and AAC files and they work perfectly on an iPod. If you have other formats, it is easy to convert them to mp3. It is also easy to remove the DRM from songs you have bought, though this is not specific to iTunes/Ipod. Yes, iTunes is very proprietary, but IMO, it is the best way to add songs to a player. It was developed specifically for the iPod, therefore it works great and easy. The other players (Windows Media Player, for example) were not developed with a player in mind, and while it can be done fairly easily, there is a bit of tweaking involved.
I really hope I don't sound like one of those "Mac Elitists", but as a recent convert from PC's to Macs (over 17 years working with PC's), Macs, and more specifically iPod/iTunes "just works".
That being said, while I still think iPod is the best player, I still don't think you can go wrong with any of the other top players.
Erik

 

[JAL51974]

Re: ipod or MP3

Both my car and boat have aftermarket audio units without plug in for the ipod. I tried a simple y-cable red and white male leads into the back of the audio unit connected to the ipod headset out. I get sound only from the rear speakers both in car and boat, but this results in very little volume when playing tunes on the ipod....do I need a special cable or what am I doing wrong?

 

[Mark42]

Re: ipod or MP3

I too suggest you skip the ipod and get a different brand mp3 player. Bought my daughter a Creative Zen V Plus for a lot less than the nano, and many more features. You can load music and video on it by just "drag and drop". No messy Apple software that tracks you music, etc. And it plugs right into the dash of our Toyota jusing a standard $3 cable. Sound is outrageous, it also has volume limit so kids don't hurt their hearing, Video, FM Stereo, and a graphic equilizer. You can also select the specific song you want to hear, or an entire album. The nano only plays sequentially, or skip sequential. It also sounds better than the nano. Holds about 2000 songs for about $75. A lot more player for the money.

 

[orion25]

Re: ipod or MP3

You can also select the specific song you want to hear, or an entire album. The nano only plays sequentially, or skip sequential. It also sounds better than the nano. Holds about 2000 songs for about $75. A lot more player for the money.

My Nano as well as my wife's nano will play one song, one album, one playlist or will shuffle songs, albums or playlists. Maybe you are thinking about the Ipod shuffle (the one without the screen). Our nano's cannot hold anywhere near 2000 songs mainly because all of our digital music is encoded at very high bitrates.

 

[Mark42]

Re: ipod or MP3

My Nano as well as my wife's nano will play one song, one album, one playlist or will shuffle songs, albums or playlists. Maybe you are thinking about the Ipod shuffle (the one without the screen). Our nano's cannot hold anywhere near 2000 songs mainly because all of our digital music is encoded at very high bitrates.

Yes, you are right, I was thinking about the Shuffle. My mistake.

 

[Andy in NY]

Re: ipod or MP3

I too suggest you skip the ipod and get a different brand mp3 player. Bought my daughter a Creative Zen V Plus for a lot less than the nano, and many more features. You can load music and video on it by just "drag and drop". No messy Apple software that tracks you music, etc. And it plugs right into the dash of our Toyota jusing a standard $3 cable. Sound is outrageous, it also has volume limit so kids don't hurt their hearing, Video, FM Stereo, and a graphic equilizer. You can also select the specific song you want to hear, or an entire album. The nano only plays sequentially, or skip sequential. It also sounds better than the nano. Holds about 2000 songs for about $75. A lot more player for the money.

I am with you in the non-ipod camp. I think that they are really nice, and have alot of stuff you can get for them. But, its like buying a car. Do you REALLY need the options that you can get with an ipod? Or are you looking to save some money. If money is no object at all, then head out and get an 8gig ipod touch, controller, etc. For me, I was budget minded, so I picked up my whole setup (mp3 player, cables, transmitter, rechargable batteries, etc) for under $200, still less than an ipod by itself.

 

[Mark42]

Re: ipod or MP3

My son has an iphone minus the phone. Forget what its called. What a piece of trash. I spend more time reflashing the darn thing, then reloading the wireless internet security so it will work for a few days then locks up. He has returned it for exchange twice. Still the same problem. So now he has a $400 coaster for his night stand.

My brother is a huge Apple fan. Has all Apple computers, and various Apple and "i" devices. The reason I refuse to buy an Apple computer is almost all of his have died after 3 or 4 years. I think he is on number 8 now. Service lists bad motherboards and the like for the failures.

So I can't justify the cost of Apple products with their failure rates, and non-back support (mostly for software) as they switch internals to PC hardware (drives, memory, even the CPU is now Intell).

I do have to give Creative a big thumps up for support. My 8yr old daughter left her Zen V Plus on the dash of wife's car for a few days in the baking heat. Would not charge after that, and would display a message about firware error. I went to the creative website, downloaded a support program, and it automatically identified the model of MP3 we have, re-flashed the firmware with a new version, and did not lose any of the music or video on the player. Inside of 15 minutes it was up and running. This is why I bought a cheaper MP3 for my kid. They get abused, and I didn't want to have an expensive "i" something get trashed. This type of service is a real plus.

Compare that to my Son's i-thingy that when he brought it in for service they flashed it and blew away all his music, video and all settings, all for nothing. The music was a major loss of $$$$. They said "Oh well".

 

[mthieme]

Re: ipod or MP3

I bought an iPod Classic 160 and am sorry I did.
If all you want is music, go MP3 player (only). I've seen 8 GB units run as little as $40.

 

[4poco]

Re: ipod or MP3

Here's my $.02.

I wouldn't buy an iPOD. Get a nice Sandisk MP3 player.

I couldnt agree more ! Have owned i-pods and the sansa,
Sansa are by far the better choice as they dont rely on stupid i-tunes
Sold the i-pods on e-bay and currently own 5 sansa's >. my opinion tho...Go Sansa !

 

[MikDee]

Re: ipod or MP3

Hey Tashasdaddy, aren't you sorry you asked,,, lol,,, I'm in the same predictament as you, I know nothing atall about this stuff, but I want to get one for my granddaughter for her birthday,,, Can you say confused!

 

[mthieme]

Re: ipod or MP3

There's such a vast array of electronics and too many personal choices.
It's not hard to become confused especially if you are not a technophile.

Try goggling some reviews. Maybe this avenue might help.

 

[Phantom_II]

Re: ipod or MP3

I have the 80 GB iPod classic and have no problems with it, and it holds a LOT of music, it is limited in it's flexibility.

I bought my wife the 4 GB Sandisk Sansa and she loves it. It's much smaller and easier to put in your pocket. The user controls are very similar to the iPod. It's cheaper. It requires no special software to load, and if 4 GB isn't enough space, it has a slot for a Micro SD card which can be purchased practically anywhere for a reasonable price and you can get several of them for effectively limitless storage space. AND... it has a built-in FM tuner.

You can also get a little adapter for any portable music player that plugs into the headset jack and will allow you to listen to it through your cars FM radio.

 

[wuttja]

Re: ipod or MP3

I have had several iPods over the years, and my 5 year old daughter is using my first generation iPod Mini (pre-Nano) as her bedroom radio. I currently have a shuffle, 80GB video and 60GB video. All have worked great, and all were purchased as refurbished units. I use the video iPod to store movies that play on my DVD system in my Honda Pilot. Easier than shuffling DVD's in and out while driving. If you are considering an iPod, new versions coming tomorrow (9/9/08) along with rumored price drops. More info here
Good luck with whatever you choose, most players seem to have become pretty intuitive. Also, the video iPod can be used as a hard drive to back up files or move large amounts of data from one computer to another.