[Archived] Mp3 Recommendations?

[Billy Castell]

I was just wondering what you'd all recommend for an mp3 as I found that my Creative Zen has a cracked screen which is screwed. So far my research has hinted that Ipods have a habit of crashing when the 1 year warranty runs out, and it is hard to get an equivilent to what I had from Creative. If you're interested, my criteia are:

1. Reliable and tough build

2. At least 10GB in memory

3. Around £150 max.

Any advice?

[tchocky]

You get phones with MP3 players now... Good quality sound and one less gadget to carry. I've actually got 4 gadgets in one now with my Nokia N95: 5 megapix cam, MP3, GPS and, er cellphone. Divide the price of the N95 by 4 and the MP3 player costs less than £150

[Paul]

So far my research has hinted that Ipods have a habit of crashing when the 1 year warranty runs out,

They certainly suffered from a mountain of bad publicity this time last year. I suspect it was mainly a good media story rather than as bad as was made out. We have twp iPods and both work perfectly all the time.

[Billy Castell]

Good to know. I'm leaning towards another Creative Zen product, as the last one was pretty decent, and you could use other programmes to organise your mp3. I do have Itunes on my laptop, but I can't connect to the internet as I was on BT Yahoo, and they have locked it as I didn't use it for ages. Then I deleted their connection as I was trying to use this houses' Orange Wi-Fi thing. Anyway, can't Ipods can only use Itunes and nothing else?

As for the phone, it's a good idea tchocky, but I'm going to inherit an old one from my girlfriend. It's a Nokia something, and it'll come with free annoying ringtones!

[herbergeehh]

I've got the Ipod Video, with 30GB memory. Decent battery and the perfect size for someone who usually lose these things.. The video is crap though, because it can't play the most common media files - you'll need a converter. The official converter costs money, and the one I downloaded doesn't work.. But for music, which - in all fairness - is what I need it for, it's really good. One of my best friends !

[Billy Castell]

Interesting, but I think I'll go for the 60 GB Creative Zen for £159.99 at Amazon.co.uk. It can use any programme to store/remove music, has £90 off, and the next model down, the 30 GB model, is cheapest at £148, according to Pricerunner and other shop bots. I can get a second hand 30 GB Creative for £85 from Amazon, but you never can tell the condition over the internet.

I just hope I won't sit on it!

[Flopsy]

get the 60gb one from amazon, its the dogs danglies

[Billy Castell]

Had a closer look at my broken mp3, and the LCD part of the screen appears cracked with patches of black, but the actual surface is as good as new. Any ideas how I managed that? I'd hate to do it to a new one.

On a related note, is Archos a half decent make?

[LeChuck]

Ignore the rubbish about iPods. I desperately didn't want one, but I had concede in the end that they are the best around. Admittedly that was a year or so ago, so maybe the Creatives/Irivers etc. have caught up, but at the time I bought one they each had at least one major flaw when compared to the iPod - 'on-the-go' playlist functions being the usual flaw.

30gb iPod for £99.99.

[Billy Castell]

Thanks for the link LeChuck. Not sure I trust reconditioned or second hand things over the internet though. It's not like you can go over and give them evil looks if it goes tits up. My wallet says 2nd hand, but my head says 'hmmm, not so sure about that'.

P.S. Could I load my tunes from my Creative straight onto an Ipod using Itunes?

I'm so effing indecisisive because £100+ is a hell of a lot of money for me, and I want to get a decent one,and not pay for another one again if possible. This would be my third one!

[American]

The thing about iPods is that you can load anything onto them from other players, but if you buy anything from iTunes you can only load that onto your iPod.

Terrible problems with the batteries - if they say it is that. On ours the battery goes out after a song and it plays fine when plugged in, but they insist that the drive has a scratch!

Have 2 Creatives and much prefer them.

[Flopsy]

you can get programmes to convert MP4's and for the protected one's there's always Audacity

[Daremz]

Samsung YP Z-5.

Great machine. Great sound. Great screen. Great gadget. Stylish. 'nuff?

[Paul]

Ignore the rubbish about iPods. I desperately didn't want one, but I had concede in the end that they are the best around.

Very much agree with that. When my wife announced she wanted one for her last birthday I shivered. This is a woman who can shut down the printer simply by walking into the house, entering the dining room, where we keep our PC, usually gives an instant blue screen of death, so an IPod............shudders.

First one I bought was a nightmare to set up, and confirmed all the bad PR in the press at the time, surprisingly I didn't hit it with a hammer. Took it back and the replacement worked a dream. One of my lads bought one a few months back and that is just as good. IPods are quick, simple to use, reliable (for us) and do what it says on the box - play music. Don't know about all the other fancy gizmos or tricks on other players but all we want is to play music and download podcasts.

Only issue we get with the iPod is if the PC is shut down while the iPod is attached / charging the mouse won't react when the PC is rebooted. Took me a while to figure out what was causing this problem.

[Billy Castell]

Sod it, I'm buying the Creative one for £160 tomorrow. It's £11 more than the 30 GB model, but double the memory. And my old one lasted about 18 months without a problem. Just have to be a bit more careful. Thanks for the advice guys.

[OhmiBRFC]

The thing about iPods is that you can load anything onto them from other players, but if you buy anything from iTunes you can only load that onto your iPod.

Terrible problems with the batteries - if they say it is that. On ours the battery goes out after a song and it plays fine when plugged in, but they insist that the drive has a scratch!

Have 2 Creatives and much prefer them.

I have one of the original ipods the minis and my battery lasts about 3 hours.

[tcj_jones]

I'd take a leap of faith and get an IPOD. For Itunes alone it is worth it. Great interface, easy to use, compact, looks good... IPOD every time for me.

[Flopsy]

and you can use ITunes with the Creative (well at least for the Podcasts)

[Ricky]

30 GB ipods (refurb) are going for £99 at the moment, do a quick search on hotukdelas.com for that price.

Think for that price you cant go wrong as the refurbs still come with a decent warranty

[Ricky]

or even a 30gb Creative refurb for £95 through the same site.

[b12_simon]

Shiny new Creative range due

Personally I'm a huge fan of my Ipod Nano but that fails your 10GB limit. The full size Ipod ain't for me as it's too big.

[Billy Castell]

My sexy new Creative should be here tomorrow or Friday! I'd like a nano for its physical size and looks, but I'd like to put more than 1000 songs on it. This time it might last for ages. Well I bloody hope it does!

Good to know I can download podcasts via Itunes. I'll be sticking the odd episode of Fighting talk on it every now and then. And Boro Pat.

Again, thanks for the advice, and this might help another indecisive person in the future.

[Flopsy]

Some podcasts via ITunes are in Mp4 format, I got some convertor software and use that. Or get Audacity and run it through that and save it as an MP3.

Fighting talk doesnt start till September - booo

[Eddie]

Shiny new Creative range due

Personally I'm a huge fan of my Ipod Nano but that fails your 10GB limit. The full size Ipod ain't for me as it's too big.

That looks quite impressive.

[Guest Kamy100]

Apple have announced a special event for 5th September, they are going to reveal new range of new ipods:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/28/its-on-...-september-5th/