Because it's a lot easier than bugging the guys at Best Buy.

[apocalypsos]

A bit of a question for you guys. As soon as I start working at Wegmans and put aside all of the money I'm going to need for my trip (I need to get out of town for a few days if only for my own mental health, plus that's my birthday present to myself for all the long hours I'll be working the next couple of months) I'm going to start putting aside money for a new MP3 player. I've emptied my piggy bank (almost literally) and haunted eBay for cheap knockoffs that would work better than the Phillips Go Gear 8GB I have right now, but no dice. So now that I'll have the money to actually get a new one to replace it, I want to get it right on the first try. (It's not exactly a necessity, obviously, but I spend my entire day at work doing data entry and without a MP3 player it could drive you a little stir-crazy.)

Anyway, here's what I need in an MP3 player:

-- I need one with TONS of space, preferably 64GB or higher.
-- I need one that plays videos clearly as AVI files without me having to attempt to change the file type to m4x#kittens!whatever.
-- I need one that allows me to separate my music and my audiobooks so that if I put the thing on shuffle it won't suddenly decide to shuffle through my audiobook files.
-- I need one that, if I suddenly decide that I'd rather listen to my music instead of the six-hour-long audiobook file I'm halfway through listening to, it will easily let me get back to the precise point in the recording I was at without having a minor coronary about it.
-- I need one where the battery won't konk out halfway through an 8-hour work day.
-- I'd kinda like one with a touchscreen because, whee, touchscreens!

I'm not against buying an iPod Touch. That said, I sort of want iTunes to die by being hit with a toilet seat from an exploding space station, so I'm hoping for a player that's not that, if possible.

Anybody got any suggestions? Or should I just look into an iPod Touch anyway?

Comments

[trinity_clare]

The iPod Touch 64GB is the newest and most expensive model, and the battery life isn't that great, from what I've heard (mostly because it's got all sorts of extra things aside from being a music player). I know the iPod Classic does all the things you want, except maybe the AVI thing b/c I don't know anything about that. Plus I've managed having an iPod without installing iTunes, so I know it can be done.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

If you or anyone who responds knows how to make an iAnything play AVIs, do tell me how it's done!

As to battery life, that and "touch screen" are, from what I hear, mutually incompatible, but I'm not an expert and would be glad to be proved wrong. ^_^

[chaneen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Apple MP3 players won't play AVIs, so you have to convert them. I use SUPER, which is free, and will pretty much convert any media file to any other filetype. It even has a specific "iPod" setting to make things easier.

[loopychew.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm a big fan of HandBrake, which can convert both AVIs and decrypted DVDs without much trouble. It also has support for multiple language tracks and (hard-encoded) subtitles conversion for people interested in that kind of thing.

[florahart]

I don't know a lot about the video format or about going back to where you left off in a file, but I've been really happy with my Zen Creative mp3 player, which does DO video (I just don't use it for that). My needs are pretty low-end, but I find the battery life on mine, which is a couple years old now, is good. (heh. I have the 4gb Zen MX; evidently they're no longer selling such a small memory device).

http://us.store.creative.com/ZEN-XFi2-32GB-Black/M/B002NKLRF2.htm

But yeah, you'd have to find out about whether they support AVI files and stuff. There's a demo link on that page...?

[black-rider.livejournal.com]

Any of the iPods will be good, they've gotten quite reliable. If you're looking for a good price, Apple usually sells refurbs at a discount with a warranty.

[paradoxymoron.livejournal.com]

Meh. I've got the iPod Whatever (generation or two before they got all touchy feely) and it's decent.

I've found that you have to use iTunes to load music and such, as when I've done it with other programs, the ipod stays in hard drive mode and doesn't play until I've re-synched with itunes. Rather annoying.


Friend has a Zen, swears by it.

[octavia-b.livejournal.com]

I think the iPod Touch has a low battery life from what I've heard. I have an iPod Classic (the old one), I've had it for years and I love it to pieces. There's an easy-to-use program that will convert your audiobooks to the ipod audiobook format and that way you can easily switch between audiobooks and music and the iPod will always remember where you were up to.

I've got loads of videos on it too but you do have to convert them to the iPod format.

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

I loved my Creative Zen. Great battery life, really good additional storage options on top of already awesome storage, and the website has so many choices of player that I think it'd be easy to customize it to what you want. I dunno about the "separate Audiobooks" thing--I have a little RCA that has it, though the Zen didn't--but tech has moved on since I got my player anyways. You'd probably have to order it online, too.

You may also want to look at CNET's selection of players and player reviews, since it might help narrow down the options even more, and they cover a ton of tech options that may not even occur to the regular consumer.

[kitewithfish.livejournal.com]

I have an iPod Nano at 4Gbs.

-Nothing iPod will play AVI files. You have to convert, which is fairly painless after the first few times you do it, but which can still take a long time.

-iTunes will keep your audiobooks from being treated like music (saving a space, and keeping them out of rotation) if you go to the "Get Info" option while highlighting an audiobook, then go to the "Options" tab and tick the boxes for "Remember Playback position" and "skip when shuffling." This can be done for many audiobooks at once.

-iPod touches have terrible battery life.

-I would strongly recommend something with a solid-state drive- they last longer and they are less fragile overall. They are more expensive per Gb, tho.

I have an iPod Nano that I love. I can only put around 700 songs on it (without video), but I find that's small enough to keep me regularly changing up my music and trying new mixes throughout the day. I get about 8-9 hours of battery life, less if I'm using video. And, it was very cheap for what I got from it. Then again, I don't really like touch screens, so that might factor into it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bounce_/]

I have an iRiver and I wouldn't reccomend it, if only because it's slow as shit to start up/change tracks, etc.

If you can find a sansa e280, I'd kind of reccommend that - the battery lasts forever but they only do 8 and 16gb.

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

I can tell you one thing about the iTouch which I have found AMAZING.

There is a free Kindle app. The Kindle store has tons of out-of-copyright free books and many publishers put out free editions of new books. And by publishers, I mean trashy romance novels. Around here, we've started a Bad Book Club based on this fact. (This month-Regina in the Sun, a book which has everything that annoys me about paranormal romance.)

Keep in mind-if you've got wi-fi, you've got an iPhone with the Touch, except without the data fees. (Skype app, get a headset instead of headphones, tada!)

Itunes is annoying, yeah, but the music function on the touch isn't actually iTunes. iTunes is a separate area. Loading things onto it takes iTunes, sure, but once it's on, eh.

[fyrdrakken]

There is a free Kindle app.

I discovered last week that the free Kindle app is available for quite a few models of smartphone, including my own Blackberry.

[fyrdrakken]

Creative Zen is what I've currently got and what my previous player was, too. A quick glance at their site shows they go up to 64GB, at least -- I don't know if they had any higher options. I haven't uploaded any vid files of any kind to my current player (it's also why I went with a credit-card-sized one, since I hardly ever watched vid files on my old widescreen) but IIRC AVI files were the kind the old player was happy to take without converting. Battery life is good, but no touchscreen.

I can't speak to the shuffle option because I never use it -- or rather, I use playlists, one particular "Current" list that I resave whenever I add or eliminate songs from the current rotation. No idea how to make it just randomly play any track on your player, let alone any track from a certain set unless you make a massive playlist with all of your music on it.

Bookmarking function for a particular point in an audio file existed on the old player and I'm sure more recent models have it as well.