HDD MP3 Player

[RAYK47]

I am in the market for a HDD MP3 player but am a complete noob in this field. I have never owned one before.

It seems to be between two, iPOD video and Creative Vision:M.

iPOD
Pros - sleek and stylish
Cons - iTunes is complete rubbish, does not play all formats

Creative
Pros - high quality screen, radio, divx player
cons - cannot find anywhere who sell it in the UK

the vision seems the best to me but anyone got any advise.

[RAYK47]

looks like the only lace to buy them is on import from ebay. Ebay have them for £185 ish with about £30-£40 delivery, strange as I had heard they were gonna be £250 in the UK.

Can anyone assist.

[TheAnimus]

Do you want video, if soo look at the archos ones, if not don't get it as its purely a gimmic.

[RAYK47]

yes i do want video but its not gonna be the main function. Thats why i thought about the creative Vision:M or the iPod Video.

Does anyone know the release date for the Vision:M ??????

[TooNice]

Well, thats the thing. I'd wait for reviews after it is released... I am mainly interested in how they both sound at their best.

The Creative currently win on the feature side. But neither play all format (for music). I might even lean towards the iPod when it comes to format simply because Apple support a lossless compression format.

The only other players I am aware of that support lossless compression is the Karma (obsolete - company bankrupted), or the iAudio X5. And between the iPod Video and the X5, I am leaning towards the iPod now because it has (apparently) a better line out.

[RAYK47]

thanks toonice, i didnt realise the creative did not play all formats.

Do you know any release dates for the creative.

[TooNice]

Not in the UK. It is reportedly already out in Singapore and Japan. I am tempted to take a look in Hong Kong as I am going there in a few days (this may be my last post here until mid-jan or so). I suspect it won't be out here for another month or two at least, but don't quote me on this

Having said that, I think that I am more attracted by the iPod still (and not for the look).

[RAYK47]

ebay are selling them for £185 buy it now ith £30-£40 delivery. These are singapore inports.

Not sure if i trust ebay enough for this.

Looks like I will have to go for the ipod then, i just know i am gonna regret it.

[RAYK47]

A very good comparison with the Creative and the iPod

http://www.everythingusb.com/creativ...on:m_30gb.html

[RAYK47]

Can anyone give me some advise on the iPod video then as it looks like a long wait for the creative. This is the first MP3 player I will have owned and I know nothing about them so i could do with some help here.

Whats it like?
is iTunes as bad as they say?
is the screen any good?
do they really get scratched too easily?
any other advise will be handy too

thanks

[RAYK47]

Does anyone know if the iRiver H10 20Gb MP3 player can also play video???

I ask becasue the official site sort of mentions it in the specifications but i did not see anything specific about it.
http://www.iriver.eu.com/harddisc_pl...specifications

[TooNice]

No. It only support mp3, wma, jpg, txt, and perhaps wav (not sure about the last one).

My view about the iPod:
- Few people would argue that they have the most user friendly interface.
- The screen is better than the iAudio, but not as good as the Creative.
- I know many people who likes iTune. I must say that I dislike companies that shove their apps down our throat, and it is my main complain about the pod.
- It is one of the few player that support lossless format (although it is their own).
- It also has a line-out.
- It is known to scratch too easily. You'll want something to get a protective cover for it.
- The 60GB version has a better battery life than the 30GB version. In general, the iPod battery is not known to be amazing (although I find it quite acceptable - about 18 hours on the 60GB version depending on what you play, and excluding video).
- The sound has improved over the year according to the more audio oriented site. The current one is pretty decent. However, their equalizer still needs work.

Since I am not bothered about the video aspect, it is overall on the top of my list right now.

And... please use the edit button

[autopilot]

Also bear in mind what type of music/CD's you plan to listen too. If you are a dance music fan who likes mixed CD's (or live concerts, audio books etc), dont forget that many (including the iPod) dont support gapless playback - so you will get a 2 second gap between tracks, even if there was no gap on the original CD.

It's not an issue for everyone, but worth knowing about.

[DavidM]

The Creative Vision does look quite nice

[fuddam]

Archos AV500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALL THE WAYYYYYYYYYYY



I assume you will not be buying off iTunes. I haven't, but hear you can't play their downloads on other players etc. Something like that. Am sure someone will know the truth - it is out there

[divinemadness]

Originally Posted by RAYK47

Can anyone give me some advise on the iPod video then as it looks like a long wait for the creative. This is the first MP3 player I will have owned and I know nothing about them so i could do with some help here.

Whats it like?
is iTunes as bad as they say?
is the screen any good?
do they really get scratched too easily?
any other advise will be handy too

thanks

I have an iPod Photo so i'll try and answer as best I can in relation to the Video.

I like the control system on the iPod and it was one of the main reasons I bought it. I physically tried all the players I was interested in and found the iPods controls to be head and shoulders above the rest. Im not really much of an audiophile and couldn't tell much difference between any player when plying back 192k mp3s.

I find iTunes to be a perfectly good piece of software. It can be a bit resource hungry but I only tend to play music when browsing so I don't really notice, and with 1GB RAM I couldn't care less whether it uses 10MB or 30MB of RAM. I find the library much easier to use than WinAmp or Windows Media Player, and pretty much use iTunes for anything music related now.

Screen on my iPod Photo was ok, nothing great. It wouldn't surprise me if the screen on the creative was better. However attempting to watch Video on a 3" Screen has never been something that has appealed to me greatly.

It does scratch a fair bit, but mostly on the polished metal rear, my screen is still in pretty good condition after hauling it around everywhere since June.

My best advice would be to see if you can try them, obviously this is easier said than done with the Creative, but you should be able to have a go with an iPod Video.