iPOD or not?

[bindo]

I've currently got a 3rd gen ipod (15gigs) which lasts about half an hour and a sony nw-hd5

I've got my eye on a new 5th gen video ipod as sony's sonic stage/connect music store is so hopeless, always seems to crash if i try to transfer songs onto my mp3 player..kinda hopeless. I was wondering if it's worth getting one of the new ipods...like how long do they last, sound quality...etc etc. Or should i wait for the next revision of them?
Cheers for any advice!

[directhex]

do any of the ipod's other caveats affect you?

* no WMA support (for tracks bought online from non-apple stores)
* no Ogg support (high quality codec)
* no FLAC support (popular lossless codec used usually for live concert recordings)
* no gapless playback

[Kaine (AoD)]

Just off personal pref, I would NEVER buy another IPod in my life everererererererererrr!

I would personally advise on the creative units, much nicer IMO

Take a look at a couple of them see what you think

Linky

[Gordy]

I just got the 5g 30gb one and I love it.

I wouldn't bother with the creative ones as lets be honest they are a long way behind the ipod in the mp3 race.

Thats not to say its not without its faults just that its got a lot going for it

[pp05]

I have a 3rd gen ipod which i bought back when they first came out. Problem was when i read 3rd gen battery will eventually fail it got me thinking. Last xmas got an IAudio 512mb version which is brilliant. I haven't used my ipod since xmas.

I don't know if i can buy an ipod anymore. Cowons IAudio is superior product IMO.

[5lab]

how are they a long way behind? i'm not a zelot but i believe the sound quality is higher, they are more compatible and a fair whack cheaper. only thing they miss out on is the posure-carp the ipod has..

[autopilot]

Personally myself, i would go for the Sony. Sonicstage may not be anywhere near as good as itunes, but it does work ok these days (so long as you do things like getting your tags sorted when tranfering MP3's). I know i go on about this a lot if you read other threads i have posted in, but gapless playback really is sooooo0ooo important to me. Ipods are the dogs dangle sacks for sure, but a few things about them make them incompatible with the type of music i like and the way i listen. Also, Sonicstage is being replaced by a completely new app soon. One of the main problems with Sonicstage was the fact that it's old and has to work with a lot of devices, such as the Network Minidisks that have been around for years, HDD player support was just kind of bolted on last minute it seems, which was a mistake by Sony. So hopefully this will be better in future.

But you also have to ask yourself, do you really think you will watch many videos? I can't see how i would ever want to watch a movie on one personally, but each to thier own. Now DVB-* TV, that would be sweet and i think one day (sooner than later) they will have it

I dont know enough about the latest creative ones to be able to recommend them or not.

[Kaine (AoD)]

I wouldn't bother with the creative ones as lets be honest they are a long way behind the IPod in the mp3 race

heh alot of ppl say that but if you take a little look further in to this, the IPod style was taken from a different well known manufacture (creative) and there are a couple of other things creative had which IPod and other people had "acquired" from them ^ ^

Creative > all but thats as stated in my post, very much personal pref... and its the same for everyone hehe

[DavidM]

I like Creative myself as well

[Gordy]

Walk down the street in any place in the uk and you will find someone with an ipod nowadays. Its in this regard that creative and the others are way behind apple.

Along with itunes which is great to use and the simplicity of the ipod I don't think personally the creatives have a touch on it.

I paid 190 odd for my 30gb ipod the closest creative is the 30Gb Creative ZEN Vision:M BLACK which is 35 quid more expensive.

[DavidM]

I know if I had an iPod - i'd change the "too-obvious" headphones almost immediately

[Gordy]

Thats my one critasism of it so far is that I can get an official set of black headphones to match my black ipod that doesnt make sense!.

I would like one with a remote control as well really but tbh thats just me being lazy.

[TooNice]

You shouldn't be using the stock earbuds for a new iPod anyway
It makes no sense to me for someone to spend several hundred pounds on a new player with earbuds that are probably worth no more than a fiver...

Advantage of the iPod:

* High capacity if you go for 60GB. It is only matched by iAudio X5, and some Archos players.
* Lossless support. FLAC would be better, I agree, but ALAC still beat WAV.
* AAC support. I don't believe AAC is worse than Ogg (I'd venture to say that it is better). That said, I either go lossless or MP3 anyway.
* One of the better line-out out there. The iAudio one has many reports of being problematic. Which turned me away from it.
* It is slimmer and overall more compact than many competitive players. Even comparing the 60GB 5G iPod to the 30GB Creative Vision:M.
* I think that few would argue that the iPod has one of the better interface right now.

That's not to say it is perfect. In addition to what directhex mentioned, the lack of gapless, I would add that the equalizer could be better. The battery life is reasonable for me, but hardly record breaking (and may even be too little for you - please note that the 60GB battery last longer than the 30GB).

It just happens that for me, the plus outweight the minuses. But there is no perfect player.

[5lab]

Advantage of the iPod:

* High capacity if you go for 60GB. It is only matched by iAudio X5, and some Archos players.

creative nomad jukebox xtra? 60gig

incidentally, the nomad vision m -> http://www.creative.com/products/pro...ct=14331&nav=1

is pretty similar in all ways to the ipod (of smaller capacity) but supports divx and xvid - i know what format most of my vids are in

[johnny02004976]

creative mate anyday , although my dad has got a nice 20Gb iRiver

[Aaron]

I'm now on my 3rd iPod, after owning a Sony and a Rio.

The iPod doesn't have the best audio quality, the widest range of supported codecs or the best durability. However, the positives more than make up for the negatives.

The UI is fantastic and iTunes is the most capable music management software I've come across. It's all very nicely integrated and I like how I don't have to fiddle around organising my collection, including album art. Not only is Apple's software excellent, but there's a lot of good 3rd party software for the iPod too, such as the last.fm plugin.

I've currently got a 60GB 5G iPod and the battery life is much improved over the previous generations. It's quoted at 20 hours, but I've managed to get about 14 out of it. Not bad at all.

The range of codecs it supports is fine, unless you've already encoded your music in WMA/OGG/FLAC. You've got the choice between the common MP3, the more advanced AAC or Apple Lossless. OGG would be nice but it's best feature - gapless playback - isn't available on any DAP.

It's easy to disregard the iPod simply because it's too popular. As an overal package, I still don't think that it can be beaten though.

Personally, I'd avoid Sony like the plague. Their customer service is the worst I've ever encountered and their software is terrible. Let's not even mention their rootkit fiasco.