Which hard disk player?

[Ramedge]

I want to get my self a 40gb hard drive player
- first of all i need to make one thing clear
I will not even consider an Ipod
- few reasons

• I dont really like them

• Ive heard bad things (lol thats lame)

• You cant use them as a plug and play hdd with out software

So yeah, i would like to use it as portible hard drive also.
Theres a couple of Players i quite like.
First one is the iRiver H340 - have played around with one of these and is excellant, cant really fault it.
Now i would get this but somthing came along and shock every thing up!
and thats this
http://www.igadget.com.au/catalog/ph...0gb-p-443.html
it looks awesome - has a TV out and IR remote !! and its a similar price to the iRiver!

Which one would you go for and are there any other players you can recomend ??

Cheers

[TheAnimus]

enless you want lossless audio, 40gb is probably excessive, and its worth going for a smaller better battery life based design, as it might be of more use to you.

If thats the case look at the sony HD3,now obsoleted going for well under £150. 30 hour battery life just can't be beat. So small so light. Leaves some money to waste on some nice headphones (shure ear canal are my personal fav).

[Ramedge]

enless you want lossless audio, 40gb is probably excessive, and its worth going for a smaller better battery life based design, as it might be of more use to you.

If thats the case look at the sony HD3,now obsoleted going for well under £150. 30 hour battery life just can't be beat. So small so light. Leaves some money to waste on some nice headphones (shure ear canal are my personal fav).

How much does a HD3 hold?

most of my music is WMA and i rip it fairley high - 192kbps to 260somthing.
i quite like the idea of video play back also.

Cheers

[Merlin4458]

40gig waste of time imo, unless u wanna back up stuff, if u dont then i suggest zen micro. Had it for year now and love it

[Ramedge]

40gig waste of time imo, unless u wanna back up stuff, if u dont then i suggest zen micro. Had it for year now and love it

I dont want a 4-5gb hard drive player, it just wouldnt be enough for my music, and the zen micro's dont work as removable hdd + no video playback on them.

[DavidM]

The Zen video units look quite nice...

[faisal_uk]

Just got an Iaudio X5 30GB (from ebay-america)

They do a 20GB, 30GB and now even a 60GB version!
(Also there are long play versions of these which double the battery life to something like 35 hours!)

Very nice unit, just check out all the features here:
http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/

It is great for all different audio codecs, and also added bonus of FM radio, and you can record straight from radio! - also plays videos which it re-encodes to MP4

Also line-in recording which I have not tried yet, but you can record from and source straight into MP3

Any questions about it - then just ask!
But it is the best all round mp3 player out there - oh and it is supposed to have the best quality sound along with the irvers - which is nice

cheapest place is ebay - but if you want it from the uk then try Misco:
http://www.misco.co.uk/productinform...affiliate=3005

[Funkstar]

no way is 40gig overkill. When i do replace my Karma it will need 60gig at the very minimum, oh and OGG playback (yes all my music is ripped from CDs i own). If i was to go lossless i would need around 300gig just now yet alone in a few years time...

[Ramedge]

Just got an Iaudio X5 30GB (from ebay-america)

They do a 20GB, 30GB and now even a 60GB version!
(Also there are long play versions of these which double the battery life to something like 35 hours!)

Very nice unit, just check out all the features here:
http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/

It is great for all different audio codecs, and also added bonus of FM radio, and you can record straight from radio! - also plays videos which it re-encodes to MP4

Also line-in recording which I have not tried yet, but you can record from and source straight into MP3

Any questions about it - then just ask!
But it is the best all round mp3 player out there - oh and it is supposed to have the best quality sound along with the irvers - which is nice

cheapest place is ebay - but if you want it from the uk then try Misco:
http://www.misco.co.uk/productinform...affiliate=3005

was interested in that - but its the same price as the iriver but 10gb less - does look brilliant though !
i am not sure but i think the Iwith 40gb is made by the same people as the Iaudio.

which one out of the two i first suggested would people go for?

[timread]

Do you need to play DRM (i.e. legally downloaded) music? If so that rules out the European version of the H340.

Personally, I have an H340 and I think it's the business. Knocks iPod features for six, although the latest video iPod is more of a competitor. The H340 is very customisable too. I think they stopped officially selling them a few months ago, but have recently sent more stock out to some UK suppliers. But it does suggest that they won't be supporting them forever, and the price looks quite high unless you can find it for a bargain somewhere.

If you haven't already found it, www.misticriver.net is a fantastic source of info for everything you can do with your iRiver (hope it's OK to link here Mods).

[autopilot]

Do you plan to play any of the following - Live gig's, dance mix's, audio books, opera, any CD's that have tracks that 'merge' into the next track (like some beatles and pink floyd albums) ?

If the answer is yes, read this... http://www.pretentiousname.com/mp3players/

I can tell you that the only ones i am 100% sure do support it are the Sony ones. My friends NW-HD1 does it brilliantly.

[Ramedge]

Very keen on the iRiver because it looks nice and has video playback with the latest firmware.
iam dont have DRM music - i tend to just copy my music from "CD's"
I was very impressed with the H340 when ive had the chance to fiddle with it.
not so sure what people think about the iwith - it is quite big but has some amazing functions - would be so nice to watch some movies on my fairley long journey home every afternoon!