Evening gents. I need some advice about digital music players. Of course the current status symbol is a high capacity iPod but it would seem there are other choices to be had. Now I'm going to add in some caveats here and there that will hopefully shed light on what may be a good device for me.
First up, I'm no music hog. The idea of even sifting through 5000 songs is mind boggling. Even if you order and playlist them. Can you tell I'm very green with this whole digital music thing? I will likely won't be downloading any music from the online stores. I'm way past most of that. I will be arhciving my cds, transferring some vinyl to digital(whole other subject), and just loading up whatever takes my fancy. In other words, music from my own collection.
Some questions come to mind. I've recently discovered podcasting(I told you I'm not hip)and recognise that even in Mp3 format, a 20-30 minute program would eat a lot of storage space. So storage as always could become an issue.
Formats. Okay, here we go into territory I'm very unused to. Everyone recognises the mp3 file but what about Mp4(AAC?)that Apple uses? Is this useful for other branded players at all? OGG, FLAC, all this gets a bit overwhelming.
Players and devices. Of course the Windows Media Player 10 is on my pc but 11 is around the corner and I'd like your opinions on these software players. One that looks really interesting that I wanted to try is Media Player Classic. This is an open source player that mimics the look of WMP 6.4 but is much more feature laden and supports TONS of formats including AAC. I downloaded this to my desktop in a zip file but when I opened it, it didn't install to the pc. I tried directing it to programs. I think that's the right thing to do. Anyway, it didn't show up in the programs menu or add/remove programs in control panel so I gave up. If someone would give me some advice about installing this I'd really appreciate it. I am not overfond of WMP10 because it's not very intuitive.
Last, devices. I intentionally left this til last because it's really a tough choice and much of the pro/con toward iPod vs everything else is really just user preference. Saying that I will tell you that for hardware, I'm leaning toward flash memory rather than hard drive models. Two reasons. First, I'm not sure how they'd hold up against work environments and an elliptical trainer's motion. Second, the flash players are so thin. Very easy to carry. One last wrench to throw in this. Are any of the better brands of players still coming with expansion card slots? I just bought two 1Gig SD cards(Sandisk)from Best Buy for $24 apiece after rebate. Can you say cheap storage? It's a nice way to gain storage without forking over 200-300 dollars for a big flash memory player. I have looked at Creative players on their site and must say, they make some nice players. Heck, I've even looked at the little 1Gig Creative player Walmart sells for $70. It even includes a FM reciever. Please fire away with ideas.
Regards,Todd
First up, I'm no music hog. The idea of even sifting through 5000 songs is mind boggling. Even if you order and playlist them. Can you tell I'm very green with this whole digital music thing? I will likely won't be downloading any music from the online stores. I'm way past most of that. I will be arhciving my cds, transferring some vinyl to digital(whole other subject), and just loading up whatever takes my fancy. In other words, music from my own collection.
Some questions come to mind. I've recently discovered podcasting(I told you I'm not hip)and recognise that even in Mp3 format, a 20-30 minute program would eat a lot of storage space. So storage as always could become an issue.
Formats. Okay, here we go into territory I'm very unused to. Everyone recognises the mp3 file but what about Mp4(AAC?)that Apple uses? Is this useful for other branded players at all? OGG, FLAC, all this gets a bit overwhelming.
Players and devices. Of course the Windows Media Player 10 is on my pc but 11 is around the corner and I'd like your opinions on these software players. One that looks really interesting that I wanted to try is Media Player Classic. This is an open source player that mimics the look of WMP 6.4 but is much more feature laden and supports TONS of formats including AAC. I downloaded this to my desktop in a zip file but when I opened it, it didn't install to the pc. I tried directing it to programs. I think that's the right thing to do. Anyway, it didn't show up in the programs menu or add/remove programs in control panel so I gave up. If someone would give me some advice about installing this I'd really appreciate it. I am not overfond of WMP10 because it's not very intuitive.
Last, devices. I intentionally left this til last because it's really a tough choice and much of the pro/con toward iPod vs everything else is really just user preference. Saying that I will tell you that for hardware, I'm leaning toward flash memory rather than hard drive models. Two reasons. First, I'm not sure how they'd hold up against work environments and an elliptical trainer's motion. Second, the flash players are so thin. Very easy to carry. One last wrench to throw in this. Are any of the better brands of players still coming with expansion card slots? I just bought two 1Gig SD cards(Sandisk)from Best Buy for $24 apiece after rebate. Can you say cheap storage? It's a nice way to gain storage without forking over 200-300 dollars for a big flash memory player. I have looked at Creative players on their site and must say, they make some nice players. Heck, I've even looked at the little 1Gig Creative player Walmart sells for $70. It even includes a FM reciever. Please fire away with ideas.
Regards,Todd
