Educate me about MP# players versus IPods...........

[Mikekoz13]

Well I hate to admit that I'm a little ignorant about this topic.... but I need some education. What are the main differences and in your opinion why is one better than the other or worse than the other.

Suggestions as what to purchase would also be appreciated along with your opinions.


                          thanks guys............

[Marz]

I bought my wife a gen 1 ipod a few years back, worked great and she used it often.

Year before last I got a ipod video for x-mas, and I dont leave home without it.

I bought the wife an Ipod touch this xmas as she flys for business alot and it is the ULTIMATE traveling companion for that... movies, music, podcasts, tv shows... and a real nice wide screen view.

Needless to say I love the ipods and Itunes. the friends of mine that dont have ipods (most have the Rio, zune or a smart phone / mp3 device) barely use them and seem to have a hard time with the MS interface.

I am NOT a fan of microsofts windows media system.

[herronm]

First, let me tell that I love my Gen 5 80 gig iPod.  My Scion xA is iPod compatible, all I do is connect it up and control it with the buttons on my steering wheel.  Sweet.  Great for travel (music, video, games…).  The iPod only works with Apple iTunes, you either love it or tolerate it.

Other MP3 players (whatever brand) should work with MS Media Player and other players except iTunes.  All models should do the basic music stuff as well as any other.  Some do video, some even have built in FM radios.  You will find them cheaper than the iPod models, but they will not have as many accessories (cases, connectors...
).

Other options are devices that also play music (iPhone, Blackberry, PDA, cameras….).  I don’t have any experience with those, but they should play music as well as most.

[SonOfKrypton]

Well I hate to admit that I'm a little ignorant about this topic.... but I need some education. What are the main differences and in your opinion why is one better than the other or worse than the other.

Suggestions as what to purchase would also be appreciated along with your opinions.


                          thanks guys............

Well dude, tell us more about your budget for this MP3 player and what you want to use it for....Also, how much music you have and in what format it is.  Personally, I have an iPhone and a 60gb iPod Video that I only use for recording lectures since I got the iPhone, and I love them both, but, I like them because of what I use them for.  If I was obsessed with the music format "Ogg Vorbis" for example, I would hate iPods and wouldn't own one unless it had Rockbox on it...Anyway, let us know more specifically....

[Pshrynk]

Had both MP3 and IPODs before.

Once I got an IPOD I never looked back.   It's not perfect but IMO it's the best out there.  Apple works much better and much more seamlessly.

I also prefer NOT dealing with Microsoft if I don't absolutely have to.   

[JDog]

I've got a 5th Gen. 30gb iPod video. Cant imagine life without it.

[SonOfKrypton]

I've got a 5th Gen. 30gb iPod video. Cant imagine life without it.

LMAO...Dude, on a creppy scale of 1-10, your avatar is an 11.

[Razor X]

I have an 80GB iPod and have almost my entire CD collection on it.  I find that I listen to things I haven't played in  years, a lot more often now that I don't have to go searching for the disks.  I also have a Bose docking station for listening to it at home.  Sounds awesome and it's a really convenient way to listen to music.

iTunes uses the AAC compression system, rather than MP3.  This is supposedly a superior way of compressing files and allows you to have a smaller file without sacrificing quality.  Therefore, you store more music on your iPod and hard drive.

[SonOfKrypton]

iTunes uses the AAC compression system, rather than MP3.  This is supposedly a superior way of compressing files and allows you to have a smaller file without sacrificing quality.  Therefore, you store more music on your iPod and hard drive.

One quick corrections: iTunes BOUGHT music uses AAC compression.  Music you load into your library doesn't have to be in AAC format.  You are not forced to use it.  But I do agree that AAC is an impressive file system as I've managed to get 1746 songs unto an 8gb phone using nothing but 128 kbps AAC songs.  But that's just for the phone.  I store the original files of those songs on my laptops hard drive in iTunes also and they are all 192kpbs and up MP3 files.

[JDog]

128kbps AAC compression give optimal quality and minimal space usage. However several of my albums are ripped in FLAC compression which uses about 3 times as much space.The quality is superior to 128 and even 192 and 320.

Krypton what program do you use to take .avi movies into mp4 format?

[Razor X]

iTunes uses the AAC compression system, rather than MP3.  This is supposedly a superior way of compressing files and allows you to have a smaller file without sacrificing quality.  Therefore, you store more music on your iPod and hard drive.

One quick corrections: iTunes BOUGHT music uses AAC compression.  Music you load into your library doesn't have to be in AAC format.  You are not forced to use it.  But I do agree that AAC is an impressive file system as I've managed to get 1746 songs unto an 8gb phone using nothing but 128 kbps AAC songs.  But that's just for the phone.  I store the original files of those songs on my laptops hard drive in iTunes also and they are all 192kpbs and up MP3 files.

Correct.  But AAC is the default format, and any music ripped from CDs in iTunes defaults to it unless you change the settings.  I purchase most of my MP3s from Amazon, which are 256 kbps files.  I've listened to them in the MP3 format and again after converting them to 128 kbps AAC files and can't notice any difference.  I usually burn the files to a CD in the original MP3 format and then convert to AAC in iTunes for my iPod.  I have over 5,100 songs on my iPod and it's ony about a quarter full.

[SonOfKrypton]

128kbps AAC compression give optimal quality and minimal space usage. However several of my albums are ripped in FLAC compression which uses about 3 times as much space.The quality is superior to 128 and even 192 and 320.

Krypton what program do you use to take .avi movies into mp4 format?

VisualHub.  It's an awesome program for OS X that uses both cores on my Core 2 Duo to rip thru video file conversions.

Damn dude, using FLAC compression, that's crazy...lol.  How big is your damn hard drive?  The one I have in my laptop is 200gb and its what I use to store everything.  My iTunes library is 38.77 gb where 10 gb is attributable to class lectures so about 28 gigs of music.

[SonOfKrypton]

iTunes uses the AAC compression system, rather than MP3.  This is supposedly a superior way of compressing files and allows you to have a smaller file without sacrificing quality.  Therefore, you store more music on your iPod and hard drive.

One quick corrections: iTunes BOUGHT music uses AAC compression.  Music you load into your library doesn't have to be in AAC format.  You are not forced to use it.  But I do agree that AAC is an impressive file system as I've managed to get 1746 songs unto an 8gb phone using nothing but 128 kbps AAC songs.  But that's just for the phone.  I store the original files of those songs on my laptops hard drive in iTunes also and they are all 192kpbs and up MP3 files.

Correct.  But AAC is the default format, and any music ripped from CDs in iTunes defaults to it unless you change the settings.  I purchase most of my MP3s from Amazon, which are 256 kbps files.  I've listened to them in the MP3 format and again after converting them to 128 kbps AAC files and can't notice any difference.  I usually burn the files to a CD in the original MP3 format and then convert to AAC in iTunes for my iPod.  I have over 5,100 songs on my iPod and it's ony about a quarter full.

Got ya got ya....Yea, Apple loves AAC....It's their pet format so no wonder they make it the default format.  But I feel the same way dude.  I can't tell the different between 128 kbps AAC files and bigger files.

[JDog]

VisualHub eh, I will recommend that to my friend who uses MAC OS. I use WinFF to convert .avis to mp4.It is good because it will convert it to either 4:3 for full screen or 16:9 for widescreen.

My laptop harddrive is 150gb.I've got roughly 40gb in total music and about 10gb in movies. I've got about 10 albums in FLAC compression,they are about 250mb each! They are rare albums that I listen to a lot so I wanted the best quality.

[SonOfKrypton]

VisualHub eh, I will recommend that to my friend who uses MAC OS. I use WinFF to convert .avis to mp4.It is good because it will convert it to either 4:3 for full screen or 16:9 for widescreen.

My laptop harddrive is 150gb.I've got roughly 40gb in total music and about 10gb in movies. I've got about 10 albums in FLAC compression,they are about 250mb each! They are rare albums that I listen to a lot so I wanted the best quality.

Back when I was on Windows XP, I used PSP Video 9.  That program was awesome for sure.