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General discussion

advice needed !!! which player to buy???

May 12, 2009 7:18PM PDT

hey, ive been looking at various mp3 players for literally years now, but I never found anything that fufilled all my criteria. Im still using my trusty old minidisc player! Maybe one of you will know of a suitable device for me.
Basically, I want something with a big hard drive, say at least 80Gb, that doesnt require any propietary software, like i-tunes or whatnot. Id simply like to be able to dump my big folder of mp3's with its various subfolders (relating to each album) onto the drive and navigate through it as one would do in say windows explorer.
None of my mp3's have any of that embedded information about artist, album or track title.
Also, I have noticed that when playing contigous tracks on a lot of mp3 players there are very short "gaps" of silence inserted between individual tracks, this is something that I cannot abide!
Anyway, perhaps my needs are way too specific, but if any of ye know of anything i'd be much obliged, thanks!

note: i dont mind if the solution involves buying an ipod and then installing linux on it or something! though I have absolutely no experience at that sort of thing!

Discussion is locked

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mp3 players
May 13, 2009 6:07AM PDT

There are tons and tons of .mp3 players out there and most of them utilize some sort of software to sync music files. As to the gap between songs, I have only used a few different mp3 players and they have all had that brief delay.

Aside from from of the technical specifics you have listed, what other features do you want to see, as these are what differentiate mp3 players from each other?

Jeff
Windows Outreach Team

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Big HD is the stumbling block
May 16, 2009 4:16AM PDT

Playing with untagged data? You're definitely in the minority when it comes to that.

There aren't many DAP/PMPs out there with 80GB+ HDs.

Outside of the usual suspects (Apple and Microsoft), I'm not sure anyone else is even CLOSE to having such a large cap HD-based device. Archos tucked tail and is re-inventing themselves as a GPS-based gadget (plus they only max out at 30GB with their current range of products). Cowon doesn't come close in terms of HD storage cap. Toshiba gave up completely and don't even make DAPs anymore. And everyone else appears to have gone solid-state with flash-based storage.

The Zune 120 is definitely a non-starter when it comes to proprietary software. At least with the iPod Classic you can use 3rd-party apps to manage the device. And if you really want simple drag-n-drop (why you want to have your songs WITHOUT ID3 tag data is beyond me), there ARE hacked jailbreak solutions for iPods that are available thanks to the sheer number of them that Apple sells and the subsequent 'hobbyists' that can't leave well enough alone.

I'd say that if you really want the sort of minimal management functionality that you crave, you should look at picking up an old iPod 5.5G (80GB) and plan on hacking it. Even then I'm not sure if that'll truly get you what you're looking for (but it'll all depend on what hacks you'll be able to find around the web).

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Which MP3 Player To Buy
May 17, 2009 6:45AM PDT

My personal favorite is the sansa MP3 (Sandisk) It does not come in an 80gb but it does allow you to add the micro sandisk for more space. The reason I like it, the battery life in playing mode last a long time, you can either use there program or just place the mp3 files in the music folder or use the windows media player. I have the 8gb for over 3 years with no problems, add the micro sandisk and it's still playing strong. In most Sansa Mp3 players you can replace the battery which I liked, I didn't like those where the battery was builded into the player. My daughter has the Ipod touch which I don't like at all, it took sometime for her to get use to it, she loved her sansa, the draw back she did not like with the Ipod touch is her battery didn't last as long as her sansa did, putting music on was not like putting it on the sansa player, where the ipod touch makes sure they keep some control on it, as to the sansa mp3 you have the control. Hope this helps. Cindy

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thanks!
May 17, 2009 9:42AM PDT

thanks for advice peeps!
actually that battery issue you mentioned is important, one thing that has kept me using my minidisc player is that its battery is an AA size rechargable battery, in an emergency I can just go buy an AA battery somewhere if it runs out!
@ make_or_break
if your wondering why all my stuff is ID3 free, its not all ID3 free, but a lot of it is. Ive been ripping mp3's from my cd collection for a few years! (its so i can use them with a virtual dj program) I dont need that ID3 stuff as the v dj program has its own datatbase, and I usually call the songs what I want to make it easier to remember them! Anyway I only got an internet connection at home recently so the option to automatically add ID3 info has only become available to me, even so, I still dont like it, the idea of letting windows media player or whatever access the internet, makes me uncomfortable!! also a lot of my stuff has been recorded from vinyl!
Anyway, over the years I have built up a HUGE library of mp3's (for djing) every now and again I look for a mp3 player in order to take advantage of them for portable music listening, I'd love to be able to take my entire collection with me in my pocket, at the moment I just have a bag with about 100 1Gb minidiscs in it!
I'll have a good long look at what sort of ipod hacking options there are out there, I reckon its my best bet

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Appreciate the explanation
May 19, 2009 6:10AM PDT

As a general DAP/PMP user I just couldn't contemplate why ID3 tag data wasn't used--especially on a player with a huge storage cap--but I think I get it now.

Good luck with your quest.