Post #68,192
12/11/02 3:58:50 PM
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MP3 player suggestions?
My wife needs an MP3 player for our weekly jogs around a local lake. (Green, for you Seattlites) Something not horribly expensive, we don't need features out the yin/yang, just MP3 (and hopefully Ogg) compatability, 64mb, and something that can take getting wet occasionally. Oh, and light. And VERY definitely reliable. I don't want to be buying her another one in six months.
Any suggestions?
"...the middle of fighting a war against religious extremism is not the time to do something offensive to God." - Some idiot.
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Post #68,198
12/11/02 4:24:05 PM
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Some possibilities
As always, the iPod would be the ultimate....but for <$100 you should be able to get a flash-based player with a removable media slot (typically SM or SD/MMC, occasionally MS or CF). Reliability shouldn't be a problem with a flash-memory player; I haven't had any reliability problems with my MPMan.
How much music depends on compression; I can get about 2.5 hours of music into 96M with 56K bps compression, which sounded fine to me 95% of the time -- but you might feel differently.
Get something with either a belt clip or arm band (e.g. SonicBlue NikePlay, $90 refurb older model, $200 new model).
Good starting points would be a large retailer (e.g. Fry's) or on-line store with a big selection, e.g. here's an [link|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/290436/ref=br_bx_c_1_3/103-6322146-3109422|Amazon link]
Tony
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Post #68,209
12/11/02 4:53:38 PM
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The Nike armband thing.
I've been reading up on MP3 players - I'm seeing a lot of comments about that Nike puck as basically being an unreliable piece of shite that gets RMAed about every three months. Buyer beware.
I'm shying away from the whole iPod thing because of the additional weight associated with the hard drive, plus jogging is a lot of up 'n down shocks - which would probably negatively impact the hard drive's long term reliability.
"...the middle of fighting a war against religious extremism is not the time to do something offensive to God." - Some idiot.
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Post #68,199
12/11/02 4:34:07 PM
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You jog around the lake for a week? Cool!
Sorry.
Umm, for 64 meg of compressed musical goodness, I just use my [link|http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,5184,126,00.html|Phone]. Sure, it's not cutting edge, tiny, or available in the US for that matter. But hey, it was cheap. :)
John. Busy lad.
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Post #68,217
12/11/02 5:15:26 PM
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Re: MP3 player suggestions?
Cassette players are cheap
I'd rather go w/ an mp3 CD player <$80 and holds up to 700 MB per CD
A
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Post #68,245
12/11/02 7:40:13 PM
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That follows my own thinking
The RAM-based kit is expensive without much room, but very very shock-resistant.
The hdd-based kit is expensive with much much room, but not very shock-resistant.
The cd-based kit is cheap with much room, and reasonably shock-resistant.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #68,290
12/11/02 10:36:46 PM
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And CD-ROM is quite bulky
That's why my MP3 players are either flash-based (cheap & small for exercise, etc) or HDD-based (where size isn't important, e.g. car).
Also, according to their specs, small HDD's are very shock resistant. Real world might be different, but, for example, I don't recall seeing any huge discussion of shock problems with Microdrives on the photo sites I frequent.
A bigger reason to skip ANY kind of expensive MP3 player for athletic stuff is the much higher risk of loss or damage.
Tony
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Post #68,221
12/11/02 5:21:22 PM
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Yes - avoid MP3s :)
-drl
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Post #68,327
12/12/02 2:26:31 AM
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2c.
Well, firstly Ogg Vorbis support is Still Coming. Experience on the [link|http://www.xiph.org/archives/vorbis/masterindex.html|mailing list] suggests most manufacturers aren't rushing to Vorbis. The key problem is that many of them have been made with MPEG decoding chips which means the CPU can be much smaller and cheaper. Vorbis therefore currently requires a hefty CPU by comparison. That said, the prospect is [link|http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/hardware.html|looking brighter all the time].
Secondly, if you want the one real format designed for things like jogging, you want MiniDisc. It does require an investment in the format, however, as it is a consumer audio format, not a computer peripheral. This means you can't copy your MP3s to a MD; it doesn't work that way. That said, most MiniDisc recorders will record digital audio from a CD player and AFAIK the "MD-LP" mode will get you about 140 minutes on a MiniDisc (that's twice normal) or double again if you don't mind some audible degradation. The best way to think of MiniDisc, BTW, is all the advantages of a CD (i.e. digital audio, random access, robust media) with all the advantages of a cassette (i.e. recordable, robust media) with some neat tricks of it's own, i.e. track labelling.
Wade.
"Ah. One of the difficult questions."
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