Author Topic: Cost of feeding an MP3 player? (Read 3659 times)

Perd Hapley · « **on:** August 31, 2010, 12:55:29 PM »

I'm thinking about getting a portable mp3 player. Probably a cheap Sandisk or RCA. About $30 or $40.

What kind of costs are involved in feeding this creature? Can it eat songs that I rip from my current CD collection?

AZRedhawk44 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2010, 12:57:54 PM »

IIRC, iPods require you to DRM anything you rip using their software. Not sure about Zune or other second tier players.

More generic 3rd tier MP3 players will play open-ripped MP3's. I have a bunch of my music library ripped using WinLAME, and I transfer things to my phone or other MP3 player device with no DRM problems.

41magsnub · « **Reply #2 on:** August 31, 2010, 01:05:14 PM »

My ipod will play any mp3 file just fine. They do not DRM what you rip, only what you buy on itunes. As an example, I imported part of my itunes library into my blackberry and only stuff that I imported off of CD or the straight mp3 files came over.

roo_ster · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2010, 01:10:27 PM »

Having owned two iPods, they are overpriced drek, IMO, and the software required to use them egregious.

Head to Fry's/Microcenter, buy the same capacity generic mp3 player for 1/5 the cost, and run with it. It will look like a thumb drive to your PC and will likely will be sen by Win or linux.

If you want something other than music, here are some free & legal sources:
http://www.openculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
http://librivox.org/
http://oyc.yale.edu/classics/introduction-to-ancient-greek-history/content/sessions.html

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2010, 01:12:10 PM »

I won't be shelling out for anything in the iPod price range. I'm looking at Sandisk and RCA models that run about 30-40 bucks.

bedlamite · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2010, 01:15:22 PM »

I have an Alpine CDA-105 in my truck that plays MP3's through a USB flash drive in the glove box.

Audiograbber with the LAME plugin works great for ripping CD's.

Stetson · « **Reply #6 on:** August 31, 2010, 01:48:32 PM »

I have a Zune that some well meaning but clueless soul got me.

It'll play anything I put on it. Ripped from my own library or bought from iTunes, it doesn't care.

Zune also comes with a radio, has some games in it I think, and has wireless sharing capabilities (havent explored that)

lupinus · « **Reply #7 on:** August 31, 2010, 02:28:04 PM »

IPod will play anything, ripped from your CD's or otherwise. But you need to use iTunes and it's either not possible or requires special handling to sync with anything but one iTunes library, as well as download songs from it to a computer. Wife has one and likes it but I personally wouldn't buy one for myself.

As for feeding one you have options. Rip your CD's to computer as MP3, this is doable with windows media player or anyone of countless free programs. You can also buy songs online and load them onto it. For this, I recommend Amazon. Good prices, no DRM crap, and good selection.

Cromlech · « **Reply #8 on:** August 31, 2010, 03:20:54 PM »

I still have my iRiver H300 40GB HDD player from 2005. You plug it in and it is recognised simply as a USB Hard Drive, which made things very simple.
No iTunes or anything like that, just copy over the MP3 or OGG or whatever.

I used CDex to rip my CDs to OGG.

Of course 5 years on I am sure you can get one better, cheaper, and more lightweight than mine.

Firethorn · « **Reply #9 on:** August 31, 2010, 04:05:23 PM »

Keep an eye out on Newegg and such. I have a 2GB sandisk and I love it.

Paid like $12 for it.

Mabs2 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 31, 2010, 04:19:44 PM »

I use Foobar to put mp3s on my iPod.

lee n. field · « **Reply #11 on:** August 31, 2010, 04:25:19 PM »

Quote

I'm looking at Sandisk and RCA models that run about 30-40 bucks.

I've tried a couple different RCAs. Both had a problem of not keeping their place in what ever mp3 I had on. Not a problem with a 3 minute pop song. A major problem with an hour lecture or podcast.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2010, 04:46:04 PM »

Well, thanks everybody, but never mind. What happened was that my wife bought me an iPod-sized HD radio for my birfday. I was thinking about exchanging it for an mp3 player, but the main problem with both devices is that neither of our car radios have an audio-in jack, and I'm just not into walking or driving with head phones on.

So, instead I just ordered one of these since I've been dying to have one:

My Dad really wants to try HD radio, so we'll give it to him. (Forgot his birthday last month.

)

Gowen · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2010, 04:55:34 PM »

I've owned two mp4 players now. The first one was a Creative Zen 4 gb player. I paid about $100 with shipping. It had a slot for a micro SD card. It lasted ONE year and died. The CSR person, said it wasn't worth the cost to repair. The one I have now, is a Philips 4 gb mp4 player. I paid $50 at Walmart. I plug it into my comp and treat it like it was another hard drive (i.e. right click on the music, movie or file and send to: Player). There is software that I use for ripping, but easier to send the files over. I listen to audio books mostly, I download them from the web or check out the CD's from the Library. Enjoy, I love mine. I listen to it everyday at work.

seeker_two · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2010, 11:11:46 PM »

I have a SanDisk/Sansa Fuse. 4GB internal + 4GB microSD. I have most of my CD collection, free podcasts, and a audiobook or two. Get most of my music & audiobooks at half-price stores, a few audiobooks from Audible.com, and the podcasts from various sites including iTunes. Windows Media Player manages it well.

Skip the iPod.....Get the Fuse....

MechAg94 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 01, 2010, 07:30:21 AM »

I have the cheap model Sansa 4 GB and 8 GB also. They can shuffle through a bunch of MP3 files just like an Ipod. You can also insert microSD cards for more storage. The newer models have FM radios. IMO, the battery lasts a hell of a lot longer and they are smaller, lighter, and easier to carry around since you care less about breaking them.

The only thing they don't do well is scroll through the list of songs in the memory to find a particular one. It is not an issue for me though.

Phantom Warrior · « **Reply #16 on:** September 01, 2010, 11:56:48 AM »

Winamp can push mp3s to an iPod. If I was stuck with iTunes I would have ditched my iPod years ago.

sanglant · « **Reply #17 on:** September 01, 2010, 10:05:40 PM »

mp3s you say? have some links.

http://www.head-fi.org
http://www.hisoundaudio.com/products_list.asp?id=163

MechAg94 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 02, 2010, 10:37:34 AM »

I believe there are cheap programs than rip CD's to mp3's. I think mine is Cdex or something like that.

cosine · « **Reply #19 on:** September 02, 2010, 10:41:59 AM »

I rip my CD's to mp3's using Windows Media Player, and just drop the new mp3's onto my Sansa Clip through Windows Explorer.

sanglant · « **Reply #20 on:** September 02, 2010, 04:54:00 PM »

i like eac for ripping. the newer releases use accurate rip. but it can be a

to setup. there home page is down right now.

wiki link. and wiki had a link to a reasonable setup guide. if you go flac, go ahead and use level 8 compression. it takes a little longer to compress but it saves as much space as possible and the file is still lossless. i use all2lame to encode to lossy formats as i need to. anybody have a link to a good freeware multithreaded flac encoder?

zxcvbob · « **Reply #21 on:** September 03, 2010, 02:56:54 PM »

I have a 3rd-generation iPod Nano that was given to me for Christmas a few years ago. I love it, although I go months at a time without using it sometimes. Just last month I found a really nice leather cover for it at the Dollar Store (the case only fits this one old model :D) I hate iTunes; especially the part where it makes you install Quicktime.

You can set a bit in the iPod configuration to use it like a USB harddrive. Then there are freeware apps that can manage your library without using iTunes. (you might want iTunes on one computer anyway for grabbing podcasts or listening to Internet Radio) I don't remember which one I'm using but it is installed on the iPod so I can run it from any PC to copy tracks to/from the iPod.

Ipod will play pretty much any MP3 file. It won't play WMA files, but iTunes can convert them to MP3. I haven't run into any DRM problems, but I also haven't bought any music from iTunes.

I'm fixin' to retire the CD player at church and replace it with an MP3 player (and rip CD tracks as we need them, then set up playlists for the services) Is there any reason to go with a used iPod, or is a new Sensa just as good for half the price? (I've also seen cheap no-name mp3 players for sale at Fleet Farm, but those might not have decent menus or might not be reliable) I like that the iPod has line-out thru the sync port, as well as headphone output. That makes it easier to patch thru the sound system w/o having to worry about volume settings.

BReilley · « **Reply #22 on:** September 07, 2010, 05:04:55 PM »

Quote from: seeker_two on August 31, 2010, 11:11:46 PM

I have a SanDisk/Sansa Fuse. 4GB internal + 4GB microSD. I have most of my CD collection, free podcasts, and a audiobook or two. Get most of my music & audiobooks at half-price stores, a few audiobooks from Audible.com, and the podcasts from various sites including iTunes. Windows Media Player manages it well.

Skip the iPod.....Get the Fuse....

The Fuse is great - mostly. I love it, it has good sound quality, is reasonably fast to transfer to, and was cheap - er, a better value than an iSomething :) I bought my Fuse 2G for $40 or $50 a little less than a year ago, from Costco(naturally, a the 4GB was available less than a month later for the same price...). It is great, can receive FM, is quite reliable and has very good battery life. It is also pretty easy to navigate through files with, although using some organization and using ID3 tags makes things vastly simpler. As mentioned, it becomes tedious to get through, say, long lists of podcasts or the main music folder.
Couple things to be aware of:
My Fuse, which sees heavy use in not-nice environments,(in a truck, in my pocket, on a forklift) has developed the extremely irritating habit of "refreshing media" if I put pressure in the wrong place - basically if the microSD slot gets squeezed just a little bit, which can happen if I push the "back" key with anything more than just a little force. My wife has an identical Fuse, which behaves itself just fine, probably because it hasn't been dropped/squashed/beaten up.
Using any larger than a 2GB card will cause the "refreshing media" step after file transfer or card swap to take forever. I mean, four or five minutes for an 8GB. Just a thought.

I heartily recommend Librivox, although your listening enjoyment is heavily dependent upon the volunteer reader's performance. For example, I recommend against "The Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft". Some of them(many stories, many readers) came out OK, but others("The Terrible Old Man") were positively mangled.

I've lately been listening to Free Talk Live's podcasts, about which I will soon start a discussion topic... they're thought-provoking, at least.

sanglant · « **Reply #23 on:** September 07, 2010, 05:37:53 PM »

just to through a cake into a chili cook off. if size isn't important and you are REALLY easy on your electronics there is the PSPgo, slide up screen ps2 level games and video. down sides are fragile, very picky on video files, and games have to be bought through sony .so there higher than umds. oh and no umd drive.

biggest flub sony has made in years, second only to disabling dual booting on the ps3. amazon for reviews, but walmart has it for 199

P.S. GT portable(or what ever they call it) is worth the system price.

but get someone to let you try it first if that's why your buying it. think ps1 gas and brake controls + ps2 steering on a pencil eraser.

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Author Topic: Cost of feeding an MP3 player? (Read 3659 times)