I've never owned an MP3 or any such music holding device. I have always burned CD's and played them. I would like to start using one this summer on the boat. I have a bunch of CD's to download onto it and want to download some of the current music that I would never buy the whole CD of. I have a power supply and port on the stereo for a player to plug into. Is the Ipod the only real choice? I want easy to use and easy to download to. I really don't have a price in mind. I imagione it will cost around $400?
MP3 advice
- Thread starter CYKID
- Start date
I plan to get a Zune HD. The wife has an iPod (older one as a hand-me-down) and we really hate iTunes as software so that's our motivation to get a MP3 player that is not an iPod.
EDIT: As linked below product line is dead.
EDIT: As linked below product line is dead.
Last edited:
Report: The Zune is no more – New Tech Gadgets & Electronic Devices | Geek.com
Samsung makes some nice android tablets and is supposed to be coming out with an android mp3 player that is similar to the ipod touch.
Me and itunes don't get along. Especially since I still buy cd's (on the rare occasions I buy), and itunes hates the fact that I like to store my library somewhere else other than my hard drive of my computer and the fact of taking the songs off actually bought cd with itunes still doesn't jive. I guess I'm just not a fan of itunes at all
#1 Go buy a Ipod Classic(160gb) for $249 and you'll never have to worry about having enough space.
#2 Download Itunes for free. Make sure your settings are for MP3 and not AAC. It will make it a lot easier in the future if you ever decided to switch to non apple products.
#3 Convert your current CD's to MP3 format. Do them in 320kbps. You may not be able to tell the difference but you have plenty of space.
#4 You have many choices from where to buy new songs but Amazon is a good choice. Just buy them from Amazon and stick them in your Itunes folder on your PC.
#5 Create a backup solution. Back up the Itunes folder to another drive.
#2 Download Itunes for free. Make sure your settings are for MP3 and not AAC. It will make it a lot easier in the future if you ever decided to switch to non apple products.
#3 Convert your current CD's to MP3 format. Do them in 320kbps. You may not be able to tell the difference but you have plenty of space.
#4 You have many choices from where to buy new songs but Amazon is a good choice. Just buy them from Amazon and stick them in your Itunes folder on your PC.
#5 Create a backup solution. Back up the Itunes folder to another drive.
Can you adjust where iTunes saves things on the Windows version? I know you can do it from within the Mac version (or just set up a symbolic link to whatever directory you really want things in if you're UNIX inclined).
For 1/4 the price you can get a Sansa with expandable memory and you don't have to mess with itunes.
I didn't know that was possible. Good to know. Would have save me a lot of headaches if I had known that up front instead of having to use a converter just to use some of my Itunes songs in picasa movie maker etc.
Yes, you can change it. I don't know about changing it to a network drive but I have an SSD as my C drive and didn't want my songs taking up all kinds of space so I now have them pointed to my 1TB drive. I then have acronis do a back-up to another 1TB drive that I have installed on the same PC.
I'm not a big Apple fan but I really don't have any problems with Itunes. It's easy to use and allows me to do everything I need to do.
Your right though, you can get a lot of different players for less money than the Ipod. Just remember that there are times when the Ipod does come in handy. Since it's the most popular player a lot of things only work with the Ipod. For example, my new car has the option for Ipod intergeneration. This won't work with other devices.
If I was starting all over I may try a different player like the Sansa but right now I know the Itunes software well, don't won't to learn something new, have a lot of accessories that will only work with my Ipod, the Ipod classic does everything I need it to do, etc.
All true. Which is why I said "if you don't have apple stuff already". If the stereo on his boat already has an iPod specific connection that would be the way to go.
The boat has an accessory port like a headphone jack. It also has two or three slots for discs.(never heard of an MP3 disc) It looks like my SD card fits in there and the others look like a computer jack. Its nothing fancy. I just have this problem of film(moisture) building up on my CD's and not playing correctly. It will also be nice to not have a whole bunch of CD's on the boat. Do they have a waterproof cover for the MP3 player? I really haven't had a problem getting the XM receiver wet so it will probably be OK. Should I buy an external drive for my music so when the day comes to get a new computer I can just switch it? Am I better off buying CDS still and uploading them or is the pricing better by buying the albums as a download? I can see this is going to be a huge project but a necessary one.
I'd say it's easier to keep music on an external drive (or an easily removable internal) for precisely the reason you mentioned. I'm backwards (probably), but I like to buy music on CD because I can then rip it at the audio quality it's at on the disk, rather than worrying about download times for higher audio quality files. Plus I like record stores (when I can find them).
Am I the only one who uses my phone as a music player? Depending on how much storage you want, but any new phone can use up to 32GB expandable memory.
