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A1 |
ok techies, I have got a question for you.
I have a tiny capacity cheap knockoff mp3 player. I would like to upgrade to something that also plays video. Ipod offers several mp3/video players that have 60, 80, or 160 GB that allow one to playback videos, listen to podcasts, thousands of songs, manage photos, etc. But, at $200-$300 they are pricey. I did some reading up on Microsoft's Zune which is being offered for under $100 on Amazon and has 80 GB capacity, but according to the reviews, doesn't seem as versatile as the Ipod or another brand called "Creative Vision". Does anyone have experience or knowledge about these brands? I would like to get the cheaper Zune, but i don't wanna be mad at myself later for buying a lame product that doesn't let me do whatever i wanna do with it. FYI, I have a long commute, I like talk radio, and I like podcasts. What product would you recommend for me? When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak Audre Lord |
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Bad Mother Fucker |
In my opinion, the Itunes system is a much better one than Windows Media Player... For example... when you rip a CD into Itunes and it one of those cd's that is a live album or one that has essentially continuous music playing so that you do not hear a gap between songs, Itunes will allow you to record as such... WMPlayer will not... it puts a 2 second gap between songs no matter what... To me this is terribly annoying...
If you burn cd's from Itunes the track and artist info can be burned onto the cd so that it will display on compatible players (some car stereos and home players) WMP will not do so... I have heard that WMP 11 will not talk to the Zune device, even though Zune is a Microsoft product... There are more peripheral devices that work with the Ipod than there are that work with Zune (holders, FM devices, etc), although there are more products coming out everyday for Zune... Although I am not sure about this, I think that you pay a certain amount of money per month to, in essence, rent the songs... If you stop paying, the songs go away... If you want to burn the songs to a cd, either you cannot or you have to pay an additional fee per song... I would check and make sure though... Once you buy music ion Itunes, it is yours to do with as you please... No additional fees... Overall I think the Ipod/Itunes system is a much better one... JMHO Peace, AudioGuy ************************************************* "I am African, not because I was born in Africa; but because Africa was born in me" -Anonymous "The cost of Liberty is less than the cost of repression." -W.E.B. DuBois, John Brown 1909 "... can you imagine Doobie in yo' funk??!!" -G. Clinton Sense is far from COMMON! ... The tragic irony here is that a lot of African Americans may not fully recognize the implications of this decision for years to come. Stop by any barbershop, barbeque or church basement in Black America and you will hear – with distressing frequency – that old canard that "integration" ruined the Black community. William Jelani Cobb ************************************************* |
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A2 |
I LOVE my Cowon D2!
When I was looking for a new player I really did my homework. This player had everything I wanted and more! It has FM Radio, a built-in microphone, USB storage (appears as a removable disk on my computer; I can store various documents on it!), a touch screen, AWESOME sound quality, and a vary vibrant screen! Videos POP on this bad girl.  And downloading music is a breeze; you're not beholden to any iTunes type software. Simply drag and drop! Long battery life too. And bookmarking. I absolutely need a bookmarking feature on any player I buy. I should mention that it's a flash player (no moveable parts inside) so the capacity is smaller than the typical hard drive player. I believe the largest capacity is 8gb but there's a slot for an expansion card. So a 16gb SDHC card would give you 24gbs of storage. I have a total of 10gbs which is fine for all my music, podcasts, videos, pictures, and text files. And when new features are added Cowon provides new firmware to install them. You just have to visit the website to download the firmware. I could go on.... Anyway, did I mention that I love my D2?  Nice D2 review video! You also might want to check out Anythingbutipod. It's not about hating on iPods, just a place you can go to find really good alternatives. There's even a Zune forum.
*********************************** "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -- James Baldwin |
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A2 |
I would recommend you get an Ipod. The Ipod is a superior product but rather than run through all the reasons why I will give you one simple reason to get one of the newer Ipods. The new Ipod have flash memory instead of a hard drive. Zunes are still using hard drives. Why is that important. Well flash memory will out last a hard drive by years and there is no worry about the mechanical failures that hard drive based mp3 players are subjected to. My first Ipod internal hard drive died in the same way a hard drive on a PC fails. The New Ipods, the Classic, The Touch and the video nano's all have flashed based memory. Go with one of them...
------------------------- There are Negroes who will never fight for freedom. There are Negroes who will seek profit for themselves from the struggle. There are even some Negroes who will cooperate with the oppressors. The hammer blows of discrimination, poverty, and segregation must warp and corrupt some. No one can pretend that because a people may be oppressed, every individual member is virtuous and worthy. Martin Luther King http://blackintrospection.com/ More to come later! Your Brother Faheem |
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A1 |
Thanks all. I was trying to decide between the Zune which can be purchased for 89.95 on Amazon and the Ipod Classic which is somewhat more expensive. Seems like Ipod is the way to go.
@Santana, I'll check out the D2 but that doesn't seem like a lot of memory. Do you listen to podcasts? When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak Audre Lord |
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A2 |
Yes, negrospiritual I do listen to podcasts, LOTS of them! (Any suggestions?)
But, I understand your reservations about the D2, the memory issue is a drawback for some people.I have a fetish for DAPs (digital audio players). I've owned five (never an iPod). The D2 was my last purchase, although I've bought Creative players for family members. I've owned them too. They're another excellent choice! I like the idea of making an informed choice, getting the product that gives me the most bang for the buck (as corny as that sounds). Hope you find the player that best suits your needs.  *********************************** "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -- James Baldwin |
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A1 |
that was one of the "cons" on the user reviews I read and that the software sometimes doesn't even work, and you're limited to what you can download. They are however, coming out with a new generation Zune this month. I wonder if some of these bugs have been worked out? BTW, I read that Zunes can "talk to each other" when they are in the same room. Is this true? How is this possible? and why would I want my MP3 player to mingle and have conversations? When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak Audre Lord |
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A2 |
It's more like sharing music with another Zune. I think you'd have to be within "beaming" distance of another Zune that is equipped with WiFi in order to swap music.
*********************************** "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -- James Baldwin |
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Bad Mother Fucker |
I am curious, why not the Ipod? Is there something about it that really turned you off? I don't work for apple or anything, but inquiring minds want to know... Peace, AudioGuy ************************************************* "I am African, not because I was born in Africa; but because Africa was born in me" -Anonymous "The cost of Liberty is less than the cost of repression." -W.E.B. DuBois, John Brown 1909 "... can you imagine Doobie in yo' funk??!!" -G. Clinton Sense is far from COMMON! ... The tragic irony here is that a lot of African Americans may not fully recognize the implications of this decision for years to come. Stop by any barbershop, barbeque or church basement in Black America and you will hear – with distressing frequency – that old canard that "integration" ruined the Black community. William Jelani Cobb ************************************************* |
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Bad Mother Fucker |
I read something yesterday where they said that it was not a "bug" but rather something that MS did intentionally... Something about keeping the product streams separate... The article also said that MS might be changing that thought process... AS SanStC said, any two Zune devices can "see" the playlist of another once they get within a certain number of feet of each other... You can then trade music back and forth... the only caveat is that once the music is traded, you only have 48 hours(? might be more) to listen to the music w/o then purchasing it... If you do not, it automatically gets erased... Peace, AudioGuy ************************************************* "I am African, not because I was born in Africa; but because Africa was born in me" -Anonymous "The cost of Liberty is less than the cost of repression." -W.E.B. DuBois, John Brown 1909 "... can you imagine Doobie in yo' funk??!!" -G. Clinton Sense is far from COMMON! ... The tragic irony here is that a lot of African Americans may not fully recognize the implications of this decision for years to come. Stop by any barbershop, barbeque or church basement in Black America and you will hear – with distressing frequency – that old canard that "integration" ruined the Black community. William Jelani Cobb ************************************************* |
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A2 |
I've never been crazy about its "sexy" design or "wow" factor. Also, I'm a bit turned off by the marketing. It's like you're not hip or cool, if you're not plugged up to an iPod. I don't always follow the herd anyway. In a room of audiophiles, I would be the one not wearing white earbuds. Not because I want to be a nonconformist, but because I don't want a slick marketing campaign, or society suggesting I'd be a whole lot hipper if I looked just like them. I actually enjoy doing a little research. Slick marketing of popular products negate this process. The status quo seems to be if everyone's listening to, wearing, riding, reading, watching the same thing then it must be because it's the best of it's kind out there. Gosh, there are loads of really good items out there that don't get their due because marketing isn't as aggressive, or because people don't take the time to investigate other options, and instead go for the okey doke, or one-size fits all approach. Again, I also like the fact that with all of my DAPs I could download music and podcasts with ease from various sources by simply dropping and dragging files. And these players always support more than one type of file. Also, I don't need a lot of accessories to pimp my player because the bells and whistles are already built-in. *********************************** "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -- James Baldwin |
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A2 |
I haven't had personal experience with either of them but the Zune looks like it has a bigger screen to me and I admit I'm cheap. It looks like they are dropping the price like it is a discontinued model. Admittedly the ipod has a bigger drive but how much time do you have to watch or listen in a day or a week. You delete and replace what you have seen or heard already. 30 gig is pretty big unless you have a whole lot of video.
I would probably go with the $90 Zune but I would research them more than I have so far. Screen size counts for a lot if you are going to watch videos a lot. It's like the ipod has the controls too big for the sake of the ipod STYLE. I have this:  http://www.lordpercy.com/archos_pma400_review.html But it is a Linux computer and I have downloaded a book reader and other stuff. It is discontinued too and I got it off ebay. The drive is 30 gig, 50 would be better but 80 would not be much better than 50. I use it as an ebook reader with background music more than anything else. umbra |
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Black Ceasar |
Santana McCloud, about this D2 player, it has an FM radio, but can it record radio broadcasts? I remember catching mixes on V103(WVEE-FM) back in college. And sometimes I like to hear mixes from radio stations, the Steve "Silk" Hurley mixes from the Tom Joyner Morning Show or hip-hop/rock-n-roll mixes from Skratch-n-Sniff with Malcolm and Mike Czech. I know Zune has an FM radio, but it can't record radio broadcasts. I'm kinda confused about what type I want myself. Until I find something, I may get the iPod, simply because you can get attachments for it on your car stereo, which can be great on road trips, especially when you can't get your favorite radio station. "There are two things that are infinite, human stupidity and the universe...and I'm not too sure about the universe." --Albert Einstein |
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A2 |
Huey, yes you can record from the radio at up to 256kbs. The file will be saved in wma format not mp3 format. A timer can be set for automatic recording. (I've never used the feature, though.)
*********************************** "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -- James Baldwin |
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Founder |
What's the screen like? I'm looking for something to display digital photos with.
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A2 |
MBM, the screen is pretty awesome. (I love watching high quality videos on it!) Extremely vivid "24 bit (16 million) colors" most other video players are 16 bit (64K colors) or 18 bit (260K colors). Screen size is only 320x240 (2.5"). That might be too small for some, but I think it's the same size as the video iPod.
Here's more info on the screen: The supported format for the image viewer is JPEG, and there are no size limits. It is possible to zoom and rotate images, or pan and scan around them. Pan and scan works very well (this is where the touch screen really makes for a useful interface), and it's also possible to run a slide show. The speed of the slide show is adjustable and can be paused or stopped. Music playback continues while viewing images. In thumbnail view, the D2 displays twelve small images at once on its screen. Building the thumbnails is rather fast and takes less than a second for a photo taken with a five-megapixel camera. Loading full-sized images is fast, too: less than two seconds. Images can be set as wallpaper and will show up on all screens of the interface. All in all, the image viewer is really well executed, with only one obvious flaw: images can't be deleted directly from the player. Seems like another oversight in the firmware, since audio and video files can be deleted from the D2. abi. *********************************** "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." -- James Baldwin |
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Bad Mother Fucker |
Well Santana, you have definitely got me thinking... If I didn't get my Ipod free I might have considered the device you recommended...
Itunes as a music management program is still superior to anything Microsoft based... and it free... Peace, AudioGuy ************************************************* "I am African, not because I was born in Africa; but because Africa was born in me" -Anonymous "The cost of Liberty is less than the cost of repression." -W.E.B. DuBois, John Brown 1909 "... can you imagine Doobie in yo' funk??!!" -G. Clinton Sense is far from COMMON! ... The tragic irony here is that a lot of African Americans may not fully recognize the implications of this decision for years to come. Stop by any barbershop, barbeque or church basement in Black America and you will hear – with distressing frequency – that old canard that "integration" ruined the Black community. William Jelani Cobb ************************************************* |
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B1 |
Hmmmm.
 I haven't had any problems thus far moving music from my PowerBook/iPod to my Windoze box at work. I'll have to try it again to see what folks are talking about, because thus far I've been able to convert and post at will. ------------------------------ DOMS is my friend.  |
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A1 |
Is it a big deal if one doesn't have access to Itunes? When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak Audre Lord |
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A1 |
NS, why wouldn't you have access to iTunes? You can download it right from itunes.com, and it's free. If u have access to a computer, u have access to iTunes.
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