Ipod questions

[BMR]

As far as headphones go I just bought some CREATIVE EP-630 Earphones off ebay and they are fantastic, I agree the ipod earphones are rubbish, but these really are very very good and in black not sissy white like the ipod gear cost about £6.00 and well worth it.

 

[Amanda P]

I'm with Goo. I've had an IRiver for four or five years.

You can drag and drop music to it just using Windows Explorer/My Computer/whatever your version of Windows calls it.

Sound quality is miles better than on an Ipod whatever compression you use, or none, and whatever you use to listen to it with (headphones, hi-fi etc).

You can use it as a high quality recorder with an external microphone, and record direct to compressed files or lossless ones.

It will play almost any format - wav, cda, ogg, wma, or mp3 at whatever compression you've set.

Mine did pack up, so I bought another one on Ebay and cannibalised it to produce a sort of FrankenRiver, plus a bag full of spares. (If yours packs up, Goo, get in touch - I'll either have it for bits or swap you some of mine).

I've nothing against Ipods, just that my gadget is better, but less fashionable. When IRiver produce something with 40 gb plus again, I'll buy it.

 

[goo_mason]

I'm with Goo. I've had an IRiver for four or five years.

You can drag and drop music to it just using Windows Explorer/My Computer/whatever your version of Windows calls it.

Sound quality is miles better than on an Ipod whatever compression you use, or none, and whatever you use to listen to it with (headphones, hi-fi etc).

You can use it as a high quality recorder with an external microphone, and record direct to compressed files or lossless ones.

It will play almost any format - wav, cda, ogg, wma, or mp3 at whatever compression you've set.

Mine did pack up, so I bought another one on Ebay and cannibalised it to produce a sort of FrankenRiver, plus a bag full of spares. (If yours packs up, Goo, get in touch - I'll either have it for bits or swap you some of mine).

I've nothing against Ipods, just that my gadget is better, but less fashionable. When IRiver produce something with 40 gb plus again, I'll buy it.

Cheers Uncle Phil - I'll remember that !

 

[Rob S]

4 years ago I bought a 20Gb iRiver ihp-120, which is still going strong and the battery will still do me for days without a recharge. It's from the pre-colour screen days, but it's a solid workhorse with great features and you can drag and drop from your PC. It also has multi-format file-type support, so it'll play those weird'n'wonderful file formats that an iPod won't.

Seconded...or maybe thirded by now...I love my iHP 120 too.

An iPod may have been more stylish even then but the iRiver was very usefully feature packed with amazing sound it's built in encoder and the inline remote with backlit LCD and remote access to every adjustment that could be done on the main unit.

 

[goo_mason]

Seconded...or maybe thirded by now...I love my iHP 120 too.

An iPod may have been more stylish even then but the iRiver was very usefully feature packed with amazing sound it's built in encoder and the inline remote with backlit LCD and remote access to every adjustment that could be done on the main unit.

I don't know though - I've never found the iPod attractive-looking. From the first time I ever saw one I just thought it looked old-fashioned and ugly. It was too sterile-looking.

You used to get regular firmware updates to the iRiver too, which was better than Apple ever did in those days. And there's a 3rd-party OS called RockBox which you can install instead of the iRiver OS (if you wanted to do that, that is).

 

[Fnaar]

I just use my phone... 2 gig card in, fits loads of songs, internet, youtube, calculator, google maps, documents, spreadsheets, email, I can play dalek noises on it to scare children... loads and loads more

 

[col]

Well this is what iv decided on getting,it does everything i want,and i didnt like the idea of being limited in having to go through itunes,though my son does with his shuffle(fantastic little thing by the way)here is a link see what you think?

http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=17810

 

[goo_mason]

Well this is what iv decided on getting,it does everything i want,and i didnt like the idea of being limited in having to go through itunes,though my son does with his shuffle(fantastic little thing by the way)here is a link see what you think?

http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=17810

Looks nice.

Mind you, my new phone was 8Gb and I added an 8Gb microSD-HC card for £14.99 to bring it up to 16Gb. Free phone + £15 means I have something which is: a music player / phone / sat nav / GPS / games machine / web browser / WiFi- compatible / video recorder & player with TV out / Skype phone / 8Mp camera for less than the price of a round in the pub

Bit of a convergence device really.

 

[col]

Looks nice.

Mind you, my new phone was 8Gb and I added an 8Gb microSD-HC card for £14.99 to bring it up to 16Gb. Free phone + £15 means I have something which is: a music player / phone / sat nav / GPS / games machine / web browser / WiFi- compatible / video recorder & player with TV out / Skype phone / 8Mp camera for less than the price of a round in the pub

Bit of a convergence device really.

My phone is similar,no where near the memory,but i could up that with a card if i wanted,but its just a good phone for me really,i want the screen size and memory for alsorts.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I've put roughly half of my CDs on my new Ipod and I'm already up to 7.5 gb. An 8gb MP3 player would be no use whatever to me.

 

[col]

I've put roughly half of my CDs on my new Ipod and I'm already up to 7.5 gb. An 8gb MP3 player would be no use whatever to me.

I dont think ill ever fill it with songs,im going to put photos and small films of my family,but because i dont have a large collection of music ,8 gb is more than enough for me,and i will be podcasting too,its the quality of sound im after as well which ill let you know what its like when i get it charged.MLML has just walked in with it,but im at work at 12,and it takes a first charge of 4 hours,so i cant charge it till sunday afternoon now,aaah It also has a radio too,and live listening is what i enjoy so im looking forward to seeing how it performs,good reports are what i ve seen so cant wait

 

[goo_mason]

I dont think ill ever fill it with songs,im going to put photos and small films of my family,but because i dont have a large collection of music ,8 gb is more than enough for me,and i will be podcasting too,its the quality of sound im after as well which ill let you know what its like when i get it charged.MLML has just walked in with it,but im at work at 12,and it takes a first charge of 4 hours,so i cant charge it till sunday afternoon now,aaah It also has a radio too,and live listening is what i enjoy so im looking forward to seeing how it performs,good reports are what i ve seen so cant wait

Does that mean you're becoming a podcaster yourself, or you'll be listening to podcasts ?
<shameless plug alert> Might I humbly suggest the Three From Leith podcast (www.threefromleith.com) as a good starting point for listening to ? </shameless plug alert>

 

[domtyler]

If anyone does need to convert their WMA files to MP3 then try MediaMonkey. It's free. And works!

 

[Carwash]

If anyone does need to convert their WMA files to MP3 then try MediaMonkey. It's free. And works!

But if you have the original CD, you're much better off re-ripping straight to MP3. Transcoding from one lossy format to another will result in a poor-quality file.

 

[col]

Does that mean you're becoming a podcaster yourself, or you'll be listening to podcasts ?
<shameless plug alert> Might I humbly suggest the Three From Leith podcast (www.threefromleith.com) as a good starting point for listening to ? </shameless plug alert>

No im not doing it,i wouldnt know where to start anyway,but i want to download what i find interesting and listen ,ill give that a look too