Minidisc/MP3 players

I

irisheyes40

Guest
I want to buy hubby one of the above for his birthday, I was originally thinking of a discman but have been informed by people younger than me that they are useless. He will probably mostly use it to listen to music while jogging or walking. Any advice please? I had a look in the Argos catalogue but got a bit lost in the specifications. I want some thing of decent quality but doesn't have to be top of the range. Neither of us is into gadgets.
 
Not sure if this applies to either MP3s/Minidiscs but I found a problem recently with my CD player This would definitely cause a problem with jogging.

I know others here feel that the optional insurance offered by possibly Argos is too expensive but I find it excellent especially in situations where it gets a lot of use such as jogging.
 
Depends on what you're looking for but if you're looking for a mini hard disk jukebox style device (rather than a smaller capacity flash memory based device) then Amazon.co.uk are doing a special on the 20GB Creative Jukebox 3 for a c. €250 (including VAT & delivery - depending on exchange rate that applies when posted to the credit card) including "free" FM radio receiver and remote in case that's of any use? I've seen these priced at over €400 locally. Its similar in functionality to an iPod style device with the main and possibly only drawback being it's somewhat bulkier appearance (like a portable CD player). I ordered one myself yesterday because herself insisted that I buy myself something for our anniversary! :)

[broken link removed]

One way or another I reckon you'll always be better off buying this sort of stuff online rather than on the Irish high streets. Make sure to buy from a reputable dealer and to factor in delivery costs, VAT etc. if necessary.
 
teh jukebox

I have the 20gb creative nomad, whilst swearing by them I wouldnt go jogging with it. So get yourself one of the smaller ones.
Try here for peats mp3 range. Pick one and see if you can get it cheaper elsewhere, theyre not always known for being the cheapest....

[broken link removed]
 
I missed the point about jogging - I'm not sure which, if any, hard disk based MP3 devices are suitable for jogging but I certainly wouldn't go around subjecting any hard disk to too much vibration or jolts. Another (relatively) cheap and cheerful alternative to small capacity flash based and higher capacity hard disk based MP3 players is a CD/MP3 player which allows you to dump loads of MP3/WMA tracks onto a single CD-R[W] and carry them around (as well as playing ordinary pre-recorded CDs). Argos have a few of these although again you may get better value online. Of course (as with all of these devices) you need a PC and (in this case) CD-R[W] capabilities etc. The Amazon.co.uk categorisation of MP3 devices is useful even if only for (virtual) window shopping:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obi...34-6510051

Of course if MiniDisc capabilities are definitely required then we haven't really addressed this at all so far...
 
Thanks for replies everyone. I suppose as I'm not very gadget orientated I was hoping for a bit of advice on which type of device to go for. He will probably use it mostly to copy CDs onto to listen to later. My line of thinking was that a minidisc might be better as he can store his CDs on minidiscs, as many as he wants whereas if I'm right with an MP3 player he would have to keep deleting to make room for new stuff. Is that right/
 
If he gets a hard disk MP3 player, he can get one large enough to store all his music (unless he has hundreds and hundreds of albums).
 
Maceface is correct. See the Amazon link that I posted earlier to get an idea of the different type of MP3 players available ... e.g.:

- Flash memory based devices, up to 1GB capacity
- Hard disk based devices over 1GB and up to 60GB these days (enough for most peoples' full record collection and more!)
- Both of the above can normally be used as general computer storage devices etc.
- CD/MP3 players for playing MP3s copied to a CD-R/CD-RW
- Some of these also have other bells and whistles built in (e.g. radio tuners etc.)
 
Hi Irisheyes,

I'm champion the Minidisc for a variety reasons:

Each minidisc can store approx 5 hours of music, enough to store about 6 or 7 of your favourite cd's. This, to be honest, is plenty of music to keep you going. If you need more, to carry around an extra disc or 2 is never going to be a big burden.

The new MD's being issued by Sony store (i think) one gig of data, which is a substantial amount of music.

The other big big problem with MP3 players is the record industry's crackdown on piracy. They are making it infinitely impossible to transfer music from purchased cd's onto MP3 players. While these copyright protections also affect digital transfer onto MD players, with MD you can record analogly (almost like the old days of 'tape to tape'), with reasonably perfect sound quality, and with no hassle.

I don't know why this problem of transferring music to mp3 players has not become more of an issue, especially amongst users who aren't PC gurus.

I use my MD player while jogging, and it rarely skips, so is ideal for that. It is especially fantastic for long journeys, in the car, plane or otherwise

Oh - the new MD players allow you to transfer music onto them with the same ease and speed as an MP3 player.

I guess as well, the idea of having your entire music collection with you at all times just doesn't appeal to me. I find that it you can frustrate yourself with this, by just skipping continuously over tracks, so never really listening to a full cd. But thats just a personal quirk. Having your current favourites with you is usually always enough.

One vote for the Minidisc please :)
 
> Each minidisc can store approx 5 hours of music, enough to store about 6 or 7 of your favourite cd's. This, to be honest, is plenty of music to keep you going. If you need more, to carry around an extra disc or 2 is never going to be a big burden.

A good rule of thumb is to allow about 4-5MB of storage for an average 3-4 minute track at 128kbps MP3 or about half that for 64kbps WMA. This means that one 650MB CD-R[W] used with a CD/MP3 player can hold more than 10 albums (up to 20 with WMA). Obviously Flash memory based devices (usually 64, 128, 256 MB or sometimes higher) are of more limited capacity. However hard disk based players (c. 4GB upwards) have much higher storage capacities for music and other data.

> The new MD's being issued by Sony store (i think) one gig of data, which is a substantial amount of music.

The thing I don't like about MiniDisc is the proprietary (Sony) only format which locks you into their technology/products and which doesn't seem to be as flexible as other alternatives - e.g. the Creative Jukebox 3 that I mentioned earlier can be used as a general purpose storage device for computer files, digital camera pictures etc.

> I don't know why this problem of transferring music to mp3 players has not become more of an issue, especially amongst users who aren't PC gurus.

I'm not sure that many CDs use copy protection to prevent (or attempt to prevent) ripping to digital formats.

> I use my MD player while jogging, and it rarely skips, so is ideal for that. It is especially fantastic for long journeys, in the car, plane or otherwise

As I mentioned earlier I'm not sure which if any hard disk based MP3 players are suitable for high impact activity. Flash memory ones definitely are though as they have no moving parts.

> Oh - the new MD players allow you to transfer music onto them with the same ease and speed as an MP3 player.

The advantage of MP3 players is that there are loads of free, open source and commercial applications that work with them if you don't like the software that's bundled with the package. I'm not sure that this would be the case with MiniDiscs?
 
irisheyes40 - if you don't really know much about this stuff but your husband does then you might be better off asking him or dropping hints to get a better idea of what HE would prefer. My wife kindly bought me a 256MB Flash memory based player in Dixons but, because she isn't into gadgets/technology herself, she didn't really know much about them or what I would prefer. That's why I went for the Creative device instead on Amazon given that Dixons have a 14 day no quibble money back guarantee which means that I can bring the other one back.
 
My wife kindly bought me a 256MB Flash memory based player
Click to expand...

I recently bought one of these for my brother-in-law, on eBay, for €42.28 incl. postage (in fact, half of the price was the postage : see [broken link removed]

If it's for jogging & walking, a yoke like that will easily store 4-5 of your average albums. And if you have a PC in the home & he's into burning his fave CDs to .mp3 format — not rocket science! — I'd heartily recommend this partick'lar solution... :D

Dr. M.
 
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