MP3 Player (what to buy)?

Pradeep

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Looking at a SanDisk Sansa c150 2 GB MP3 Player for my son's 10th.

It mentions it's PlaysForSure compatible. Does it still allow dragging and dropping of mp3s via Explorer?
 

LiamC

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Why the hell can't software work this easily? What sort of god-forsaken netherworld are we in for with HDMI?

Because your a pirate! Or a potential one. Bend over and prepare thyself for an extended butt reaming!

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20071013

Seriously, many idiots can follow simple instructions posted on the 'net on how to copy DVD/CD's. So the organisations that have the most to lose, are trying desperately to protect their revenue streams and business models. I hate HDCP and it's one reason why I'm staying out of that game.
 

Fushigi

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Looking at a SanDisk Sansa c150 2 GB MP3 Player for my son's 10th.

It mentions it's PlaysForSure compatible. Does it still allow dragging and dropping of mp3s via Explorer?
It's my understanding that all of the Sansas support drag-n-drop as well as syncing via WMP. Page 9 of the manual for the c100 series (pdf) seems to confirm this.

The c100 series is listed as older so you may want to consider a c200 series player. The 250 costs $10-15 more but offers an expansion slot and a removable, i.e. user replaceable, battery.
 

Fushigi

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Because your a pirate! Or a potential one.
Guilty until proven innocent. That's the RIAA way. I don't think I've ever seen an organization so openly hostile towards it's customer base and what amazes me more is that people take it in stride.
 

LiamC

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Not sure if it's related to the comic I linked but...

..."
Kwik-Fit, an Edinburgh-based chain of car repair garages, has been slapped with a bill for £200,000 in damages simply because its mechanics switched on their radios.​
The lawsuit has been brought by the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers.​
The PRS says Kwik-Fit mechanics were using personal radios while at work and the music (which is protected by copyright) could be heard by colleagues and customers. This act of playing or performing music in public renders the firm guilty of copyright infringement."...​

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/10/15/mechanics-sued-listening-radio
 

Pradeep

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It's my understanding that all of the Sansas support drag-n-drop as well as syncing via WMP. Page 9 of the manual for the c100 series (pdf) seems to confirm this.

The c100 series is listed as older so you may want to consider a c200 series player. The 250 costs $10-15 more but offers an expansion slot and a removable, i.e. user replaceable, battery.

Thanks Fushigi. Ended up going with a 1GB Sansa c240. About $46, has the FM tuner and voice recording. Single AAA battery. Certainly hard to beat value wise when compared to the products with the "Apple tax" on it. Of course now the youngest is jealous and wants one as well :)
 

Stereodude

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I'll have to hold off on buying a new MP3 player for a little while since I just bought a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray reader combo drive for my HTPC for almost $300. :eek:

I suppose by the time the Zune80 comes out I'll be ready to buy again. :) (assuming it doesn't suck like the iPod Classic)
 

Fushigi

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I bit the bullet yesterday. Factors:

1. It would be cutting it too close to wait for the View. With it hitting stores (apparently) Oct. 31 and us leaving town Nov. 2 that's just not enough time to get things sorted and we've a lot of last-minute stuff to do.
2. I was also thinking about whether or not we'd truly use the player after vacation so getting something a little cheaper was reasonable. No one appears to be discounting the View by more than a few bucks making the cost per GB of the player similar enough between the 8GB e280 and the 16GB View.
3. To confirm the Sansa was the right choice I checked out the Creative units. They have a totally sucky UI, specifically the Zen Vision:M and Vision:W. Really clunky compared to SanDisk.

Of all places OfficeMax had the e280 on their site for $129.99 so I printed that page & took it to a store, which carries it for $149.99. They price matched their own web site & then I used one of the $10-off-$50 cards that OfficeMax sends me every couple of months to get the price down to $120.

To bump the RAM to 10GB I picked up a 2GB MicroSD card. Dang those things are tiny!

(I love having places like Fry's, TigerDirect, and MicroCenter along my daily commute. They're sure a lot more useful than the 6 Dunkin Donuts I drive past along the same route.)

The MicroSD slot & the e280 show up as 2 different removable drives in XP & Vista. In XP I had to drag 'n' drop to the mSD but within Vista I could Sync to it within WMP. Of course WMP (version 11 on both) would sync to the e280 on either system. SanDisk has videos on their site to walk you through various setup routines, which is good as the printed "manual" is 1 two-sided sheet of paper and that covers multiple languages.

A mini-USB connector would have been better than the proprietary connector they use but I can live with it. An AC adapter would have also been nice but I can get an AC-USB adapter easily enough.

I've filled the mSD and about 3GB of the main RAM with some of my music, leaving the other 5GB for my wife. It'll be easier for her to just sync within WMP & not worry about the mSD.

To finish up we'll pick up a good pair of noise-canceling headphones for her (recommendations welcome!) within the next day or two. Maybe for me as well, although we might just share.

Depending on how much we like the e280 I still may get the View so we'd each have a player of our own. But at this point I'm content to wait & see how much we'll actually use it. And the View would probably make a sweet Christmas present. ;-)
 

Fushigi

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Son of a ... It shows available at all 6 local BB stores.

Oh well. As I said before if we like the e280 I'll let my wife keep it & pick up the View for myself.
 

Fushigi

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Got the 16GB View last night as an early Christmas gift. :) Not a surprise gift, but we have an agreement: I don't buy jewelry for her without her being present & she won't buy electronics for me unless I'm there or have provided an exact brand/model for what I want.
 

Fushigi

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At 4GB capacity I'd prefer a no-moving-parts, i.e. flash memory, device like the Sansa e260. The Sansa has a larger screen and looks like it's physically smaller. Of course, with a Sansa View for me and an e280 for my wife I'm biased, but I'd definitely give pause before buying a drive-based player with a sub-30GB capacity.
 

Mercutio

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One of my clients gave me a 2GB iPod nano. He couldn't figure out how to work it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.
 

Stereodude

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One of my clients gave me a 2GB iPod nano. He couldn't figure out how to work it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.
Ok... That's just sad. As much as I like to bash and hate on Apple if there's anything that true of an iPod it's that it's very easy to use.
 

Mercutio

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I don't know. iTunes is pretty bad if you're someone who has only ever used Windows. A lot of the UI stuff doesn't work the same way.
 

Stereodude

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I don't know. iTunes is pretty bad if you're someone who has only ever used Windows. A lot of the UI stuff doesn't work the same way.
Oh... That's different then. He doesn't like iTunes, not that he couldn't figure out the actual player.
 

snowhiker

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Thread necro.

I want a dedicated MP3 player. NOT an app on a smartphone that I don't have. No ipod/itunes/ifruit. I know I'm living in the stone age, but that's all I want.

No proprietary crap. Simply want to plug MP3 player into my computer with a USB2 cable and drag-n-drop files onto player from explorer, without having to download drivers or install crap on Win7. Done. Regular headphone jack, no dongles. AM/FM radio would be a nice additional feature but not necessary. Lots of non-HDD storage. Maybe Micro SD slot. Regular/replaceable batteries if available.

I have a 12 year old Creative Nano 1GB that's almost good enough, but; 1) 1GB not enough storage, 2) Needs proprietary program to copy files to it.

Any suggestions? Much thanks.
 

Chewy509

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No idea, locally, the only dedicated MP3 players are either from Sandisk or Sony (and Apple). Philips still advertise a 2015 based model, but it looks awfully similar to a Sandisk...

In saying that, the Sandisk Clip Sport meets all requirements, except no MicroSD slot and has a fixed battery, but has 16GB onboard.

IIRC, most recent MP3 players all use either UMS or MTP, both are widely supported on Win7+/Linux/OSX, etc, so connectivity shouldn't be an issue. (Windows 7 will need the most recent version of Windows Media Player installed to enable MTP support).

I'm pretty sure most have migrated to using their phones, so there isn't a lot of choice unfortunately...
 

LunarMist

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No idea, locally, the only dedicated MP3 players are either from Sandisk or Sony (and Apple). Philips still advertise a 2015 based model, but it looks awfully similar to a Sandisk...

In saying that, the Sandisk Clip Sport meets all requirements, except no MicroSD slot and has a fixed battery, but has 16GB onboard.

IIRC, most recent MP3 players all use either UMS or MTP, both are widely supported on Win7+/Linux/OSX, etc, so connectivity shouldn't be an issue. (Windows 7 will need the most recent version of Windows Media Player installed to enable MTP support).

I'm pretty sure most have migrated to using their phones, so there isn't a lot of choice unfortunately...

The later Sansa are crap. I have the Sport and it is five steps backwards from the Clip+ 8GB with the slot. :(
 
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