Husband just bought an MP3 digital player -- so what's the difference

[Radio_Lady]

between that an an iPod?

What are the advantages? Disadvantages?

I'm getting a lot of input from him, but not sure I want to be an "early adopter"!

Let's hear about it!

[ghostsofgiants]

1. Capacity, design and features, basically.

Depends on what brand and model his is.

[Radio_Lady]

5. This is a SanDisk "Sansa" m200 Series MP3 Player.

I just hear the FM from one of the local stations. Sounds OK.

[Junkdrawer]

21. Got one for my boy - great battery life. There is one bug....

if you rip and load with MediaPlayer 9, it doesn't get the album play order right by default - the songs on an album will play alphabetically by name instead of by the order on the album.

We found an audio-tag editor that fixed the play order of his whole MP3 directory on his hard drive.

[Deja Q]

2. MP3s are more portable. No DRM crap.

Don't share with people though.

[Radio_Lady]

3. Okay, HypnoToad. What's DRM???

I'm a clueless broadcaster. Things are moving along at a great rate, and I just finally retired my cassette player.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Digital rights management.

Basically constraints imposed by iTunes (or any other copmany) as to how you can use a song that you buy from them.

[Radio_Lady]

8. Thanks. Now, can I take the CDs that I already own and put them

on the new machine -- just for my own personal use? Or do I own those companies another fee?

Appreciate your walking me through this. We're going on a European vacation and my husband is encouraging me not to take my disk player with me, in favor of this new little gadget.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[leeroysphitz]

12. Radio_Lady.... As for CD's that you have purchased

You have the right to copy music you have purchased. There isn't any "gray" area there. You do not owe anyone any additional fees. If you have music on a vinyl record but want to hear it in your car that only has a tape deck it is legal for you to copy the record onto tape. Same thing goes with CD to MP3 player. It isn't illegal until you start making those copies available to everybody else online.

[ghostsofgiants]

13. Yeah, you can take your cds and rip them to mp3 format.

iTunes (which you can download for free from www.apple.com) will do it for you, and it's supposed to be pretty simple to use. I use a program called CDex, personally, but that's a bit more advanced than maybe you would want.

You can download music for free as well, but that's frowned upon in RIAA jurasdiction. So you might want to avoid that route. Or, if you want to download, and avoid the RIAA, try searching for the album that the song is on using RIAA Radar first. It'll tell you whether it's RIAA safe or not.

Glad to help. :)

[Radio_Lady]

19. R.I.P for my 500 cassettes and more than 200 CDs. What's next?

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

26. Big Brother doesn't like that

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004409.php

[ghostsofgiants]

27. Ugh...

That's fucking ridiculous.

[leeroysphitz]

4. Intellectual property is theft.

Share it ALL.

[Radio_Lady]

10. Could you explain this to me? Can you record off the FM radio with these?

Where does intellectual property theft begin?

I know that the movie publicists who sponsor the press screenings we go to -- won't let us have cell phones in the audience, due to the increased ability to record films with them. The screenings are held BEFORE films open here in Portland.

In peace,

Radio_Lady (Movie reviewer in Portland, OR)

[leeroysphitz]

11. I don't know the exact device were talking about here so

I can't say wether it could record FM directly or not but even if it can't it isn't at all difficult to hook an FM reciever to your computer and record & edit it that way. You could then convert it to the audio file format of your choice and do anything you wanted (ie. portable players, other computers, file sharing etc...) with it.

[no name no slogan]

15. Unless, of course, you CREATED such intellectual property

and are trying to make a living off of your creation.

But apparently "sharing" (i.e., stealing) my songs (without my permission) is much more important to some people than compensating me for my efforts.

:eyes:

[leeroysphitz]

16. ANDSony music etc... doesn't steal from you, the artist, at ALL...

right? :)

[no name no slogan]

17. That's why I didn't sign to a major label

You sign with somebody like Sony, you reap the consequences.

[northzax]

20. make a living?

but you created it simply for my enjoyment, right? you should suffer for your art.

northzax, who's iPod has 5,000+ legal songs on it.

[no name no slogan]

23. yeah, just for YOUR enjoyment

after all, you go to work every day, and don't expect to get paid, right?

As soon as it becomes totally cost-free to produce and distribute music, then I'll no longer charge for it. Until then, I have expenses to recoup. This stuff doesn't magically transfer itself from my brain to the hard disk for free.

:)

[northzax]

24. well, I'm a grad student

and have an internship, so no, I don't get paid. :)

but I should.

[ghostsofgiants]

28. Which is why I still buy music.

I download assloads, but I still buy as much as I can.

Kudos on not signing to a major, also.

[no name no slogan]

29. Thanks, man

I still make it a point to buy stuff, too. I do make some stuff available for free download, though, because it's good advertising and I also appreciate anybody who expresses an interest in my music.

I have no problem with people donwloading stuff for free if the artist gives permission. In fact, I encourage it because it's a great way to get exposed to new music.

:hi:

[Karenina]

7. Boys and toys.

[Radio_Lady]

9. Yes, I was thinking about that myself. But, on the other hand, many

of my husband's contemporaries -- he's going to be 72 year old in June! -- don't even understand computers enough to use email. He's a software engineer and is continually tracking what's new! AND, to boot, he doesn't care for sports! (My last husband didn't miss a game -- basketball, football, ice hockey -- it was a rare and meaningful life with him ::sarcasm:: !)

Appreciate your time talking and walking with me.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[Karenina]

14. I gotta good pal who's 82

and a GADGET FREAK! Dicking with the little monstrosities keeps his mind alert and in TODAY rather than yesterday. So I dutifully admire each newly added bell and whistle knowing that human slaughter, to gain control of the resources needed to produce them, is the REAL price paid. :shrug:

[Radio_Lady]

18. UPDATE: Husband loves it so much, he's out this morning

buying a second one!

Guess this is the thing I'll be carrying along on our trip to Paris, London, Edinborough and New York City in May/June.

PS. The FM radio didn't work very well on stereo. Maybe we're choosing weak stations (PBS and jazz and classical music formats, not the 50,000 watt rock blasters.)

[crispini]

30. Honestly, if he's buying a second one for you,

tell him to make it an iPod. My mother is very much a low-tech lady and my dad who is a super geek got her an off-brand MP3 player. I think it's a SanDisk. She can't use it because the user interface is so poor. On our trip to France she was always having to ask me how to use it. Now that we're home, it sits in a drawer.

iPods, although pricey, have such good design that in my opinion they are worth the premium. She saw my iPod and she figured out how to use it in a minute. I can't emphasize how easy iPods are to use. If there is one thing that Apple does very, very well, it is make things easy to use.

[Radio_Lady]

31. Thanks for the advice. However, my husband is very astute at

helping me with these gadgets. After researching these items with Consumer Reports, he picked up the second one and has already loaded it with many of my CDs and it is working fine. Also, I like FM Radio and it seems to bring in the stations that I listen to here in Portland. (As I understand, the iPod doesn't bring in FM at all.)

Also, we can't beat the price. Each one was listed at $69.99, but with $30.00 off on each of them (rebates), the price becomes $39.99. He also bought two neoprene cases, one for each of them, for $9.99 each.

That made the outlay for each 512 mb Sansa, with the case, just $50.00, or $100 for both of them.

Hubby doesn't think we'll ever feel we went wrong on that.

How much more are the iPods? Just curious!

Again, I appreciate all the information.

[LynneSin]

22. My MP3 player was a Sony

I just felt Apples were too pricey and Sony had technology where I could compress the songs even more and get about 650 songs on my 1gig player instead of the standard 250 most 1gigs hold

[Sgent]

25. There is no magic bullett

Anytime you compress (with a few rare, non-supported exceptions), you lose quality. The more you compress, the more quality you lose.

Here's my down & dirty chart (but it doesn't work for everything).

192kbps OGG = 320 MP3 = 220 WMV = 192 AAC

For me personally, I can't hear a difference on my stereophile setup with 280kbps and above OGG. For Jazz & Blues, I prefer 320k OGG. If I'm using an iPod or other portable player, I usually can't tell a difference above 192k OGG.

One thing I would suggest if your picky -- go out and get a $10/pair of sony earbuds -- much better than most included earbuds. If you are traveling, I would recommend a Sony or Bose (I prefer Sony, but they both are good) noise canceling headset for airplane trips.