Apple iPod or MiniDisc Walkman??

[Speedyturtle]

Hey all. I'm looking to purchase an MP3 player of some sort and I'm trying to decide between an iPod or a Minidisc walkman. I like the iPod but it's a little expensive. Are minidisc players any good? Any advantages that one has over the other. My last portable music player was an old CD player that didn't even have anti-skip tech in it. So sad.... I'm open to any other MP3 player suggestions. Thanks.

 

[Prodigy^]

MD's are much better than mp3 players imo.....the ram / flash cards for mp3's are still outrageously expensive, and you can't bring a bunch of them with you (unless you're a millionaire). recording MD's is a pain, i admit that, but i think it's better to be able to make discs instead of having to copy every time you want new music.

 

[Czar]

If you are ready to spend money on the ipod then by all means buy one, i have heard nothing but good about it and thats why Im very likely to buy one in the next month or so

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: Prodigy^
MD's are much better than mp3 players imo.....the ram / flash cards for mp3's are still outrageously expensive, and you can't bring a bunch of them with you (unless you're a millionaire). recording MD's is a pain, i admit that, but i think it's better to be able to make discs instead of having to copy every time you want new music.

You do know that the ipod is hard drive based and can store up to 20 gigs, right?

 

[gsiener]

I've had both for an extended period of time. In the end, I still have my ipod. The one thing MD has over the ipod is insanely good battery life. ipod gets about 10 hrs, md gets days. But, the ipod is miles away easier to use. Think about it this way- charging you can do anywhere on long trips, but bringing 100s of mds worth of music is a pain in the a**. Not to mention the calendar and address book in the ipod.

MD is dying, trust me. It's very cool, but we don't live in asia or europe, so good luck finding a friend with mds.

 

[jodathmorr]

Most definitly an Ipod. I've been a proud ipod owner since June

 

[Speedyturtle]

I have a PC and I'm wondering how well the iPod will work with it. I know with Macs you can just plug the ipod to your Mac and all the songs pretty much send themselves. Is the software that comes with the iPod any good for the PC? Also, on the iPod hard drive, can you store anything else other than mp3 files on there?

 

[hdeck]

they make PC compatible iPods. another vote for iPod from me. i want one!!!

 

[peter7921]

I would go for an Ipod.

I thought the Ipod used a steady state memory not a Hard disk?? or am i wrong?

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: peter7921
I would go for an Ipod.

I thought the Ipod used a steady state memory not a Hard disk?? or am i wrong?

Do you know how much 5 gigs of memory would cost? Let alone 20.

 

[PlantATree]

The iPod is in fact hard drive based. I believe it is a Toshiba drive.

I also own the MZ-N505 and like it. It is the perfect size, cheap media, great battery performance. That said if I had the money I would probably get the iPod. It would be nice to have all of your tunes in one place. Not spread out over various disks. I guess it comes down to money.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: peter7921
I would go for an Ipod.

I thought the Ipod used a solid state memory not a Hard disk?? or am i wrong?

No, the iPod uses a good ole' hard drive(the coveted 1.8" ones no less). It does have some RAM on it, but that's for buffering to prevent skips.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: tdas2
iPod's use hard disk's , that alone is something that would make me walk away.
Although MD's do have great battery life.

Why? Battery life on them is incredible. Storage is unbelievable. And it doesn't skip.

 

[MrGrim]

Minidisc Player/Recorder.

 

[Yomicron]

If you want to do recording on the go, then go with MiniDisc. If you just want to play music, get an iPod, its hard drive based but has 32MB (I think) of buffer, so I doubt it will ever skip.

 

[GoSharks]

an hard drive may not (probably not?) survive a fall out of your pocket or something. a MD will most likely. i've had my e90 fall with my jacket from 6ft high, and lived just fine. but a hard drive?

 

[Shogun]

I love my iPod, so naturally I'd say go with one of those. The 10 gig one seems to be the sweet-spot, you get the remote, carrying case with belt clip and the better headphones. It's also a tad thinner than the other models.

As for getting your music onto it from a Windows PC, that is no longer a problem with Apple shipping PC compatible ones. Apple includes Musicmatch Jukebox to copy files to the iPod. But there are other solutions: XPlay and EphPod. I use EphPod -- it's free.

If you haven't had a chance to try one out, find a place and have a look. It's a very nice design.

 

[stevewm]

Originally posted by: GOSHARKS
an hard drive may not (probably not?) survive a fall out of your pocket or something. a MD will most likely. i've had my e90 fall with my jacket from 6ft high, and lived just fine. but a hard drive?

The PC Card sized hardrive the iPod uses is designed to take some abuse. Otherwise Apple would not sell it as a PORTABLE music device

My iPod has been dropped down a flight of stairs (it was in my digi cam's padded case along with my digicam when this happened), sat on, and pushed from a table falling about 4.5 feet to a hardwood kitchen floor. During the stair incident it was in the middle of playing a song. It was still playing after the fall. I'm one who is a little rough with electronic devices. My iPod has managed to survive me My above mentioned digi cam on the otherhand met its doom a few weeks ago during a incident involving a pool and a wet floor.


Now back to the topic on hand....

I would recommend the iPod. The FireWire transfer speed is nice No to mention, with minidisc any audio copied to it needs to be compressed into Sony's own proprietary format called ATRAC. I'm sure I need not remind you what re-compressing already lossy compressed mp3 audio into yet another lossy comression format does to audio quality..... This assuming your source files are mp3. With the iPod no re-compression is done. Files are copied AS IS. And it can also be used to store any files you want.

 

[FishTankX]

Here, let's see if I can't help. I haven't used the Ipod but I do have an R-900 (Sony recorder) and here would be how I would see it as a direct comparison

Minidisc's (NetMD)
+Size
+Battery life
+Recording (Big perk for me, I must record classes) (You have to hear it to believe it, it's a hell of alot better than any analog tape. No hiss. Crystal clear)
+(MDLP)Pretty good playtime to boot (LP2~160KBPS MP3=2hr20min on an 80min disk.)
+Price (Price in comparison to the iPod though, still expensive as hell)
+Light as hell (Recent recorders with battery and disc are ~130 grams)
+Battery life!!!!
Ipod=10HRS
Recent recorders (Both batteries) 60HRS SP 80HRS LP2 100HRS LP4
Recent players (Both batteries) 100HRS SP 160HRS LP2 200HRS LP4
-Limited capacity in comparison to the iPod (Discs hold only 2 1/2 hours of decent music (LP2) or 80 min of 320KBPS+ music quality music)
-MD carrying friends are rare. Don't expect to be able to swap music, and expect people to ask you "What's that?"
-Non NetMD recorders are limited to 1X recording.


iPod
+Nearly entirely shock proof
+Bottomless pit as far as storage goes
+The machine just looks plain sexy
+MUCH better volume (5MW+5MW for minidiscs, 50mw+50mw for iPod)
+Acts as an outboard storage device
-If you don't listen to that much music, the capacity goes to waste
-Atrocious battery life in comparsion to the Mindisc players. Minidisc players achieved that battery life 4 years ago! The recent Minidisc Players can achieve over 100HRS in the highest quality mode!! (Sony BS's their battery life specs so it's probably more around 70.)
-Size
-Heavy (For me, anyways)

And a new contendor!

The MP3 CD player
+Nearly entirely shock proof
+Bottom less pit as far as storage goes
+CD compatibility!
+Good volume
+Cheap (100$ and below)
+So so battery life in comparsion with the iPod (Can double the iPod's battery life, but won't get anywhere near the MD player)
+Just as easy as the iPod (Good ones support packet writing, .wmf playlists etc...)
--Size (Double minus. These things are pretty big)
-Heavy
The big deal about this type of machine is that it's *really* cheap, it gives you very good capacity, (650MB) and most support CD-RW's. I just can't imagine dragging around more than 2 CDRW's of music (Some people might, the iPod is for them) But I like this class of machine very much.

If you don't listen to *alot* of music, as in just like maybe 20 or 30 songs, a flash based Mp3 player would be entirely enough for you
New contendor
Flash based MP3 player
+Size (Smaller than MD)
+weight (Lighter than MD)
+Cheap
+Good battery life
(+)Recording (not every machine supports)
-Media costs are hell
-Limited capacity

Frankly, the bottomline is that any of the above would suffice for me. I only listen to about 2 hours of music at a time before I switch out music. If you're the same, just get a flash based MP3 player. If you need size, weight, portability, recording, and good batterylife all in one package, you *cannot* beat the MD player. If you need capacity, you *cannot* beat the iPod. The good allrounder for people who are used to lugging CD machines around is the CD Mp3 player.

 

[CubicZirconia]

While we are on the subject, I've got a question about the skip-protection on all 3 types of mp3 players. The main reason I want to get an mp3 player is so I can run with it. What style would be the best choice? I'm assuming the the cd-player styles are out of the question. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[TheWart]

I for one would go for the iPod. I have heard it is use, and it sounds awesome. Also, with that size of storage, then u can afford to get 192kbs mp3's. Also, with firewire, you can use the iPod as a transfer device between computers, like at a lan party, think how cool you would look busting that thing out!

 

[FishTankX]

Cubic Zircona. It's sorta like this. Now, the story is shocking, but it's true.

Flash>Ipod>CD type=MD

The fact is that the MD only has 2 megs of shock buffer, most MP3 cd players carry 8(Someone correct me if i'm wrong), the iPod carries 32, and flash doesn't need it. Althought he difference between MD's and CD types isn't that great, since MD's can read internally at 8X and fill the buffer pretty quickly. Recent MDs are *very* good about shock protection. CD type MP3 players are actually pretty good about shock protection, since they load alot of the song into RAM.

 

[Speedyturtle]

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: tdas2
iPod's use hard disk's , that alone is something that would make me walk away.
Although MD's do have great battery life.

heh but it has a 20minute shok dampening so if you manage to make it skip then you should worry about something other than your music

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Speedyturtle
I have a PC and I'm wondering how well the iPod will work with it. I know with Macs you can just plug the ipod to your Mac and all the songs pretty much send themselves. Is the software that comes with the iPod any good for the PC? Also, on the iPod hard drive, can you store anything else other than mp3 files on there?

they have a windows version that uses music match jukebox OR the better way is to get the Mac version and a program called XPlay. Xplay is $30 and allows your PC to connect to the iPod and it shows up like an external hardrive. You get a folder called Xmusic on the ipod HD window and that has all your songs and playlists. Just drop Mp3 files there and you can add playlists to the folder and drop whatever songs you want and that's it! Plus you can transfer files between your Mac and PC if you have both or have someone with an ibook that wants to get some tunes from you or you from him/her