Apple iPod or MiniDisc Walkman??

[Speedyturtle]

Great comparison you made FlashTankX. Exactly what I was looking for
I really like the idea of being able to record audio with the minidisc. That would be so useful being a university student and all. But I'm also very active and I would like to do some running with my music. I'm thinking the iPod would be better for this because of its 32mb RAM and anti-shock ability. But it seems kinda big for cross training with. Maybe the minidisk player would be better for that due to its lightweight and battery life. Decisions... Decisions...

 

[cmdrdredd]

forgot to mention that since it shows like a firewire HD you can store anything on it. becides music you can store video, games, programs, pictures etc

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Speedyturtle
Great comparison you made FlashTankX. Exactly what I was looking for
I really like the idea of being able to record audio with the minidisc. That would be so useful being a university student and all. But I'm also very active and I would like to do some running with my music. I'm thinking the iPod would be better for this because of its 32mb RAM and anti-shock ability. But it seems kinda big for cross training with. Maybe the minidisk player would be better for that due to its lightweight and battery life. Decisions... Decisions...

the ipod isn't really that big...I keep it in the belt clip case and can move comfortably. I don't run with it nore have I tried bit I can ride my bike with it.

 

[FishTankX]

Note Cmdred that that was in comparison to the Minidisc player. In comparison to something like an MZ-N1 the iPod is huge. It's not nearly as huge as a CD player, but it's not something you'd want to put in a really small pocoket either.

As for Speedy Turtle.. I'd highly reccomend the Minidisc if you're not trying to lug around massive amounts of music. Lugging around 5 discs is where I call it quits, and that's the threshold where the iPod would simply be more effective. If you're not doing serious listening, LP2 (It's around say... 160KBPS MP3 quality and doubles the MD's shock buffer to 80 seconds) would suffice and each 80 minute disc (2$ or so) holds about 2 hrs 20 minutes worth of LP2 audio. Hold the minidisc recorder in your hand, and go jogging, and it's all but shock proof with LP2 and you'll have to be running for a while to get SP to skip. Mountian biking down hill though, it can't handle. The thing has it's limits. I should mention that if you're jogging the Minidisc player's battery life can get cut pretty badly. Like, 2/3 of original battery life... You see, the Minidisc player reads at 8X trying to get data into it's buffer to feed it. On a flat surface with no movement this is a piece of cake. Go jogging with it and it has to read about twice as long (Shock compensation) to read the same amount of data into the buffer. And man, those things spin up *fast*. (Sony recorders. Sharp recorders make almost no noise) They remind me of PC-CDROMS.

The iPod's massive buffer does help if you're in a situation where neither the minidisc or the harddrive could *possibly* read properly (As in on a rickety old bus speeding at 70 miles an hour down a dirt road) because it's simply so massive. at 128 killobits MP3 you could probably store half an hours worth of music in there. But frankly, i'm never in that kind of situation, I don't tend to take more than 5 hours of music with me, (4 discs with SP and 2 discs with LP2) and with the newest minidisc recorders being able to listen for 5 hours a day and only recharge your battery once every 8 or 9 days is a huge plus.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Ipod is 100 times better than a MD player.

 

[FishTankX]

It really depends, Spicedady. Only want 30 or 40 songs? MD player wins, hands down. Smaller. More power conservative. Almost as good shock protection. *MUCH* more atractive price. Need I say more?

Want to bring your MP3 collection with you? Then there is only 1 choice. iPod.

you see, NetMD changed alot of things in the iPod VS MD player debate. Now computers can turn MP3's or even CD's into MD player format very quickly. Somehwere I read that one guy managed to get a whole CD to burn into LP2 format to a net MD player in 7 minutes. That's not bad, not bad at all.

 

[Spicedaddy]

I know it has strong points, but MD is a proprietary sound format on a proprietary media, that's why I don't like it. If you only want 30-40 songs, then get a flash based MP3 player...

 

[Lucky]

Want to bring your MP3 collection with you? Then there is only 1 choice. iPod.

Actually, there are far more choices than just the ipod in that area, although I know that's probably not what you meant.

 

[FishTankX]

Spice dady:I have a unique situation. I like to listen to wide varieties of music. But I only need to carry 30-40 at a time. I actually own more than 20 hours of music on my mindiisc. Just carry 1 or 2 at a time. For that kinda situation, minidisc is ideal. And you still have the battery life issue. Flash based MP3 players don't do that hot in that area.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: FishTankX
It really depends, Spicedady. Only want 30 or 40 songs? MD player wins, hands down. Smaller. More power conservative. Almost as good shock protection. *MUCH* more atractive price. Need I say more?

Want to bring your MP3 collection with you? Then there is only 1 choice. iPod.

you see, NetMD changed alot of things in the iPod VS MD player debate. Now computers can turn MP3's or even CD's into MD player format very quickly. Somehwere I read that one guy managed to get a whole CD to burn into LP2 format to a net MD player in 7 minutes. That's not bad, not bad at all.

well, if you're going with time...it took me about 3 minutes to convert a whole CD to Mp3 192Kbps directly to the ipod. I didn't burn to my HD then transfer you can go right to the drive

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: FishTankX
Spice dady:I have a unique situation. I like to listen to wide varieties of music. But I only need to carry 30-40 at a time. I actually own more than 20 hours of music on my mindiisc. Just carry 1 or 2 at a time. For that kinda situation, minidisc is ideal. And you still have the battery life issue. Flash based MP3 players don't do that hot in that area.

simple...make custom playlists on the ipod. Make one for Rock, one for Rap, one for Pop, one for country etc.

Then just scroll to the playlist and hit play. That's it.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I fail to see where you'd be away from a plug for more than 10 hours at a time anyhow.

 

[FishTankX]

Eh, well, ill tell you my situation. I regularly go out and let my minidisc player go for 5 hours at a time. I just really like music, so I like to have it all the time. With that kinda workload, and how often I forget to charge my MD recorder, it'd be like, 2 days on an iPod. But I mean, I get about 10 hours of battery life under heavy duty on my MD player anyways. >.< Which is why i'm gonna sell it and get a newer one. Size and weight are still issues for me, but by far the biggest problem is recording. I record on the fly in alot of situations (classes and lectures and phone calls, to make sure I dont' get a bad deal) so for that kinda stuff an iPod would fall sorta short.

 

[FishTankX]

I admit thought that the minidisc isn't the ideal sollutionf or everyone. Just for me.

The minidisc really shines when you go to band practice and record straight from the mixer. That's just something a current generation iPod will never do.

 

[GoSharks]

Originally posted by: FishTankX
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.

MB is not an apporopriate unit. MDs nowdays all come with 40/80/160 secs (SP/LP2/LP4) of shock protection, and with Sony units, "g-protection" which helps tremedously with the recovery time. the new sony units are near shock proof, from what i have read.

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy
I know it has strong points, but MD is a proprietary sound format on a proprietary media, that's why I don't like it. If you only want 30-40 songs, then get a flash based MP3 player...

proprietary... is it really if there are a number of different manufactures for the units/media and different types of ATRAC (sony, sharp)? is VHS proprietary? the cassette tape?

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I fail to see where you'd be away from a plug for more than 10 hours at a time anyhow.

overseas plane trip. long drive. camping/fishing.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

iPod. it's awesome. i love mine.

 

[tsnyder]

You know a third option, one that is much more useful for other things besides mp3's, would be a Pocket PC. Dell has one for $199 that has a CF slot, and headphone jack. Add a 256mb CF card for about $80 and you can probably store 3 or 4 hours of music... I mean really how much storage do you need on a portable mp3 player? I really can't see how an iPod is worth the money considering how limited it's uses are.

 

[Pneumothorax]

Another vote for the Ipod! Just got a 20gb PC version week ago and it rocks. Don't bother with the sh!tty software that the Ipod comes with (of course disregard if using a mac). Install Ephod instead. Much easier to use and much more reliable.

 

[Spicedaddy]

proprietary... is it really if there are a number of different manufactures for the units/media and different types of ATRAC (sony, sharp)? is VHS proprietary? the cassette tape?

AFAIK, the MD was developed by Sony, and other companies have to license it from them. Is that the case with VHS, tapes, CDs??

 

[aceO07]

I have a Sony MD recorder/player from 3years ago. It's small and light.

I personally think the iPod, while cool looking, is expensive and a bit big and heavy. It does hold a lot of songs, but still, I'd prefer my Sony MD player for jogging.

There hasn't really been a MP3 player that I've liked. They're either too big (cd/hdd based players) or just too cheap/fragile looking. However, this weekend while at Tweeters, I saw this cool MP3 player from Panasonic. It's their e-wear line of products. Dimensions (H x W x D) 1.75" x 1.688" x 0.688" link

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Pneumothorax
Another vote for the Ipod! Just got a 20gb PC version week ago and it rocks. Don't bother with the sh!tty software that the Ipod comes with (of course disregard if using a mac). Install Ephod instead. Much easier to use and much more reliable.

the pc version ONLY works on a PC the Mac version works on both. There is a hardware difference

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: tsnyder
You know a third option, one that is much more useful for other things besides mp3's, would be a Pocket PC. Dell has one for $199 that has a CF slot, and headphone jack. Add a 256mb CF card for about $80 and you can probably store 3 or 4 hours of music... I mean really how much storage do you need on a portable mp3 player? I really can't see how an iPod is worth the money considering how limited it's uses are.

it works as a firewire hardrive too and has a calender + address book

 

[GoSharks]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy

AFAIK, the MD was developed by Sony, and other companies have to license it from them. Is that the case with VHS, tapes, CDs??

if your definition of proprietary is based on licensing, CDs, DVDs, and SACDs are all proprietary.

http://www.licensing.philips.com

 

[FishTankX]

I think the key discussion here is this

Which is better, the MD players small size, insane battery life, ultra light weight portability, and recording ability..

Or the iPod's harddrive, super versatility, contacts and calanader stuff. And I, nor anyone else can answer that for SpeedyTurtle. He has to decide for himself.

Personally I prefer the iPod Q) But when I made my purchase it didn't exist and I still wouldn't take the iPod over my MZ-R900 because the recording is invaluable.

Case in point 1:I recorded my last moments with my female friends when she went overseas. She told me alot of stuff that I would never want to forget. Now that I have a copy, I never will.

Case in point 2:I now have the guilty gear X, grand tourismo and SNES game soundtracks without buying them (I bought the games, does that count?)

Case in point 3:I have MD's of classes that I took long ago. If I forget a certian point I just run back to the proper timemark and get to hear it again. Invaluable for studying! (Yes, you can label and cut up MD tracks. That's one of the plus's of it.) plus with LP4 (Really bad sound quality, 64KBPS joint stereo, but good for voice) you can get 5 hours of recording out of a 2$ minidisc. If that's not atractive for the collage student, I don't know *what* is. If sony is smart, they'll even include direct MD->PC uploads. I've been waiting for that for such a long time.. (5 hour class takes 5 hours to transfer to the PC. A pain in the ass.)

Plus, MD can basicly record CD quality. The ultimate in band practice quick recording.

To each his own. You'll never convince me that the iPod beats the MD because of it's recording features. I'll never ever convince anyone else that lugging around 200MDs (Which is what it would take to match the iPod 10GB) is fun. It isn't. But I know why I like MDs. Everyone else knows why they like iPods. Thus, we must help Speedy Turtle make his decision.

 

[MDFusion]

theres a Panasonic MP3 CD Player with NiMH(internal) + AA battery x 2: CD: 80 hours / MP3: 120 hours / WMA: 108 hours