MP3 players anyone?

[Atlantean]

Recently I have been looking at the creative nomad jukebox 20 gig version. I was wondering if anyone has this mp3 player or knows anything about it. I was in the store today, and the guy at the counter told me that it has about a 15 hour battery life. Is that true? Oh and does anyone know how long it takes to boot up?

 

[ViRGE]

<Caution, I'm a SonicBlue investor>

The Jukebox is an interesting device, but like a lot of the HD based MP3 players, it's has main 2 problems. First and foremost, the battery life is just hidious. I've personally been hearing 2-5 hours per battery set, with the average time being under 3.5. At 4 batteries a pop, there aren't even rechargables that'll keep going for very long(they'll develop 'memory' quickly because of how often they're charged/discharged). The other main weakness is that they're huge in size and weight(these carry a 2.5in laptop HD, after all). It's not a problem for everyone, but the weight can really be an issue for some people.

If you want a HD based MP3 player, you might want to look into the Apple iPod. While it doesn't support Windows(yet; I've heard a 3rd party is going to do Windows software), it uses a smaller HD that is getting better battery life, although the cost is, of course, that it's 5GB, not 20GB. If that's still not your game, look for a good MP3 CD player. You lose even more playing time, but you can swap out the CD's to make up for the small CD size. I think there are some DataPlay MP3 players that are shipping now too, which use the smaller DataPlay removeable discs, which are 500MB, and are supposedly a little less draining than said MP3 CD player, since it can use a smaller motor. Either way, the choice is up to you, but for most people, the Jukebox is a little ahead of its time for what it does.

</Caution, I'm a SonicBlue investor>

 

[Atlantean]

anyone?

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

<< I was in the store today, and the guy at the counter told me that it has about a 15 hour battery life. Is that true? >>



I think he ment using Lithium batteries. No doubt you will probably end up paying more for these batteries in the long run then the player itself.

Though i don't have a Jukebox, it sounds incredibly heavy and big. Its probably better to save some cash and get a Discman that plays MP3's and wait till something better comes out..

Or if you don't have a CD burner and can wait, get a MD.

 

[Atlantean]

Yeah he did mean the lithium ion batteries, but they come with the player, and 14 ounces isn't that heavy, I wouldn't be carrying it around in my pocket, it would probably be in my back pack most of the time.

 

[Jerboy]

I'd imagine with a HDD based anything, you drop it onto a pavement, its adios with no second chance.

 

[nortexoid]

the jukebox will never run 15hrs off a single battery charge - u'd be lucky to get half of that...(which i highly doubt)

problems w/ hdd based portables:

1) jarring/bumping will cause malfunction (i.e. stops in playing), or complete destruction of drive!
2) they're heavy
3) they're large (relatively speaking)
4) they suck battery juice like u wouldn't believe
5) they suck your batteries like they have DSL..(that initializastion isn't a computer related)

all in all, i decided against one because of (2), (3) and (4-5)....i wnated extreme portability

also, if u do get oen, make sure it's firewire...USB devices are far too slow for large capacity hdds.

 

[m1ke101]

have you considered the riovoly SP250? its smaller than the jukebox i believe, doesn't quite hold as many songs, but does hold a lot when compared to a regular cd player. its only like 150 if you buy it online, but i think its backordered at a lot of places. another option is the ipaq, but i'm not sure if its pc compatible. i really want one though, but at 400, its quite expensive.

 

[Jublian]

Or go with Minidisc, yo...

 

[Jeff7]

Get one of those CD players that read MP3's. I think they go for only $90 or so, and they read CD-RW's. They do have the same problems that a hard drive based one would have in terms of skipping, but a CD-player doesn't have to worry about a head crash. Plus the media's easy to get, and the drives are fairly cheap. (Get to Best Buy when they open at 7am and get a 16x10x40 (?) CD-RW drive for $30 after rebates. )

 

[Atlantean]

Yeah but I am sick of cd's does anyone else have any info on the creative nomad 20 gb jukebox?

 

[Damascus]

<< The Jukebox is an interesting device, but like a lot of the HD based MP3 players, it's has main 2 problems. First and foremost, the battery life is just hidious. I've personally been hearing 2-5 hours per battery set, with the average time being under 3.5. At 4 batteries a pop, there aren't even rechargables that'll keep going for very long(they'll develop 'memory' quickly because of how often they're charged/discharged). >>



I've never heard of simple charging/discharging damaging batteries. You
shouldn't lose any capacity as long as you're not draining the batteries
all the way down to zero... (I've never had any problems with NiMH cells)

 

[ViRGE]

Dam, I was just talking about your standard fare NiCad's; quite a few people I've heard from didn't have the foresight to pick up anything besides those for their Jukebox.

 

[BD2003]

I've always been a fan of flash based Mp3 players.

Where are you going to go that you need 20GB of Mp3s? You're probably not listening to a more than a few songs at any time. Get some cheap smartmedia, any have a 256mb MP3 player that can hold about 3 hours or so of audio. The transfers are so fast and painless over USB that if you want a new song you just downloaded, just pop it on. You dont end up skipping as many of your older, more tired songs.

Not to mention one AA battery will last you hours, and theyre so light and thing you barely know theyre there.

The price is finally right for flash mp3 players. MDs are nice too, but you have to record in real time. A transfer of an MP3 will take 5 seconds, but the MD will take 5 mins. If youre on your computer, you'd better disable all your sounds while you record, or you'll get that IM "Ding!" in your recording.