56 replies to this topic

[PeteyNice]

A little background. I have had a Zen Micro (5GB) for a year and a half now which I really like. However, the headphone jack is starting to go (a common issue with this player) and Creative is not being helpful.

I started looking online for a good alternative but there seems to be very little between the small flash (1GBish) players and the massive Portable Media Players (20GB and up). I thought about a Nano but I was burned by the first iPod's battery problem and would like to avoid them if possible.

So, basically I am looking for an MP3 player that has excellent battery life and a 4+ GB hard drive. DRM is useful but not a deal breaker.

Any insight?

[sandman441]

I got my brother a samsung I believe it was. I think it was 2GB but it was about $200. It does have a 34 hour battery life which is good but it has no extras. I just got a Creative Zen Micro Photo maybe try that?. I got it for $176.13 I don't know if that has problems but it looks pretty solid. I haven't gotten it yet they were sold out when I ordered so I have to wait.



http://www.amazon.co...p;s=electronics


That is the one I got him I think the cool thing is that they gave me the wrong one or it holds atleast 3GB instead of two because I wanted to see how much it would hold and my collection was 2.8 or close to 3 at the time and it held it with no problem.


Just whatever you do don't buy a Ipod Shuffle I hate those things. My brother had one and I had so many problems with it that I told him I would rather spend $200 on a new MP3 player than deal with that headache.

Edited by sandman441, 14 August 2006 - 04:01 PM.

[PeteyNice]

I am hesitant to buy something else from Creative (I know no Apple, No Creative I am really limiting myself) the way they are "supporting" the Micro I have. I did not expect them to fix it for free but they want $200 plus return shipping in order to fix it. For that money I can buy a new MP3 player so I am.

[sandman441]

I am hesitant to buy something else from Creative (I know no Apple, No Creative I am really limiting myself) the way they are "supporting" the Micro I have. I did not expect them to fix it for free but they want $200 plus return shipping in order to fix it. For that money I can buy a new MP3 player so I am.

That sucks I did learn my lesson though whenever I buy electronics I buy the extended warranty. I had a TV die on me after about 6 months of having it and I had to pay to fix it again and it died again a week later. But yeah that's terrible they should fix it for free especially if it's a known problem. Maybe file something with the Better Business Bureau.

Edited by sandman441, 14 August 2006 - 04:12 PM.

[PeteyNice]

Be careful with your Micro Photo. The obscenely long thread of people bitching about this on the Creative forum includes some Micro Photo owners.

[twistedwrister]

There are actually a few out there in that size range, made by Creative, iRiver, Samsung, and Sansa that i know of off hand, I work at best buy and know we carry those, so you could maybe check out best buy's website. Also, i dont know how much you are looking to spend, but in some cases, you are getting 2 gigs for 200, or 4 gigs for 250, when you can get a 30 gig iPod or another one like it for only 300. As fas as your problems with creative, i was unaware that there were issues like this, i actually just replaced my old mp3 player with the Creative vision:m. Also, stay away from phillips mp3 players.

[Don]

How were you "burned" by the iPod battery thing? And did you toss it? Or can I have it?

[PeteyNice]

I bought it and a year later it stopped working because the battery would not charge. This was before it was a huge story and Apple was shamed into taking care of people. I tossed it.

[sandman441]

Be careful with your Micro Photo. The obscenely long thread of people bitching about this on the Creative forum includes some Micro Photo owners.

Yeah I will be. I got the two year warranty with it from Amazon.com so if anything does happen I will get it replaced. And if anything really bad happens to it I will put that company on my blacklist I already have two companies on it.

Toshiba - I got one of the first DVD players to come out and it was a Toshiba and it worked for years I replaced it because it was out of date and got two more toshibas. They both stopped working within a few months of me buying them.

Philips - I bought a flat tube from best buy and the extended warranty was was overpriced about 6 months later the TV died and I didn't have a extended warranty for it so I couldn't take it back to Best Buy so I took it to a repair place luckily everything was under warranty except labor so I got it fixed and it broke about a week later.


Apple - Well atleast the shuffle that thing I had so many headaches with I ended up buying my brother a $200 MP3 player.

[sammyk]

How is the iPod Nano? My dad bought two of them for my neices and I had to put songs on them (none from iTunes). It was very easy to do and they sounded great. I didn't get to use them for an extended period of time though so I was wondering how they hold up.

[bruins4777]

for the hard drive size you want i would say iriver is the way to go.

but if you are going to go flash, you can't beat sony.

[DevilsMJ]

Over last Winter break I got a 30 GB ipod video, I know you don't like Apple, but it has some amazing accesories. I put 20 GB of music on it and I burn dvd movies to it. (using dvd shrink and videodora) It's awesome, I got the itrip and a cord to connect it to the tv, so I can bring it to a friends house and play music or movies/tv shows from it.

I would highly suggest it.

[Don]

Over last Winter break I got a 30 GB ipod video, I know you don't like Apple, but it has some amazing accesories. I put 20 GB of music on it and I burn dvd movies to it. (using dvd shrink and videodora) It's awesome, I got the itrip and a cord to connect it to the tv, so I can bring it to a friends house and play music or movies/tv shows from it.

How is the picture quality going from iPod to TV? I have a 2nd generation 40GB iPod and it's probably been the best purchase in my entire life.... I don't go anywhere without it. But I've been thinking of upgrading to the video iPod when I move out to the suburbs so I can watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report on the way to and from work. I know the picture looks nice on a 2 inch screen, but when you blow it up to a TV screen, how does it look?

[PeteyNice]

The guy next to me on the train home today had a Nano. Damn that thing sweet. I decided to give Apple another chance so I ordered a 4GB Nano from them. I had it between the Nano and the Sansa e260. I ran over to a Best Buy near work over lunch and tried them both but was still undecided. The Sansa will resist scratches and has better battery life but the scroll wheel felt cheap and prone to breaking. However, after using the Nano under real world circumstances it was just too nice to ignore. The clincher was Apple has refurbished 4GB Nanos for $170 putting it in line with what the Sansa costs.

[moustic]

Only Archos is Good Enough

[DevilsMJ]

How is the picture quality going from iPod to TV? I have a 2nd generation 40GB iPod and it's probably been the best purchase in my entire life.... I don't go anywhere without it. But I've been thinking of upgrading to the video iPod when I move out to the suburbs so I can watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report on the way to and from work. I know the picture looks nice on a 2 inch screen, but when you blow it up to a TV screen, how does it look?

What size/type tv are you looking for it to work for. I got the cheap version and it is a little pixelly on a 35 inch tv, not bad though.

[sammyk]

Perhaps I'll get a Nano...what do the 2 giggers go for?

[sandman441]

Perhaps I'll get a Nano...what do the 2 giggers go for?

I looked at amazon.com they are selling it for $182 and that is marked down from $199.

[PeteyNice]

Perhaps I'll get a Nano...what do the 2 giggers go for?

Apple has refurb 2GB for $129 with free shipping. You get a 1 yr warranty and can bump it up to 3 years for $59.

http://store.apple.c...;nclm=Certified

[sammyk]

Hmm...So far I've had luck with refurbished electronics...ok why not...