Help Needed! MP3 Players...

[BigV]

SD, we do indeed think alike. I got one of these. From the pawnshop, the red model, 256MB for $25. You can't beat this little unit. It works great, really great. I think the one you linked to is the newer model of the same basic device. They seem to have replaced the mono screen for color and the joystick for a dpad. Otherwise, the look the same.

On a different note, I had seen the $14 unit before and would urge you to post your review when you get it. I want one for the same reason. I'll only have to cry $14 worth of tears (plus memory card) when it makes that (inevitable) voyage to the island of lost toys. Plus, I feel like I'm making my older smaller SD cards live out their low capacity lives in some sort of useful service.

By the way, the Sandisk unit works great (I know I already said that) with iTunes. Just make your playlist, then drag the playlist onto the device. Boom. I make sure I "unwrap" all my songs, the vast majority of which are ripped from cd and never encumbered in the first place.

LabRat: This thing will fit in your pocket. Or anywhere else you could stash a pack of gum. We're talking a volume approximately the size and shape of my thumb. You could mcgyver an armband if you had to, or use a generic-ish one.

[LabRat]

OK, this is what I got. A Sansa (Scandisk) e200 2G Player. Best price, $99.99 from Amazon. Beat everywhere else by $20-$50, plus I got free shipping, and paid no tax!!

I also got a set there that included an armband, beltclip and skin, for $21 including shipping. Saved $20-30+ over buying these items separately. I chose the dark grey skin.

[LabRat]

Then, I knew he needed a charger and something to play it thru his car radio, since he spends quite a bit of time in his truck. This dual function thingie was $69.99 +tax at Best Buy, but I found it for $43 including shipping at B & H Photo Video online.

Lastly, I got him a second set of earphones, in case he didn't lke the bud things, which I don't think he will. Also, a small set of speakers for his office so he can listen there is he wants. If he doesn't like those, he gets $$ from his parents, he can buy a docking type set that probably will have better sound quality. I just need to get a cable so that we can plug it into our stereo at home and we'll be all set.

I am totally pumped!

Thanks for all of your help, I'll let you know hao everything works out.

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

We're getting the kids these, but then again our main criterion was "cheap enough so we won't scream too loudly if they lose it/step on it/decide to trade it to their 'best friend' for a pack of chewing gum."

Well, this was fun.

These seemed like nice little players. In fact, I'm sure they are. However there must have been a bad batch of them. By Dec. 28 both players were missing audio in one channel (one completely, one partially). I have not seen a batch of disgruntled Sandisk users showing up on product review boards (though I may have missed them), so I just have to assume we got a couple lemons.

So, no biggie, just return them, right? Well, turns out Best Buy is completely stripped of all sub-$150 MP3 players. So we couldn't really exchange them. "We'll be happy to give you a refund." "Well I appreciate that, but these were on sale and I had a 10% off coupon on top of that when I bought them. I don't want to get my money back and then have to buy them at full price later." "Oh, well I don't know if we can give you a raincheck or not. You'd have to wait in that other line with about 15 people in it to find out." (OK, that's not an exact quote.)

After much flailing about, we finally ended up ordering two refurbed ipod nanos from Apple. It's a bit more than we planned to spend, but they're more of a known quantity. Hopefully the kids will like them more than a pack of gum!

Originally Posted by BigV

I had seen the $14 unit before and would urge you to post your review when you get it. I want one for the same reason.

As a stopgap, while we figured out what the heck we were going to do, I ordered two of these. (They were on sale for $10 when I ordered, but back to $14 now.) They came yesterday and I tried one out.

First of all, they are smaller than I expected--about 2 inches square. I had a lot of trouble getting started. I currently have four SD cards, a 2GB, two 1GB, and a 512MB. I just grabbed a 1GB card and started trying to get it set up. No dice; it kept saying it wanted me to insert a disk. If I copied files directly to the card (without having it in the player) the player wouldn't recognize that there was anything there. I then established that it worked just fine with all three other cards. Since the "bad" card works fine in two different card readers as well as my camera, I have to assume there's some kind of weird incompatibility going on.

So I solved that problem, got some files copied over... how is it? The sound quality is fine--I don't exactly have audiophile ears, though. The navigation take a bit to get used to, with the little white button in the center. The manual says that folder names do not show on the unit--not true, I found. You can go through the menu and go into a specific folder so you can keep your stuff organized. On the other hand you will have trouble finding stuff if you don't name your files well. It does not show ID3 tag info, but only the file name. This in spite of the fact that the manual said it would scroll ID3 across the screen.

Bottom line: It's worth $15, but not much more. The interface takes getting used to. If you are still a bit confused as to where MP3 files come from and you can't copy files on your computer (there is no software as such; you just copy the files onto the memory card, either directly or while it's in the player), this is a bad choice for you. You're better off with one that will make use of itunes or Windows Media Player to simplify the process of getting music off a CD (or wherever) and into your player.

However, if you've got an SD card or two lying around that you aren't using, and you have a need for a cheap, small player, and you don't mind the almost complete lack of user interface amenities, it might be worth a buy.

[Clodfobble]

I got one of the teensy new iPod shuffles for Christmas, plus this FM broadcaster, which declared on the box "compatible with all iPods!" The box is slightly older than the newest iPods, however, and their website reveals what we discovered once we opened it, that it is not actually directly compatible with the new teensiest iPod.

Further examination proved that it was compatible, it just didn't know it--a standard eighth-inch "mini" cable will go from the headphone jack of the iPod into the "Aux In" of the FM transmitter, and now it works just fine. The bonus is that my husband can plug his random cheap off-brand mp3 player into the transmitter in the same way, so now either player can be brought along in the car with us. I love it!

[pandemic_virus]

Is it necessary to get a transmitter specifically for iPods? I would assume that any FM transmitter would work since (most) simply plug into the headphone jack.

[Bullitt]

Any transmitter that plugs into the headphone jack will work with the ipod or any other mp3 player. The ones made specifically for ipods plug into the ipod's proprietary connection on the bottom.
I use this from Belkin with my ipod.

[LabRat]

I'm running Windows XP professional. Internet Explorer. My player is a Sansa e250 2Gb. I have been trying to use the Rhapsody site to download my supposedly free downloads and I can't get past the error "can't locate the device's certificate" 2 hours on the phone with Rhapsody's tech support did no good. Updating the sansa's firmware did no good. So, I come to you, my friends.

What program do you use to rip your CD's to your player? (Rhapsody worked for this, but now I'm pissed off and don't want to use it)

If you buy music, what site do you use?

Do you have an idea WTF I'm doing/not doing?

[SteveDallas]

Windows Media Player should do the trick for getting your CDs to your computer and then to your player.

I get 99+% of my stuff from either a) emusic.com or b) ripping CDs.

Try this. (Yuck.)

http://real.lithium.com/real/board/m...essage.id=1978

[BigV]

*sigh*

iTunes is the best overall product out there for maintaining your catalog of music. I *do not* have an ipod, but I'm a happy iTunes user.

I get much of my digital music from my own collection of cds. I rip my own tracks and let iTunes deal with the librarian work. When the time comes to copy the songs to my device (a little sandisk unit), I create a playlist with the desired songs, then drag the playlist from iTunes to Windows Explorer and over the "removable drive" that is the music player and drop it. The files are all copied to the music player, I disconnect and rock out.

You should try it. Seriously. What have you got to lose? iTunes is free, you already have the music player. For your own ripped/locally ripped mp3 files, there is no DRM b*llsh*t to manage. Point click and ship. Easy as pie.

[SteveDallas]

Well, I like iTunes too, mostly--I didn't realize it would work that well with a non-ipod player.

But remember that the default itunes import format is AAC--you need to change it to MP3 if you want to use it on your Sandisk player.

[LabRat]

Merci beaucoup. Just wondered what the experts were using.

The only reason I started with the Rhapsody service was we were supposed to be able to download as many of their songs for free as we wanted for a month before we got charged a subscription fee. I didn't have any trouble ripping a couple practice CD's that I had here at work.