oh, i definitely feel you on that, but apple doesn't make money on that so they don't really care. the first ipod i had was a 2nd generation one and it was just a pain in the ass to get it working with a pc instead of a mac. how much are their movies anyway?
they're basically painting w/ broad strokes, since most[/b] people putting movies on their ipods are dl'ing illegal content. You might not, but unfortunately you're in the minority.
It's similar to the dl'ing songs off ipod to computer because RIAA/MPAA do not want illegal files to be distributed or shared easily. In order for Apple to lock down all these agreements to sell such content, they had to restrict the transfer of data to meet their requirements.
Portable video is still a new format so to speak, whereas mp3's were already entrenched before the arrival of ipods. Thus the MPAA had more bargaining power on their side since they're setting a precedent.
From what I understand you cannot do this (no, I dont have an MP3 player either). If you wanted to record directly (and live), I would suggest getting a fancy mini-disc recorder.
I got the 60gig ipod. I dig it. One of the reasons I copped the ipod over other mp3 players is that a lot of people have them. So I can go over their house and get some of their music via itunes. I also have it hardwired thru my cd changer in my car. It's pretty cool. The track titles come up on my head unit. I rock the shuffle in my car. It's like my own satelite station. For the value alone you should go for the 60gig.
thanks for all the help guys, but i'm just as confused as i was to begin with
this is still my biggest concern:
Lifespan is hard to call: after a year, all bets are off.
i can't see spending $400 on something that may not work in a year.
You can get new batteries for em for $35.... plus this is not a problem specific to iPods, any device that uses rechargable batteries (cameras, other mp3 players, laptops) won't hold as good a charge after a few hundred charge/discharge cycles.
From what I understand you cannot do this (no, I dont have an MP3 player either). If you wanted to record directly (and live), I would suggest getting a fancy mini-disc recorder.
You hypothetically should be able to record 44.1 khz mp3s and wav files on a stock video iPod. Like i said I haven't been keeping up with this too closely. But I would bet there's some breakout boxes coming out soon that will have phantom power, 1/4" jacks and the like.
The recording option has been available for a while. There's no hardware issue preventing it, but it was a limitation imposed by apple capping the recording quality at 8-bit 11 khz (or something quite low quality). For a while people have been recording using A href="http://ipodlinux.org/">linux on ipods.
If you have $350-ish to spend just on a pro quality recorder, I've been really happy with my m-audio microtrack. Very small, uses flash memory, has phantom power, UI is pretty solid (no crashes or glitches yet), and the A->D converters sound a lot sweeter to my ears than minidisc.
I'm just saying: this has been a problem in the past, Apple has supposedly addressesd it but it it a legit concern. I had a third gen iPod which never ran into problems after two years of use but my fourth gen iPod seems to be suffering from some battery issues and it's not much older than a year.
I still think they're worth getting. I say this as: 1) a Mac guy, 2) an MP3 guy, 3) someone who appreciates good design and technology. I think you'd appreciate all the above. But as everyone else has suggested: shit ain't essential. It'd be a convenience but it won't necessarily change your life.
i can't see spending $400 on something that may not work in a year.
avg lifespan will be 3 yrs give or take. The battery will last 300-500 full cycles and can be replaced. Think of this as a digital camera, or a computer even. The lifespan of products just aren't what they used to be, technology changes too fast.
by all bets are off, oliver is referring to the warranty, which covers it for one year. You can throw any mp3 player on the market in the same category since they all generally have 1 yr warranties. Remember, these devices are used on the go, thus are prone to bump & grind. Can't help it, it's the nature of things....
canonical - theoretically yes, but it's still too cost inhibitive to use flash in that capacity. Give it a year or two and that should change.
A lot of battery issues are due to user error or lack of knowledge. Did you know that the battery indicator is not an absolute, but rather an approximation. The meter will become less accurate over time and needs to be recalibrated. It is recommended a full discharge/recharge be done for every 30 charge cycles to rectify this. As previously mentioned, any concerns about battery, plaese to read...
i own an iriver h320 as recommended by someone on this site, and one of the best purchases i've made in my life...problem is that its out of production but you can ebay some of the models still (in my opinion after doing a lot of research, id say its the epitome of the best mp3 player out there) but that's out of production so u might not want to swing that way. DONT FUCK WITH IRIVERS newer 20 gb models...they fucking suck, and are dumbed down to compete with ipods.
if i got my h320 stolen today, i would buy another h320 or buy a cowan iaudio x5 which is very similar set of features to the iriver h320:
a benefit of the h320 over ipod in your particular case if you have to digitize 1000 tapes or whatever, you can just dump those mp3s into your iriver as if you were going through files in windows explorer(this was a major issue for why i chose i river as well), with the ipod youd have to rename everything with tags for it to be organize properly in itunes. you can use your iriver like a mini hard drive. also it comes with fm radio and ability to record at great quality (ie digitizing vinyl/tapes straight into the player without a computer)
do u need a 20 gb player? yes. if not for the music, at least for the podcasts (wink) but for real, its a great educational tool, i love listening to audio books on the way to and from work and filling my head with knowledge i thought was boring in highschool.
good luck
huge cosign on the older Iriver.
I've had the HP 140 for almost three years. I record wav/mp3 files directly onto my player from my 1200s using a Vestax007 mixer. I basically run it all the time and have ended up with days worth of mixes. Then I chop them up into tracks and dump them on my LaCie 250GB external. Then I can move them back and fourth on the Iriver so easily it's almost hard to believe. I also have the tuner for my car.
I don't like the way other players like the iPod tie your hands and make you do things one way.
Iriver H340 (40 gig) works like an external HD for windows or mac.
Just drag and drop any files to or from the pc/mac.
Color screen with pictures and video
mp3 and wav recording, internal or external mic, line in and out, great quality.
and best of all, ROCKBOX!!! which is completely customizable open source firmware (www.rockbox.org).
Rockbox lets you have true gapless playback, choose your font and size, design your own wps (while playing screen), choose your text scroll speed, use replaygain, record with level meters, increase battery life, very versitile onthego playlist creation and maintainence, rename and delete files and playlists, customizable crossfading, gameboy emulator, etc.. i could go on but just check out the site. You can even suggest new features on their message board, or, if you are good enough, make them yourself.
People are working on rockbox for iAudio and Ipod, but I think it will be a while before it is ready.
I have the iRiver H140, which only has a two color screen but has optical in and out.
Dude, Andrew, it's not like it's *your* money, go get that damn ipod back! I wish I had a nano. Makes my 40 gig model look like betamax. As for storage, I have not even filled mine up halfway, and I have A LOT of shit on there. I'm kinda lazy about ripping wax though and I don't have stacks and stacks of MP3 files or CDs waiting to be uploaded. But still, even 30 gigs is A LOT of music. And it won't all stay on there, so I don't think storage should be a worry.
I wouldn't use it as a back-up drive really, it's just too sensitive being carried around with you and all.
I fucking love my ipod and I really wouldn't invest in another brand because of previous experience with "other brand" electronics devices that end up being obsolete because the company folds or discontinues the model.
i don't own one. but when on the road,someone usually brings one and week just hook up up to the radio antenna thing-a-majig and its on. no more cds ,i am planning on getting one sometime soon.
the post about the iriver is interesting.im going to look into that,thanks.
i got a toshiba gigabeat as a gift recently. it's a 40 gig model. i was thinking of getting the ipod 40 gig instead, but i've heard that the ipod 40 actually has 30 gigs for music, and the other 10 is reserved for pictures, whereas the gigabeat has 40 gigs just for music. plus it has a nice color screen and pictures of the record covers pop up while the album is playing. that's kinda fresh.
From what I understand you cannot do this (no, I dont have an MP3 player either). If you wanted to record directly (and live), I would suggest getting a fancy mini-disc recorder.
yeah i was asking because the iriver h320 lets you input an external mic and lets you record at 320 kbps...so like when i practice acoustic guitar, its cool for recording that shit...that's why i was inquring if the cowan could do that too. the older irivers can even record directly to .wav as previous mentioned.
i saw some here in toronto, but i already bought my iriver a few months ago...
A -
Could you drop the name of the store(s) w/ this available - the Cowon?
Thanks.
yeah i saw them at the "huge" Vaughan outlet mall by canada's wonderland...i think it might have been a store called "mp3 store" or some shit like that, but its definitely one of those tech gadget stores...when you walk in the main entrance, it's to the right
From what I understand you cannot do this (no, I dont have an MP3 player either). If you wanted to record directly (and live), I would suggest getting a fancy mini-disc recorder.
yeah i was asking because the iriver h320 lets you input an external mic and lets you record at 320 kbps...so like when i practice acoustic guitar, its cool for recording that shit...that's why i was inquring if the cowan could do that too. the older irivers can even record directly to .wav as previous mentioned.
The international versions of the H320/40 will also record to wav, and the american versions probably will be able to do that with rockbox.
weren't those nanos going for crazey loot on ebay because the stores were out of them??!
I can't get over how lame the Nano is. The whole attraction is that it's so small? Dude, if a freaking iPod is somehow too big for you, then you have issues.
Plus, 2 or 4 gigs is nothing once you start loading 'em up.
For what it's worth, my mom and sisters all went in for a 20 GB iPod for my last birthday, and I was psyched, but I didn't use that shit for like 6 months, all the time saying to myself "I've got 10,000 records. What do I need this for?"
So after not using it for about 6 months, I started using it and within 2 weeks I didn't know how I ever lived without one.
I would recomend an ipod, bought a 20gig 3rd gen and have had no problems at all..:) The only thing that concerned me with it costing a lot of cash, was my superpower of being able to break any portable music player(walkman/minidisc/etc)... So as soon as the shuffle came out I copped one of those, 1gig is enough for my daily listening needs, so the 20gig model is now my desk stereo... The shuffle is fairly hard wearing and small enough to feel like it isn't there if you need it for the gym etc.
Comments
It's similar to the dl'ing songs off ipod to computer because RIAA/MPAA do not want illegal files to be distributed or shared easily. In order for Apple to lock down all these agreements to sell such content, they had to restrict the transfer of data to meet their requirements.
Portable video is still a new format so to speak, whereas mp3's were already entrenched before the arrival of ipods. Thus the MPAA had more bargaining power on their side since they're setting a precedent.
That, at least, is what they intend to do with the next generation of laptops.
this is still my biggest concern:
i can't see spending $400 on something that may not work in a year.
Christmas must be a ton of fun at your house.
From what I understand you cannot do this (no, I dont have an MP3 player either). If you wanted to record directly (and live), I would suggest getting a fancy mini-disc recorder.
You can get new batteries for em for $35.... plus this is not a problem specific to iPods, any device that uses rechargable batteries (cameras, other mp3 players, laptops) won't hold as good a charge after a few hundred charge/discharge cycles.
You hypothetically should be able to record 44.1 khz mp3s and wav files on a stock video iPod. Like i said I haven't been keeping up with this too closely. But I would bet there's some breakout boxes coming out soon that will have phantom power, 1/4" jacks and the like.
The recording option has been available for a while. There's no hardware issue preventing it, but it was a limitation imposed by apple capping the recording quality at 8-bit 11 khz (or something quite low quality). For a while people have been recording using A href="http://ipodlinux.org/">linux on ipods.
If you have $350-ish to spend just on a pro quality recorder, I've been really happy with my m-audio microtrack. Very small, uses flash memory, has phantom power, UI is pretty solid (no crashes or glitches yet), and the A->D converters sound a lot sweeter to my ears than minidisc.
I'm just saying: this has been a problem in the past, Apple has supposedly addressesd it but it it a legit concern. I had a third gen iPod which never ran into problems after two years of use but my fourth gen iPod seems to be suffering from some battery issues and it's not much older than a year.
I still think they're worth getting. I say this as: 1) a Mac guy, 2) an MP3 guy, 3) someone who appreciates good design and technology. I think you'd appreciate all the above. But as everyone else has suggested: shit ain't essential. It'd be a convenience but it won't necessarily change your life.
Or score you barely (un)legal tail.
haha dude you know i was joking about that, right?
avg lifespan will be 3 yrs give or take. The battery will last 300-500 full cycles and can be replaced. Think of this as a digital camera, or a computer even. The lifespan of products just aren't what they used to be, technology changes too fast.
by all bets are off, oliver is referring to the warranty, which covers it for one year. You can throw any mp3 player on the market in the same category since they all generally have 1 yr warranties. Remember, these devices are used on the go, thus are prone to bump & grind. Can't help it, it's the nature of things....
canonical - theoretically yes, but it's still too cost inhibitive to use flash in that capacity. Give it a year or two and that should change.
A lot of battery issues are due to user error or lack of knowledge. Did you know that the battery indicator is not an absolute, but rather an approximation. The meter will become less accurate over time and needs to be recalibrated. It is recommended a full discharge/recharge be done for every 30 charge cycles to rectify this. As previously mentioned, any concerns about battery, plaese to read...
Suuuuuure you were.
"Coming soon in 2006: Cocaine Blunts and Jail Bait"
huge cosign on the older Iriver.
I've had the HP 140 for almost three years. I record wav/mp3 files directly onto my player from my 1200s using a Vestax007 mixer. I basically run it all the time and have ended up with days worth of mixes. Then I chop them up into tracks and dump them on my LaCie 250GB external. Then I can move them back and fourth on the Iriver so easily it's almost hard to believe. I also have the tuner for my car.
I don't like the way other players like the iPod tie your hands and make you do things one way.
Ipods look cool and that's about it.
Just drag and drop any files to or from the pc/mac.
Color screen with pictures and video
mp3 and wav recording, internal or external mic, line in and out, great quality.
and best of all, ROCKBOX!!! which is completely customizable open source firmware (www.rockbox.org).
Rockbox lets you have true gapless playback, choose your font and size, design your own wps (while playing screen), choose your text scroll speed, use replaygain, record with level meters, increase battery life, very versitile onthego playlist creation and maintainence, rename and delete files and playlists, customizable crossfading, gameboy emulator, etc.. i could go on but just check out the site. You can even suggest new features on their message board, or, if you are good enough, make them yourself.
People are working on rockbox for iAudio and Ipod, but I think it will be a while before it is ready.
I have the iRiver H140, which only has a two color screen but has optical in and out.
*edited to include gapless playback.
I wouldn't use it as a back-up drive really, it's just too sensitive being carried around with you and all.
I fucking love my ipod and I really wouldn't invest in another brand because of previous experience with "other brand" electronics devices that end up being obsolete because the company folds or discontinues the model.
Some people just like being contrary though.
That's my 1 post for the day
if coast to coast is on podcast,im going to go buy one right now.
i don't own one. but when on the road,someone usually brings one and week just hook up up to the radio antenna thing-a-majig
and its on.
no more cds ,i am planning on getting one sometime soon.
the post about the iriver is interesting.im going to look into that,thanks.
yeah i was asking because the iriver h320 lets you input an external mic and lets you record at 320 kbps...so like when i practice acoustic guitar, its cool for recording that shit...that's why i was inquring if the cowan could do that too. the older irivers can even record directly to .wav as previous mentioned.
yeah i saw them at the "huge" Vaughan outlet mall by canada's wonderland...i think it might have been a store called "mp3 store" or some shit like that, but its definitely one of those tech gadget stores...when you walk in the main entrance, it's to the right
The international versions of the H320/40 will also record to wav, and the american versions probably will be able to do that with rockbox.
weren't those nanos going for crazey loot on ebay because the stores were out of them??!
I can't get over how lame the Nano is. The whole attraction is that it's so small? Dude, if a freaking iPod is somehow too big for you, then you have issues.
Plus, 2 or 4 gigs is nothing once you start loading 'em up.
they were going around cost when i checked
So after not using it for about 6 months, I started using it and within 2 weeks I didn't know how I ever lived without one.
The only thing that concerned me with it costing a lot of cash, was my superpower of being able to break any portable music player(walkman/minidisc/etc)...
So as soon as the shuffle came out I copped one of those, 1gig is enough for my daily listening needs, so the 20gig model is now my desk stereo...
The shuffle is fairly hard wearing and small enough to feel like it isn't there if you need it for the gym etc.