Friday, November 18, 2005

MP3 Player

So, we’re considering an MP3 player. I don’t know exactly what we need, so if anyone wants to enlighten me on what I need, here’s the dealio:

1.) We don’t need more than a single gig for music.
2.) We don’t care about the brand.
3.) We want to be able to play it in the car, but not necessarily at home.
4.) We’d like to explore the option of books on MP3 (e.g. How big in gigs does it need to be to put a – say all the Chronicles of Narnia on there – but not necessarily more books than that at a single time.
5.) Looks like the options are anywhere from 156 megs all the way up to 60 gigs.
6.) Don’t really want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks (and are hoping that a Black Friday sale in North Carolina might help us out).

Please inform me if you can. Thanks.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

are you avoiding an ipod for some reason?

Burly said...

Nope. Not at all. Just willing to go for an alternate brand if price is an issue.

David and Sarah said...

Matt,
I just got a Samsung mp3 player this fall, and I love it. It does everything an ipod does, but for much less cashola. I got a refurbished model from a seller on ebay; it was about $160 for a 20gig unit--which had originally retailed for something like $400. If you want to use it in the car, you'll have to get some sort of adapter. There are tape adapters and RF adapters that transmit a radio signal. The guy at Radio Shack who sold me the RF adapter said that they are way better than the tape units, but I'm not all that impressed with the quality. It's subject to interference and it seems to reduce the volume of the signal dramatically. You might want to try the tape adapter if you have a deck in your car. As for books on tape, I do it all the time--works great. Just get them on CD (or download them on bittorrent--heh, heh, heh), convert to mp3, and away you go. Cheers,
DCF

Burly said...

Thanks David ... so if I were to go the book route, would I need a 20 gigger?

David and Sarah said...

Not necessarily. If you're willing to swap the files in and out, you can easily fit several full audio books on even a much smaller unit. For example, I currently have on my hard drive an unabridged reading of the Fellowship of the Ring (a sizeable novel, as you no doubt know), and it only takes up 266 MB. So you can go far with only a few gigs. But if, like me, you feel the strange need to have every book you're likely to listen to over the next ten years immediately accessible wherever you go, then by all means, go for the 20 gigs.

Burly said...

Thanks David. That is very helpful.

Anonymous said...

Well,
Maybe we need to talk Father Son Christmas gift here. Dad

Burly said...

60 gig it is then! Just kidding;). We'll check the ads on Thanksgiving, dad.

Anonymous said...

An all night wait outside Best Buys for Black Friday? Could be fun! I will bring the beer!
Dad

Burly said...

Let's skip the beer ... I don't want to repeat the scene from a few years ago that involve me going to the car with a supersize McDonalds cup from the trash can because I drank a half a liter of water at 2:30 a ... and let's check the weather, too. Getting up at 2:30 a may not be worth $20;)

fletch said...

I think you will be fine with most models-interface is different on them all, but like anything once you learn it you don't care about the differences. And if you can geta 20 gig, you should...memory is only getting cheaper. Playing the MP3 in the car is another concern. With the iPOD there are more enhanced capailities with wiring directly to the receiver that improves the sound quality. If you don't have that capability the best radio frequency is made by Griffin. Not directly related to MP3 players, but the Pocket Rocket by Griffin is great for laptops...I take the laptop on long drives...it plays DVDs. Of course if you got your dream VAN it would have the DVD system built. I also would like an MP3 player for xmas, a nice gift.

Anonymous said...

Hey,
If i remember that cup worked fine, well except for the slight spillage.
Dad

Burly said...

Thanks for the tips, Fletch. I'm ready for the black Friday ads now;)

Anonymous said...

Even the old Buehrle gang did not get the built in DVD player in the van. Perhaps we should take it back that could be a greater deficit than a full ash tray