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[M3wThr33]

I completed that freeIpod offer and am waiting for it to ship. In the meantime I've considered a lot of options about what to do.

Right now my favorite one includes going to a local apple store, trading the unopened 20GB iPod in for a 40GB and getting an Apple Carekit there with a student discount, so for about $140 or so I'd get a 40GB iPod (With a dock that the 20GB lacks) and a battery replacement sometime in the next 36 months.

I went to Best Buy recently and played around with other players. The iRiver looked nice, but from what I could do, from the steel cage they put it in it, browsing songs didn't seem like it was as easy as a scroll wheel and I couldn't see multiple titles at a time.

Also, I began to notice that iTunes sucks beyond all hope for many many reasons, the current one is that it doesn't read my ID3 tags and prefers to make up its own. (Read: a file like "001 - The White Strips - Seven Nation Army.mp3" is read as Seven Nation Army from the artist "various" and I get pissed because it's making that name up. BOTH ID3 tags are correct and the artist name is IN THE DAMN FILENAME) I fear that's going to happen to my iPod as well.

So basically I ask this:
1) Is there more to the iRiver to browse faster?
2) Is there a 40GB model?
3) What other stores will let me walk in with a 20GB iPod and get $300 credit?

 

[Fresh Prince]

First of all iTunes isn't that hard.
Just very very time consuming..... agreed it's a bitch but I guess it puts you in good stead.

Anyway:
1) Misunderstood you, it takes a little bit longer than the iPod to learn the UI, but once that said and done you shouldn't have any probs.
2) Yes for the iPod and iRiver
3) Unsure

Also have look at the Karma too, apparently they have seemed to have fixed most of the HD issues. However 20gig only.

 

[B'z-chan]

Wal-mart

 

[M3wThr33]

I mean, on the iRiver to change songs I had to hit left or right on that nub and I had no clue what song was next. On the iPod, I can scroll through a list and see 7 or 8 on the screen at a time.

My collection is about 17.5GB with 5500 songs. I plan to store all the songs on the player as opposed to syncing, so it'll have to grow with me. 20GB is too damn small considering it's probably 18.4GB or whatever they do for harddrives with 2^8 != 10^6.

And the Wal-Mart is too damn far away for me to get to. I wouldn't go there anyway, unless I had a chance to rip them off.

 

[Coen]

I mean, on the iRiver to change songs I had to hit left or right on that nub and I had no clue what song was next.

By default, iRiver shows the ID3-tag while playing. You should've pressed the nub for the directory list, where you can watch what's coming up next (and scroll to it, if you like). You can listen to the songs in the 'viewing directory'-mode if you'd like.

 

[M3wThr33]

You said ID3. That means I already have an itching to prefer the iRiver over the iPod with it's FART format. Damn, knowing that, what other neat things does the iRiver do? How about rating songs? I've been using media monkey to rate my collection lately in hopes that some media player would read it, too and assemble playlists.

Edit:
http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/H140.aspx
Wow. FM Tuner, Included back-lit remote, Voice recording.

Two questions:
1) Can I record from the FM radio?
2) How's the life of the battery in months? Replacable?

 

[fart]

battery lifetimes are measured in cycles where a cycle is a depletion of battery to some threshold (~80%) and a full recharge. that said, under moderate use the battery should hold something like a 60% charge by year 2. for a 12 hour ihp battery that means you'll have something like a 6 hour battery in a year or two.

the batteries are not user-replaceable persay, but iriver international is offering something like a 50$ replacement service and there's a third party company doing it as well. if you're not a total klutz you should be able to replace it yourself (ideally with one of the improved li ion cells that are coming out nowadays, like 20-30 hour cells) if it does start going.

the current firmware doesn't let you record from the radio. people have requested that feature, but the firmware team doesn't speak english and is possibly a room full of monkeys, so i'm going to say no. it could happen in the same sense that i could become president of the world.

the iriver has two browse modes. the default mode is just a directory level view. if you hit the nub once you get either the current directory, if a song is playing, or the root level of the player's drive, if the unit is stopped. from there you can traverse through the directory structure, viewing each file by the filename.

the second browse mode is the id3 tag database mode. the trick to this is that it's not a dynamically built database. you have to rebuild the database every time you dock the player (you can use the freeware ihptool, iripdb or the shareware irivium explorer). this isn't a huge problem, since you're not going to be changing up the files on the player when not docked (although the new firmware has on-the-fly delete, so you could), but you have to remember to build the thing everytime you dock.

the bonus mode is just a playlist browser. again, no building playlists dynamically, you have to build m3u files in winamp or one of the software packages above and then put them anywhere on the player. stop the player completely, then hit a-b to get a list of playlists on the player.

oh, there's also a one song queue. you can set the next song by browsing to it then hitting a-b while a song is playing.

anyways, iriver software is stupid. it's not going to build playlists for you by reading your mind to figure out what kind of music you like. it's not going to buy music for you either, so don't expect it to do that. it does have a great remote and a ton of battery life though.

 

[M3wThr33]

Thanks for the input. Is it possible to make the iRiver play music just from a folder?
The way my music is setup on my computer is by genres, with a general Soundtracks folder of ripped CDs and collections. Some of there are self-compiled collections like VH1's All-Time One-Hit Wonders. The folder has just those in there.
Could the iRiver play just those if I set it up to, or would I have to throw together a quicky playlist?

 

[fart]

by default the next song to play is the next filename lexographically in the current folder. at the lexicographical end of a folder a new folder is chosen and the first filename (again, lexicographically) in that folder is played. there is a playmode that will just play a single folder and then stop though, as well as repeat song, repeat folder, shuffle song, shuffle folder, and all that junk.

so, yes. yah it'll do that.

actually, i only use playlists when i want to get a particular track-order within a folder (like the original record order for the ffx piano collections) but the files i have aren't named with the track number at the beginning of the name. otherwise i just use the normal (play everything in a directory, then go to the next directory) play mode.

 

[Malleymal]

I think i may upgrade my ipod to 40 gig as well, didnt know how quickly i would be filling this thing up..... I also am going to be getting another one from the free Ipod site as well...
here is an image of the contour case, this case is sturdy and keeps the ipod CLEAN

http://www.contourdesign.com/showcase/showcase4g_pair.jpg

http://www.contourdesign.com/showcase/showcase4.jpg


http://www.contourdesign.com/showcase/showcase5.jpg

http://www.contourdesign.com/showcase/showcase3.jpg

http://www.contourdesign.com/showcase/showcase2.jpg


comes in black and white for now... I got the white one while in NYC two days ago, love it

 

[M3wThr33]

Alright, well, with the ID3 tag reading and FM Radio, the iRiver 40GB sounds like a winner to me. (Does it have a dock?)

The only thing I need to do now is dump off my 20GB iPod and get the $300 or so for it. Anybody interested in getting from me?

 

[fart]

no dock or usb charging.

 

[M3wThr33]

Well, I went through with Media Monkey and iTunes and did a lot of stuff, but I got iTunes to recognize EVERYTHING. I just wish it wasn't so stubborn about not wanting to read ID3 tags by default.

Anyways, unless I can find someone to sell my 20GB iPod to, I'm just going to get the 40GB iPod with the Carekit.