Mp3 player for someone who hates itunes?

Access

I wont get into a huge discussion here regarding the pros and cons of the ipod and itunes, but i need to get a new mp3 player (mainly to use in the car via fm transmitter) and i just don't like itunes.

I have an old 1 gig plug and play - copy and drag direct mp3 player, but i now need a minimum 8 gig (or larger) mp3 player (with fm transmitter built in if available)

Also, do most mp3 players now include software that has to be used to transfer the music files to the player or could i still use a drag and drop method (which i prefer)?

Could someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

callaway92

Microsoft Zune...good value...Huge sizi

Gran Hermano

Very recent thread here with similar discussion.
The Zune 80 gets my vote - but it's not drag and drop.

Access

yeah, just reading previous posts on the zune 80 and it seems to be a popular one...

For anyone who has one at the moment...

since it is not drag and drop, does it come with software you need to use in order to transfer files or how do you go about transferring audio files to it?

(the reason i ask is that i transfer mp3s between my pc, my sisters pc and the cousins pc etc. all the time, and i would not want to have to install required software on theirs pcs to do so!)

Also, can it be used just like an external hard drive?

(i.e. 80 gig plug and play drive for transferring large files and programs between pcs etc.)

Gran Hermano

You need the Zune software for transferring music/video/photos.
It's like a much improved version of Windows Media player.
You'll need to download it from the internet to install.
(I use a 4GB memory stick for transferring media between laptops,
cheap and easy work around ).

You can not use it like an external hard drive.

BostonB

Where can you get a Zune?

netopia789

the same what me

pleasant Co.

BostonB wrote: »

Where can you get a Zune?

ebay

It's american only at the moment so ebay or having a friend ship it over are kinda the only options available.

Access

just regarding anyone on here who owns one... is there any negatives about the zune apart from the fact that warranty wouldn't be covered here at the moment?

lostpatrick

I hate itunes aswell but after using a mates ipod touch i had to get one,
so i just used mediamonkey media player instead of itunes
Problem sorted

callaway92

Tis very good alright..MediaMonkey

BostonB

I find MediaMonkey 3 much buggier than MediaMonkey 2. I've gone back to the earlier version myself.

aliqueenb

get a creative zen 60 gb like me:) and then win an ipod nano and shuffle like me:P

youcancallmeal

Access wrote: »

just regarding anyone on here who owns one... is there any negatives about the zune apart from the fact that warranty wouldn't be covered here at the moment?

Just so its not too sugarcoated let me say that the manner in which the Zune player and software manages id3 information is stunningly poor. Everything must be tagged exactly or else it won't show up on your player or it'll be labeled incorrectly etc. It took me the best part of 3 weeks to go through my 50gb mp3 collection with mp3tag to make sure everything was correct. Even now on my player it seems takes a dislike to random songs and they wont display properly no matter how much you edit the tag info. Besides that its a great mp3 player!

BostonB

I've heard people complaining about the software with the Zune. That said it seems like every MP3 player has quirks with ID3 tags. My Sony differenciates on upper and lower case even if the word is spelt correctly. So U2 is a different artist to u2. Some players ignore Artist Album, etc. Some don't display track numbers etc. Its a real pain. Filetree was so much easier.

Access

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Just so its not too sugarcoated let me say that the manner in which the Zune player and software manages id3 information is stunningly poor. Everything must be tagged exactly or else it won't show up on your player or it'll be labeled incorrectly etc. It took me the best part of 3 weeks to go through my 50gb mp3 collection with mp3tag to make sure everything was correct. Even now on my player it seems takes a dislike to random songs and they wont display properly no matter how much you edit the tag info. Besides that its a great mp3 player!

thousands of my mp3s have no id tag info at all... as they were ripped from my cd collection by a program... would this be a big problem (as in missing info etc) or can most mp3 player nowadays read the mp3s file name?

rosboy

You might ger a few ideas here:

http://stuff.tv/Top10/MP3-players/

The Sony NWZ A815 is supposed to be very good.

Gran Hermano

Access wrote: »

thousands of my mp3s have no id tag info at all... as they were ripped from my cd collection by a program... would this be a big problem (as in missing info etc) or can most mp3 player nowadays read the mp3s file name?

Bit of a schoolboy error not tagging the mp3s properly at the time of ripping.
You can use tagscanner to write the tags from the filename if your
filenames are detailed enough or it can try to ID the tracks and add track info.
Other option is to use media monkey to download the track ID and tag it.

BostonB

MediaMonkey can tag from directory structure and file name.

I preferred how MediaMonkey v2 did it though. MediaMonkey v3 seems to have bugs in doing this for me.

I think its impossible to keep a large music collection 100% correctly tagged. The auto tagging apps make mistakes, and the online database aren't perfect, and you don't find until theres a problem with a player.

For example I've a MP3 that won't show up in iTunes. I have no idea why. Looks ok in MediaMonkey. Stuff like that.

fenris

Songbird is worth a look, not least because it has an addon for Hypem!

http://www.songbirdnest.com/


By the firefox people!

rosboy

fenris wrote: »

Songbird is worth a look, not least because it has an addon for Hypem!

http://www.songbirdnest.com/


By the firefox people!

Thanks. Going to try this. Never heard of it before.