MP3 player question

[dzilla77]

So Mrs. dzilla is going to get me a new MP3 player for X-mas this year to replace the 5 or 6 year old 1Gb one I have now. A couple of questions:

Can a non Apple product play (legally) content purchased through iTunes and how easy is it to do so (conversion required, special software, etc)?

Any recommendations on one? My sweet spot is 8Gb+ and around $100. Also, if possible, needs to be able to play iTunes music content. Don't necessarily care about wifi, or cameras or other stuff.

Any advise appreciated. Thanks.

[terpkristin]

As for your iTunes stuff, it depends on the player and when the music was bought from iTunes. If it's been purchased since Apple dropped their DRM, then the answer is yes, at least based on my experience. I was able to play my iTunes music on my old Android phone, before I went iPhone. If the file extension is an *.m4a, it should work. *.m4p won't.

Can't speak to players, the only thing I've used for ages is iPods (I've had way more than I should admit). The newest Nano is 16 gb and $149. You might be able to find an older generation one (refurbished or otherwise) for less than that. The advantage, of course, is that if you use iTunes already (for podcasts and or music procured), then the iPod will integrate with it. I don't know if SanDisk makes them anymore, but I've heard good things about the "Sansa" players. They look relatively inexpensive, too...

Regarding the music, should you have *.mp4 files or if there is any issue with any of the music moving to the new player, you can always burn the albums to audio disc and then re-rip them to mp3 or m4a. I've done that quite a bit with my older stuff. These days I buy from iTunes and Amazon, depending on my mood and the deal. I've gotten a bit annoyed with Amazon lately, they're making it more of a pain in the ass to get music if you don't want to use their Cloud Player (which I don't). But I've had some albums on iTunes that seem to be digitized poorly. CD's FTW?

/tk

[stevew]

I would probably go for the new Nano at $149. I know it exceeds budget but it is also a quality item. I'm not sure if Sansa players exist anymore. They were also really good players.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by stevew

I'm not sure if Sansa players exist anymore. They were also really good players.

They do Just bought a new Sansa Clip after loosing mine ... Had that one for nearly 5 years and thoroughly enjoyed it so got another without hesitation.
The 8GB version is the largest available, which i personally find plenty enough space. Forces you to actually controll what you put on it a little bit (more so when having audio books or podcasts on it), but that´s not nescessarily a bad thing.

Can´t speak about the itunes thing, buy my music elsewhere.

[terpkristin]

I should add, the only reason that I've had more iPod's than I should admit is that I can't stop from buying the latest things. I've only had 2 iPods actually die. One was my first one, the 3rd gen (1st that was Windows-compatible). It died when my cat went for my keys on the counter and knocked my iPod into his water dish on the floor. The second was a 5th-gen iPod that died after a loooong time and a lot of travel.

Currently I have a 4th (5th?--the generation before they went to the small clip one) gen nano, a 4th gen Touch, a 2nd gen Shuffle, a "Classic" from a couple years ago that I treat like my iTunes library backup, and an iPhone 4. I use mostly the phone...the Touch is handy when my nephew is in town and wants to play games. If you buy through Apple, you can get a Product RED iPod Nano that still costs the same but they donate some of the cost to the AIDS charity.

/tk

[dzilla77]

Thanks for the info.

Most of my iTunes stuff is recent (last year or so) so its all m4a.

Does a player have to call out m4a format specifically or will I need to convert it to another format (AAC?)?

I am considering the nano, but it seems a bit over priced.

I was actually looking at this Samsung Galaxy player but if it can't play my purchased music, it is of limited value.

Other thoughts welcome and appreciated.

[terpkristin]

iTunes AAC is .m4a, but yes you should look at the specs for a player to confirm it will work, otherwise you will have to convert the files to .mp3 (which you can do within iTunes, it's in one of the menu options). My recollection is that when you do the conversion, you can choose to replace the existing with the mp3 or create a dupe file, but it MIGHT just make a duplicate file in mp3 format...it's been a few years since I did it.

As I said, I can't speak to any device but Apple but man oh man do I love my iPods. The new nano has Bluetooth (to hook into car audio and speaker systems) and I think a radio. I have NOO need for one but still have looked at them longingly.

[terpkristin]

Ok I looked at the specs and reviews for that Samsung player. It LOOKS like it could play the .m4a songs but as I said, at worst you could convert those.

That said, I'm surprised you'd be going for something that's got so many features...if you're looking for features like those, most of the reviews suggest that it's pretty mediocre (most recommend spending a little more and getting a player that implants those features better, either other Android players or an iPod Touch). If you don't need all the features then I'd definitely look at the Sansa, which is definitely compatible with iTunes stuff, such as this one: http://www.sandisk.com/products/musi...ers/fuze-plus/

As a side note, if you do get an Android player, I'd look at reviews for how they handle music stored on removable memory (such as a micro SD card). My old phone crashed when I tried to load too much music from the card, but other players do it better now.

/tk