MP3 or I pod?

wannabe

I am not very techie and only have personal CD player which is a pain at the gym. Please help. What is the difference between the two?
Where can I purchase the cheapest one and how do I put music on?
Sorry not good at this!!
Many thanks

IClaudius

Hi, ok...
an ipod is an mp3 player.

If you're not very techie then imagine that all your music is stored on a little hard drive within the player itself. The files are compressed allowing you to store far more music than say on a cd.

Ipod is the name for Apple's own brand.
There is a HUGE debate as to which are better, other makes or Apple.

I personally think the first thing you need to decide on is your budget.
You can pick up a failry decent ipod (not shuffle cos you can't choose which song) say the 2gb (this means it will hold about 500 songs) from say Boots here for £139 or if that is way out of your price range Argos sell other makes of MP3 players here
You will need a pc to transfer the music onto the mp3 player - most if not all come with the software to do that.

I have an ipod and absolutely love it - Itunes (this is the software to manage all the your song files) is very user friendly.

Others have other makes and are just as happy.

If you just want to transfer your own existing cd's then there will be extra outlay once you have purchased the palyer, if you want to buy more music, then there will be a cost per album or track.

Here is a review site comparing different players.

Hope this is of use :j

wannabe

Thank you so much it sounds a lot clearer now. I guess I just have to decide if I go cheap and cheerful or blow the budget. Are the cheap and cheerful more difficult to put tunes on?

Little_John

The cheap and cheerfull ones tend to be a drag and drop method of putting mp3's on. the hard part is thet you need to have your cds converted to mp3 before you can do this.

Itunes and sony's sonic stage will convert the cd for you and put it on your ipod/mp3 player.

the sony A1000 whihc is a 6GB player is on offer in tesco at the moment untill tuesday and Ipods are also on offer. you could wait and see if you can get them on an r+r (see grab it while you can for more info on r+r)

mr_fishbulb

The difference between an ipod and a mp3 player is millions of pounds worth of advertising.

melancholly

most mp3 players come with software to help you organise your music or if you have windows media player that can convert cds too. i have a creative labs muvo which is great for what i need, and a lot cheaper. if you buy from somewhere like https://www.dabs.com or https://www.ebuyer.com you can a very good deal, often a lot cheaper than the high street or amazon.

pin

Should add with Ipod, the music is converted into Apples proprietary format, which can't be used on any other device apart from Apple stuff (i.e. Ipod and Itunes on your pc).

Most mp3 players will use the mp3, wma (and some use ogg) format. You can normally use these formats with loads of devices.

All the formats are just a way of compressing the music.

Claudie

Boots may have the 2 gb for £139 which is good but if you can find someone to help you order from a mobile you can order a 30gb video Ipod for just £149 inc P&P. I got mine last week and loovvee it. I was a Creative mp3 person before but couldn't resist this one.

It is fab. The original thread is still running on the Grabbit Board.

iPod video 30gb white - £149.99 inc p&p!! Chart CD for 50p etc... (merged)

irnbru_2

Claudie wrote:

iPod video 30gb white

If it's for the gym or running then stick with a solid-state player.

There are too many mp3 players to mention out there. With your budget find yourself a decent player and decent headphones.

There's a reason why people buy IPods. Think different

wonderfullife_2

Hi
You can spend between £19 -£280, for a mp3/ipod player. It all depends on how much your willing to spend, I have an Iriver H140 and I spent over £200+ on it, don't get me wrong its an excellent player and I love it, but are they really worth this much? I know it has a lot of extra features than the cheaper ones, it plays a lot more formats and you don't even need a pc, as it has the line in/out so you can record direct, but in retrospect I just wonder if they are really worth it or was it just the hype and I fell for it.

A friend at work has one of the Medions and its great, buy a decent pair of headphones for it and the sound quality is absolutely fine.

This one is the cheap and cheerful one for £42, for a 1gb, usb mp3 player with radio, usually you just drag and drop files/folders, easy to use and you proabably get about 200-250 songs on it.
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=8895&GroupID=1209



Also you local Somerfield might still have the Medion 1gb player for £25

Hope this helps