diff between mp3 with video playback and mp4?

mummyyummy_2 · 5 December 2007 at 8:44PM

can anyone pls tell me the diff between the 2 of these pls? i was originally going to get my son an mp3 player but noticed quite good priced mp4 players in woolworths 39.99 or 49.99...then i decided to have a look in argos and now notice mp3 players with video playback? are they both the same with diff names? or do they do diff things? i would like the mp4 as my son would enjoy watching a cartoon/movie on his as well as the music and he loves you tube so thought maybe we could download some of his fave clips from that onto it (dont know how much memory i would need for movies though or even how to go about it)...can anyone help?? thanks

albertross_2 · 5 December 2007 at 9:05PM

mp3 is sound only, video playback could mean anything, you would have to find out the full spec of the machine or post model details to find out.

youtube uses flv, so you would probably have to do some conversion to get it to work

mummyyummy_2 · 6 December 2007 at 11:29PM

so if i buy an mp4 like this one http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/product/index.jsp?pid=50943408 would i be able to download vids etc to it?

or would this one be any better
http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/product/index.jsp?pid=50943409

finally this is one of the mp3 + playback i mentioned
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5136364/Trail/searchtext%3EMP3+PLAYER.htm

can anyone help??

i really dont know what type to go for..thanks

mummyyummy_2 · 7 December 2007 at 2:00PM

can anyone help me at all?? want to try and buy one today if i can find the right one x

Aiadi · 7 December 2007 at 2:12PM

The first two seem to support AMV format (one of the highly compressed video formats designed for Chinese players). The argos one supports MP4 (another of the compressed video formats, probably with slightly better quality). I would personally steer away of the AMV as I have no experience with it and quality of videos doesn't seem that great and also because it looks like it is more pain to try and convert other video formats (e.g youtube's FLAV) into this one. MP4 is also more hardware and software compatible, I think. Keep in mind that all these cheaper players are not actually suitable for video watching at least not for the medium - long-term viewing due to poor quality of picture and the size of the screen. Hope this helps

mummyyummy_2 · 7 December 2007 at 11:30PM

ok thanks, an MP3 it is then...what kinda media player type thingee ( lol i have no idea) would i need if i wanted to download music/vids etc...or am i better sticking to seperate mp3, portable dvd player etc?

mummyyummy_2 · 10 December 2007 at 5:41PM

anyone recommend a media player as per last message? thx

pig_let_cool · 10 December 2007 at 6:32PM

in regards of downloading movies from youtube, i am yet to find a fully fnctioning FREE (in MSE style

) to do it.

BUT one great site i found for my mobile phone is www.mv3gp.com which has music videos in 3gp format (the file my phone plays)

Also so i can use these files on different things (phone,PSP,MP4 Player) i have used a program called SOUND which is compleyly free and easy to use! as it changes to MANY different formats, i use it to convert avi and flv to 3gp and mp4 and vice versa but every thing from GIF animations and MP3 will work!!!! (will take some searching for it though as i cant remember where to find it, but will look for you)

And i understand that you may not be the most "techie" person in the world and all those 3 letter file names has probably confused you like MAD! but you just need to check what your buying against what your son will probably use...
the more common file extensions (types) are
AVI,WMV (the 2 main types that play in windows media player but are usually VERY big files as they arent compressed, also most portable players dont play them)

3gp (used by many phones and are quie small files)

MP4 (very small files and play on MP4 players and other portable players that specify this!)

FLV (The very common FLASH Video file that most websites now use, most cant play this on there own computer, and most players dont play them hence why you will need a converter if you even manage to download one (i get alot of trouble from these as my computer has to download extra files to download them and then i cant play them anywhere else!)

And in regards to the main question, they CAN be the same thing, but MP4 means THEY HAVE to beable to play MP4 files, video playback otherwise means pretty much any other video file they feel like!

Any Way Good Luck with it, Not sure if i have helped at all or onfused you more! lol