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mp3 player vs. mini disk

gbcosu

Junior
I was hoping someone might be able to give me some advice about mp3 players and mini disk players. I have most of my music already downloaded onto windows media player and was also curious about what I needed to do to maximize the abilities of these players. I am in the Coast Guard and I am getting sick of having to take CD's underway with me and then having to change them every 45 minutes to an hour. Thanks in advance.
 
Mind if I join you in looking for advice? I haven't started researching yet, but am looking for a music player with tons and tons of room for tracks. I'd mostly be loading classical stuff, and need to be able to search out what I need by composer, artists, piece and a few other categories.
 
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I don't think the iPods support the .WMA format, but the Dell DJ does. So if you have music saved in Windows Media format already, that might be the way to go. I have one and really like it -- and it hold just as much music as the iPod for a better price. The only thing that sucks about it is that you cannot use iTunes, which is much better than Dell's music store.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/pro...et?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=specstab#tabtop
 
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I don't understand why people would bother with MiniDisc. I sell these things for a living, and myself and all of my colleagues (save the one who actually bought an MD player, just to be different I think) prefer mp3 players to MD.

For about the same price as an MD player, you can get a flash memory mp3 player that is a fraction of the size. You can get an expandable one, so you can use an SD memory card to give you greater capacity. The advantage to this is that those cards are coming way down in price, and they are more versatile than a MiniDisc. An SD card can be used in a digital camera or PDA, while MiniDiscs are useless outside of your MD player. At this level of mp3 player, you won't have as much storage space as an MD player, but an MD player still doesn't provide enough storage to hold most music collections, so regular loading/unloading of songs would still probably be necessary.

At the same size as an MD player, you can get one of the HDD-type mp3 players, ipod, ipod mini, Dell DJ, etc. You would have just as much bulk to carry around, but you would have more storage space. Depending on the size of your music collection, you could end up with all of your songs at your fingertips on a 4-5 GB mp3 player for about $230 to $250. The advantage is that you wouldn't have to regularly format and reload your songs when your mood changes (or bother loading in a different disc as is the case with and MD player) You wouldn't have to bother carrying around extra discs. Of course, this is going to cost you more, but it can save you money in the long run. A decent mp3 player will come with everything you need to use it and continue using it. There is no media to buy, and most all of the HDD mp3 players come with a built in Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery, so you don't have to worry about buying batteries or carrying extras. An MD player require you to by at least a small amount of media, plus batteries. MD players are very energy efficient, but it is something to be concerned with nonetheless. I think over time the extra money spent on a 4-5 GB mp3 player is money well spent.
 
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I have an iPod and it's one of the best things I've ever used. I've taken it across country twice... just hit shuffle or make a 5 hour playlist and you're set. I have the 15 gig and it has a ton of room.... I think I have like 1,000 songs on it now and it's only half full.
 
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Should I check how my music is downloaded to my computer so that I get the most use of an mp3 player? I thought that after you download a CD to your computer that to use with an mp3 player you have to convert your music to that format. Is that correct? I feel like such a dipshit. I looked at
the Dell DJ and compared in price to the ipod it sounds like you get your monies worth. I definately want to stay with the Windows Media Player instead of the Dell program, just because I am more familiar with it. Thanks for the help folks I sure do appreciate it and I will probably will have more questions.
 
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