Thanatos340 1 #51 January 3, 2007 Curcuit City had the Zen Vision M for $209 http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Creative-Labs-30GB-Black-Zen-Vision-M-ZVM30ENGBK/sem/rpsm/oid/143679/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do?sourceid=qIqiRZbqiwxfATGUDHgz&aff iliateid=20026380&carriage=befree Then Use this coupon for $40 off http://users.ameritech.net/holquest/cpn_CircuitCiy_f.pdf Makes it $169 out the door and you still have your $50 Gift card for other things.. And they will probably price match Best Buy if you ask and get another $10 Off. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #52 January 3, 2007 You loser Zune voters. I swear none of you want to explain to me the ins and out of the player you voted for? "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgoose71 0 #53 January 3, 2007 I had to throw in my 2 cents and say Ipod. I have had other MP3 players that are a lot better, but I finally broke down and bought the 80gig Ipod for $250 just because I was sick and tired of trying to find all the cool accesories for my other MP3 players. Itunes sucks so I say by the Ipod and get a program that lets you drop and drag to your Ipod and you will be happy. Blue Skies, Jim"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." Life, the Universe, and Everything Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
johnny1488 1 #54 January 3, 2007 Wow when i want to delete a song, i delete it. I dont have to rewrite the whole iPod. Funny. But I also use apple computers, so my iPod works flawlessly. The customer support is phenominal. I am an apple snob now and would never look anywhere else for devices like these. I love turning people on to apple products. They have not been disappointed yet. Johnny --"This ain't no book club, we're all gonna die!" Mike Rome Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lilDevil 2 #55 January 3, 2007 I have an iriver its small and the sounds good :-)``````````````````````````````````` " Cant keep a good woman down " Angels have wings, but devils can fly ! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest #56 January 4, 2007 Quote Itunes sucks so I say by the Ipod and get a program that lets you drop and drag to your Ipod and you will be happy. Blue Skies, Jim That would be Rockbox, as mentioned earlier in this thread. mh ."The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thanatos340 1 #57 January 4, 2007 QuoteThat would be Rockbox, as mentioned earlier in this thread. I have never tried Rockbox and really know very little about it. I am curious.. 1) What video formats does it support? 2) Can you delete a File directly on the devise? 3) Will it support DRM files? 4) How does it effect battery life? 5) Does it support WMA Files? 6) is There anything at all that Rockbox would give that is not already standard on a ZVM? Other than the ability to Drag and Drop Files onto the iPod, What benefits does Rockbox have over the standard iPod OS?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest #58 January 4, 2007 1) As mentioned earlier, Rockbox is Open Source, so video development is ongoing. MPEG will apparently be the first, followed by AVI.This was not of much concern to me, because I bought my iPod to listen to music on it, and I never cared for watching video on it with the Apple OS anyway. 2) Yes. 3) No 4) As mentioned earlier, Rockbox appears to reduce battery life by approx. 30 percent in my tests (simple observation, really; seeing how long it takes to run down with the Apple OS versus Rockbox). 5) I doubt it, because open source products as a rule tend to shy away from DRM stuff (like WMA). See # 3. 6) I doubt it. Here is my rationale: I don't dispute that the ZVM is a very good product and is more bang for the buck - I just enjoy the idea of thumbing my nose at Apple and their silly DRM system and unfriendly UI (iTunes), which is geared towards making people pay and pay, and dictating what I can or cannot do with music that I paid for. Apple's success with the product line has spawned an entire industry of "me too" products, outright clones, add-ons, and all kinds of fancy accessory doodads. 7) Many. For example, instead of a small range of equalizer presets, (e.g., rock, jazz, classical), the equalizer setup is extremely granular and fully customizable, in addition to having the usual generic genre-based EQ presets, which I have never cared for in any product. It also has many different GUIs / themes to choose from (one of which is called "night" allowing for a much dimmer display so that you're not blinded by its light every time you use it in the dark). Another thing: Rockbox currently supports 22 MP3 devices from four different manufacturers (Archos, iRiver, Apple, and Toshiba), so it provides for standardization across product lines. If one decides to go to a different brand, one can potentially be assured that there won't be a learning curve in operating the new device. I noticed that the ZVM is not among the supported products, but I am sure that will change eventually. In conclusion, I would still say the same thing. Get an iPod, but replace the OS with Rockbox. If you're unwilling or unable, but don't like iTunes, then the ZVM would be a better choice. I just enjoy the techie bit about defeating a crass DRM scheme and tweaking Steve Jobs' nose at the same time. "The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thanatos340 1 #59 January 4, 2007 I will go ahead and try Rockbox on my Ipod Mini. I am courious now to see how much better it is. Quote5) I doubt it, because open source products as a rule tend to shy away from DRM stuff (like WMA). See # 3. WMA is not just a DRM format. WMA files are MUCH smaller at the same bitrate. You can get almost twice as many Songs in WMA format as you can MP3 or AAC songs on the same devise at the same bitrate. WMA Songs not purchased from online sites will not have DRM protection. Quote noticed that the ZVM is not among the supported products, but I am sure that will change eventually. I dont see why? It would be a net loss for users. Gain nothing but lose many features. Why would anyone want to do that? Just to say they are running Open source?? If they are that Fashion Conscious/Trendy, They would have bought an iPod to begin with. Rockbox offers nothing I can see that is not already there with the ZVM OS. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkyDivinRyan 0 #60 January 5, 2007 psp all i have to say is location free tv wow Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #61 January 5, 2007 QuoteI will go ahead and try Rockbox on my Ipod Mini. I am courious now to see how much better it is. Jay.. I was able to find this program that worked on the Shuffle that the company sent me as a Christmas bonus. Drag and drop for MP3s and no iTunes!!! You may want to give it a try and see if it works for your Mini, as well.Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest #62 January 5, 2007 QuoteI will go ahead and try Rockbox on my Ipod Mini. I am courious now to see how much better it is. QuoteQuoteBy all means, give it a shot. It's pretty simple, and you've got nothing to lose. You can always go back to the iPod OS. Quote5) I doubt it, because open source products as a rule tend to shy away from DRM stuff (like WMA). See # 3. WMA is not just a DRM format. WMA files are MUCH smaller at the same bitrate. You can get almost twice as many Songs in WMA format as you can MP3 or AAC songs on the same devise at the same bitrate. WMA Songs not purchased from online sites will not have DRM protection. QuoteQuoteI've always associated WMA with DRM. I'll look at it more closely - thanks for the tip. BTW - supported formats for Rockbox on the iPod: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Musepack, FLAC, AAC, ALAC, AC3 and WavPack. Feature summary and comparison of Rockbox with the stock Apple OS: Feature---------Rockbox-------Apple iPod stock firmware Gapless playback--------Yes---------No MP3 Decoding--------Yes--------Yes MP3 Realtime Encoding-------- No-------- Yes OGG/Vorbis Decoding-------- Yes-------- No FLAC Decoding-------- Yes -------- No WavPack Decoding -------- Yes -------- No WavPack Encoding -------- Yes -------- No AC3(A/52) Decoding -------- Yes -------- No AAC/MP4 Decoding -------- Yes (7) -------- Yes ALAC (Apple Lossless) Decoding -------- Yes -------- Yes WMA Decoding -------- No -------- No 5 Band Parametric Equalizer -------- Yes-------- No On The Fly Playlists -------- Yes-------- Yes Crossfade & Crossfeed -------- Yes-------- No Voice UI -------- Yes -------- No ReplayGain -------- Yes -------- No (12) Video playback -------- No -------- Yes (13) Picture viewing -------- Yes -------- Yes Text viewing --------Yes -------- Yes Bookmark support for multiple files -------- Yes -------- Yes (14) 13) The iPod 5G (aka "iPod Video") is capable of playing MPEG-4 and H.264 format video using dedicated decoding hardware. Source Quote noticed that the ZVM is not among the supported products, but I am sure that will change eventually. I dont see why? It would be a net loss for users. Gain nothing but lose many features. Why would anyone want to do that? Just to say they are running Open source?? If they are that Fashion Conscious/Trendy, They would have bought an iPod to begin with. Rockbox offers nothing I can see that is not already there with the ZVM OS. QuoteQuote I disagree. As with the iPod, a port of Rockbox to the ZVM would be a win/win. Great hardware, and the flexibility of choosing / customizing the software. In summation, I would discourage people from buying the iPod if they weren't going to convert it to Rockbox. Why be an i-Slave, after all? It should be about choice, not constriction into some corporate cash-cow system. The ZVM does that by default, I'll grant you, but for the reasons I've stated (confounding the corporate entities who think of the purchasers of their products as nothing but a biomass and a source of revenue) - Rockbox is a FUN way to stick it to The Man. mh"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
