iRiver and general MP3 player questions

[g4ry13]

I was looking into possibly buying an MP3 player. I found out about the iRiver, it seems to have gone un-noticed due to people being so fixated by the iPod. So does anyone have any opinions or even own an iRiver? I've seen the iRivers for sale on the internet, does anyone know if they're stocked in shops. Call me old fashioned but i'd like to see what i'm buying

Does anyone know when a new iPod is coming out (not the mini) but the one that's going to replace the current one (i've heard it will come with a colour screen).

Looking at MP3 players there battery time seems to be quite poor compared to other formats. How long do you all think it'll take before we see battery life times over 30 hours without carrying bricks in our pockets?

Appreciate any replies or input

Thanks

>>> Edited by g4ry13 on Saturday 22 May 11:16

[DevDog]

I have a 20gb iPod and my son has had an iRiver for a couple of months, He really likes it - it definitely has a longer battery life than the iPod. I haven't used it much myself but it looks ok , sounds good and has an FM radio. All the reviews I have seen of it have been very good. I have a car kit for the ipod so that it charges in the car, so i guess you can probably get a car based charger for the iRiver.

[g4ry13]

I was looking into it for portable use so the iTrip isn't going to be much use to me. I've heard of 16 hour battery life times for the iRiver, would you say this is accurate? How does it compare in terms of size to the iPod, i've heard the iRiver is thinner. Did you buy it online? I don't recall seeing it in any shops (although i haven't looked)

Thanks for any replies.

[DevDog]

bought it online here
can't give you battery times - all he can say is a few hours - with the ipod I know that using the menus to choose tracks to play singly rather than using a playlist drains the battery as the hard drive keeps having to be run up.

with their cases and headphones etc they both weigh in about the same at 245/250 grammes. The iPod is slightly thinner. All the controls are accessable through the iRiver case.

[rico]

Don't know about others, but i've found the battery life on my 40gb iPod to be pretty sh*t. No where near the 8hours they claim. 4 at a push.
The irritating thing is that the hold switch isn't very good, meaning it can turn itself on without you knowing, wasting yet more battery life.

Other than that its truely fantastic. I've got an iTrip (for international waters guvnor ) and just need to buy a car power adapter and a summer of tunes is mine.

Works especially well as i've got an Apple powerbook with iTunes. I've put the iTunes program on my mum's XP computer and its no where near as good.

[chicane]

Did you go for the iriver? I'm going to get one from the states. Anyone know if the iriver will be as easy to charge here as american ipods are?

[rebelstar]

I bought an iRiver (40Gb) about 3 weeks ago. I'm very impressed by it. I haven't timed the battery life, but it seems very good, far better than the old Archos jukebox I had before!

Physically it's slightly bigger than the iPod but it does have more bells and whistles; audio recording, FM radio, optical in/out and of course multi-codec playback. There's no supplied software for accessing it from a PC as it just turns up as an external hard disk. For the technically minded amongst us, this is a Good Thing.

And then there's the in-line remote which is fantastic. So far I've not had to use the controls on the unit itself.

You can't charge the unit through USB, which is a shame, but you would need to be on a spectacularly long journey to use the batteries up.

[davidd]

Sony have announced a new media player, which will be smaller then the ipod, have much better battery life and store approx 13,000 songs. ~However they are not in mp3 format..

D

[jodypress]

davidd said:

Sony have announced a new media player, which will be smaller then the ipod, have much better battery life and store approx 13,000 songs. ~However they are not in mp3 format.. D

thats the big problem with sony. they make great music products but have real issues with copyright (due to sony music etc) and use atrac. only allow a certain number of copies made etc. its a real pain.

[g4ry13]

I haven't bought either yet, although i may be paying a visit to the states and may pick up a 40gb Iriver on my way. The Sony is not a great buy, it can't be used as a USB drive and it won't recognise MP3 or WMA; it'll only recognise ATRAC so you're going to have to convert all your songs to the format which will be even more time consuming. Although i guess the iPod owners have to this already.

[juk]

I'm thinking about getting one of these, being a lazy b*st*rd tho', isn't it a total pain converting all your CD's?

Worth it in the end I guess.

[rebelstar]

juk said:

I'm thinking about getting one of these, being a lazy b*st*rd tho', isn't it a total pain converting all your CD's? Worth it in the end I guess.

That really depends on how many CD's you have of course. Get the right software and you drop a CD in, wait some minutes and swap the CD for another one.

Yes, it is worth it.

You can take your music with you wherever you go; be it on an iPod, iRiver, or a laptop.

I've also got a squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) which lets me play all my MP3s through the hifi without getting up of the sofa. This is a really nice piece of kit.