MP3 player recommendation, other than iPod

[groucho111]

I have never been a huge Apple fan and am looking for a new mp3 player by another manufacturer. These are things i would like it to have but they are not all mandatory.

1) i would like it to play BTV showsqueezed shows in DIVX or .mp4 format
2) I would prefer not to have to use some proprietary software to transfer shows and music to the player. Something that just shows up as a "drive" in My Computer.
3) expandable memory, maybe with an SD or MicroSD upgrade slot.
4) less than $150 US

thanks for any recommendations.

I have looked at the Creative Zen so far and think it is a possibility.

[groucho111]

Anyone?

[ZetaVu]

The new zen looks very good, Sandisk might work as well (use them for music, not video). I just use my pda with removable sd and cf slots, and TCPMP (H2215)

[Joey Bugeyes]

Groucho,

I have the Creative Zen 8GB. The player comes with software that'll convert most formats, but i'm guessing that's not what you want to do. You probably want to just be able to copy your existing shows, regardless of resolution or bitrate, right to the Zen. You probably can't do that though. The Zen has some requirements such as max bitrate and max resolution. The max res is 320 x 240. The max bitrate depends on the video format your using. For WMV, i think it's 800kbps, which by the way is plenty for this screen size and resolution. I'm not sure what the max bitrate for Divx is.

Here's what i've been doing. I showsqueeze to a high quality WMV for viewing on TV. Then when I have shows that I want on my ZEN, I just select the show and choose send to portable media player (you'll have to config the portable media player profile). Then I just drag and drop to the ZEN or use whatever sync utility you like.

By the way, I've heard it plays divx natively so I tested it last night - successfully. I won't be doing that personally, but I just wanted to see if it works.

Good luck,
Joey Bugeyes

[groucho111]

joey,

i went ahead and got the 4gb Zen about a week ago. I had a gift card laying around from last Christmas and used what was left on it to buy an extra 4gb SD card. I have my main HTPC in my living room and have it on a GbLan network with my office and a BTV Link machine in my bedroom. What I found is that BTV has a showsqueeze profile built in for Creative Zen Vision. I have BTV showsqueeze my OTA HDTV shows overnight to .wmv files for that profile (and not delete the original) Then in the morning I connect my Zen to my office computer and transfer the showsqueezed shows from the previos night to the player. the wife and I can watch at least one full quality show in the morning while we are getting around for work and I take the rest to the gym on the Zen and try to catch another while I am on a treadmill or an elliptical. Works pretty well.

that profile in BTV works great. The shows transfer adn play with no other conversion needed. I'm pretty happy with the Zen. thans for the advise.

Steve

[Joey Bugeyes]

Groucho,

You sound just like me. I take my zen to the gym and it props up very nicely on the eliptical and treadmill.

Hey, when you record a show, don't you showsqueeze it to a higher quality divx or wmv first? Showsqueezing straight to Zen size doesn't really give you a watchable file for TV viewing. And keeping the originals can take up ALOT of space, especially HD. I'm just asking because I discovered a pretty cool feature. First I SS to a high quality WMV (and delete the original). I have the portable media option (in BTV) turned on. So when I browse to an already SS'd TV show, I select the show and select 'Send to portable media player'. It'll then SS it once again. Now I only have two files for the same show. One in high quality, and one in Zen format.

The only trick here to know is that when you select 'send to portable media', it will automatically use the 'portable media' profile, not the Zen one. This means you'd have to config the 'portable media' profile to the same (or similar) settings as your Zen profile. You can get creative here if you want to try to get smaller file sizes, etc... if you care.

I've been playing with something different now. I have a copy of the DivX Converter software. I drag & drop the higher quality WMV into the converter and I have a playable DivX format very easily for my Zen. I'm not sure which I like better. Still trying to figure out pros and cons of each method.

- Joey Bugeyes

[lucilleclara]

hello all,

Go for MP3 player at Buy.com. In this store you will get all type of MP3 players and all. I have purchased few days ago Sandisk sansa in this store.

[groucho111]

Joey,

I have plenty of hard drive space for about two weeks of HD content. The wife and I usually watch our shows as we can and catch up on the weekend and then delete the originals, so I really don't SS them and hold onto them. I just SS the ones I want for the Zen at the gym. That way I can watch it in full HD if I am at home or in .wmv on my Zen at the gym to take my mind off the boredom of being on the treadmill or elliptical.

My house is networked so I just plug my Zen into the office PC and transfer the .wmv shows to it I want over the network.

[ZetaVu]

I got my son a sansa e250 for $24 bucks delivered there, can also get a e260 for about $38 with paypal $10 rebate (Argh, $28 now for a reconditioned one, I'm pissed - http://www.buy.com/prod/sandisk-sans...205537110.html ). THey are 2 and 4gb respectively, and have microsd slots.

[TomXP411]

Originally Posted by groucho111

I have looked at the Creative Zen so far and think it is a possibility.

I don't know if it's still this way, but I've owned 3 Creative MP3 players over time. They all required Creative's proprietary program to transfer files to the player, and the program was buggy as heck... I ended up getting rid of 2 of them specifically because of problems with the transfer software, even though the player worked just fine.

[ZetaVu]

Actually, I've been able to use winamp to transfer files with creative, sansa and my ipod. For the ipod I'm using winamp exclusively to sync (no itunes installed ) I have not tried to sync my creative zen with winamp, but I used to use their software and it was pretty painless. For linux, I used gnomad and that worked fine as well.

I have 3 creative mp3 players, one hard drive and two flash. I've moved in preference to Sandisk and have three of those. I got the ipod to replace my aging zen xtra, and because it would work with my yamaha dock. Of all the mp3 players, the ipod is by far the biggest pain in the ass to deal with. I hate itunes, although I could get it to almost behave with a lot of tweaking. Winamp is by far the best solution with its plugins.