IPOD

[Rhythm]

But my biggest question would be how easy it would be to transfer my music from Apple's proprietary ITunes to a mini CD. If I would have to start over, that would be a significant time investment. It took a long time to get all that music downloaded. But I will look into it.[/QUOTE]

Easy ! If your Apple has a sound card with a audio output, then your in business. Now this might be alittle time consuming but it can be done. All you would have to do is hook it up with a RCA jack with a earphone type plug on the other end to connect to the line in on the HI MD choose the category of music hit record and forget about it. There might be a Hi speed way to download from your Apple to the HI MD but I never had the need to know. This is why I suggested the MD site earlier, these MD Guru's will be able to answer all of your question and more. Did I mention that you get 45 hrs of Play time on "one" HI MD

Awight then G , let me know what you come up with in your final decision.

Stay cool Playa !

 

[bacharles]

BUKU
That dial seems to be touch sensitive. It works great with fingers, OK with leather gloves and pretty bad with cloth gloves. I think it has something to do with the texture. This is something else I do not like. And my battery does not last half that long.

Hey Greg, I was wondering if you keep the iPod hooked up to your current bike speaker set-up?

 If so, this is where I think your battery drain is coming from.  I'm sure the iPod isn't designed to push out that type of power.  If what I'm thinking is true, then it's because of the excessive output.  Just my .02.  One other thing is that maybe you have a faulty set of batteries.  One thing to remember about batteries that you can recharge:  It's not good to keep charging them continously without letting them fully discharge sometimes.  I'm by no means an electronics expert, but I do read a lot and listen when people who are "in-the-know" are speaking.

                                             Brian

Yes, I use the IPOD on the bike, but I do not think that is the problem.

1. The IPOD puts out its normal sound thru the earphone jack. It is the amp that boosts the power to the level that we hear.

2. I have used my Ipod on some long International flights and I am pretty sure the batteries don't hold up. And even if they lasted 7 hours, they would be dead by the time I am half way to my destination. That sucks!

I know a little bit about batteries, cause we use them with our products. The problem you are describing is called a memory problem. This is a serious problem with certain batteries like Nicads, but not much a problem with newer batts like NiMH.  But as long as you exercise the batteries, you shouldn't have a problem. And believe me, I run them all the way down frequently. One day, I will conduct a test tosee exactly how long I am getting from a charge.

O.K., so let's just say that I'm in your Kool-Aid and don't know the flava...

 

[babusa1]

Without a doubt IPODs are the best. The newest generation one's are supposed to have better battery life, even the photo ones with the color screens, also belkin make an add on battery back that uses regular double or triple a's, that really extend the battery life.

 

[Thinker62]

Without a doubt IPODs are the best.  The newest generation one's are supposed to have better battery life, even the photo ones with the color screens, also belkin make an add on battery back that uses regular double or triple a's, that really extend the battery life.

Yes, I bought the Belkin add-on battery pack. It is very expensive and it is an abortion! It basically doubles the size of the IPOD and does not attach to it real well. It is OK for a plane ride, but for just about any other application it sucks. I don't remember the exact price, but I bet is was at least $30 or $40. I used it all of 1 time.

 

[babusa1]

oh, so no good huh, I was wondering if they worked or were too huge. guess I won't get one...(belkin battery pack that is, love my IPOD) good lookin out

 

[Darkflame]

I've been into music players since the MD back in 1993...I own a MZ-R1 (the original portable MD player), a R3, R50 then jumped to mp3 players starting with the jukebox 1, jukebox 3, Muvo 2 then a photo Ipod.

I can tell you this much...

MD has the advantage of being the best audio quality out so far but only because of the way it's encoded.

Atrac is the audio format for MD and it's original compression scheme was about 5-1. Most mp3's go 10-1.

Atrac has better audio IMHO but that's different ear to ear.

The new MD's are High density MD's which store 1GB but can hold UP TO 45 hours of music depending on the compression scheme you use. They sound great even at max compression but if you feel you need more then 45 hours of music you should look into mp3 players.

IPOD is popular only because of it's design and apples clever marketing. The unit invests much of it's R&D in it's ease of use and innovative design but skimped on the Digital to analog converters of their units. if you consider yourself really anal for sound quality you will not be pleased. Creative takes the cake here. Their nomad and muvo lines brag about S/N ratio's of higher then 98dB. Apple won't even divulge that information. I can clearly hear a different in quality between the ipod and nomad. I however continue to use my apple ipod photo only because it can be used as a storage device without needing drivers of any sort.

All of creative's hard drive line of products require you to install proprietary software to access the files on the drive or thirdparty software that you have to pay for. Apple's ipod truly is "plug and play" to access the files. You DO however need to use a progarm to add music to the apple's ipod but this is not a problem since the program can be stored on the ipod for instalation when you get to the computer that needs it.

So to break it down...

Sony minidisc wins for audio quality using their atrac format in sp mode.
Creative wins for audio quality in the war of the mp3 players
Ipod wins for it's ease of use and true "external hard drive" plug and play ability.

All of them require software to place audio files from your computer onto the unit however Sony and some of creative's products allow you to record audio files through a line in/digital toslink jack. And apple allows you to do the same using a add-on adapter but not sure on the quality of that one.

 

[Thinker62]

I've been into music players since the MD back in 1993...I own a MZ-R1 (the original portable MD player), a R3, R50 then jumped to mp3 players starting with the jukebox 1, jukebox 3, Muvo 2 then a photo Ipod.

I can tell you this much...

MD has the advantage of being the best audio quality out so far but only because of the way it's encoded.

Atrac is the audio format for MD and it's original compression scheme was about 5-1. Most mp3's go 10-1.

Atrac has better audio IMHO but that's different ear to ear.

The new MD's are High density MD's which store 1GB but can hold UP TO 45 hours of music depending on the compression scheme you use. They sound great even at max compression but if you feel you need more then 45 hours of music you should look into mp3 players.

IPOD is popular only because of it's design and apples clever marketing. The unit invests much of it's R&D in it's ease of use and innovative design but skimped on the Digital to analog converters of their units. if you consider yourself really anal for sound quality you will not be pleased. Creative takes the cake here. Their nomad and muvo lines brag about S/N ratio's of higher then 98dB. Apple won't even divulge that information. I can clearly hear a different in quality between the ipod and nomad. I however continue to use my apple ipod photo only because it can be used as a storage device without needing drivers of any sort.

All of creative's hard drive line of products require you to install proprietary software to access the files on the drive or thirdparty software that you have to pay for. Apple's ipod truly is "plug and play" to access the files. You DO however need to use a progarm to add music to the apple's ipod but this is not a problem since the program can be stored on the ipod for instalation when you get to the computer that needs it.

So to break it down...

Sony minidisc wins for audio quality using their atrac format in sp mode.
Creative wins for audio quality in the war of the mp3 players
Ipod wins for it's ease of use and true "external hard drive" plug and play ability.

All of them require software to place audio files from your computer onto the unit however Sony and some of creative's products allow you to record audio files through a line in/digital toslink jack. And apple allows you to do the same using a add-on adapter but not sure on the quality of that one.

Awesome info....thanks!

 

[toque44]

But my biggest question would be how easy it would be to transfer my music from Apple's proprietary ITunes to a mini CD. If I would have to start over, that would be a significant time investment. It took a long time to get all that music downloaded. But I will look into it.

Easy ! If your Apple has a sound card with a audio output, then your in business. Now this might be alittle time consuming but it can be done. All you would have to do is  hook it up with a RCA jack with a earphone type plug on the other end to connect to the line in on the HI MD choose the category of music hit record and forget about it.  There might be a Hi speed way to download from your Apple to the HI MD but I never had the need to know. This is why I  suggested the MD site earlier, these MD Guru's will be able to answer all of your question and more. Did I mention that you get 45 hrs of Play time on "one" HI MD  

Awight then G , let me know what you come up with in your final decision.

Stay cool Playa ![/QUOTE]
Another way, is to use ephpod (free) which also connects to your ipod and allows u to manage all your music formats.  I use grip on linux to rip and encode to mp3 (192kbs), grip is nice at organizing your music if your ripping cd's.  I believe Ephpod will also upload whatever is on your ipod onto your computer.  Another must, is the er6 headphones for your ipod, they also block windnoise on the highway.

 

[justintime2]

I have heard that the Iriver is good stuff as well.  Still pretty certain that Ipod is the way to go though...

I couldnt agree with you more on this Rev,if you referring to the sound qaulity of the Ipod . It just boils down to the individuals priorities. The only mp3 player that I would ever own again would be the creative , now this babies will hold up and give ya exactly what it is spec out at.[/QUOTE]
I have the Creative Nomad Zen NX 20GB and love it. The improvements would be to battery life, about 4 hrs, and I would like to have a wireless RF remote so the player can be in my pocket and I can change tunes without having to look at it. They are also tough as I forgot to zip up my side pocket on my jacket and at 150mph my music quite playing. I imediately figured out what had happened. The vacuum sucke it right out of my pocket and it went bouncing down the road. A truck pulled up to where I had stopped and handed it to me, that was very nice considering I passed them like a crazy man. It was in the case it comes with, which recieved some road rash, but still works perfectly.

 

[TruWrecks]

IPod:
Pros: Good space. Fairly small. Nifty interface. Downloadable from ITunes. Sturdy case. Doesn't skip (unless the drive crashes). Acts as a removable drive on the USB port (on a MAC not sure about a PC).
Cons: Less than stellar battery life. Not very good controls for gloves. You lose everything if the drive crashes. More expensive than other comparable players.

Sony HD:
Pros: Good runtime. Good battery life. Wired remote option can be mounted on your bars. Drive and media are separate. Storage is very flexible (if you care a few extra disks). Music is still intact if you device takes a nose-dive. Acts as a removable drive on the USB port.
Cons: Not as small as a few other players on the market. Not as much storage as the IPod or Creative (on 1 disk). Only Sony makes it, so hope they don't stop making them if you want to be able to upgrade (no other MD manufactures support MP3 MD's).

Creative:
Pros: Decent battery. Good storage space. Sturdy case. Doesn't skip (unless the drive crashes). Priced competitively.
Cons: You lose everything if the drive crashes. Creative software is the only way to download music to it.

Go with Sony if you want the most flex ability, IPod if you want the cool interface or Creative if you want the best price.

That's pretty much what it boils down to.

Happy shopping.



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[Jace]

i started with 60 gig creative labs but had too much trouble getting it to work as storage on mutiple computers so took it back and got 30 gig ipod and first time i plugged it in worked fine and has been going great ever since the earphones i do not like they hurt my ears after a while but i got some sonys that go in your ear not on the outside and they work great

 

[WarBaby]

And... there's always the XM (or Sirius) satellite option at CD audio quality:

 

[phatjoe]

Warbaby that is tight

 

[CorrodedAlien]

WoW War has got the rig there!!!

I've got a Neuros player, 20Gb HD and built in FM transmitter.  I stick it in my jacket pocket plug into the headset I've put inside the helmet liner (no fussing around) and take off.  It's good for a full day of riding, no repeat songs.  The new ones are USB 2.0 and load music fast.  I have about 12Gb of music on my system now and love it.

Neuros

 

[bbbsleeper]

HEY HEY DON'T BE FOOLED, I'm sorry for anyone that does not own an Ipod, my friend has a 40 Gig creative something, don't even know, other that the sirius radio (which was quite cool looking on that bike) you should definetly own a pod, you should get at least 7-8 hours with only using headphones, I used and Itunes broudcaster and it dropped my batt life down to like 30 mins, but with its 8 hours, so weird. Any I would just stick with what ya got, maybe buy a new batt off of ebay.
2 cents

 

[NCBusa2001]

What about a PDA.

I currently use a Palm Zire 72 with a 1 gig card. Holds tons of music and has a decent speaker on the back.

PLUS all of the added goodies, camera (still and video), photos, recording, PDA stuff (contacts, schedule, etc). Plus there is all kinds of programs available on the net.

Just a thought, Chris