Advice on a podfic friendly mp3 player

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

I'm looking to buy a new mp3 player and was looking for some advice. I'm looking for some fairly specific, kinda podfic related features and figured that this was a good place to look for some advice.

My last mp3 was a Creative Zen: Vision M, bought it for the watching avi videos on the train commute into work, and the mp3 capability was an added bonus. I would still be working with it, except it doesn't work any more.

So. I'm replacing it. This time, podfic is the primary aim (and playing avi/videos would nice but in no way essential).

How I listen to podfic: I listen to podfics as mp3s rather than podbooks (mb4?). I would really like to keep listening that way, as I do a little bit of editing to the files before I listen and I don't think that's feasible for podbooks?

My Killer Feature: The absolute must for me is bookmarking of some sort. And by bookmarking, I mean that it will let me mark the point in the track at which I stopped listening. Handy for when the track is 3 hrs long! The Creative Zen let me mark a bookmark point and stored them in a list. However, I don't mind 'passive' bookmarking (where the player remembers where I last listened to), so long as it doesn't forget as soon as I listen to another track, or when I switch it off, or when the battery runs flat. If it also remembered the playlist, that would be awesome (I've got a few podfics that are multiple track or one of a series) but not quite as essential.

I've done some asking around, both the internet and people I know, but I keep getting funny looks when I talk about bookmarking mp3s; hopefully you guys will know what I mean! And this is primarily why I'm asking here for recs.

Really Nice to have: good volume (to combat noisy environments, and, spoken word is quiet anyway), reasonably compact and I would love battery life > 20hrs.

Other stuff: I'm not too concerned with capacity, probably in the 8GB - 16GB range, but anything over 1GB or 2 GB would be acceptable. Cost is pretty flexible, I'd prefer something on the cheap end (tho, oh god, I will pay for bookmarking if needed). I'd also like something that's going to be pretty reliable, so if you've have good or bad experiences with a brand, feel free to give me that too. Oh, and I'm a Windows user.

In an ideal world: Any associated software will be entirely optional. I should be able to just drag and drop mp3s from my desktop to the mp3 window, to get the basic 'plays mp3s' functionality. Software that provides added extras / cool features, is fine.

My research so far: I'm currently contemplating SanDisc Sansa Fuze 8GB. There is a newer 'plus' version, but it got absolutely slated in the Amazon reviews.

I would really rather avoid ipod/itouch/ipad/istuff, but if you're willing to talk me through why you think i-whatever would work for me, then I will totally have that discussion with you!

So. Any advice, recommendations, opinions etc on mp3 players would be much appreciated.

Comments

[littlebunnylost.livejournal.com]

I have a Sansa Clip+ 2GB (http://www.sandisk.com/products/sansa-music-and-video-players/sandisk-sansa-clipplus-mp3-player/) and it does passive bookmarking and is audiobook friendly with a separate audiobook folder. Battery life is good and it charges by USB. It also accepts microSDHC cards up to 32GB so buying even a 2GB is good.

On the software side it comes with Rhapsody but works with Windows Media Player or just drag and drop into folders. I use Mp3tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html) to organize my podfic (chapter title, story title, author/reader, track, genre) before I put them on my Clip+ so I can't tell you if it will play all the chapters of a podfic automatically without changing the tags beforehand but it does after.

The only downside is the size as the clip+ is very tiny, like pinky length tiny.

There's more but that's the basis of the Clip+ without specific questions (and not going into Mp3tag).

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. The size may well be an advantage. Maybe. Some questions, if you don't mind.

How easy is it to select tracks? I was looking at the Fuze over Clip, mostly because I thought the Clip would be unfriendly towards anything except listening by shuffle.

A lot of complaints I saw about the + version of the Fuze was that the touchscreen was too sensitive and often resulted in being accidentally switched on/off, settings changed etc in pockets. The Clip doesn't have a touchscreen, but along the same lines - Is there a lock button on the Clip+ to prevent accidental button presses, or does it manage to avoid problems like this?

I'd been using something similar to Mp3tag, but this looks like it might be easier to use, so thanks for the link. Does the Clip+ pay attention to track numbers, ie will play everything in order?

Oh, and have you used a microSDHC card with yours yet? Does it integrate seamlessly? Or do you have to select Clip+ files or card files? And do you lose any functionality when you're working with files on the card?

Thanks very much for your comment. You've made me consider the Clip+.

[littlebunnylost.livejournal.com]

It's very easy to select tracks, music and audiobooks are separated and audiobooks are fairly organized (mine looks like '(Fandom)Story Title' with individual chapter title inside). The only time I encounter shuffle is when I select music.

There is a hold button but I've never used it, its easier to just clip it on my sleeve/collar to keep it out of the way.

The Clip+ does pay attention to track number and will play in order. It even shows the track number on screen. Mine shows track #, author/reader and story title.

I have a 4GB card in mine right now and the Clip+ shows all the files on the card just like it does the integrated memory with no problems. I haven't noticed any difference between media on the clip+ and that on the card.

The Sansa Clip+ User Manual (http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Clip/Sansa-Clip-User-manual/td-p/123883) explains better than I can. Or at least has pictures to help explain better.

Your welcome, I adore my Clip+ and love talking about it.

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the info! You've managed to convince me that the Clip+ is the way to go, so I should hopefully have it in my hands soon! (Amazon willing! *g*) Your help and advice has been much appreciated.

[paraka]

I am no help on the mp3 player front, since I don't own a working one (although I'll be really curious to see what others say).

I do a little bit of editing to the files before I listen
That comment has me really curious as to what kind of editing you do before hand? Is it just, like a volume adjust? Or something more?

On a technical side, if you want to still make those adjustments, you could download the mp3 version as you normally would but then convert it to a podbook if you wanted an ipod or something else that plays podbooks. I'm not an Apple person, but there's a free program (whose name I can't remember off the top of my head) for PCs that make it super easy to convert things to podbooks. This might be more work than you want though.

Any associated software will be entirely optional. I should be able to just drag and drop mp3s from my desktop to the mp3 window, to get the basic 'plays mp3s' functionality.
That! That is a huge pet peeve of mine, I want to be able to just drag and drop stuff on without having to deal with special programs (which is one of the biggest reasons I won't touch Apple's line of portable products).

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

That comment has me really curious as to what kind of editing you do before hand? Is it just, like a volume adjust? Or something more?

Occasionally it's volume adjust, but I haven't had to do that recently. No, I'm doing C25K (http://www.c25k.com/) at the moment, and I've found that the only way I can do it, is to run to podfic. Someone created essentially silent tracks with instructions to walk / run / cool down at appropriate intervals, depending on which week of training you're on. So I've been using audacity to merge the two tracks together - which is the little bit of editing I'm doing. Once I've finished the training programme, I plan to keep editing - inserting 'end of warm up', 'half way mark' and 'cool down'. At least until I get the hang of training properly without those cues. *g*

This might be more work than you want though.

I suspect it might be. It's already kind time consuming editing for running. And I never quite figured out what the point of podbooks (or 'books' in general) were - tho, I'm beginning to suspect that features like 'bookmarking' come with podbooks/books... I'll keep that in mind tho. Thanks.

which is one of the biggest reasons I won't touch Apple's line of portable products

God yes. I've a couple of reasons for not being a huge fan of i-stuff, but this is one of them...

I think I've decided to go for the Sansa Clip+. Mostly because littlebunnylost was very convincing, and if I don't buy it now, I won't get it in time for the trip I'm taking!

[(Anonymous)]

I have the SanDisc Sansa Fuze 8GB and I really like it. I have owned it a little over a year and have given it heavy use and I have never had a problem.

I use it with a Windows 7 computer and use Windows Explorer to add and remove files, so I don't know how its compatibility is with iTunes or other music library software. I have used it only with MP3 files.


What I like:

It has a mini SDHC card slot and I added a 32GB mini SDHC card so I could fit a lot of podfic.

It will fast forward at a decent speed, so if I start listening to a long file on the computer, I can switch to the MP3 player and get to the same spot in the file quickly.

It has passive bookmarking, so I can switch and listen to something else for a while, and come back later and it will still remember where I was. It will do this for multiple files.

It has good sound quality.

It is easy to use.

There are separate folders for music, podcasts, and audiobooks.

You can navigate the file system.

It is durable. I have dropped it onto a tile floor several times with no damage except for some minor scratching to the screen. And when my 3 year old boy got a hold of it, the only damage done was that the language had been changed to Norsk.


What I don't like:

It is supposed to get up to 24 hours of battery life, but I have never gotten more than 15. However, this may be because I purchased it refurbished rather than new.

The USB connector is non-standard, so if you lose it, it is difficult to get a replacement.

The ear buds that came with it were uncomfortable and had mediocre sound quality. But this had been true of every MP3 player I have ever purchased.

It says it will play MP4 files, but this is not true. You have to convert the files to AMV first.

If there is an interruption, like a power outage, while a file is being written to it, it can get a 'white screen of death.' This can be fixed by resetting it. To reset it, the power button must be held for up to 20 seconds.

For some reason, it will not let me load over 198 files with a similar name into a single folder. I have had to beak up audiobooks with a lot of files into multiple folders. I have not had a problem with podfic.


I hope this helps.

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for all of this! This is all the tips, tricks and unknowns that you want to know before you buy and yet only find out once you've owned it for 6months.

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

As much as I love my ipod touch, given your specs, stay far far away from it and other varieties of ipod. They're great for certain things, but they're not particularly flexible. Also, every time Apple updates Itunes, it messes with my settings.

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this! I have now got the Sansa Clip+, but depending how the Clip+ works out for me, I had been thinking that I'd perhaps upgrade to the i-something over the next year or so. I'll definitely rethink that now! Thank you for the advice. :)

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Considering the price of a decent i-something versus the price of other brands of mp3 players, I think you'd probably regret buying one. It really depends on what you want to be able to do with it, and I can't do most of the things you say you'd like to be able to do.