Mini Disk or MP3 player

[spannersatcx]

Not strictly computer issue, but which is best Mini Disk or MP3 player (memory card or cd). Son of spannersatcx has requested xmas present as I have no experience of these, can somebody share some experiences as to which would be better?

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

spannersatcx,

Something I find pretty cool is the USB Flash Drives. They have multiple uses, can go anywhere and play MP3s.

MSI and Mushkin both have some nice units:

Mega Stick 1 (http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/ia/ia/pro_ia_detail.php?UID=485)

http://www.msi.com.tw/images/product_img/ia_img/5511.jpg

http://www.msi.com.tw/images/product_img/other/ia/5511_over.jpg

512MB MP3 Player/USB Drive (http://www.mushkin.com/epages/Mushkin.storefront/3fb2767b0888ebfc273fc0a8010506b4/Product/View/991058)

http://www.mushkin.com/gif/usbmp32.gif

http://www.mushkin.com/gif/usbmp31.gif

Take Care,

Richard

[Timothy]

I think that the MP3 Jukebox is the best value. They are much bigger than the USB stick, but take 40Gb of MP3, which, at reasonable quality is 2000 CDs (I have 750 on my 20Gb unit and it is about 3/4 full)

I have an Archos (http://www.archos.com), which is high quality and good value, but ugly. Apple make a better quality one, but it is much more expensive. There are many others.

W

[fobotcso]

Where these gadgets are concerned I'm very much a "newbie" and learning fast from Son No 3 who is in his final year at Uni.

My Sony Minidisc pleases me greatly but, to be objective, I would say that the pace of development of these devices makes it very difficult to pass on opinions.

In principle, however, I would now avoid anything with moving parts. The power consumed in turning a minidisc must shorten battery life and result in wear on bearings and actuators etc.

So, if I were to start over, I would go for the solid state devices. They're all digital, after all. So the quality can't be that different as long as sampling rate and codecs are compatible.

[Cornish Jack]

I have both, but the MP3 is one of the smaller capacity variety. For spanners junior I reckon that fobotcso has got it right - solid state over moving bits every time.
While you're here, spanners, some time back you offered good advice re DV IN activation on older DV cameras. I've just picked up a properly made up stills-to-serial-port lead (mini-jack to RS232) but the connections to pins 2 and 3 are reversed. Any thoughts as to how important this is?
TIA

[goates]

With regards to moving parts fobotcso may be right, but my mini disc player can last up to 50+ hours on a normal AA battery. With the rechargeable one that it came with, it can easily last more than 10 hours. The biggest problem is that Sony makes you use their own special file format, so you must convert MP3s before you can copy them to the disc. I have yet to have it skip on me, and I have tried almost everything short of throwing it at a wall. Overall I am very happy with it. I would rather have an iPod, but they are somewhat more expensive.

goates

[©hris]

Creative Nomad or iPod

I vote iPod.


I wouldnt even consider a MiniDisc player.

[redsnail]

I use both.
My Minidisc I use all the time, my old MP3 player with only 32mb of memory I hardly use. (Yepp by Samsung)
The minidisc (recordable) is small, reasonably light (magnesium case), rechargeable battery and so simple to use it isn't funny. (Sony MZR 900). To record onto a (re)writable disc is simple. Just use either an optical cable or analogue cable, plug it in, press play on the CD player and record on the MD player. Simple.
Some of the newer Sony units have software ready to roll to record MP3's in a format that the MD likes.
It's pretty good with the batteries and cops a fair amount of abuse by being chucked into bags etc. It's small, about the size of a couple of floppy discs.

I have also recorded onto MD from the computer, just have to make sure the files are in the right format. (Not difficult)

I am thinking about another MP3 player or possibly one of those cute USB thingoes. However, really, the MD does the job just fine with a minimum of fuss.

My car has a Sony MD player with a CD stacker in the boot. Very useful and easy to cart the discs around.

[spannersatcx]

Thanks, everyone, I was going the way of a Sony MD, now I'm not so sure. It's about ease of use, I thought it would be easier for him to get 5 or so CD's worth of music on 1 MD, rather than having to keep erasing and recording to an MP3 player. The Archos jukebox suggested by WCollins, or the ipod sounds like the solution but they are a bit pricey, maybe if it was for me then it would be different!

Sorry Cornish Jack don't know about that, but will try and find out.

[spannersatcx]

Cornish Jack is this similar, it looks like 2 and 3 are for recieve and transmit.
http://www.lectrosonics.com/service/lnser.gif

Looking at other diagrams 2 seems to be Transmitting data and 3 recieving data. Other diagrams (http://www.jspayne.com/io/schematics.html)

[Cornish Jack]

Wow!! Spanners, very many thanks!
Yes, that looks like the lead and I've just found another 9 pin, similar, but with the 2 and 3 connections the other way. Will have to give them a whirl and hope that one of them works!!
Again thanks.