mp3 Jukeboxes

[cossack]

I am considering the purchase of one of these for those long trips abroad. There seem to be only a few to choose from.
Anybody had any experience of them?
I'm thinking HanGo PJB-100, Archos JukeBox 6000, Creative Labs Nomad or the very new Treo.
Many thanks
cossack
(gadget freak)

[Flyswift]

If you are talking about handheld MP3 players then I haven't heard of the ones you have mentioned.

However, I have a Diamond Rio MP3 player which is very good. Its about 2 years old now but still works without problem. Its smaller than your avarage 'cigi box' and runs on a AA battery for hours.

Only complaint I have is it comes with 32mb ram standard, which isn't much really, but it does the job.

What you want is about 256mb of ram, so that you can hold about 10 CD's (depending on the bit rate of course.

Anyways, hope this was of some sort of help. :)

[Specaircrew]

I've got a Creative Labs Nomad and it's very good, it'll hold about 150 albums depending on what sort of compression you use, the only downside is that the batteries only last 4 hours but they do give you 2 sets!

[cossack]

Flyswift
Thanks, but what I'm talking about are the 6Gb or thereabouts things that Specaircrew has mentioned. The Creative Labs Nomad is the first one to be on general release in the UK but the ohters are avilable on line through amazon and some specialist outlets.
I was put off the Nomad because of the relatively poor battery life and because you can't transfer data back to your PC.
Some of the others, you can use as a portable HD as well as mp3 players and would be handy to use the spare space as a PC backup for important files etc. You can get upto 20Gb HD now too.

[Specaircrew]

Cossack

You'll be able to use the Creative Jukebox as an extra HDD when they put the latest firmware software on their website in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how you can get more battery life out of a portable HDD without using a much bulkier battery.

[cossack]

Specaircrew
These other units use Lithium ion batteries and claim to last in excess of 10 hours on a charge. The batteries are about 2 1/2" x 1/2". The PJB-100 and the Archos are about 6" x 3" x 3/4" and weigh about 10-12 oz inc battery. The Treo is 4" x 3" x 3/4" and weighs 8oz and looks more like a walkman. It's battery lasts 8 hours.
Take a look...
http://www.treoplayer.com/
http://hardware.mp3.com/hardware/individual/2363.html
http://www.archos.com/zone_a/products/product_1.html

(typos)

[This message has been edited by cossack (edited 30 January 2001).]

[Specaircrew]

Yes they look quite interesting, the Creative uses 4xAA NiMh batteries and as you get 2 sets then I suppose you could argue that the battery life is eight hours. I tend to run the unit off the mains about 50% of the time anyway(which also serves to charge up the 2 sets of batteries) so I don't find it a problem. I paid £320 here in the UK, I didn't see a UK distibutor for the others so there's always the guarantee and VAT/Duty to consider if you're going to buy overseas.

[cossack]

Specaircrew
The Archos is available now through www.amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk) at £280.
I expect the others to be available in due course. It's picking the right one!