I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
transfer files to it.

After frustrating experiences with a couple of different MP3 players,
does anyone know of a player that can do all of the following:

- the software for transfering files to the player, displays the total
length of songs currently copied to the player
- the file transfer software also lets you browse MP3s on your machine
sorted based on the filename, rather than the title in the ID3 tag
(this can be really annoying when you can't find a file in the list
displayed by the MP3 file transfer software!)
- the file transfer software crashes less often than, say, Glen
Campbell carpooling with Billy Joel and Diana Ross
- the LCD interface on the player actually lets you scroll through the
list of songs without stopping the current song

That doesn't sound like a list of diva demands, does it? But of
the three players I've tried, one of them passed two of these tests
and the other two failed them all.

It seems like 128M MP3 players all cost about the same and are all
lightweight enough that the weight doesn't matter, so no company
having more than a razor-thin advantage over anyone else, you'd think
they'd all be desperate for an idea to lure customers from one company
to another. That's why it seemed weird that of the three players I've
had so far, all of their software interfaces for transfering files
ranged from "bad" to "sphincter".

The Intel Pocket Concert, the first one, was OK -- the LCD on the unit
would let you scroll through the list of songs without stopping the
current song (the only one I've seen that let you do this!), and the
file transfer software, Intel Audio Manager, at least didn't crash.
But Audio Manager could only display songs sorted by their ID3 title,
not by the file name, and it couldn't display the total length of
songs currently stored on the player, only the total size. The iRock
file transfer software had the same problems, plus it crashed
regularly. The RCA Lyra comes with some verison of MusicMatch that
also crashes, but it has the nice feature that the PC recognizes it as
a removable hard drive that gets its own drive letter, so you can copy
files to it in Windows Explorer. There are some other quirks with
that, such as that you have to transfer files to the player in
Explorer in the *reverse* of the order that you want them played, and
Explorer displays them according to its own sorting rules instead of
by their order on the actual player. (You can make it display song
duration by choosing Detailed view and going to View-Choose Details,
although it still won't display the total for all songs on the player,
although I hope I can add fractional single-digit numbers.)

"Bennett Haselton" wrote in message
om...
I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
transfer files to it.

Most new MP3 players are combination players and data storage devices. That
means when you plug them in they just show up as an extra 'disk drive' on
your Windows Explorer. Just copy the MP3 files to this 'drive' and you're
all set. It doesn't get any easier than that.

"Bennett Haselton" wrote in message
om...
I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
transfer files to it.

Most new MP3 players are combination players and data storage devices. That
means when you plug them in they just show up as an extra 'disk drive' on
your Windows Explorer. Just copy the MP3 files to this 'drive' and you're
all set. It doesn't get any easier than that.

"Bennett Haselton" wrote in message
om...
I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
transfer files to it.

Most new MP3 players are combination players and data storage devices. That
means when you plug them in they just show up as an extra 'disk drive' on
your Windows Explorer. Just copy the MP3 files to this 'drive' and you're
all set. It doesn't get any easier than that.

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.

Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.

The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.

Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.

The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.

Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.

The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 23:05:50 +1200, RdM wrote:

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the ...

"If your iPod fails to hold a charge and it's more than a year old, you may
need a new battery. Click Continue to order iPod battery service for $99 USD.
This program is not available in Europe at this time."

Is this still true? Why build a device with batteries that you cannot
replace yourself?

--

Boris Mohar

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 23:05:50 +1200, RdM wrote:

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the ...

"If your iPod fails to hold a charge and it's more than a year old, you may
need a new battery. Click Continue to order iPod battery service for $99 USD.
This program is not available in Europe at this time."

Is this still true? Why build a device with batteries that you cannot
replace yourself?

--

Boris Mohar

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 23:05:50 +1200, RdM wrote:

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the ...

"If your iPod fails to hold a charge and it's more than a year old, you may
need a new battery. Click Continue to order iPod battery service for $99 USD.
This program is not available in Europe at this time."

Is this still true? Why build a device with batteries that you cannot
replace yourself?

--

Boris Mohar

Boris Mohar wrote:
Why build a device with batteries that you cannot
replace yourself?

http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/

Boris Mohar wrote:
Why build a device with batteries that you cannot
replace yourself?

http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/

Boris Mohar wrote:
Why build a device with batteries that you cannot
replace yourself?

http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/

Thanks for the tip -- I tried iTunes and it did just about all that I
needed. It lets me create a new playlist and then drag and drop MP3
files from my library into that playlist, and the playlist view always
shows a running total of the combined song length at the bottom.

It doesn't recognize my MP3 player, but my PC recognizes my MP3 player
as a removable hard disk, so when I've got the playlist ready I can
just drag and drop to copy it to Windows Explorer.

When I first tried iTunes a couple of months ago, I had actually been
pretty disgusted with it because it took me a long time to figure out
that it wasn't working because I was behind a firewall -- and there's
nothing about the program's functionality that would require it to
listen as a server for incoming connections, so it should have been
able to work behind a firewall. However, it looks great for
organizing song files and copying them to the player.

So that's probably as good as it gets without springing for an iPod.

-Bennett

RdM wrote in message . ..
(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.

Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.

The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

Thanks for the tip -- I tried iTunes and it did just about all that I
needed. It lets me create a new playlist and then drag and drop MP3
files from my library into that playlist, and the playlist view always
shows a running total of the combined song length at the bottom.

It doesn't recognize my MP3 player, but my PC recognizes my MP3 player
as a removable hard disk, so when I've got the playlist ready I can
just drag and drop to copy it to Windows Explorer.

When I first tried iTunes a couple of months ago, I had actually been
pretty disgusted with it because it took me a long time to figure out
that it wasn't working because I was behind a firewall -- and there's
nothing about the program's functionality that would require it to
listen as a server for incoming connections, so it should have been
able to work behind a firewall. However, it looks great for
organizing song files and copying them to the player.

So that's probably as good as it gets without springing for an iPod.

-Bennett

RdM wrote in message . ..
(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.

Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.

The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

Thanks for the tip -- I tried iTunes and it did just about all that I
needed. It lets me create a new playlist and then drag and drop MP3
files from my library into that playlist, and the playlist view always
shows a running total of the combined song length at the bottom.

It doesn't recognize my MP3 player, but my PC recognizes my MP3 player
as a removable hard disk, so when I've got the playlist ready I can
just drag and drop to copy it to Windows Explorer.

When I first tried iTunes a couple of months ago, I had actually been
pretty disgusted with it because it took me a long time to figure out
that it wasn't working because I was behind a firewall -- and there's
nothing about the program's functionality that would require it to
listen as a server for incoming connections, so it should have been
able to work behind a firewall. However, it looks great for
organizing song files and copying them to the player.

So that's probably as good as it gets without springing for an iPod.

-Bennett

RdM wrote in message . ..
(Bennett Haselton) wrote:
in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,

: I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: transfer files to it.

[ ... ]

iPod.

After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.

Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.

The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:

: Thanks for the tip -- I tried iTunes and it did just about all that I
: needed. It lets me create a new playlist and then drag and drop MP3
: files from my library into that playlist, and the playlist view always
: shows a running total of the combined song length at the bottom.
:
: It doesn't recognize my MP3 player, but my PC recognizes my MP3 player
: as a removable hard disk, so when I've got the playlist ready I can
: just drag and drop to copy it to Windows Explorer.
:
: When I first tried iTunes a couple of months ago, I had actually been
: pretty disgusted with it because it took me a long time to figure out
: that it wasn't working because I was behind a firewall -- and there's
: nothing about the program's functionality that would require it to
: listen as a server for incoming connections, so it should have been
: able to work behind a firewall. However, it looks great for
: organizing song files and copying them to the player.
:
: So that's probably as good as it gets without springing for an iPod.
:
: -Bennett

I can't run iTunes since it requires (IIRC) Win2k or XP, but I'm quite pleased
with the latest Winamp 5 (modern skin). It too gives a running total of size
and time. You can sort by artist or album. I was frustrated at first because
the CDDB connectivity simply didn't seem to work (behind ZoneAlarm and on an
ICS client) but when other circumstances forced a complete reformat/reinstall
it seemed to come right and now works perfectly. It also sees devices so
should see your MP3 player as a removable drive I'd guess.

I made a mistake below - the imported iPod files show up as .m4a in Windows.

RdM

: RdM wrote in message . ..
: (Bennett Haselton) wrote:
: in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,
:
: : I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: : interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: : transfer files to it.
:
: [ ... ]
:
: iPod.
:
: After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
: better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
: then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
: Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
: would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
: more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.
:
: Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
: A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
: Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.
:
: The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:

: Thanks for the tip -- I tried iTunes and it did just about all that I
: needed. It lets me create a new playlist and then drag and drop MP3
: files from my library into that playlist, and the playlist view always
: shows a running total of the combined song length at the bottom.
:
: It doesn't recognize my MP3 player, but my PC recognizes my MP3 player
: as a removable hard disk, so when I've got the playlist ready I can
: just drag and drop to copy it to Windows Explorer.
:
: When I first tried iTunes a couple of months ago, I had actually been
: pretty disgusted with it because it took me a long time to figure out
: that it wasn't working because I was behind a firewall -- and there's
: nothing about the program's functionality that would require it to
: listen as a server for incoming connections, so it should have been
: able to work behind a firewall. However, it looks great for
: organizing song files and copying them to the player.
:
: So that's probably as good as it gets without springing for an iPod.
:
: -Bennett

I can't run iTunes since it requires (IIRC) Win2k or XP, but I'm quite pleased
with the latest Winamp 5 (modern skin). It too gives a running total of size
and time. You can sort by artist or album. I was frustrated at first because
the CDDB connectivity simply didn't seem to work (behind ZoneAlarm and on an
ICS client) but when other circumstances forced a complete reformat/reinstall
it seemed to come right and now works perfectly. It also sees devices so
should see your MP3 player as a removable drive I'd guess.

I made a mistake below - the imported iPod files show up as .m4a in Windows.

RdM

: RdM wrote in message . ..
: (Bennett Haselton) wrote:
: in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,
:
: : I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: : interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: : transfer files to it.
:
: [ ... ]
:
: iPod.
:
: After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
: better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
: then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
: Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
: would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
: more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.
:
: Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
: A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
: Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.
:
: The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.

(Bennett Haselton) wrote:

: Thanks for the tip -- I tried iTunes and it did just about all that I
: needed. It lets me create a new playlist and then drag and drop MP3
: files from my library into that playlist, and the playlist view always
: shows a running total of the combined song length at the bottom.
:
: It doesn't recognize my MP3 player, but my PC recognizes my MP3 player
: as a removable hard disk, so when I've got the playlist ready I can
: just drag and drop to copy it to Windows Explorer.
:
: When I first tried iTunes a couple of months ago, I had actually been
: pretty disgusted with it because it took me a long time to figure out
: that it wasn't working because I was behind a firewall -- and there's
: nothing about the program's functionality that would require it to
: listen as a server for incoming connections, so it should have been
: able to work behind a firewall. However, it looks great for
: organizing song files and copying them to the player.
:
: So that's probably as good as it gets without springing for an iPod.
:
: -Bennett

I can't run iTunes since it requires (IIRC) Win2k or XP, but I'm quite pleased
with the latest Winamp 5 (modern skin). It too gives a running total of size
and time. You can sort by artist or album. I was frustrated at first because
the CDDB connectivity simply didn't seem to work (behind ZoneAlarm and on an
ICS client) but when other circumstances forced a complete reformat/reinstall
it seemed to come right and now works perfectly. It also sees devices so
should see your MP3 player as a removable drive I'd guess.

I made a mistake below - the imported iPod files show up as .m4a in Windows.

RdM

: RdM wrote in message . ..
: (Bennett Haselton) wrote:
: in rec.audio.teche614455c.0406161524.110a8ced@postin g.google.com,
:
: : I'm looking for an MP3 player that has the most intuitive user
: : interface on the unit itself and also on the software that you use to
: : transfer files to it.
:
: [ ... ]
:
: iPod.
:
: After seeing a visiting friends Mac iPod, - despite it being filled with the
: better mp4/aac (Mac = m4u) codec tracks that he'd created in his iTunes - and
: then finding a shareware program to mount it as a removeable firewire drive in
: Windows, copying a selection across, to find them as mp4 files that Winamp 5
: would play natively (and write, with a plugin) , with a vastly superior and
: more functional interface compared to previous versions, I was very impressed.
:
: Forget 128MB - he had the 30GB version. Interface as you wish for, etc etc.
: A little expensive, but a very sexy item. If I could afford one, I'd buy one.
: Take it anywhere, plug into headphones stereo or PC, size of a deck of cards.
:
: The mp4's sound better than mp3's for the same or smaller filesize, anyway.