Which Portable MP3 Player ?? Creative vs Apple Ipod vs Toshiba

ANP !!!

ANP !!!

Skilled
As the Title States. I have my Uncle heading towards India anytime from Nov to Dec. I m quite confused between this 3 Players :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Plz help me Out.

1)Toshiba Gigabeat S30 30GB (linkkky) and (Newegg)

2)Creative Zen Vision: M 30GB (Linkky) and (Newegg)

3)Apple New Ipod Video 30GB Black (Linkky) and (Newegg)

The player will be bought from Newegg.

:D TIA.
 
No clue about the Toshiba Gigabeat....

The choice between the Zen and iPod is a question of flexibility vs. usability...
I personally prefer the iPod (for the sole reason that navigating between songs is a breeze esp. for someone with a huge collection, and of course, the <1 sec startup time (okie, make it two reasons :p) )

The Zen offers you better customization capabilities and more control over the way you want use your player....

Here is a story, I picked an iRiver PMP-120 player sometime back, and it sure is a nifty gizmo..I played around with it for several weeks discovering and unlocking all its capabilities...

The iPod in comparison is a utilitarian device and all it does is sync up with your music collection and plays it back for you...No uber-chic geek-impressive stuff

However, when it comes to usage as a music companion; say when I go travelling or backpacking, it is the iPod I pick up every time for the sheer convenience it offers...coz it is just a simple music player that works perfect as a passive companion !

Take your pick :)
 
It all depends on what your needs are. if you are looking for video playback along with mp3 then apple is certainly not for you.its 65 k screen is crappy and videos appears washed out.When it comes to video playback nothing beats zen vision w.it can play alomst all know formats.Also if you want to use Fm radio, then ipod is not for you.

Here are the pros and cons pf the players you want:-

Toshiba Gigabeat S:-

if you are after music then Toshiba Gigabeat S is a better option and beats the ipod easily in audio quality and screen size.Also file navigation is very easy even better than the ipod.offers FM radio support. Downside:-Battery life sucks .

creative zen vision m:- great vidoe playback,can play almost all formats. Has an incredible screen, a simple interface, better video battery life.

downside:- scratch prone , included earbuds aren't that good.I also don't like its touch-pad controller.Vision:M's touch pad isn't as good as the ipod's click wheel.Aslo it doesn't look as good as the ipod.

ipod:- Looks great.Infact only iriver clix looks better than the ipod.Better battery life. Downside:- everything else--i mean no fm support, bundled earphones are crappy,small screen size and crappy video playback....also i hate itunes.

So in the end i believe the best player would be Toshiba Gigabeat S.However this product is not sold in india and so if it ever goes kaput you will have a hard time fixing it.You will have a problem when its battery dies down.if you don't mind this,then go ahead as it offers the best audio quality among the three and is good for video playback also. if lack of support bothers you then buy the creative 30 Gb model.Ipods are overhyped and for the features they offer,they are overpriced.

But whatever you buy don't forget to buy quality earbuds for your mp3 player as these are very cheap in america compared to india.
 
if you go looks wise teh toshiba LOOKS the best, check out reviews n probs it has, coz its smaller with a sweet big screen
 
Thnx for the reply guys :D

hmm.. My friend just got a Ipod Video 30gb (the new 1). I used it for 2 hrs.. n found that the jogdail-type touch pad is very convinient n easy to use. It really made the scrolling between the massive amt of songs quite easy. The Sound quality was the best i have every heard in my life (it could be becoz it was the 1st HDD based Mp3 Player i have ever heard). The build quality was very good, n teh back Steel Made lid was just awesome.

But i found the Keys on teh Ipod very hard n tough to press and i dont know this, but cant we have organised folders in a Ipod (my friend says it doesnt have any such feature). I have heard the Creative has a bit better sound quality, but then again i have never heard it.
 
Oh BTW, i just forgot that zune is releasing in america this month. It offers better features than any of the above listed players and also got a 3 inch screen. Why do you get that?? It will be ages before it is released in india.
 
Does Zune have support for Xvid and Divx if it does then it will beat anything up there.

Else i would also recommend a Zen Vision M for the excellent list of features it

packs in it.

Also it has a TV out to playback on TV [Correct me if i am wrong]
 
TechHead said:
Only WMV support on the Zune, no diVx or Xvid sadly.. stupid M$!
Click to expand...

yep checked it out @ zunerama

also i read somewhere that microsoft's zune is a rebadged toshiba gigabeat with wifi and other features.

So u would need to choose between creative and toshiba...
 
yes zune is made by toshiba and it seems to be a very good product.Okay it is somewhat bulky and doesn't have any support for divx or xvid ( and there will never be such support....Damn M$ and their anti-piracy!!!!) but its controls are more responsive than any other players and its really confortable and very simnple to use.besides it has a 3 inch screen bright screen(which many reviewers say doesn't have any glare) whereas the zen vision m only has a 2.5 inch screen.Even though creative zen plays all formats,you won't really enjoy videos on a 2.5 inch screen.Besides its made up of scratch prone body.Its tv out and other features are really useless. Also creative's sound quality(although good) isn't the best. Toshiba giga and most likely zen has better audio quality.Besides the fact has zune has built in wifi means that if M$ chooses then more features could be added to zune in the future thorugh simple software upgrade.i.e. through software updates it may be possible to wirelessly sync with the computer or transfer videos to other devices or even share music over the internet.

But creative does have a better battery life and as i said before,support in india if anything does go wrong. So its upto you to decide.But whatever you do , don't go and buy one of those expensive, featureless scratch-pods.



Before you all go on a micro$oft bashing spree take a look at this video.This might change your mind.

Here's the link:-

Zune complete interface walkthrough video - Engadget
 
Update:-

Zune software will convert MPEG-4 and H264 files to WMV.So video playback won't be such a problem since there are plenty of softwares available that will convert any video file to mpeg-4 s and then zune software can convert them to wmvs.

Besides M$ plans to bring support for many more video formats through software updates in the future.
 
arrow055 said:
Update:-

Zune software will convert MPEG-4 and H264 files to WMV.So video playback won't be such a problem since there are plenty of softwares available that will convert any video file to mpeg-4 s and then zune software can convert them to wmvs.

Besides M$ plans to bring support for many more video formats through software updates in the future.
Click to expand...

Most of the videos downloaded world wide are in Xvid or Divx Format and there

are so many standalone dvd players that too support them but there are very

few players that have WMV playback support.

It might be M$ move to increase WMVs popularity.

Also dont you feel that encoding most of your videos to WMV is a time consuming process and also waste of CPU cycles , what problem wud have M$

had if they had support for Xvid and Divx on there Zune , infact it wud have been the ideal player to be purchased.

Any one buying a player always looks for a player that have maximum format playback support.

This is what i think.

Even if u do a poll today for the "Codec of your choice" Divx and Xvid will win hands down.

Thats the reason why i feel M$ shud have included there support on Zune
 
^^ ya i too believe they should have included divx and xvid support but i would rather go through all that time consuming process of converting videos to wmv format rather than prefer to watch those videos on a smaller 2.5 inch screen (of zen vision) without any conversion to other formats.

(well some are now suggesting that its only a matter of time before M$ incl. support for these formats.)

That's why i still believe zune is better than zen vision m.
 
arrow055 said:
^^ ya i too believe they should have included divx and xvid support but i would rather go through all that time consuming process of converting videos to wmv format rather than prefer to watch those videos on a smaller 2.5 inch screen (of zen vision) without any conversion to other formats.
(well some are now suggesting that its only a matter of time before M$ incl. support for these formats.)

That's why i still believe zune is better than zen vision m.
Click to expand...

Seriously speaking i feel you are the first person who like the task of encoding
all your videos just for extra .5 inch.
 
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