Educate me on MP3, MP4 or Ipod

[skan]

Hi,

I am no IT knowligible nor wise with all the gadgets.
I use computer at work and surf the net at home only for email, a bit of research & ebay.

I wanted to get my son 12yrs old a MP3 player since he always talk about friend having ipod.

As far as I know ipod id by Apple and it play music on the very small & thin thing that can be navigated with one hand.

Okay!
1) Could someone educate me on what is ipod & the differences between ipod and MP3 or MP4?
Q2) What can it do?
Q3) how it works?
Q4) Where and how to get the music onto the gadget?

Looks like mp3 & Mp4 are cheaper than ipod,
Q5) what is the advantages & disadvantages?
Q6) What should I look for if thinking of buying one?

Please take step by step as i am a very novice at this game
I am also very impressed with the photo gallery etc on this.
Well done & keep upthe good work

Please educate me.
Thanks

& I am one of those that was scammed by danarack, check sent and now waiting.

This is why I started searching and found this site

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Sooo...

MP4 vs. iPod.

ipod:

+

Has a "click wheel" (touch sensitive controls), by far the coolest feature.
Has good build quality
Has a cool-looking menu interface

-

The smaller and cheaper Nano can't play video and is still too expensive.
You need itunes installed to be able to use it and there are issues with using one ipod with multiple computers. There are alternatives to itunes but that's beyond the average user's reach.

MP4:

+

CHEAP!!!
There are versions with touch sensitive controls, some lighted that look like the LG Chocolate (damn cool ).
Can play video.
Easy to use, just drag and drop the music/videos/whatever.
Not made by Apple! 8)

-

Low build quality
YOU WILL KILL THE PLAYER IF YOU TRY TO UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE!
Files are sorted by date and there's no way to change that. Of course it has random mode but...
Can have their memory hacked (show higher than actual capacity and cause errors or firmware crashes).
Controls wear out after some time.
Low battery life on some models.

That's kinda it...

Now as a good player i'd recommend this: http://mp4nation.com/products/index.php?PID=m6b The Meizu M6. No need to say more...

Or for a cheaper one: http://mp4nation.com/products/index.php?PID=C290

Those players will kick the butt of any ipod. Both Meizu and Teclast offer free and proper firmware updates, which fix bugs, maybe add new functions, but never kill your player.

Attempting to upgrade the firmware is perfectly safe on those, but HIGHLY DISRECOMMENDED on no-name players you find on ebay.

If you don't like the players above i'd recommend a brand-name player anyway for quality assurance. In this order, from best to worst:

Meizu > Teclast > UXCell - www.uxcell.com > Onda > RAmos > Hacha > other ebay stuff.

Stay away from Actions chipsets (players which state they can play AMV format videos), as they are SLOW and buggy. Get a Meizu or a Rockchip-based player, brand names such as Teclast are best.

Happy hunting!

[knob]

Ipod nano killer, meizu music card:-

http://www.climaxdigital.co.uk/epage...tore2.Shop2153

[skan]

Hi

Thanks fort all the advise.
Q7) What can ipod do?
I see ipod have got a lot of accessories eg docking station etc
Q8) tell me more

Q9) Will other mp3 or mp4 do the same?
Q10) Is mp3 different from mp4?

Q11) What are the different types of function available?
Q12) USB and good?
I was attracted to the samsung usb flash player because it is cheap so I thought to use & learn what it can do.
Q13) Is 8gb too much or 4gb is enough.
Q14) I still do not understand how you use to record music onto the mp3 or mp4 from say
a) cd, b)buy from the net,
c) Any other sources?

Do they have camera too?

Hope your expertise will me able to enlighten me.

[crazy.neo]

Look, if you can, I advise you to buy a iPod... You won't have to deal with hacked memory, bad firmware and shady specs... Also, it's from a reliable company, the design is exelent, it has good garantee, a lot of acessories, and has a lot of software (games, etc...) for it... If you can afford it, even though it's kinda overpriced, buy it.

[Buzzygirl]

Q7) What can ipod do?

It depends on the type of iPod. On all versions, from the 80gb video iPod down to the 1gb Shuffle, you can play music and listen to audio podcasts. On the iPods with a screen, you can do all that, plus store photos and contacts such as addresses and phone numbers. If you have a video iPod, you can watch videos and movies.

I see ipod have got a lot of accessories eg docking station etc
Q tell me more

There are many, many accessories you can buy for iPods... iPod accessories are an industry unto themselves! However, most iPod accessories are fairly expensive for what you get (in my opinion). ALL iPods have a proprietary docking port, so you will need to use cables especially designed for your particular iPod model in order to charge them and synch them with iTunes, and they are NOT cheap, no matter what version of iPod you own.

iPods are expensive. The cheapest iPod-- the lowly 1gb Shuffle-- costs $79.00 US. That is a *lot* of money for a player with 1gb of storage and no screen.

Q9) Will other mp3 or mp4 do the same?

You can play MP3s on all non-Apple players-- you can drag and drop any MP3 file (music, podcasts) to the player. If you have an iPod and aren't a computer wizard, you are pretty much stuck with using iTunes.

It's not difficult to use an iPod with iTunes. In fact, they are quite easy to use, which is a very big part of the reason iPods are so popular-- but once you go the iPod route, you are pretty much stuck with ONE music provider, and ONE line of music players, and Apple gets to tell you what to do with all the music YOU purchased through them. I have owned a couple of iPods myself, but I sold them because I didn't want to be tied to using only iTunes to get music. Nevertheless, iPods are lovely devices; their fit and finish is just excellent. They are extremely popular, but they are not the only game in town anymore!

Q10) Is mp3 different from mp4?

They are both audio encoding formats. MP4 files are audio streams encrypted by FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) and sold through the iTunes Store using the .m4p extension. iTunes affixes DRM to the music and video files that are played through it, so that means if you buy music through iTunes, you need to use an iPod to play your music (unless you choose to rip your iTunes music library to CD, then rip to CD to the MP3 format; only then can you use your music outside of iTunes). MP4 is an Apple thing, and you cannot use MP4s outside of iTunes, and iTunes works only with iPods. MP3 is an audio format that can be used with many players.

Chinese players which advertise themselves as "MP4" players are really just saying that they can play videos as well as music, all in a neat iPod Nano-looking player, but you still have to convert videos to a format which the player will read. My Chinese Nano clone will play videos, but only if I convert them into AMV format first. Higher-end Chinese players with better chipsets will play more common video formats.

Q11) What are the different types of function available?

Speaking from personal experience, iPod Nanos (not the video iPods) offer the ability to listen to music, view pictures, store contact information, and, if enabled, store some other info on them like a hard disk.

The Chinese players offer all of the above, plus the ability to view videos and listen to FM radio. You can also read e-books as text files. Most have voice recorders, so you can record messages and record programs from FM radio, and they usually come with one or more games built in.

Q12) USB and good?

Not sure what you mean by that.

Q13) Is 8gb too much or 4gb is enough.

Depends on how much music or how many videos you want to put on the player, but if all other things are considered, go for larger storage space. You need to be careful where you buy your player. Many of the higher-capacity Nano-like players sold on eBay have their memory hacked... in other words, they don't have as much space as advertised by the seller, and probably contain much less than advertised!

If you want lots of space combined with many functions, I recommend players like Meizu, Creative, and Archos, among others. You can hardly go wrong with Meizu players. This situation changes almost daily nowadays, as many new players are being developed and shipped from China.

Q14) I still do not understand how you use to record music onto the mp3 or mp4 from say
a) cd, b)buy from the net,
c) Any other sources?

Just insert your music CDs and rip them to your computer's hard drive, then transfer the files to an MP3 player by dragging the music files to the player itself. When you plug in a Chinese MP3 player, it shows up like a USB drive on your computer. Then, simply drag and drop the MP3s to your player, like you would files to any USB flash drive.

There are many online music sites where you can purchase MP3s... just do a Google search for "online music sites," and you will find many.

>Do they have camera too?

Some of the newer Chinese players incorporate cameras, but I cannot tell you how good or bad they are. From what I can tell, built-in cameras are a recent addition to these players.

My question to you is: how much money do you want to spend on a player? Knowing the price you want to pay will help to narrow down your options, when you are ready to purchase a player.

Hope this helps somewhat.

[ashley_rb]

Hi Skan.

If you get your son a genuine apple iPod, change the earphones.

The reason you want to change the iPod earphones, is that people, espcially kids, who are wearing iPod earphones are targeted and can have their iPods stolen. The iPod earphones identify that the person has an iPod on them and it makes for an easy target.

Sony earphones are a good replacement. www.sonystyle.com

Theives steal the iPods and sell them on eBay for cash.

[Herrie82]

Q1) Could someone educate me on what is ipod & the differences between ipod and MP3 or MP4?

-There's been quite some explanation already on the iPod so I will focus more on the Chinese players that are around.


The Chinese players use various chipsets being:
Action
Rockchip
Telechips
and probably some more. Action is a pretty poor chipset with very limited video playback capacity (only 12-15 images per second, while movies on tv/pc are 24-30 images per second. As you can imagine watching this is more like a quick slide show then a real movie).

Action chipset based players are sold a lot on eBay, with memory hacks (1GB players being sold as 8GB). The screens are usually pretty small too (1,5 to 1,8 inch). The resolution is usually pretty poor (128*128 pixels)

Rockchip chipset based players are a lot more capable when it comes to playing video. They can play video at about 24 images per second. The audio quality is very good as well! They are less vulnerable to memory hacks. A pretty common chipset! The players often have screens of 2,0-3,0 inch which are very do-able since it also has a resolution of 320*240 pixels.

Telechips chipset based players are similar to the Rockchip when it comes to capabilities. However they don't seem to be used that much (maybe due to costs?)

MP3 = Mpeg Layer 3 which is a way to compress music to become smaller files (4-5MB per song compared to 50-60MB when it wouldn't be compressed). This is done by taking into account the limitations of the human hearing and compressing the sound in such a way it's (almost) impossible to hear the difference between the uncompressed source and the compressed MP3 file. However there are a lot of differences between 1 MP3 file compared to the other.

You can select the 'compression ratio' (bitrate) yourself (terms often used are 128kbps, 160kbps, 192kbps, 224kbps, 320kbps. Where 192kbps is generally accepted as a good quality where it's 'impossible' to hear the difference between the original uncompressed source and the compressed MP3 file (the higher the kbps, the better the quality)). You would also have the possibility to create so called 'variable bitrate' MP3 files, where the program that converts your CD/file to MP3 would analyze the source music and determine the best bitrate for the specific piece of music. This way you will have multiple bitrates in a single file, giving the best music quality for the specific file.

In general smaller files will mean less quality. There are various programs around to convert .wav files and/or cd's to MP3. I would recommend Lame MP3 encoder together with Exact Audio Copy to convert CD's into MP3 (you should be able to find them on Google, otherwise I could post some links too!).

MP4 = Mpeg Layer 4 which is a way to compress video. On the internet you'll find a lot of compressed DVD movies in the so called XViD or DiVX format. These are compressed using a 'hacked' version of the original MP4 codec.

Q2) What can it do?
-iPod usually only music, some with video and photos. Rockchip and Telechip players can play video as well, have games, read .txt files and watch photos.
Q3) how it works?
-For iPod you will always need iTunes and an internet connection to be able to copy files to your player etc. The Chinese players will show up as a drive in "My Computer" so you can copy the files easily, without additional software.

Q4) Where and how to get the music onto the gadget?
-With iPod using iTunes, with the Chinese MP3/MP4 players you can just copy files to the player in My Computer.

Looks like mp3 & Mp4 are cheaper than ipod,
Q5) what is the advantages & disadvantages?
-Depends on what brand MP4 you get. If you get a 'famous' brand like Meizu, Teclast you will have regular software updates. They're cheaper and offer a higher capacity. So in general better value for money. The disadvantage is that you have less accessories.
Q6) What should I look for if thinking of buying one?
-If you go for a Chinese player, I would go for Teclast or Meizu.

Q7) What can ipod do?
I see ipod have got a lot of accessories eg docking station etc
QCool tell me more.

-Do you really need those? I believe they are way too expensive!

Q9) Will other mp3 or mp4 do the same?
-Yes and more!
Q10) Is mp3 different from mp4?
-Yes, MP3 is music, MP4 is video.
Q11) What are the different types of function available? See above.
Q12) USB and good?
I was attracted to the samsung usb flash player because it is cheap so I thought to use & learn what it can do.
-Chinese players usually offer a plug as well so you can

Q13) Is 8gb too much or 4gb is enough.
-Depends on what you do with it. For just music, you will be able to store between 600 and 1000 MP3 songs on it. If you want to use it for video's as well you might want to have 8GB, since a full movie in MP4 format on a Rockchip player will take about 400-450 MB.
Q14) I still do not understand how you use to record music onto the mp3 or mp4 from say
a) cd
-Convert with Exact Audio Copy together with Lame.
b)buy from the net
-Download the files and copy to the device.
c) Any other sources?
-Convert them to MP3/MP4 using the required tools!

I would go for a Rockchip or Telechips based player from Teclast or Meizu!

[Herrie82]

You can buy Teclast players directly in the UK from Climax Digital. Or you could order from the US from FutureDaps.

[skan]

Hi buzzygril & all,

Thanks for the detail explanation.

Just to clarify.
Q1) Do ipod docking station broadcast/amplify the volume only or it is charging the internal batterries too?

Q2) Chinese mp4 also can buy docking station which amplify & charge? which type & where?

Q3) From Buzzygril answer to Q9, I am right to say that if chose ipod route: only can purchase or save the music from one source & can only buy music from Apple. so I can't save the music from my existing cd or buy from other sources.

Q4) "sold through the iTunes Store using the .m4p extension. iTunes affixes DRM to the music and video files that are played through it, so that means if you buy music through iTunes, you need to use an iPod to play your music " so this mean itunes is an Apple software & so I can only use ipod from Apple .
I assume "rip" means saving it to another source. Is it difficult to do that? any special software of items required?

Q5) "My Chinese Nano clone will play videos, but only if I convert them into AMV format first. Higher-end Chinese players with better chipsets will play more common video formats. "
Could you enlighten me how you do this?
Which one are higher end higher end chinese player?

Q6) From answer to Q11, looks like the chinese player offer more functions.

Q7) (Q12) What I mean was is Apple ipod also on usb? or chinese player on usb only. or are there any other type on the market I should watch out for. If Apple Ipod is not on usb then the chinese player can not use the same docking station,yeh?

Q8) From answer to Q13, Looks like Meizu, Creative & Archos are the better ones, Are they consider to be Chinese players?
How about the 8GB Samsung player(nano lookalike)

Q9) How do oneknow whether "memory hacked" & how much are available after hacked?

The question on £(or $) depends on once I understand what is available & decide what functions etc so then I can see how much I want to spend. Obviously I want to spend as little or (rather value for money) Ipod seems very expensive. If 8gb Apple ipod nano is around £170.00 but no video and inclusive all the accessories inclusive docking speakers £60 will come to say £250

SO that is a bit much to spend!!!

What alternative if say value for money with as much functions?

I am sorry for the 13yrs old & his family. What sick society we live in, kill for an ipod.
Lack of parental discipline at young or discipline as a whole is the problem or is it too much "freedom" or "Capitalise" idea or advertisement?

Do we want to export this culture to the less develop part of the world.
I wonder whther is advance civilization or going backwards. Is a controlled society better as a whole?

Thanks & hope you all can educate me more