MP3 Players Versus The New MP4 Players: Feature Comparison

[aoaotaotao]

MP3 Players Versus The New MP4 Players: Feature Comparison



Do you currently have an MP3 player or an MP4 player? In your personal opinion, which do you think is better and more beneficial? This has been an ongoing debate for some time. No just kidding, but it is quite obvious that MP4 players are superior. Well, that’s my view anyway, although I am very sure that a lot of people will also agree with me.

MP3 players were obviously first to enter the market back in 1997 and have been a major success since then. Because of their small size they are very convenient not only for people to fit them in the smallest of compartments or pockets but also utilized them when they do exercise at the gym, ride a bike, travel to work or simply just for recreational usage. But let’s face it, the MP3 player basically only plays audio songs and besides that unfortunately does not have much more to offer to people. This is where MP4 players have take over and have the extreme upper hand. Along with MP4 players came the introduction of video playback and recording functions which were previously not available with the original MP3 players. But this is only the beginning. Let’s look at the MP4 player features and factors to consider:

1. The size of the MP4 player factor. There different sizes of MP4 players. Some have larger screens than others, the inclusion of video playback capability, hard drive and others. The LCD screens commonly come in sizes of 1.8", 2", 2.5" and 3". Once again the bigger the LCD screen on the MP4 player, the better. The price, however might tend to shoot up a bit.

2. The next factor we will talk about is AV/IN and AV/OUT capabilities with Line in recording. This feature is common but it is important to make sure the MP4 player you wish to purchase supports at least one or both of these ports. It should also support both NTSC and PAL. This feature will obviously allow you to playback video images or movies from the MP4 Player to your TV screen and alternatively allow you to record TV programs or movies onto your MP4 player.

3. MP4 players may have other features such as an FM tuner, audio recording capability, small notebook functions, e-book, games, etc.

4. USB connection speed to the PC, which affects the rate at which you can upload movies, images and audio MP3’s from your PC to the MP4 portable device. The latest MP4 player models today commonly support high speed USB 2.0 transfer. Others also support Firewire.

Apart from all the above factors you can also watch any movies and other videos on you small LCD screen, it also offers other useful and handy features such as the ability to do voice recording, notebook functions for storing data, alarm clocks, calendars to mark important dates, simple games like the ones on cell phones and the use of memory card ports for those who need to utilize more memory. The best function is the ability to encode and playback your favorite movies or music videos on the MP4 player itself. Some MP4 players also give you the ability to playback the video from your MP4 player to you Television screen. Now clearly the MP4 player is slightly bigger than the MP3 player due to the fact that it has an LCD screen. But once again that should not affect your decision.

So you be the decider of which one is more useful and easy to use. MP4 players are clearly a thing of the future but I’m sure there are a lot of folks who would rather be happier with an MP3 player.

[Slayer6000]

Sorry to break it to you, but some people don't really have any use for the features of an mp4 player and are quite satisfied with an mp3 player. It's like comparing an average family sedan to a BMW. Sure the BMW has a lot of shiny new features, etc. But most feel that a family sedan is more than atequate for what it does, listen to music. I'm sure many will disagree but I don't find that much use in watching videos on tiny 1.5" screens (yes I'm aware there's mp4 players with 3, 4.3 and even 7" screens).

But if I truely wanted to watch a movie, I'd prefer to watch it in my lounge room with widescreen hd lcd + 5.1 surround sound. Living without movies and videos 24/7 isn't really a big issue for me anyway. This is just my opinion. oh btw did I mention how much more mp4 players cost compared to mp3 players? There's a market for both players IMO and you shouldn't really compare the two.

edit: Also for exercising, ie. jogging, you tend to want to carry as least weight as possible and it's not like you're going to be jogging and watching a video at the same time!

re-edit: Actually most products, whether MP3 or MP4 players use USB 2.0. Although your post is extremely well written, I believe you could have chosen a much better topic to write about.

The newer MP3 players (well most) tend to have a small 1.1" screen, even better they're OLED instead of LCD which tend to use less battery. The size differences are EXTREMELY DIFFERENT. For example compare the Teclast X19, AOC V9, Onda VX515 and VX898+ which are the newer generation of MP3 players. They are very small in form and weigh a fraction of most MP4 players (see the chuwi 7" player). Did I mention that these new MP3 players have battery life that ranges from 70hours nonstop mp3 (on a specific song/settings/screen off) and even 90 hours.

[freddyzdead]

aoaotaotao:
So, what is the point here? MP4 doesn't really mean anything except that it plays more than just MP3. But MP3 players have got smaller while MP4 players have got bigger, so that's now the main thing that separates them. But it's pointless to generate a debate about which is better. If you only want music and a small size then get MP3. If you want more formats/movies/radio, etc., then get MP4.
The end.