New MP3 Player

[taffimai]

My old Creative Zen Micro is dying slowly (the headphone jack will only produce sound when I hold the headphone just so) and I'm considering a new player. I'm trying to decide between the following:


Archos 605
Storage - 160GB
Screen - 4.3"
Video Formats - MP4, WMV, AVI
Price - $399


Creative Zen
Storage - 16GB
Screen - 2.5"
Video Formats - MP4, MJPG, WMV, DivX
Price - $249






iPod Classic
Storage - 160GB
Screen - 2.5"
Video Formats - MP4
Price - $349


iPod Touch
Storage - 16GB
Screen - 3.5"
Video Formats - MP4
Price - $399

I'd really love the advice of my flist. Any recommendations, tips, warnings, or general wisdom?

In other news: Lazy Sundays are ever so much nicer with _usakeh_ present.

Comments

iPod. Definitely.

[mearigh.livejournal.com]

As someone who was used iPods for at least 4 years now, I definitely recommend them. But not necessarily the 160GB version- I have the 60GB iPod Video, and I'm only using 40GB with 346 albums (4034 songs), 4 movies, and 60 episodes (36 hours) of TV. Although iTunes has its quirks and annoyances, it's the best of the media management packages I've used- and it works beautifully with TiVo To Go! (Note: the music occupies 19.25 GB, the video occupies 16GB, and I have a few games (Zuma, Solitare, Sabotage) weighing in at a few hundred MB. Plus, the MusicMatch software that ships with most everything else BITES THE WAX TADPOLE! It's terrible! I was *so* happy when Apple ditched it in favor of iTunes on Windows, iTunes is vastly superior to MusicMatch.

If you're not interested in video, I would consider the iPod Touch, since it's flash only (i.e. no hard drive, so it should have better battery life and be a little more durable), but if you want to rip DVDs or use TiVo To Go then that 16GB will disappear fast. Plus, the 80GB iPod Classic costs $150 less than the 16GB iPod Touch, and would be tied for the cheapest item on your list!

Re: iPod. Definitely.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

You rock. Thank you!

Re: iPod. Definitely.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Okay, and now I'm conflicted again.

It's true that iTunes is a huge plus for the iPod. But the Creative players are compatible with Windows Media Player with is almost as easy to use as iTunes. Also, I'm not using a TiVo, so TiVo To Go isn't a factor.

I'm thinking the choice is really between the flash players and the hard drive players. In the flash area, I think the Creative player is winning out (cheaper, plays more formats, and has an SD slot), but I'm still torn in the hard drive game.