Thinking about getting a Prince Albert

[Mondo]

I have had my Iriver H120 for about 3 years now. Originally bought it to record lecture as it is much clearer than any tape recorder. Then it is also my MP3 player and portable HD sometimes.

At the time it was about the same size as the old Ipod but lately i am finding it a bit big and want to replace it with an Ipod. With a new 80G Classic now at around £150 it's actually cheaper than what i paid for the Iriver it is seriously tempting. I do have a few reservations.

1 - Can the Ipod Classic be used as a portable HD?
2 - Does the videos need to be in Quick Time or can it play WMV and Divx?
3 - What connection does it have? Can you connect it via any mini-usb cable or does it have a a unique connector?

I am leaning on the side of the 80G really as my music collection is about 30G, so a Nano is way too small.

Or would you recommend something else ? £150 ish that does the same stuff? I really dunno.

[Del Lardo]

Originally Posted by Mondo

1 - Can the Ipod Classic be used as a portable HD?
2 - Does the videos need to be in Quick Time or can it play WMV and Divx?
3 - What connection does it have? Can you connect it via any mini-usb cable or does it have a a unique connector?

I am leaning on the side of the 80G really as my music collection is about 30G, so a Nano is way too small.

Or would you recommend something else ? £150 ish that does the same stuff? I really dunno.

I'd say go for an iPod but then it would seem that I have turned into an iPod whore as I know own 4 of them (Shuffle, 4GB Nano, 30GB Classic and 16GB Touch)

1. Yes
2. QT files only, I use Handbrake to encode and it's ~1GB per film
3. Proprietary connector that comes in the box


I had a look at the new Classics when I bought my Touch and I thought that they were too thick (especially the 160GB) compared to the lower capacity models but depending on what you are used to it probably won't be a problem.

I'll probably be selling my 3 month old 30G Classic soon as there's no point running one alongside a Touch.

[Pheebs]

I've got me a 30gig colour vid ipod thingy-ma-bob, however, after all the reviews I have read and friends I have spoken to.... given the choice again I would probably buy a Creative instead.

Albeit I love my ipod dearly, it's not exactly brilliant when you want to look through your photos/watch a video (infact, I've struggled to find any good videos that will work on my ipod)

It's organisation isn't fantastic and if you want to select a song quite quickly it's not possible

Maybe it's because I have a stupidly large collection of music, some of which hasn't been labelled correctly (I will sort this). But even so, I have heard that Creative is much more user friendly and just generally better.

Hope your search goes well

[William]

I have the third generation iPod which amazingly still runs day in day out but it's slightly retarded and does random things from time to time.

I wouldn't buy a new one, they are interestingly prone to breaking very often, the battery problem still and always will remain and they now come laden with even more corporate red tape than mine. A brilliant product wonderfully ****ed up by a money grabbing s***w*** of a company.

[Robert]

Originally Posted by Pheebs

I've got me a 30gig colour vid ipod thingy-ma-bob, however, after all the reviews I have read and friends I have spoken to.... given the choice again I would probably buy a Creative instead.

Albeit I love my ipod dearly, it's not exactly brilliant when you want to look through your photos/watch a video (infact, I've struggled to find any good videos that will work on my ipod)

It's organisation isn't fantastic and if you want to select a song quite quickly it's not possible

Maybe it's because I have a stupidly large collection of music, some of which hasn't been labelled correctly (I will sort this). But even so, I have heard that Creative is much more user friendly and just generally better.

Hope your search goes well

There are lots of vids that work on the ipod.

[Stan_Lite]

I got an iPod from Shell when working on a rig for them but didn't use it straight away as I was perfectly happy with my Creative Zen Micro at the time.

I subsequently got pissed up and left the Zen on a plane and have been using the iPod ever since. It's not a bad wee machine but I can't stand all the iTunes crap required to populate it. I'm currently looking to go back to a Creative player - drag and drop mp3s FTW.

[FakeSnake]

I love my iPod 80gb
it does exactly what I need, interfaces with my In-car system.

I am quite the opposite to most when it comes to iTunes.. I love it. But then I use a Mac, and it works so much faster than the PC version.

I vowed never to buy an iPod, but impulse bought one just over a year ago. Its the best MP3 player I have had, and I have had a few!

[LeperousDust]

1. Yes but you still need the connector with you, just use a USB stick
2. You're right
3. It's own connecter, but every man and his dog has an iPod now days, all manner of things are specificall desinged for it so its not a problem.
4. Del Lardo got here first.

I'm on my first iPod i bought a second hand 5g series, i didn't think i was ever a fan, but tbh, i've been very impressed with the whole bundle. When this breaks or before (as i've run out of room) i'm looking at a new Classic 80 or 160. Cover flow is a (cool looking apple) gimmick but the new search feature (think it was with 5.5 too actually) is very helpful. You'll definately get on great with an iPod Mondo. I can't believe i'm actually saying this though a year (or even 6 months) i would have said steer clear!

[JUMPURS]

Between me and my GF we have had loads of iPods. 1 2nd Gen one, 1 4th Gen one, an iPod mini, an ipod nano (1st gen) and currently i have an 80GB iPod and she has a pink nano (the last one not the new new one).

I love my iPod. Ever since i have had one i wouldn't be without it. I am sorely tempted to get an iPhone but i can't justify the 270 quid plus a **** tarrif.

I'd say get the iPod. But play with iTunes first. I have always like iTunes since it came on OSX and think it is dead easy to use, but others don't like it (dunno if that is just Apple haters saying that though, you can never be sure). But since iTunes is the only thing you can use to sync your iPod, you better like it for keeping your music organized.

Pheebs, i used to dislike the old ones for finding songs, but since they added the jumping to a letter with the iPod i find it alot easier to navigate quickly. Also playlists and on the go playlists are where it is at

[kaiowas]

Originally Posted by JUMPURS

But since iTunes is the only thing you can use to sync your iPod, you better like it for keeping your music organized.

Really?

I've had a 3rd gen since they came out (a distant time when iTunes wasn't available on the PC and even most geeks had never actually seen an ipod in the flesh). I've never used iTunes with it.