iPods vs. MP3 players

[Mom to 2]

What is WMA and what does it mean when it says Apple iPods dont support them, or accept them, or whatever??

 

[Cindy B]

What is WMA and what does it mean when it says Apple iPods dont support them, or accept them, or whatever??

WMA is a type of music format. There are various types of formats WMA, MP3, MP4, etc.

Ipod does not play WMA format. If you have a music file in a WMA it will not play on an Ipod. Thats it, pure plain and simple.

 

[umaangel00]

One thing I like about anything other than IPod is that some support downloading from a subscription services. Like Rhapsody, I pay 15.00 dollars per month I can get as many songs as I want and they expire in 30 days. I can then re download them after the 30 days or just get rid of them and all I paid was 15.00 bucks for the month. That's really awesome and reasonable as well. I have the Creative Zen Micro (or maybe nano plus) and I love it! That way I am not stuck with songs that I might get sick and tired of.

 

[elliemae1192]

I've been looking into an mp3 player for my 9 year old and came across this.http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail~dpno~452258.asp I don't know if it's any good but my 15 year old says it has alot of good features. It's $19.00 after rebates so I figured I'd give it a shot. Just thought I'd post it in case anyone is looking for a cheap one.

 

[BrerMama]

OK, so I don't have a player yet. I have iTunes, which I use to manage my music collection and buy new music. I'm getting an iPod shuffle for Christmas, so no problem there.

The problem is that we want to get the kids some type of music player. My dh thinks we should just get them CD walkman-type players, and I can burn them CDs off iTunes. I wanted to get them the new Disney mp3 players. But from what I'm reading here, I can't download my iTunes music (which is now everything I own) directly to the mp3 players. I'm guessing I could probably burn a CD with my iTunes, then take the CD to my dh's laptop -- which doesn't have iTunes -- save the song there and then download to my kids' mp3 players, but what would be the point? I'm still wasting a CD. Might as well let my dh win and just buy them the personal players, huh? Any advice?

 

[NotUrsula]

No matter where you got it, a sound file in .MP3 format is still in .MP3 format, and a player that will use .MP3 will play it. If you get music in .WMA or .WAV format and want to play it on an iPod, you'll have to first convert the file to .MP3 format. This is an extra step, but you can easily do it with utilities you can download off the Web, such as AudioGrabber.

If you store music on a Windows PC, you should be able to just drag and drop it to your non-Apple player, you just need to designate the player as a device drive from your PC. As to using a Win98PC, I think that there may be an issue with the ports; lots of Win98 machines didn't have MSB ports, and none of the digital music players on the market now will still have serial port interfaces. If you've got the MSB port, you should be able to get a Win98 machine to transfer the files, though odds are it will be a s-l-o-w process, and you may need to add a device driver to make it work.

We have two SanDisk players, a 4gb for me, and a 256mb for DS8. They work on 1 AAA battery, which gives 14 hrs play time, and you can use rechargeables. These players also function as thumbdrives, can be used as voice recorders, and have an FM radio, and they are MUCH cheaper than comparable ipods. We can pack a lot more onto them by using .wma format rather than .mp3, the compression is greater. Oh, you can organize the files in albums, too; none of that random-play-only nonsense.

 

[DianaPrincessofWales]

NSmith:

No, I-Pods are NOT Windows 98 compatible.

 

[Mom to 2]

Okay, I went with the Ipod, daughter had to have the coolness factor! Now, she has a lot of songs on Windows Media Player (WMA format it says). How, when she gets the Ipod does she get those songs onto her iPod??

Thanks,

Lory

 

[DizParks]

iTunes will automatically convert those songs, so they can be used on the iPod.

 

[maggiew]

OK, so I don't have a player yet. I have iTunes, which I use to manage my music collection and buy new music. I'm getting an iPod shuffle for Christmas, so no problem there.

The problem is that we want to get the kids some type of music player. My dh thinks we should just get them CD walkman-type players, and I can burn them CDs off iTunes. I wanted to get them the new Disney mp3 players. But from what I'm reading here, I can't download my iTunes music (which is now everything I own) directly to the mp3 players. I'm guessing I could probably burn a CD with my iTunes, then take the CD to my dh's laptop -- which doesn't have iTunes -- save the song there and then download to my kids' mp3 players, but what would be the point? I'm still wasting a CD. Might as well let my dh win and just buy them the personal players, huh? Any advice?

If you get a CD walkman, make sure it can play mp3 files if you want to play your burned CDs. For my DDs birthday party, we burned some of her favorite songs and gave them to her friends on a CD. Well, half of them couldn't play the CD because they didn't have CD players that would play MP3.

Maggie