Please help me pick out an MP3 player

[zev_steinhardt]

I'm in the market for an MP3 player, but don't quite know which model would be the best one for me. And so, I turn to you, my fellow Dopers, for advice.

Firstly, I am looking for a model with a hard drive - preferably at least 8GB, but I don't think I'll need more than 20-30GB. I definitely won't need 60.

I don't think I'll really need to watch any movies on it. I may store some pictures on it, but I'm not certain about that yet.

Ease of use is important.

Lastly, I have a fair amount of music that is already in WMA format. I know that this may rule out an iPod. For a lot of the music, I no longer have the original CDs and cannot re-rip them.

I had a Creative Zen Xtra 30GB for about a year and a half, but the screen died. I'm willing to consider a Creative model again, but I'm not married to the company and if anyone has any recommendations for a better or different brand, I'm all ears.

So, does anyone have any recommendations?

Zev Steinhardt

[zev_steinhardt]

*bump*

Anyone? Bueller??

Zev Steinhardt

[5 time champ]

Wow, I am surprised you're not deluged with "iPod's suck, I had 4 of them that had hard drive crashes"

I am a Mac user, so I wouldn't buy anything but an iPod. I did have to replace the battery on mine in a little less than two years, but other than that mine has worked great.

You can certainly convert unprotected WMA files with iTunes, which I beleive is what ripped CDs are. http://www.apple.com/itunes/sync/ Here is a link about converting WMA to MP3. http://www.askdavetaylor.com/convert..._for_ipod.html

Join us on the bright side.

[Rachael Rage]

I'm a windows user who seconds the iPod love. I've had my 20G photo iPod (not video) for just over a year, and I haven't had any problems, even after dropping it on the sidewalk twice. (knock, knock!)

When I first downloaded iTunes (which I did before I got the iPod), it somehow "found" all the existing music on my computer and asked if I wanted to import it into iTunes. As far as I can tell, it copied the files into the iTunes format, but kept the original files intact. I'm not enough of a techie (or audiophile) to be 100% sure that's what happened, but it appears to be the case. Everything is there.

Both the iPod and iTunes are tremendously easy and intuitive to use. I didn't read the operating manual, and figured out how to do pretty much everything just by "feel." This was my first MP3 player, and I hesitated becasue I was never the person to bring a CD player with me. Now I don't know how I'd live without it. Also, there's the greatest thing ever: public radio podcasts.

I was excited that it can also be used as a hard drive, but so far I've never used it for that purpose, nor have I put any photos on it. Since I have my entire music collection on it (I gave up my CDs), I don't think I have room for photos anyway.

Since you've had a different model and you're willing to consider other options, I suspect you're ready for a change. At this point I wouldn't even think about getting anything but another iPod. Of course I haven't faced the dreaded "sad iPod" icon yet.