OK fab idea for DH for Christmas - an MP3 player! But which one????

[Clary]

As some of you may know, I am a bit of a dullard at up-to-date tech stuff.

I mean, I use a puter at work and have for years and am very skilled and not a Luddite at all.

But we don't have a mobile phone here or anything fancy like erm, well an MP3 player. But I'm thinking it might be a good gift for DH, who often walks home from work and it might be nice if he could listen to the Clash while doing so.

So how do they work? Can I in fact buy one and upload Sandanista onto it off the internet?

And what about megabites? and battery life? Have checked some out on Amazon and started to panic. want one where we can recharge the batteries don't I?

Anyone know more than me? PS budget is as little as is feasible - without getting something crappy that needs replacing 6mo later. £20-£30-£40??

www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3358983/Play-com-Pro-V2-2GB-MP3-Player-With-FM-Radio/ ProductReviews.html

All the features you need and a good price.

DP bought me a archos gemini last xmas. Very good and easy to use.

Confess to being disappointed not Ipod, but dp claims it was marketed at the same time but as more expensive originally and better than Ipod it never really took off!!!! (unsure whether this was him just covering his back!)

12 months on, I am really pleased with it and wouldn't swap it - not even for an Ipod!

ooh sorry can't get that website to work mumofone. what was the model etc?

Thanks kd. Will check it out.
Any other thoughts? Yes I could get an ipod shuffle (very cool looking) but fear that they are extra-high-priced because of th eApple name and supposed to go wrong a lot?

yes mmj I saw that one (the £27 one) on Amazon for £20 but someone said the battery was annoyign because you (they) couldn't recharge it or it only lasted 2hrs? (sounds long enough to me).

Wil the £20 one do? (that's how much it was on Amazon). Or do I need a £50 one - what did you buy? And how does it work with putting music onto it (sorry for total ignorance, we just have a CD player in the car here - oh, and the radio)

I have a Creative Zen V plus and it is fab (sound is meant to be better than ipods). I personally didn't want to be sucked into the Apple bubble - they use a different format for their songs don't they so that you can only listen to them onto ipods/Apple Macs. Creative also do refurbished mp3 players and sell them at about half their original price try here.

Another vote for Creative Zen V Plus. Better sound quality than i-pod. 2GB is ample memory.

Then you can buy the Travelsound system (maybe for his next birthday) and have it all - speakers, charger etc.

Moonshine, I have just had a look at the Creative Zen V plus and it does look good. I had been thinking about an ipod for DH, but was a bit put off by the extra cost (and the crap reviews) of the radio accessory. Do you use the radio on the creative and is it good?

I am thinking 4GB one. Roughly how many songs will this hold? DH has a massive one (CD collection that is)

Another vote for the Archos Gemini here cheaper than the IPOd for a brilliant memory that hold thousands of songs. It's a nice size too I thought the creatove zen was a bit bulky.

archos gemini it has 20gb which although is loads itmeans you can put any song you've ver liked on it.

thanks for all your help.

Have also bent the ear of a techy colleague (who however is an Apple man) who recommends Creative. That one looks nice ledodgy but £70 is waaaaay more than I want to spend (whoops!).

Think might go for the cheapy Amazon £20 one which looks nice or maybe that reconditioned one from Creative....

I got an ipod shuffle from Apple site for £50 wngraved with a special message for my birthday. You can get reconditioned ones too

Chopchopbusybusy - mine is a 4gb and is supposed to hold about 2000 songs. I have loads of cds and vinyl (which I am trying to convert but it's a helluva job) but tbh, although I now listen to songs I had consigned to the back of the cupboard, I have also become more ruthless and got rid of album songs which I never really liked, so the size for me is more than adequate (but you can get ones with far more capacity). As for the radio, I don't use it as much as I thought I would tbh, and reception can depend on where you are at the time, but when it does pick it up, it's pretty good.

ah tho you need i-tunes for apple (i now know!) and we already have flash windows media player (?) - see how I demonstrate my new knowledge - which is what you need for all the other ones.

Is that correct?

DH has an I-River and loves it. I have an I-Pod (bought with my boots points a few years ago) which I don't love as much as I thought I would, keeps hiding albums, so I wouldn't recommend it.