An MP3 Player for my Cold Dead Robot Hands

October 8, 2008 6:40 PM

I'd like to buy a nice MP3 player that doesn't involve capacitive sensing. So: controls that only have moving mechanical parts like buttons or wheels, and aren't dependent on me having to generate a bioelectrical field conducted through my fingers. I'd also like it to have a large memory, and video playback if possible. Essentially, a wholly-mechanically-controlled version of the 160 GB iPod would be ideal. Does such an MP3 player exist for those of us who have trouble with our conductive capabilities?
posted by Greg Nog to technology (15 comments total)

My 32GB Creative X-Fi appears to work solely on the basis of buttons being pushed. It also has a neat little video display and great quality playback for such a small screen. You can add memory via SDHC cards. You need a program such as Any Video Converter (free) to convert videos to the right format to play on this. I'm amazed at how watchable, hearable, and cute it is.
posted by Susurration at 6:55 PM on October 8, 2008

I just got a Zune. You can deactivate the capacitive sensing on the Zune pad and switch to a click-only mode. It's surprisingly nice to use this way and much easier to navigate while, say, driving. (I too am annoyed by the iPod wheel.) There are other things about the UI I prefer to the iPod -- for example, the "now playing" screen consists of nice big album art with track information under it, possible because, unlike the iPod, the normal screen orientation is portrait. The largest-capacity Zune is only 60 GB, however.

What sold me on the Zune was the recently-added ability to search their store and download music directly to the device -- wirelessly -- without a computer involved. And for $15 a month, you can do that as much as you want with most of their catalog, which is pretty extensive. (Some artists only sell music, rather than renting it in this fashion.) Of course, it also plays unprotected MP3s, AACs, and various video formats. I haven't tried the video playback, however.
posted by kindall at 7:12 PM on October 8, 2008

There's a 120gb Zune now. The Zune is a good bet... unfortunately if you need 100+gig capacity there isn't much out there right now as most companies (including Apple) are getting away from the HD based players. I would recommend Sony players as they have nice tacky button controls but... flash only at this point.
posted by selfnoise at 7:16 PM on October 8, 2008

Oh yeah, sorry, I got confused on the Zune sizes.
posted by kindall at 7:23 PM on October 8, 2008

Quasi-homebrew solution: take a G1 iPod (which sports a real live moving wheel!), with a new battery and an upgraded HD? (OK apparently your HD upgrade possibilities might be limited, to a max of 40 GB: link).
posted by drmarcj at 7:36 PM on October 8, 2008

The Creative Zen series PMPs use "click only" controls (much like the X-Fi mentioned above but cheaper) and are SDHC expandable, play video etc... It's, IMHO, a good PMP at a good price. If these don't fit your needs (the Creatives are flash based with a max of 32gb on board) Anything But iPod is a good a place to start looking.
posted by MikeMc at 10:32 PM on October 8, 2008

The Archos rigs, especially the Gen 4 models, might be a good match. (I own a Gen 4 and a Gen 5, which uses a mechanical touchscreen, but still has rocker switch controls). They go in sizes up to 160Gb. They are somewhat bulky, but they have very nice 4.3" color screens and potentially support most commercial media (although no Vorbis and there's no replacement firmware at this time). (One major video perk for me, BTW, is that it works as a normal USB drive and adding video is as easy as copying files to the right folder).

Please feel free to MeFiMail me or drop me a regular email and I can answer any geeky questions or show you some photos.
posted by Samizdata at 4:34 AM on October 9, 2008

kindall's right. Sounds like you're looking for a Zune.
posted by General Malaise at 7:58 AM on October 9, 2008

Seconding a Creative player - I chose mine (a Zen Vision W) with that being one of the main concerns. I don't have trouble with the touchpad things; I just like buttons (especially dedicated volume buttons so I can change the volume while the player is in my pocket).
posted by marginaliana at 8:41 AM on October 9, 2008

There's a lot of pro-Creative sentiment in here, and the Zen is looking mighty appealing to me. However, my desktop computer is a Mac. Has anyone with a Zen had any experiences -- good or bad -- using XNJB to connect a Zen to a Mac?
posted by Greg Nog at 9:02 AM on October 9, 2008

I ask more about the Creative Zen players than the Zune, as it seems like Zune can't be connected to Mac unless I'm running Boot Camp or something. But if someone out there has a Zune-and-Mac combo, then by all means, let me know if that's possible.
posted by Greg Nog at 9:10 AM on October 9, 2008

Yeah, you will need Windows for the Zune, at least to set it up initially. As I said, you can download songs to it from the store over WiFi without a computer, but getting your pre-existing collection on it is only possible with the Zune software.
posted by kindall at 10:51 AM on October 9, 2008

I came here to recommend Zen, and I also have a mac.

XNJB has never worked for me, but I really don't need it to since I treat my MP3 player as a satellite to my music on my hard drive, and Zen has been nothing but fail when it came to any support for their device with a mac.

That all said, it works fairly well through the finder controls—it's just like having a big ol' USB disc attached.
posted by klangklangston at 11:33 AM on October 9, 2008

it's just like having a big ol' USB disc attached.

Oh, nice. That sounds even more appealing. Thanks!
posted by Greg Nog at 11:55 AM on October 9, 2008

Hey, I just got the AskMe follow-up e-mail. Unfortunately, I can't mark any of these as a best answer, as I didn't end up buying any of them; in the interest of frugality, I instead bought a replacement battery for my dead iPod mini, and brought it back to life. No pleasing push-button devices for me just yet.
posted by Greg Nog at 5:38 AM on November 8, 2008