Comments on: An MP3 Player for my Cold Dead Robot Hands

Question: An MP3 Player for my Cold Dead Robot Hands

Greg Nog — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:40:51 -0800

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?

By: Susurration

Susurration — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:55:27 -0800

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.

By: kindall

kindall — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:12:32 -0800

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.

By: selfnoise

selfnoise — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:16:05 -0800

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.

By: kindall

kindall — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:23:07 -0800

Oh yeah, sorry, I got confused on the Zune sizes.

By: drmarcj

drmarcj — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:36:16 -0800

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).

By: MikeMc

MikeMc — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:32:52 -0800

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.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:34:58 -0800

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.

By: General Malaise

General Malaise — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:58:24 -0800

kindall's right. Sounds like you're looking for a Zune.

By: marginaliana

marginaliana — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:41:50 -0800

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).

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:02:25 -0800

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?

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:10:19 -0800

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.

By: kindall

kindall — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:51:01 -0800

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.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:33:07 -0800

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.

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:55:09 -0800

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

Oh, nice. That sounds even more appealing. Thanks!

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:38:44 -0800

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.