Pick an Mp3 player

November 28, 2005 7:03 AM

What MP3 Player should I consider? It must work with Win 98se, I want to be able to download & listen to podcasts mostly, less interested in music. Battery life is important but not as important as purchase price. I'm on limited budget.
posted by NorthCoastCafe to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

you propably want to go with something flash based if your looking for better battery life, and cost is an issue. granted space is more limited.

i remember the rca lyra, i used to owned worked on my win98
posted by chuckforthought.com at 7:54 AM on November 28, 2005

I'd recommend this. I have one and it is excellent - 512MB, great battery life on a single AAA, built in FM radio, recorder & MP3 encoder, mounts like a removable drive. It says it works with 98SE. Today is the last day of the sale on the site I posted - basically 50% off with rebate and free shipping. It's about the size of a pack of tic-tacs and comes in a bunch of colors. Only knock on it is the built in headphones are kind of cheap.
posted by true at 8:06 AM on November 28, 2005

FYI I have an ipod and my computer is 98SE, it can be done. I use anapod but there are tons of software packages that will work and I imagine it's the same for most popular players.
posted by fshgrl at 8:16 AM on November 28, 2005

Anapod is great software. It is not just for the iPod either!

iRiver players just use USB Mass Storage drivers in order to load it up. Not sure about it's automated podcast downloading abilities though, if that's important to you.
posted by mr.dan at 8:59 AM on November 28, 2005

creative is cheap and works on win98se
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 5:04 PM on November 28, 2005

Post-Black-Friday, it seems the best going rate is $50 for a 256MB Coby MP-C641 - They're even carrying them at some of the local grocery stores and drug chains here (Acme and Walgreens in the Northeast) It works with anything that can mount a USB memory device (98se should be fine), and also takes SD Cards, so if you find the 256mb is too little content, you can carry along SD cards with more.
posted by Orb2069 at 8:53 PM on November 28, 2005

Since purchase price is important, you should be looking for an older, used player. This also means it's more likely to work with 98SE. I traded my Palm V for a Creative Nomad IIc, and I use 98SE to load it. I purchased Red Chair Software's Notmad Explorer based on research that indicated the sync software Creative supplies is not so good, and recommending Notmad as a good alternative. I do occasionally have some issues with it connecting properly/with Notmad recognizing it, but overall it's not bad. (This also may be unrelated to the Notmad app; could be 98SE's USB support, or just a bug in my OS install.) It has 64MB onboard; it takes SmartMedia cards for additional capacity. The Notmad software does treat the onboard and expansion memory as separate, not contiguous - shouldn't be an issue unless you have one huge file that won't fit completely in either.

The Nomad IIc is fairly rugged, includes a voice recorder, and has decent battery life (I use Duracell rechargables - takes 1 AA). Some models of the Nomad apparently include an FM receiver; my IIc does not. It has a good volume range, and though I'm no audiophile, seems to have decent audio, at least for music - this is probably less important for most podcasts.
posted by attercoppe at 9:00 PM on November 28, 2005