Recommend an MP3 player

I've had three mp3 players all of which died at the same time. I am in the market for a cheap mp3 players - 1GB will do with the following requirements:

Copying - Copying to the player: my last player deleted all the music from PC that I uploaded into the player - I didn't realise this before I deleted them from my mp3 player to make space for new music. :cry This should NOT be even an option! Copying from mp3 to PC should be OK instead (but not automatic deletion at the same time.)

Navigation - the main purpose is to carry my language course with me, so navigation between tracks should be easy: it must have a screen so I can see which track to choose and which one it is playing. No need fancy graphics

Recording - Preferably there should be an option to record lessons with enough clarity to be able to follow it afterwards

Robustness & size - size is not too important but the player has to be fairly robust: I'm not much used to having headphones attached to anything smaller than PC: I might forget I have my headphones round my neck (I'll invariably get my own as the in-ear ones never stay) while the player is in a coat pocket, so when I take the coat off...

Price - my budget is very limited so iPod is out of bounds.

The best player so far I've had was Zoom, although the built-in speakers never worked (they were supposed to switch on when sliding out). I don't remember if it had a record function (I think it did) because I never needed one at the time. (I know it had a working FM but I never used that one either)

 

Sorry for the late reply... any of the Sandisk Sansa players might fit your needs, and they're fairly reasonably priced. You can a list of specs for the Clip+ and the Fuze here: http://compare.anythingbutipod.com/sandisk-sansa-clip--vs-sandisk-sansa-fuze

 

Fuse is great its cheap and i have had mine for a wile and it still works like new

 

Thanks guys and sorry for not getting beck earlier: reached my data cap and had to wait
:-(

Since posting this question I have come across video tutorials in YouTube, which shows text as well as the sound. So I thought maybe I could beg and borrow to stretch my funds for a ok mp4 player. At the moment the size of my lesson folder already amount to 2.5 GB: maybe I should try and get as much space as possible to accommodate future lessons too (and some music)... At first I thought to go for a 8GB model but the difference between Sony's red NWZS544R S 8GB and NWZS545B 16GB models is only £7.25, it makes sense to me to go for 16GB. I'm not that keen on red anyway.

I've got my eyes on these Sonys-NWZS545B or Samsung-YP-Q2JEB

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-NWZS545B-Walkman-Built-Speakers/dp/B002LARSLG/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-YP-Q2JEB-16GB-MP4-Player/dp/B0027FFTCK/ref=dp_cp_ob_ce_title_2

I can play the downloaded mp4 video clips with VLC player, iTunes and Quicktime but not with other players so I'm a bit worried this being an issue.

I am leaning towards Samsung but is it worth the extra £16? As my data cap, with mobile internet, is low, watching TV with BBC iPlayer is not relevant for me.

 

Creative mp3 players (any model) are good quality, and are less expensive than iPods. The only drawback, though, is unless you are using a model that supports SD cards, you have to use WMP to transfer your files (they don't support drag and drop).

 

Yet another area where the Sansa Clip is superior -- full drag-and-drop support.

 

True. It most likely would have gone for it because of the price, but Sansa Clip doesn't do mp4. In the end I chose Walkman because on further inspection it was superior compared to Samsung, and cheaper. The Walkman also supports drag and drop on mp3 files, but it seems to be incompetent when it comes to MP4 files! It did manage to transfer some of them with their own Media Go - I was warned about the "content trasfer" program that came with the player - but it failed equally as many: all downloaded from YouTube with YouTube downloader! Go figure.

 

My last mp3 player was Creative Zen. The sound was good but the built - in speaker never worked. However, I was disappointed to read that subsequent models have gone down in quality, and the mp4 function is rubbish.

 

I am stumped unless I there is a way of telling one mp4 from other - what makes one suitable for the walkman and one doesnt? Once I know this, I could start hunting a suitable program to convert them on my laptop or to transfer them directly.

I posted a question to the Sony tech support but got the usual rubbish referring to totally unrelated threads - and that was supposed to be human who read my post. :-(

 

It's most likely related to the mp4 container. There's a ton of them.

 

Now I'm totally lost: what is mp4 container? Is there any way of finding out of those that don't play with Walkman? I they are mostly clips uploaded by two different users. I don't think I can contact them to ask though, even if they knew... At least it seems that one of the lessons is recorded from TV, the other is a "home video."

 

I looked at the "Detailed information of the files that don't play but none of it different from the ones that play: there is the transfer date, size, resolution 320*240, AVC Basline, AAC - whatever the latter two mean. So no hints from there. :-(

 

"mp4" is usually used as a blanket term for any kind of mobile video. If you want to convert video, SUPER is an excellent choice.

 

Is it free, where can I download it? Thanks.

 

You can get it right here.

 

http://majorgeeks.com/Super_d5117.html

EDIT: whoops, mimsy already posted it. whatevs

 

The Samsung YP-XX is a great series. I had one until I got my iPod Touch. Still works great!