Portable player with AAC support?

[HELLFISH]

Greetings and salutations! I’ve already got my grubby hands on a slick iPod, and I have encoded all my music (2890 songs, 8.5 days, 11.50 GB) to the ear pleasing AAC format using iTunes. Now, I am looking for a solid-state portable player that must be quite small. Memory around 128/256 is fine. This player will be used during high-"jostle" activities such as skiing (I’m a mogul freak), mountain biking, and rock climbing. I’ve searched a bit through Google, but I am having difficulty in finding such a beast. A little help?

Edit: Note that iTunes downloaded music need not play on the player, just the unprotected AAC content.

[DavidLeblond]

Greetings and salutations! I’ve already got my grubby hands on a slick iPod, and I have encoded all my music (2890 songs, 8.5 days, 11.50 GB) to the ear pleasing AAC format using iTunes. Now, I am looking for a solid-state portable player that must be quite small. Memory around 128/256 is fine. This player will be used during high-"jostle" activities such as skiing (I’m a mogul freak), mountain biking, and rock climbing. I’ve searched a bit through Google, but I am having difficulty in finding such a beast. A little help?

Edit: Note that iTunes downloaded music need not play on the player, just the unprotected AAC content.

Give it till January. According to these folks around here, Apple is gonna release a flashPod or something. ;)

[javabear90]

Have a separate folder and convert your selected songs back into mp3. That is the easiest way. Switch your importing method to mp3 and then click convert selection to mp3. Go buy a cheap mp3 player at walmart or Best Buy or something.
thats my thought

[Mechcozmo]

There is an Apple Script named "Quick Convert" that allows you to click on a song, and convert it using any number of installed codecs. That AppleScript site has it... Dave's AppleScripts, is it?? :confused:

[MacBandit]

Try using your iPod for those activities first. If it doesn't satisfy then worry about the flash player.

[earthtoandy]

i would never recommend converting back to mp3.... with a 128kbps (i assume) aac file to mp3 you will probably have considerable loss of quality. and its just a clumsy process.

the ipod should be fine for these activities...most people jog with them and you can buy a burton ipod ski jacket so i assume lots use it skiing (i will this season).

but if you are desperate for sflash i say wait just til january and apple will release the flashpod

[HELLFISH]

the ipod should be fine for these activities...

LOL! You've never seen me at these activities... Let's just say I fall a lot, during all three! :D

And the whole purpose of having a player that plays AAC files is not having to convert. I don't want to be converting every time I upload a new play list.

Thanks for your help guys, but surely there has to be at least one player that supports industry standard MPEG4 content? :confused: If not, I guess I'll just have to wait for a January surprise from Apple!

[Wash!!]

http://www.mp3players.co.uk/site/uk/diva_gem.html

http://www.ciao.co.uk/product_comparison.php?Pid=1%2C5261531%2C5261537%2C5261543&IDs%5B%5D=5347616&IDs%5B%5D=5331657&Compare=Compare

cheers

[MacBandit]

LOL! You've never seen me at these activities... Let's just say I fall a lot, during all three! :D

And the whole purpose of having a player that plays AAC files is not having to convert. I don't want to be converting every time I upload a new play list.

Thanks for your help guys, but surely there has to be at least one player that supports industry standard MPEG4 content? :confused: If not, I guess I'll just have to wait for a January surprise from Apple!


Are you afraid of breaking the iPod? Flash players with decent capacity aren't much if any cheaper than an iPod. I'd put it in a front inside pocket inside a paded case. The chances of damaging the iPod there are pretty slim.

[HELLFISH]

Are you afraid of breaking the iPod? Flash players with decent capacity aren't much if any cheaper than an iPod. I'd put it in a front inside pocket inside a paded case. The chances of damaging the iPod there are pretty slim.

For skiing, yes, that is what I currently do. However, I don't wear a shirt while rock climbing, and only a tee when on the bike. And $120 is far less than any iPod.

Thanks "Wash!!" for providing some actual leads. Both the Diva and the Panasonic SD80 look like perfect solutions at this time. I think I'll probably wait for January to see what Apple delivers (since biking and climbing are out of season right now).

[Wash!!]

;)

[aricher]

I've used my iPod endlessly while skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking with no problems whatsoever. Even though I have a 40GB 3rd gen I have used my 5 GB 1st gen. since it came out for the rough stuff - never a glitch.

Why would you want to have an iPod on while rock climbing - call me old fashioned but when I'm rock climbing I'm focused on other things than music - fingerholds, cracks, nature, etc. To each his own though.

[parrothead]

My advice, at least when it comes to skiing is to not use any music player. I have several friends that work or have worked as Ski Patrol and they say one of the major cause of accidents is the lack of awareness you have when listening to music on the slopes. Being able to hear people coming up behind is an important thing. Even speaking without the authority of a member of Ski Patrol I can tell you it is dang annoying calling out "on your left" several times only to realize that the person is listening to music. :mad:

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

If you absolutely don't want to wait for whatever Apple presents in January, starts delivering in February and is possible to get for us mere mortals come April, :p , then you could look at these Panasonics mp3-players SV-SD85 (http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=11251&catalogId=11005&itemId=64752&catGroupId=16993&modelNo=SV-SD85&surfModel=SV-SD85), or the SVSR100 (http://panasonic.co.uk/mp3-players/svsr100/index.htm), none of them really an option at that price, though, or the more affordable (should be, at least, SV-SD51 (http://www.panasonic-europe.com/dsnap/ewear/product.asp?p=sv-sd51). All three support aac, just showing that they do exist... ;)

I had a SD card based Panasonic mp3 player before I got my iPod mini, and was fairly happy with it... (hmm, now I wonder where did I put that one...???)

I would wait to see what SJ has up his sleve in in January (maybe even literally... ;))

Edit: I've edited this 10 times now, next time I'll try thinking b e f o r e posting... :o