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Other mp3 players that work with mac??

V

VoodooDaddy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 14, 2003
1,414
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Well I missed my chance at one of the 1gb nano refurbs for $99. Stupid stupid waiting too long to order.

Want to get my 7yr old son an mp3 player for christmas. He has this old rca lyra I had years ago but it is not compatible with mac. I have to hook it up to my old pc to put music on it, its a proprietary music format (not mp3) so all music has to be converted to that format, slow 1.0 usb, no display, and the list goes on.

I really want an mp3 player with a display so he can see what song is playing or fast forward and find what song he wants. I really don't want to spend $150 on a new nano. Was just wondering if there is anything out there that is mac compatible, that I can plug in and drag-n-drop mp3s onto. Or something that has mac compatible software for transfer.

I just waited too long to order one of those nanos which is what I wanted to get. Thing is I ordered my 5yr old one of the 512mb shuffles for $29 when those were available. I guess I just expected there to be a very large amount of those nanos available but the stock ran out.

So ideas if there is anything. Creative, sandisk, whatever preferably under $100. If it goes over $100 no reason not to go with the nano at that point. New shuffles are nice, but again, no display.
 
I think there is no other way for you than an iPod. It offers you the ability to restrict the volume. You don't want your son listening to some music on max. volume, do you.
 
Tymmz said:
I think there is no other way for you than an iPod. It offers you the ability to restrict the volume. You don't want your son listening to some music on max. volume, do you.
Click to expand...

Please, anyone that replies, just tell me if you know of any player that will work as either a mass storage device (drag/drop) or one that comes with mac software.

I don't want 50 reasons why I should by an ipod. I'm know all about the ipod, I've had one for years, my wife has one, my oldest son (13) has a nano. I want a relatively cheap mp3 player with a display for my 7yr old.
 
VoodooDaddy said:
Well I missed my chance at one of the 1gb nano refurbs for $99. Stupid stupid waiting too long to order.

Want to get my 7yr old son an mp3 player for christmas. He has this old rca lyra I had years ago but it is not compatible with mac. I have to hook it up to my old pc to put music on it, its a proprietary music format (not mp3) so all music has to be converted to that format, slow 1.0 usb, no display, and the list goes on.

I really want an mp3 player with a display so he can see what song is playing or fast forward and find what song he wants. I really don't want to spend $150 on a new nano. Was just wondering if there is anything out there that is mac compatible, that I can plug in and drag-n-drop mp3s onto. Or something that has mac compatible software for transfer.

I just waited too long to order one of those nanos which is what I wanted to get. Thing is I ordered my 5yr old one of the 512mb shuffles for $29 when those were available. I guess I just expected there to be a very large amount of those nanos available but the stock ran out.

So ideas if there is anything. Creative, sandisk, whatever preferably under $100. If it goes over $100 no reason not to go with the nano at that point. New shuffles are nice, but again, no display.
Click to expand...

There are alternatives....

http://www.amazon.com/Machspeed-Tri...r_5/103-9500161-0429435?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
http://www.amazon.com/Machspeed-Pla..._13/103-9500161-0429435?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

Although they may not work brilliantly they are listed as being Mac compatible.

HTH, David
 
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You specifically asked to not get iPod advice, but you may want to check the store on Black Friday... Apple is having a one day sale.

As far as non-Apple devices go, I dunno... good luck with that.
 
mkrishnan said:
You specifically asked to not get iPod advice, but you may want to check the store on Black Friday... Apple is having a one day sale.

As far as non-Apple devices go, I dunno... good luck with that.
Click to expand...

Well of course if I could land a new 2gb nano for $99 or something I'd jump all over that. Anyone know what apple might be having for black friday sale? Someone posted last years and there was nothing ipod related.
 
The SanDisk Digital Audio Players (not Sanza) are Mac compatible and are available in 256MB, 512MB and 1 GB models. You'll have to check around for prices, but I have an older one and I remember that it was reasonably priced and I find that they work very well. Sounds like just the thing you're looking for.
 
Creative labs

Creative Labs Muvo C100 or whatever replaced it in Creative's product line.
It was my first MP3 player, the iPod came later and was an improvement as it allowed me to fit the whole music collection in one device. However I'm not sure if I'll get another iPod if/when mine breaks.

The Muvo fits a SD card that supposedly is limited to 256MB. I've used mine with 1GB without any sign of trouble. The Muvo has FM radio and is powered by 1xAAA battery. It's sturdy and small enough. It does not read AAC files.

OS X and iTunes detect the device as 2 storage units (256MB built-in + SD card) and according to the Apple website, this device is iTunes compatible, which I suppose means that iTunes can sync to it, not only copy files back and forth. I haven't tried that though.
 
Just wanna bump this to see if anyone has any other input.

I have been told (but not totally confirmed) by more than 1 person that the sansa C240 will work as a mass storage device. And there is a homebrew program that will allow it to work with itunes, or this program itself is very similar to itunes, not sure which.

I found this other player that looks to be perfect, the creative zen v. 1gb, very small, color display, but have been told by 1 person it doesn't work with a mac, even as a mass storage device. I don't know how I would confirm this though, maybe have been someone talking without actual knowledge. While I could run this in parallels or bootcamp that's a pain. I have parallels installed with XP (never use it) but then you lose usb 2.0. I do not want to do bootcamp just for this. That's not an option.

At this point though, to save some of the headache, the new shuffle is looking a lot better. I know there is no display but it would still be way better than the POS he has been using.

Anything else I overlooked?
 
A large variety of UMS devices (including PSP, etc) that I've tried works perfectly with iTunemywalkman, a script for iTunes that adds support for drag & drop devices to sync to the iTunes library.

As I said, buy one of the cheap flash Creative Muvo TX's which are UMS if the decision is a cost-based one. The Zen V doesn't work with the Mac in anywhere near an elegant way - why make life harder for yourself?

A shuffle would also be better.
 
This is always my luck, but as it turned out its all good. Check this out:

I had basically settled on this sansa c240 I think it was. Had a nice display but navigation was a bit clunky. Then I was at bestbuy and saw this Insignia player, said it was Mac compatible, 4gb, and it did video as well! It was a bit more than I wanted to spend but I had a 10% off coupon and got it for $120. Nice unit, navigation was pretty good because it has a scroll wheel on the face, very nice display.

My mini recognized it immediately. Mp3 were a simple drag and drop to the music folder. Video however, was some funky mpeg4 format and the only way to encode was with their software, which, SURPRISE, didnt come with a mac version. I have ffmpegx and I tried every possible combination to encode and it simply would not work.

So as a last ditch effort I started up parallels (which I hadnt run in ages) and installed the software in Xp. The install was very smooth (arcsoft, think they do make good software), and the video encoding was as easy as selecting the file and output destination. And it encoded fairly quickly.

Well after all that, today just by chance I clicked over to the Apple store, checked for refurb ipods and they have 1gb black and white nanos for $89 :D
Snapped one of those up ASAP and will be returning the Insignia tomorrow. It is a very nice unit though. I was tempted to keep for myself as my ipod is very old and no video.
 
Pretty much any creative mp3 player will work since they just mount as an external flash drive. I got a Creative zen stone plus, and for fifty bucks, you get pretty much a shuffle with a screen, built in speaker, with 2 gigs of space. They play Mp3 as well as AAC, which is nice, because its the default format itunes rips in
 
If you're near a BestBuy, check out their Insignia Pilot 8gb. Bluetooth, FM, and more. Goes on sale for $99 periodically, and works with both a mac or a PC. Drag and drop on the Mac. Works from Win Media Player or drag & drop on the PC. I've written a little review on my blog.
 
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