New to MP3 players, need help deciding.

My wife wants an MP3 player for Christmas. I know absoultly nothing about them. She wants one that she can record to also. This could be a built in mic or a mic jack
What she is wanting to do is be able to record music off of the radio and then play it back though headphones.

She also want to be able to download music from the laptop
The device needs to be USB I assume all of them are.

What are the best places to go to find music on the web to download MP3'S?

Thanks much for your help!

Only one that I know with these fatures is an archos brand. These guys were the first to make an mp3 player with a hard drive, although the brand name is a little obscure. I have had one for about 3 years now with good results.

They used to make (or may still) one that:

played mp3s

had an fm tuner

recorded mp3s through a minijack input (headphone size jack)

recorded mp3s through the fm tuner

broadcasted mp3s to your car radio through a built-in transmitter

recorded voice memos through a built-in microphone

usb interface

also usable as a portable hard drive

Since having a computer is necessary for any of these, wouldn't it be easier (and better quality mostly) to record from a radio plugged into the computer than directly into the player?

I'm one of those happy iPod users. Certainly does what you want and lets you record with the addition of the $35 Accessory Has both USB2 and Firewire connections. I do wish it had a built in tuner for the radio though. most of my listening is in the car anyway so there I already have a radio rather close at hand /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Plays any MP3's that you download from anywhere, won't play windows media DRM'ed files, but I haven't found that to be a problem as I can play anything I purchase from their store, and anything from any of the MP3 download places as well. Others will consider this more of a limitation than I do /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
James S said:
Since having a computer is necessary for any of these, wouldn't it be easier (and better quality mostly) to record from a radio plugged into the computer than directly into the player?

I'm one of those happy iPod users. Certainly does what you want and lets you record with the addition of the $35 Accessory Has both USB2 and Firewire connections. I do wish it had a built in tuner for the radio though. most of my listening is in the car anyway so there I already have a radio rather close at hand /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Plays any MP3's that you download from anywhere, won't play windows media DRM'ed files, but I haven't found that to be a problem as I can play anything I purchase from their store, and anything from any of the MP3 download places as well. Others will consider this more of a limitation than I do /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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???

Computer is not needed for any of these features, other than the initial loading of your cd collection.

Some of the IRiver units will do that. .

Bushman. It pro'ly depends on how much you want to spend and how much storage capacity you need.
I recently purchased an Archos Gmini400 which can do all the things you mentioned. (do you really want to record off the radio? The signal is compressed and really affects the song and sound quality although talk radio would be fine)

I have an extensive review coming up in a few days. I will post it on ePinions as the first review. (I wrote to them to add it to their list about 3 weeks ago and they finally did last week.)

-- Here is a taste of the Gmini400 review
PROS: Great sound, small size, EQ, color screen, WMA support, Wired remote with FM tuner and built-in microphone, direct record CDs to WAV, MPEG Videos, store any kind of file, seamless MS Windows integration, standardized mini USB connectivity, shows next song in playlist, line level meter, Firmware 1.2 adds about 1-hour battery life and other fixes

CONS: Currently only 20GB max capacity available, screen must go blank to save battery life, No infraRED, Bluetooth(2), Firewire or Wifi connectivity, No Speaker, No dedicated discrete memo record button, durability of buttons is suspect, navigating playlist could be faster, very slight noise when using remote, loose power socket fit, unable to view pdf or doc type files

iRiver also looks like it has a couple of good players like the iHP although I don't have experience with it.

Turbodog: I don't think archos was the first HD mp3.

Here is another excerpt from my review.
SOME HISTORY: The Personal Jukebox, or PJB, was created as a prototype personal audio appliance by Compaq's Systems Research Center (SRC) and Palo Alto Advanced Development group (PAAD). The PJB project started in May 1998, licensed to a Korean company called HanGo and the PJB-100 product shipped in November 1999. I was an early adopter of this technology back in 1999 with the first 2GB model. I also purchased a 20GB backlit model when they came out. The simple PJB-100 has instant access to change playlist, songs and options. It has a removable lithium battery that plays for about 8+ hours and you could always carry an extra battery for swapping out. Available software made it easy to rip CDs and manage the directory including storage for any file types in a Windows Explorer fashion. Although the PJB is a rugged unit, I managed to wear-out the fwd>> button on my 20GB model. Since they are no-longer available and since I hoped to find newer, better technology, it was time to find a new player. Here is a good FAQ on the old PJB100… RIP…/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif http://members.lycos.co.uk/sjw007/

holy smokes!

In doing a little looking around at current archos offerings, I stumbled across http://www.rockbox.org

Firmware replacement for archos products. This update makes the archos into a whole new machine. Volume is boosted, song browsing is a million times faster. Etc...

Fully reversible.

Loaded it in 10 seconds.

Support for battery capacity other than the original ones.

Very nice.

Also has a karoke mode.

Thanks for the link Turbo. I scanned it a bit and haven't found an upgarde for the Gmini series. (too bad, would be nice)

Found this old poast from a year ago:
There is no rockbox for the Gmini 120. A friend has one, but I haven't seen it
yet.
Given recent events, I believe that Rockbox would be received with hostility
from archos regarding this product. They intend to offer functionality upgrades
as software patches. That means Rockbox would cut directly into their revenue
model.
Personally, I hope we don't pursue this course. I think we're safe while
tinkering with near end-of-life products that are essentially maxed in their
capabilities and limited by a non-upgradable hardware architecture, but if we
start monkeying directly with an Archos revenue source, we risk legal action.
TECHNICALLY, Rockbox violates laws in some districts.

id look into the new sony himd usnits they use 1 gig remnovable disk that can be bought for like 5 bucks a peace.there awesume but i dont knowif they doo all ya require.

Another vote for iPod from me. I've had mine for a few months now and love it.

iPod is the way to go.

ipod wasn't out when I bought my archos....

for what it's worth, you can get NEW archos units straight from them for about $100

these are the older units, but $100 is hard to argue with

im giveing a wild guess but i think there will be some new cool stuff released this month.also remember hardrives are not good to be active with!and flash media is droping very very fast no moveing parts with flash

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turbodog said:
ipod wasn't out when I bought my archos....

for what it's worth, you can get NEW archos units straight from them for about $100

these are the older units, but $100 is hard to argue with

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hmmm

Can't find these anymore on their web site. Knew I should have picked up one when I had the chance.

Very important point raggie. HD is very fragile. Also flash mem for smaller storage needs and HD for large libraries.

Can't be that fragile or everyone would be returning them. Archos uses shock sensors to stop the hdd in case of an emergency. Also, most of the time the hdd is not spinning anyway.

I have dropped mine down flights of stairs with it running with no major problems. Have dropped and kicked it also.

i had the archos one with the big blue bumper guards it was nice but kinda big.dont get the creative labs hardrive based units there headphone jacks break leaveing ya with only one side working

New iPod mini's 4gb $250, really solid and great accessories. I use mine all the time!

[ QUOTE ]
turbodog said:
Can't be that fragile or everyone would be returning them. Archos uses shock sensors to stop the hdd in case of an emergency. Also, most of the time the hdd is not spinning anyway.

I have dropped mine down flights of stairs with it running with no major problems. Have dropped and kicked it also.

[/ QUOTE ]you are corect but it also matters how ya use ya unit.if youre like me and am always forwarding and searching for a tune to play.there very fragile cause the hardrive is spiining more the buffer is a good thing only when ya go from one song to the next in line on hardrive.id never run with a hardrive based uniy but thats just me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gifi always laugh at the ipod comercails when there shakieng the hect out of the ipod danceing and etc etc