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MP3 player buying guide

How to buy a hard drive-based MP3 player
Though the first MP3 player used flash memory, it was the hard drive that really drove the digital audio player up the ranks of the digital jukeboxes. The cost per megabyte for hard drives today is still far cheaper than flash memory.

If song capacity is your chief concern when it comes to selecting an MP3 player, then take a byte out of our guide to getting the most out of your next digital audio player shopping spree.

What do you use?
What do you already have? A Window-based computer? A truckload of tunes encoded in ATRAC? What you have will decide what you should consider since compatibility is vital in a digital world full of differing standards.

Mac or PC, take your pick and mark your first step towards your new MP3 player.

Windows-based PC owner

You are in luck. Any MP3 player that supports either the UMS or MTP storage format will be compatible with your machine.

Definitions

UMS refers to USB Mass Storage-compliant devices. File management on such devices can be performed without the need for software installation. It's more popularly known as "drag-and-drop".

MTP is an acronym for Media Transfer Protocol. This is particularly important if you are looking at purchasing music files from online music stores as MTP will allow your MP3 player to interface with the DRM encoded in the song files.

DRM is short for Digital Rights Management. It refers to the playback permissions encoded in the song track. Such as how many computers the track can be stored in or how many times a CD copy can be made of the song.

MP3 refers to the file format as well as compression standard. A compression technology, part of the MPEG specification, produces small, high-quality audio files by eliminating sound signals that the human ear cannot register. To create an MP3 file, you need a ripper--a program that copies a song from a CD to your hard drive--and an encoder to convert the file to the MP3 format. To play the file, you need MP3 player hardware or software for your computer.

Mac user

There are limited choices since only UMS-compliant players are supported. No need to fret. The famed iPod is a friend of your operating system.

How tech-savvy are you?
This is important because it can mean the difference between years of fuss-free usage and enough troubleshooting that would have you all ready to shoot your player.

For the newbies:

Generally, UMS MP3 players are the easiest to manipulate. All you gotta do is drag-and-drop the required music files directly into the player and away you go. No fuss, no muss.

Recommendations:
Creative Zen Neeon
Cowon iAudio 6

For the savvies:

Most MP3 players in this class require a content management software to transfer files into the player. If you have Apple iTunes or Windows Media Player (WMP), you probably are already using one. But it's mostly caveat emptor in such cases since the user experience is dependant on how tightly the hardware is integrated with the software.

The iPod/iTunes combo is miles ahead of the pack in this regard, but most top tier manufacturers like Samsung and iriver have been playing catch-up. The new WMP 11 has also been vastly improved. If you are good at finding your way around new software, such players will be a boon since they offer advanced features like smart playlists, podcast subscription and CD ripping.

Recommendations:
Apple iPod
Sony NW-A1000

Definitions

Bit rate, in the digital audio context, is a measure of how many bits describe each sound in an audio file. Generally speaking, a low bit rate means lower sound quality and a smaller file size, while a high bit rate means better quality and larger files. However, compression algorithms vary. For instance, a 128Kbps (kilobits per second) AAC file may sound better than a 160Kbps MP3 file.

Smart playlists are prearranged song lists generated based on preset rules such as published year, user rating and genre.

Podcasts are multimedia files which are "pushed" onto PCs and portable devices via syndication feeds. Most are encoded in the MP3 format.

CD ripping, in this context, is the process of copying audio data from a CD onto a hard drive. Typically, the data will be compressed into a format such as MP3 or WMA to save space hard drive storage space.

How big can I go?
Well, at press time, the world's largest hard drive is the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, which stands at 750GB. But that's meant for desktops and not mobile devices. Still, it's an indication of how much storage space a hard drive can offer.

The laws of physics apply here--the larger the hard drive, the larger the mobile device. The Archos AV700 comes packed with a whopper of a hard drive (100GB), but it's also the Big Mac of the portable video player world.

So you should be looking at something smaller, and possibly bag-able, if not pocket-able. It's also good to calculate what you need, so you wouldn't be fazed by the numbers. A music file encoded with the MP3 format at a bit rate of 128Kbps would have a file size of about 4.5MB. A 30GB Creative Zen Vision:M can easily accommodate 6,666 copies of that file. If you don't foresee your music collection growing by leaps and bounds, it makes sense to buy one within your storage means.

Recommendations:
For heavy users: Archos 504 (80GB)
For light users: iriver E10 (6GB)

Creature features
Traditionally, hard drive MP3 players are packed with lots of features and it's rare to find a hard drive version without the benefit of video these days. A chief reason is that with a hard drive, large video files can be easily housed without accompanying storage headaches. But check the screen size as well. A full-length movie wouldn't work well on a player with a tiny display.

Games are expected to become standard fare on the MP3 player as well, in line with the consumer electronics trend of product convergence. The ceding of functional priority has seen trespasses on dedicated functions which was once inviolate. Look at the modern mobile phone. It has both entertainment and business elements borrowed from a variety of devices.

As with all consumer electronics, too many bells and whistles tend to scream high prices. So pick and choose with the prudence of a housewife on a tight budget. Less, in this case, can sometimes be more.

Here's what you should look at:

If video is important, look at the video formats supported. You will want a player that supports as many as possible in order to minimize the inconvenience of re-encoding your video. Check the screen, too. A bright display is paramount for a good video viewing experience.
Does the player support the audio/video formats that your existing content library is encoded with?
What's battery life like? Batteries would ultimately have to be replaced in the end. So it's best to buy an MP3 player with a long playback time. A good bet would be in the realm of 18 hours or more.

MP3 face-off: Flash memory vs. hard drive »