New Mp3/4

[Niloc]

My first MP3 player died, the second developed a fault in the speaker system and is still at the guarantee fixer.

I have no interest in music, I listen only to Podcasts and Audio Books.

The problem I have had with all three players is the absence of a 'pause'. If I am listening to a large audio book say 15 hours long and I stop because dinner is ready, the only way I can get back to where I left off is by fast forwarding from the beginning to the hopefully noted exit point. Imagine holding down the fast forward button waiting for five hours of a book to slip past!!

Can anyone suggest a player which has a suitable 'pause' facility? I am in Chiang Mai.

Thanks,

Colin

[anotheruser]

An iPod maybe?

[delboy]

I have a Creative Zen MP3 player which I mostly use in the car for playing music or audio books. It has a pause button which is useful when I'm out shopping and stopping at several shops.

If I have a big file, say 2 or 3 hours long, then I split it into 30 minute long segments, so that if I have to fast forward then it's not too bad.

[whooliggen]

I'll second the Creative Zen - have had it for a year or so now and no discernible problems. Only issue I would point out is that the software that comes with it is a bit iffy (any issues I've ever had with Creative over the years have always centred around the software).

My bruvva got himself an iRiver and he's real happy with it (specifically as it doesn't tie you into a certain software in order to mange files on the player - can do it all through Windows MediaPlayer).

Just noticed a new sony player out here too that is simple drag and drop which has gotta be the best route. Can't remember model numbers but any good electrical shop here I'm sure will be promoting it.

[Niloc]

Delboy, how do you split the file into parts?

Colin

[higgy88]

Here's a third vote for Creative. I got their original mp3 player about 5 or 6 years ago called the Creative Nomad, and it is still working great even after being left in my pants and washed, as well as being left outside in the rain a couple of times. And of course it's been dropped numerous times. I liked it enough to buy a bigger capacity Creative MuVo about 2 years ago. Both are used almost every day. It uses one AAA battery, which lasts about 12 hours, and I use the rechargable ones.

One of the nice features is that when you turn it off, it comes back to exactly at the same place when you turn it back on, not at the beginning. If you pause it, it automatically turns itself off after a couple of minutes, and again it comes back on at exactly the same place. It does not fast forward or rewind within one file, but rather goes to the next or previous files. What I think Delboy is talking about is taking a big file, such as say 100 MB, and dividing it up into smaller 20 or 30 MB files so you can easily jump between the files. This can be done with a program such as Audiograbber (which is free). A good rule of thumb I use is that at 128 kps, an mp3 file is about 1 MB for 1 minute.

I actually like the Creative software, and their Creative MediaSource software that came with the players became my preferred program for converting all of my old cassettes into mp3s.

[Niloc]

Thanks Higgy 88 and the others, Creative sounds exactly what I want. I will look around Chiang Mai next week and see what is available..

Colin

[Cuban]

I bought a 'Techline' cheapy for 1,200 Baht for a friend over here on holiday (for their mini-bus travels) - switchable langauges Japanese, Chinese, Thai & English. Pause function works well and will mark the place in any MP3/WMA file and keep that place marked even if you replace the battery (single AA). 2 Gig memory - I posted a picture before in one of the TV forums in response to a similar question.

[delboy]

Delboy, how do you split the file into parts?

Colin

Personally, I use a program called Cool Edit Pro which I've had for a long time and has since been renamed under new ownership. If you have Nero burning software you can use their Wave Editor. A quick search on Google for "mp3 split" reveals lots of free software out there, I'm sure you can find one that you like.

[Niloc]

Well I looked at the Linux offerings but they were the all too usual Linux applications, too difficult and complicated to install so I switched to Windows. I found a thing called MP3 splitter which seems to work although the language is a bit odd, for instance is says 'the selected file is being splited' but the results seem OK.

I hope I can find a decent player next week in Chiang Mai then there will be no need to splite anything!

Thanks for your help...

Colin

[dominique355]

If you can start from scratch, you might want to consider FLAC instead of MP3 and some of the portable as well as the home audio devices, which support FLAC.

For a portable I would suggest "Cowan" to find here

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Conersion) is way better than MP3 or M4P and it's free. For your PC, consider MediaMonkey.

More about FLAC here

[mezzoninny]

The iPod would get my vote for listening to long files.

In the iTunes software, you can set the files so that they always remember where you paused the previous time. This setting is remembered unless you press the "REW" button when the track is being played, doing so resets the memory.

iPods also have a facility to "scrub" the track. Press the center button once, and then you can use the wheel to jump forward/backwards very quickly, to any point you want. This is much faster and more precise than FF/REW.

Any iPod with a wheel (nano, classic and previous versions) can do these things nicely. The ipod shuffle remembers the location, but doesn't scrub; it's hard to get the ipod touch to jump to a precise point.

Edited September 21, 2008 by mezzoninny

[MKAsok]

In the iTunes software, you can set the files so that they always remember where you paused the previous time.

How do you do this?

[sniffdog]

If you can start from scratch, you might want to consider FLAC instead of MP3 and some of the portable as well as the home audio devices, which support FLAC.

For a portable I would suggest "Cowan" to find here

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Conersion) is way better than MP3 or M4P and it's free. For your PC, consider MediaMonkey.

More about FLAC here

What are you talking about ...? The OP wants to listen to audio books .... FLAC files are much larger than regular MP3 or MP4 files .... not really suited for general listening purposes.

Furthermore, the right name is 'Cowon' not 'Cowan' ... but with a price of about 338 euro for the cheapest Cowon, do you really think it's suitable to listen to audio books.

Edited September 23, 2008 by sniffdog

[WilliamC]

My bruvva got himself an iRiver and he's real happy with it

What model does he get? I'm using iriver too.

i have my eyes on the new iRiver U30 Spinn PMP Player, this new baby features spin control and touch screen.

[mc2]

If you use an ipod , you need to convert the MP3 file into an audiobook file (simple process) then you can pause it and it will remember .

if it is already audiobook format recognised by Itunes (audible etc) then it can do it already.

Edited November 18, 2008 by mc2