Ipod/MP3 player question

[Jennifer in MI]

We're considering an Ipod or other MP3 player for Father's Day for dh. My questions (please forgive my ignorance!):

1. What brands are good?

2. How much memory do I need? He wants to download books from our library's website. It sounds like he needs a lot of memory for that!

3. Will he really use a video one? What do you use it for?

4. What other things will we need? We'd like to be able to play it in his car? I know he has the ability in his car to hook it up, but is that just for Ipods or is it the same for all the MP3s?

5. I'd like the ability to hook it up in my house so we can use it. What do I need? A special speaker?

Thanks in advance! Really, I'm a smart person, I just really don't know anything about these!!

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

We're considering an Ipod or other MP3 player for Father's Day for dh. My questions (please forgive my ignorance!):

1. What brands are good?

2. How much memory do I need? He wants to download books from our library's website. It sounds like he needs a lot of memory for that!

3. Will he really use a video one? What do you use it for?

4. What other things will we need? We'd like to be able to play it in his car? I know he has the ability in his car to hook it up, but is that just for Ipods or is it the same for all the MP3s?

5. I'd like the ability to hook it up in my house so we can use it. What do I need? A special speaker?

Thanks in advance! Really, I'm a smart person, I just really don't know anything about these!!

For library books, you can't use an iPod. Dunno why, but the format doesn't translate.

I'd probably get something on which I could use Rhapsody (http://www.rhapsody.com/home.html).

Get as much memory as you can afford.

The other questions I can't help with as all we have are iPods.

[Mrs Mungo]

We're considering an Ipod or other MP3 player for Father's Day for dh. My questions (please forgive my ignorance!):

1. What brands are good?

There are a lot of decent brands. My husband and I both had Rio Cali MP3 players (http://www.amazon.com/Rio-Cali-256-Sport-Player/dp/B0000AXKBK) (not that exact one but similar). The pros on it is that they run off of a single AAA battery *and* they hold memory cards. My husband has a couple of different 1 Gig memory cards he uses-a running one, a relaxing one, etc. The downsides are that it's less user-friendly than the ipod. You have to create playlists on the computer and transfer them, you can't create one on the player itself.

I got an ipod for my birthday last year and gave my rio to our eldest. I really like my ipod, it has so many features!

2. How much memory do I need? He wants to download books from our library's website. It sounds like he needs a lot of memory for that!

I haven't tried downloading library books but I have used downloaded music from other sources and managed to use itunes to get it in the proper format to use on my ipod. In fact, I do have some books I downloaded from elsewhere that I put in MP3 form and was then able to put them on itunes and use them on my ipod. They don't show up as books though, they show up as songs. I just made a play list with them and it works fine.

3. Will he really use a video one? What do you use it for?

My sister has tv shows downloaded on her ipod. She has let my kids watch them in the car and such. But I think mostly she plugs it into a computer and watches them on a computer screen.

4. What other things will we need? We'd like to be able to play it in his car? I know he has the ability in his car to hook it up, but is that just for Ipods or is it the same for all the MP3s?

Many of those systems work for all MP3 players.

5. I'd like the ability to hook it up in my house so we can use it. What do I need? A special speaker?

I have a clock radio that my ipod (or hubby's MP3 player) can plug into. However, I also discovered I could use my son's Leapster cord (heh heh)and plug it into the back of the tuner and use it with our regular stereo that way.

[Cadam]

An iPod is an MP3 player, btw. Get the most memory you can afford and check into their hs discounts and the refurbished pods. If he does much traveling an iPod touch for watching movies is nice. Talking books don't take up more room than anything else but some of the library systems got conned into going exclusively with windows :glare: (sorry Microsoft lovers!) Our library system is like that but dh just just gets the books on CD, rips them onto the computer and then they go into his Pod. He commutes and is in the car 2-3 hours a day so this is a life saver for him.

[WTMindy]

I have a Zen V (2GB) and it is great for audiobooks. It has bookmarking capabilities, which is nice. I can have 4 books going at any time (4 different bookmark settings) and still have room for music. I have a speaker that I can plug it into and it can play in the house. I also have an adaptor so that I can use it in the car. (It plays through a radio station frequency.) I love my Mp3 player. I know that the library systems have copatability problems with i-pod, but they may have fixed that by now. I don't think I would ever use a video-ipod, but I don't really watch a lot of TV.

[Jennifer in MI]

Thank you all!!!! I'm going to write down all these things and do a little research tonight!! I'm going to call the library and see what they have to say about i-pod vs. another brand.

I hadn't even thought about the bookmarking capability! Makes sense. Thank you!