Hi there, I have a 55gb music collection gathered over ten years, organised in named folders on my PC. I am looking for an mp3 player that allows me to access all my music as it is accessed on my PC. itunes or zune software, for example, as you probably well know, reorganises your music into its own library and therefore does not interest me. Two main reasons: 1) my music collection is broken down into unique subfolders ive decided on and; 2) because songs get separated from their original albums/compilations as a slight difference of information in its properties; and 2) . I know there is software like Anapop Explorer which creates a windows explorer interface and organisation when accessing an ipod through a PC but the ipod itself still organises the music through itunes. I am looking for an mp3 player which: - retains how folders are organised on my PC once transferred - 80-120gb capacity (preferably 80gb) - 7cm/2.75inch x 10cm/4inches x 1.5cm/0.5inch (eg fits in hand when jogging) This is all! Any recommendations or help would be hugely appreciated because im getting very frustrated finding nothing like what im after! Cheers.
Yep pretty much. It enables it to work as a standard USB mass storage device and re-builds its own database when disconnected. Not quite sure why the animosity towards iTunes though. You can stop it re-organising your media folders perfectly fine as I too prefer to sort music "my way" so to speak. So long as your ID3 tags are fine, so is iTunes. The whole "slow and bloated" stigma really is quite an ancient perception of it from back in the early Windows versions days that no longer exists. Sure its bloated (large install), however its faster now than it used to be, and what do we have quad cores with 4GB+ of ram for if not to use that power? Just my 2p
The only reason i dont like iTune is because.......it exists. The fact is, i dont need it. I have my music on my hard drive, and i wanna drag & drop it onto my MP3. Job Done. Dont need another step in the process or another piece of software to help me do it. Sounds to me like this rockbox might alleviate some of the additional frustration for the op, but if it were me personally, i would just get a normal MP3 player and be done with it. Saves the hassle in my opinion. I just bought the mrs a 'drag & drop' sony usb mp3 and its awesome (although pink ). She can even plug it straight into the dash of her motor and play her tunes while driving. No wires needed as it is direct USB. very impressed.
Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify, the Rockbox software will retain the folder structures from my windows when accessing them through the ipod once they've been copied over? On the brink of purchase so just wanna make sure bdigital, i agree completely with your post! Your link doesnt go to the mp3 player though, can you repost or give info on capacity/size/etc?
Yes, Rockbox will retain folder structure. Personally, I've owned a lot of drag and drop players, a number of them running on rockbox firmware, as well as a number of iPods. Personally, I prefer using iTunes/Winamp/Songbird over drag an drop, but that's just me.
You could accomplish what you want using an iPod Classic or a 64GB Touch if you were to put each folder into it's own playlist, that way you'd also have the artist/album/all songs view. Otherwise, your best option is a Rockboxed HDD based player. You can get a decent deal by buying one with a failed hard drive and you replace it with a new higher capacity 1.8" drive, some players support storage upgrades, especially with Rockbox. Given that there aren't too many high capacity flash memory players yet an d HDD players are slowly disappearing, you're kind of in a bad spot.. Have you considered some of Creative's players with memory card slots? One of those plus a couple of high capacity SD cards could work, or an older one plus a 64GB CF card.