Can anybody bring me into the 21st century on IPOD's and MP3 Players?

[swampthang]

Ok I know this is terrible I'm 25 and have no clue in hell about ipods or mp3 players. I dont even have a cell phone. Yeah I know I'm old school thats why I rock out on 3wheelers. Anyways I'm not poor or Amish I just never really seemed to dependent on electronics before. How I manage to use a computer is amazing to me. But I have been thinking about Building a sound system for my 4 wheeled atv (sorry guys don't tar and feather me for this!) So me being the cheap scape that I am I'm trying to decide what would be the easiest and cheapest method to get the music I want off the computer to my atv. What is better Ipod or mp3? Can I get free music for a mp3 player or is that even legal? Just wanting to crank some tunes and not end up broke from downloading songs or behind bars for getting them for free. What do you guys think?

[Thorpe]

Well, by asking about mp3's you have already outed yourself, about how out of touch you are.... Although I am not about the "I" revolution, the Ipod is really the way to go... Sadly, pretty much everything has gone the way of the Imac, Iphone, and Ipod....

How far into the middle of no-where is BFE Illinois? (JK)

My mp3 player is now antiquated, only to be replaced by Ipod, and Itunes....

[Mosh]

An Ipod will almost certainly get destroyed on a ATV. They are awesome little gadgets for pocket web browsing and music and games, but too fragile for harsh environments, plus way too costly.. A few hundred bucks for a 32 gig.. Also, the I tunes software(that the Ipod relies on to transfer media) is somewhat not user friendly and complex IMO, for someone not used to it, and is hard to navigate vs just a drop and drag MP3 player. I have 2 ipod Touch's and 2 Sansa mp3 players. The Ipod is overkill for just a music player for harsh environments.

If you want a bare bones MP3 player, go to Radio Shack and Get a Sansa 4 gig MP3 player. That should hold around 500 songs. Usually around 50 bux and very easy to get tunes on. Dont worry about video functions and all the bells and whistles. They are small. Like the size of a book of matches. I pods are the size of a pack of smokes and the touch screens scratch easy.
You dont get music for free. You will have to rip discs to your PC, then drop and drag the files to the Sansa. Or just find a buddy with a good selection on his PC and grab his stuff.


EDIT Fabio brings up a good point. There are Ipod's and I pod Touch's. The touch is like a small PC. That is what I am referring too being to fragile and costly. They do make just a bare bones player, but still I dont like the I tunes software that is used to manage Apple products.

[fabiodriven]

iPod is an absolute must. It will change the way you listen to music forever.

If you don't have an iPod, I'm assuming you have a ton of CD's? You can load any CD you want into the iPod, up to a certain amount. But they hold a TON of music. I have an iPod from 2006, it's the only one I've ever owned. It goes everywhere with me every day. In my truck, at work, at home, on planes, whatever. It has never failed me. You could get a 30g video iPod like mine second hand for next to nothing. If you can't afford a ton of music you can buy songs one at a time starting at like 69 cents going up to $1.29 or so. I personally have had no luck at all trying to pirate, but I have no idea how to even do that so I'm sure I wasn't doing it right. I gave up after my second hard drive.

You do have to have special jacks and radios to listen to it though. I installed a hookup in my truck, but there are decks that you literally just plug the iPod into. I've got a dock at home that hooks it up to my surround sound and a boombox at work. You can always run ear phones off of them as well.

Like I said, it will change the way you listen to music.

[fabiodriven]

An Ipod will almost certainly get destroyed on a ATV. They are awesome little gadgets for pocket web browsing and music and games, but too fragile for harsh environments, plus way too costly..

I am very confident my 6 year old 30g would handle ATV riding no problem if in the proper holster. I've not priced any old or new iPods since I got mine 5 years ago, I've never had a need.;) I bet they're pretty inexpensive though even if you did kill one.

[Mosh]

I am very confident my 6 year old 30g would handle ATV riding no problem if in the proper holster. I've not priced any old or new iPods since I got mine 5 years ago, I've never had a need.;) I bet they're pretty inexpensive though even if you did kill one. You talkin about a TOUCH? Or just an Ipod?
I have IPOD Touch's..They would get destroyed and are too bulky for an ATV player. Hell even jogging with one would be a PITA..
A regular Ipod , then yes..Different story. Since I own touches, I just assume all Ipods are a touch..LOL..
I clarified that in my post after I read yours. I still hate I tunes software..No matter what. Much easier to drop and drag music files with a regular MP3 player that operates as a USB Storage device.

[Mr_RPM]

My sister has an ipod and holy crap is it complex and Itunes is always broke and she leave me and my dad to figure it out which always ends up a huge fight and the effing itunes still doesn't work.

I have a 4 gig MP3 player i got 6 years ago for christmas that works great, i wish it had more room but is still alot compared to using CDs.
i just put all my CDs onto my computer. then I put all the music from my computer onto the MP3 player. pretty simple. I have never bought songs but i did limewire back in the day. haven't in years though.

The old thing still works great after being dropped and abused over the years. the paint has chipped off the plastic and looks like crap. works flawlessly. even the battery works good still. I use a radio transponder thingy i got from walmart to listen to it in the jeep since im too cheap to buy a radio.

Samsung yp-k3 is what i have, as im holding it now paint is coming off of it. its truly a honda...ill never own an Ipod after what my sister has gone threw. sure its cool and does alot, but it all comes with negatives, like figure it all out. lol

[fabiodriven]

I clarified that in my post after I read yours. I still hate I tunes software.

I know, we were posting at the same time! Oops!

I agree 100% on the software. It is kind of a downfall. My iTunes lost a ton of my music a few months ago. I thought there was stuff missing, then one day I watched the iTunes lose an album (yeah, I'm old) right in front of my eyes. When I tried to contact customer service they wanted to charge me $30 for even emailing or calling them. I called there and wouldn't stop swearing until I got somebody important. I got hung up on 3 times. In the end, the important guy remotely took control of my computer and ended up finding out it was indeed their fault. He restored everything and didn't charge me, but is was way too much effort before they would do anything. That's bad customer service, even if the dude did come through in the end.

There are pros and cons, but the pros far outweigh the cons.

[unclecracker]

I try to stay away from the Apple empire in any way possible - just preference. I have an Zen that's made by Creative (from about 2008) which has worked great.

If you don't want to spend a fortune downloading songs sign up for Rhapsody. For $10-15/month you can download as many songs as you want to your player. You do have to sync the player to the computer every month or two (or people would just download and stop paying subscription). This way for the cost of one CD per month you get all the songs you want.

[fabiodriven]

You talkin about a TOUCH? Or just an Ipod?

Oh! Just an iPod.

[swampthang]

Alot of the guys that I ride with have Ipod players on there ATV's and as long as you don't completely submerge them under water they seem to hold up fine. I'm just looking for the bare bones to play music threw some 6.5 speakers with maybe like a 200watt amp. I've done alittle inverstagating and If you have a mp3 player there is a converter that you can use to get any song you want off youtube and put it on a mp3 player. You can also put songs off of your cds onto them as well. I know there dated technology but this may be the route I go. Heres a link to a company that sells kits for atv stereos pretty neat but I think I can build one alot cheaper. http://www.pyleaudio.com/products/Motorcycle-Audio

[WilliamJ]

The problem with iPods and iTunes is transferring files between different computers. You need a bit of software to make it easy as Apple don’t let you do anything other than sync with one dedicated PC. Which seems fine until one day the computer hard drive goes bad. Getting your music from your iPod to another hard drive needs some extra software, but once you have that, it is easy.

I have had an iPod since 2006 too and it has been faultless but it may be easier and less risky for you to go for a budget MP3.
Bill

[swampthang]

I ended up buying a MP3 player for $20 at Walmart today and already put all my cds on it. Still trying to figure out the youtube converter. I tryed it but there was so may pop ups and crap that I gave up on it for awhile. I might work on it alittle more but for now I'm content with the songs that I already have. Now I need to get a mini amp and some speakers so I can built a incloser for it all. I found a mini amp 500 watt 2 channel for $12 on ebay so I might try it out. For that kind of price if I tear it up no biggie.

[deathman53]

I have a solution for the crappy itunes software. Get Copy Trans Manager, its free for putting music and video on the i-device. If you want to put photo's, copy from one to the other, photos and the other stuff it can do, then the software isn't free.

[300rman]

lots of radio head units have a USB flash drive reader built in. since you will be using a head unit to power the speakers (i assume), but a head unit with this capability. then all you need is a cheap flash drive. you place the music files on the flash drive, plug it into the head unit, and the head unit can play the music. easy, cheap, simple