iPod nano

[Captain Chickenpants]

What's the state of DAB in Sweden? IIRC in Finland the DAB pilot tests were recently axed after >5 years of no progress in popular demand.

I admit I haven't even tried DAB receivers (since I haven't seen them anywhere, except in a technology fair in late 90's.), but I don't see any need for them. I only listen to radio in car, where the quality does not matter much because of the background noise. And since they apparently use low-bitrate MP2, the quality isn't exactly what I'd expect to be enjoyable anyway. Actually, in car use, a little analog noise in signal would not be nearly as annoying as chirping and clipping due to bit errors.

For what do you need RDS in a portable device (non-automobile installable) except for seeing the name of the channel? At least here, the channels pimp themselves with annoying jingles in every possible occasion. I'd rather not have to even think of what channel I'm listening, as long as I like what is currently being broadcast.

The bit rate depends where you live, here in the UK we do have a lower average bit-rate than most countries using DAB (we use 128kb mostly), however we seem to have a lot more channels. Whilst I wouldn't claim to be an audiophile I have a reasonable system (Denon amp, Mission speakers and a Videologic DAB radio) and I find 128kb perfectly acceptable. I don't beleive that DAB itself is limited to using MP2 (I could be wrong, but I beleive that other codecs have been used over the DAB network)

I think you are confusing RDS with the data that DAB supports, which is more flexible (song title, artist, phone numbers, weather etc).

Some of the functionality that is being added to DAB radios is pretty cool http://www.puredigital.com/Products/product.asp?Product=VL-60709
(Not that I am pimping IMGTEC products you understand )
This site seems to have some interesting info about quality although I suspect upping the bitrate is more difficult than the guy seems to think it is. http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/intro_dab.htm

 

[Sxotty]

The reason I don't like Ipods mainly has to do with their lack of ability to act as a simple hard drive. When I plug it into any pc I want it to appear as a generic storage device.

That is the primary failing IMO, the lack of radio sucks, and the non standard batteries are bad, but not deal breakers.

 

[CMAN]

The reason I don't like Ipods mainly has to do with their lack of ability to act as a simple hard drive. When I plug it into any pc I want it to appear as a generic storage device.

That is the primary failing IMO, the lack of radio sucks, and the non standard batteries are bad, but not deal breakers.

That's interesting, because I can see my wife's iPod as a hard drive. That is on my Powerbook, as I've never checked on my PC. I'll have to check it out.

 

[WhiningKhan]

I think you are confusing RDS with the data that DAB supports, which is more flexible (song title, artist, phone numbers, weather etc).

No, I was replying to Guden Oden who wanted to have at least RDS in his MP3/radio player.

But, if I find text displays using RDS unnecessary, the same applies to anything more complex. This is just a personal opinion/preference, but I don't need advertising messages and other crap on the display of my radio. If I want to listen to it, I _listen_ to it, dammit. For anything more, there are TV and internet.

 

[silhouette]

Well, many players support WMA and OGG which also offer higher quality than MP3 so claiming AAC support as a plus point is neither here nor there, IMHO.

...

The WMA that is included in most mp3 players only provides a slight improvement over mp3. In fact, for most of the material, you do not feel that difference at all. The improvements are mostly in WMA+ (I am not sure about the name, but it is something like that), but it is still not still very close to MP4-AAC (btw, there is Mpeg2-AAC and there is Mpeg4-AAC, I am talking about Mpeg4-AAC, which is in the I-POD).

AAC is a product of a standardization body, which evaluates technologies from companies and universities, and put together the best pieces from each of it. There is even still an ongoing work to improve the quality of Mp4-AAC for very low bit-rates. OGG is a different story. I can not claim that it is inferior because I have not seen any scientific data that compares Mp4-AAC to OGG.

Sxotty, I have an Ipod (4th generation), and I can use it as an external harddisk with my PC.

 

[Geeforcer]

After sending 3 minis back to Apple (once the battery life drops to 6-7 hours) I think I will go with something esle, thank you.

 

[CMAN]

After sending 3 minis back to Apple (once the battery life drops to 6-7 hours) I think I will go with something esle, thank you.

You can buy a Creative Zen and get a free virus

 

[SsP45]

I picked up my 4GB white iPod nano today at school. My university is a licenced Apple dealer, and I get slightly cheaper academic prices by buying there.

So far it's very nice, it also does show up as a storage device in Windows.
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HONDA CT110 HISTORY

 

[_xxx_]

I picked up my 4GB white iPod nano today at school. My university is a licenced Apple dealer, and I get slightly cheaper academic prices by buying there.

So far it's very nice, it also does show up as a storage device in Windows.

They all do, at least I know of no newer one which doesn't. My Zen's also there.