I-pods or things like them

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

So after taking on board everybody's reccomendations I went away and have done some research.

I am now deciding on which of the following to buy:

Creative Zen Vplus(http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=15306)

Creative Zen Neeon 2
(http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=15609)

I-pod (30gb)

What I'd like to know-if any of you would like to tell me!-is how easy to use are they? I've been in the shops and had a play around with them so I've seen how to use them once stuff is on there but how easy are they to put stuff onto? For example, with the video's can I put stuff downloaded off the internet-from say, youtube- or is there a special site that I need to use? I've read lots of reviews where they talk about syncing and compressing and converting and decoding which frankly have left me bemused.

Finally, what's the sound quality like? Most of the reviews say that creative are the winners when it comes down to sound but is their a noticable difference?

Thanks!

 

[Wozza]

I've been in the shops and had a play around with them so I've seen how to use them.... finally, what's the sound quality like?

Maybe you should have, you know, listened to them?

 

[Man of Harveys]

Maybe you should have, you know, listened to them?

Are you coming to the TOSSERTHON at the MP tonight?

 

[MattBackHome]

I've got a 30 gig iPod and think it's really brill. Go for that one. I'd get it in black if I were you - mine's white but it was a pressie from my gf so I can't really complain.

 

[Rookie]

broke my ipod last night, dropped it and the screen has a nice crack in, had a nice run and don't think i will fork out 70 odd quid to get it fixed so think I might treat myself to a nice 30gig black 5th gen one. Always go for the ipod not the best selling one for no reason is it

 

[Wozza]

Are you coming to the TOSSERTHON at the MP tonight?

Sadly not.

I heard there's going to be a reading from that thread.

 

[Charles 'Charley' Charles]

My Creative is so easy to use, I couldn't speak highly enough of it. I know it's mine, and we all have different opinions, but am still dead chuffed with my Creative, ease of use 9.5, looks 8, speed of transfer 9, sound quality 9

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Maybe you should have, you know, listened to them?

They wouldn't let me! At least, as far as I could understand they wouldn't let me.

edit:and no-one's answered the important question(edit 2:apart from Kaz...)

How easy to put songs and video's on are they?

 

[Frutos]

I have a Creative Zen Touch 20GB and I can't recommend it, or the brand in general, highly enough.

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

Had my iPod 20GB for over a year and it's foolproof really. Can't speak for any of the others, but iPods are really easy to use. Easy to throw music on, and the same for vids too I would imagine.

My works despite withstanding my entire weight falling on is when I was knocked off my bike a year ago. It's badly dented yet still works fine.

 

[Hannibal smith]

Creative Zen Vplus(http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=15306)

Creative Zen Neeon 2
(http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=15609)

I-pod (30gb)

What I'd like to know-if any of you would like to tell me!-is how easy to use are they?

I have a creative Zen Vision M. It really is a piece of piss to use. Within an hour of fiddling with it, I had my entire MP3 collection from my PC on my MP3 player. All you need to do is load the software that comes with it, then drag and drop what you what from your hard drive onto your MP3 once you connect it to your PC - No fannying around with I tunes or anything else needed as it syncs with Windows media player.

The only drawbacks are (1) The case is SHIT. You can though buy another from the creative website easy enough. (2) The file names it stores on your player can be different from that which you have saved it on your PC (but this tends only to occur if you have illegal downloads). There is sortware to sort this out if you run into this problem. I'll provide a link when I'm back on my home PC.

 

[Superphil]

You need to read up on them, try the various gaget/music kit magazines, they give pretty unbiased reviews of the products available. At the moment the concensus is the new tiny Sony Walkman that is about the size of an AA batterey, the iPod Nano and the regular iPod are shading it for sound quality and ease of use. Zens get a bit of a bad press due to reliability issues (apparently).

But seriously, you should read up, and try some items before you buy.