Topic: The sound coming from my mouth at 10:45 PDT

[gpw11]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO.

A lesson for everyone;

When attempting to fix your car, do not leave your mp3 player on top of it.  You will forget about it, only to have it stay there until a hard corner on a highway.  At that point your car will kind of stutter and you will hear the mp3 player slide off the top.  You will then want to motherfucking kill everyone.


In a somewhat related turn of events, I'm thinking about buying an iPod Classic.  Kind of lame, I know, but they're cheap as hell for 80GB and have tactile buttons.  How much of a bitch is the video encoding?

[Quemaqua]

Pssst.  You'll thank me later.

But yeah man, that seriously sucks.  You have my condolences.

[gpw11]

Thanks.  I'd actually be all over that but the storage options just aren't really big enough for what I'm looking for.  That and I'd really like tactile buttons.  I did, however, just see that the Creative Zen X-Fi is on it's way out, and I'm kind of a Creative fan.   

I might just use an old flash player for as long as I can and upgrade when I find a good deal.

[Quemaqua]

Well, you know me.  I always have to throw in some anti-iPod sentiment where I can.  I don't know why, but for whatever reason I just hate the things.  I mean in terms of usability, douchebag ownership associations aside.  I've never been a fan of touch interfaces, but what I really hate is those ring selector things, and a lot of other MP3 players like to do that now.  I thought the touch on the D2 would bug me a bit, but I've actually found it to be perfect.  It's got two programmable tactile buttons and a menu button on the top, so when it's on hold mode I can use those to pause, play, and move tracks (or do volume, depending on how it's programmed).  Not to try and sway you or anything. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, I feel your pain.  It took me forever to settle on the one I did.  There are so many out there, but so many of them are so similar, and a lot of times they're similar in terms of the limitations, not the advantages.  What a pain.

[gpw11]

Realistically it isn't that big of a deal.  I left the thing in my car one day about a week ago and the screen started to bubble plus the hard drive started clicking because I was careless and had it out while I was sanding some stuff.  It probably would have had to have been replaced soon anyways.  The main thing with the Cowon is that for the same price I can get 5 times as much storage if I go iPod classic.  Really, I don't want to have to deal with iTunes, but I can't say I really care all that much anymore.

[scottws]

You don't have to deal with iTunes.  Winamp 5.5 natively handles the iPod, though I think it's mostly drag-and-drop instead of a sync collection sort of thing.  I'm sure there are other solutions out there.

And I know why Que hates the iPod.  It's because it has some sort of aura around it where everyone has to have one.  He hates that kind of thing.

[Quemaqua]

Oh, certainly I hate that part, but I also just hate the device itself.  It's one of those things like Halo where I just don't see the appeal even from a standpoint of pure functionality.

[Cobra951]

There are all sorts of anything to anything video encoders out there.  I haven't used any for a while, but I came up with a whole lot of movie files for the PSP (MP4) and the cell phone (3GP, 3G2) over the years.  My detail memory is awful, so I'll just rattle off the related stuff I see in my AV shortcuts folder:

Allok Video to 3GP Converter
PocketDivX Encoder
PSP Movie Creator
PSP Video 9
TMPGEnc Plus 2.5

I'm sure there's more.

[scottws]

I use MeGUI now.  It's pretty much what I always wanted out of a video encoder... it finally is a utility that brings together all those separate programs into one interface!

I think it has profiles to make iPod-compatible videos (among a few other devices like PSP).

[ren]

Video is easy. Rip with DVDFab. Load Handbrake, press iPod.

[gpw11]

Ok, so I joined the dark side and bought an 80GB classic.  I was really pumped on the Zen x-fi, but it isn't out for a while.  Anyways, I was messing around in the menu and saw a radio button, got kind of pumped because radio support would be sweet.  and then I remembered why Apple is a shitty, shitty company.

[Ghandi]

Hahaha...

[Quemaqua]

I tried to remind you.  It isn't because I'm bitter and full of hate, it's because I care about my friends.

[Ghandi]

The hardware itself has always been really nice, but the company is pure evil.

Even still, I own an iPod touch (got it as a gift) and I love it for what it is. I don't really do anything fancy with it, and I don't own it as a status symbol. It serves it's purpose well.

And you have to give Apple credit for pushing forward the industry. Their technology is well ahead of everyone else, and it creates healthy competition in the marketplace.

[Quemaqua]

It forces other to be competitive to be sure, especially when they totally own the market, but frankly, I find their hardware in general to be a step or two backward from most others.  Listen to an iPod and then a D2 or one of Cowon's lesser iAudio guys, and you'll realize quite quickly that the iPod can't drive any decent headphones for shit.

[gpw11]

I tried to remind you.  It isn't because I'm bitter and full of hate, it's because I care about my friends.

Oh yeah, I totally understand.  I'm pretty against buying Apple products just on the principle that I'm generally more concerned with utility than aesthetics (which is pretty much the opposite of their mantra). The only issue is that the Classic series had pretty much exactly what I needed (massive storage for a cheap price), whereas everyone else has moved onto more expensive solid state options.  Lame.

[Quemaqua]

Well, the classic at least seems to be the most functional of them.  It's just basic and gets the job done, and you're right, it's hard to find really huge storage options cheap now, especially when so many players are costing more just for things like interface.  Which blows.

I kind of lied, though.  I do care about my friends, but I'm also bitter and full of hate.

 

[ren]

That was my exact reason for getting the iPod. It offered 60gigs at a time when the nearest competitor was 40.