CNET's Best Players 2005

[davinp]

Here is CNET's Best Players for 2005:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6490_7-6409306-1.html?tag=nl.e428

[skauff83]

Am I the only one who's really not impressed by any of these players?

[davinp]

Am I the only one who's really not impressed by any of these players?
I don't care for these players either. The Sony is black screen and ugly and that Samsung is thick.

[MystkLp]

ehh... cnet... somehow i really dont trust their word anymore...

[Rev. Nathan]

Let me guess; the iPod Video, iPod Mini 5GB, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod 4th generation with color screen, and then a few more players underserving of an award thrown into the mix so that cNet doesn't look like they obviously sackride Apple?

[merouby]

Let me guess; the iPod Video, iPod Mini 5GB, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod 4th generation with color screen, and then a few more players underserving of an award thrown into the mix so that cNet doesn't look like they obviously sackride Apple?

An *anti* iPod post. Pls try to keep an open-mind. There is some merit when an iPod gets an award. You should admit, despite your dislike of Apple, the iPod video is an amazing piece of kit. Same goes for the Nano/4th gen/Mini. Same goes for the Zen Vision M, Zen micro photo, and the Sony/Toshiba.

[comfortablyNUMB]

Don't get all crazy guys, they didn't hand pick these players. They were just the top-rated players based on their rating system, and these guys just can't write good reviews. They'll give any iPod an 8.3, but will give another player a 6 or a 7 for not having FM radio/recording, line-in, or other things that the iPod doesn't have either. Don't get me wrong, the iPod probably deserves a high 7 or 8, but so do a several other players that get knocked down for things that the iPod doesn't. My favorite is that they took points for the X5 for it having too many features to be user friendly. Are they serious? Just say that, if your a newbie, buy it, but if your an audiphile who wants a full-featured, great sounding player, then buy it.

[Flip]

How can they put the Mini on that list if it got replaced by the Nano? Seems obsolete to me, anyways.

How the hell did the Samsung get on there?

[skauff83]

WHat about the iRiver U10? And all of the other iRivers...and the iAudio....I'd take those over any of the players listed.

[comfortablyNUMB]

Oh wait, these aren't just the highest raited players, these are the players that got Cnet's "Editor's Choice" award. So you can still get a really high score (like the U10) but not get an editors choice. And that little Samsung player, they really liked it so it can an editor's choice. I know it wouldn't get such a high score if it was review now, cause they changed their grading system and lowered of lot of grades on older reviews.

[FightingDevil]

An *anti* iPod post. Pls try to keep an open-mind. There is some merit when an iPod gets an award. You should admit, despite your dislike of Apple, the iPod video is an amazing piece of kit. Same goes for the Nano/4th gen/Mini. Same goes for the Zen Vision M, Zen micro photo, and the Sony/Toshiba.

While I understand your point merouby, you can't honestly expect to be on DDJS and not expect negative posts towards the iPod. Now, while I do like the iPod, I wouldn't expect getting hugs and kisses on an iPod board all of the time (and yes, it's happened to me)....

And I do agree: I do think the iPod video is sweet.....if I had the extra DI, I would buy the 30GB in black in a heartbeat!!

[skauff83]

The video is a nice player and certainly deserves to be on the list....but having half of the players on the list being iPods is a bit much, and they aren't that deserving.

[steve777]

Does any else absolutly hate this type of list. They tell me nothing that I wouldn't know from going to Bestbuy.com and doing a side-by-side comparison. I would prefer if the editors of Cnet would take the time to at least put it in paragraph form.

[comfortablyNUMB]

Like I said before, the list is just the player's that got their Editor's Choice awards, and it's a bs award. And if anyone reads any Cnet reviews, you'd be convinced that they were on Apple's payroll.

[merouby]

Like I said before, the list is just the player's that got their Editor's Choice awards, and it's a bs award. And if anyone reads any Cnet reviews, you'd be convinced that they were on Apple's payroll.

Or that Apple actually made a pretty good DAP. :rolleyes:

[comfortablyNUMB]

Or that Apple actually made a pretty good DAP. :rolleyes:

Yeah they did, and every iPod except the shuffle deserves a 7-8 or even 9 rating, but if you read almost any other review of players that are competing the iPod (Dell DJ, Zen Touch/Sleek, iRiver h10 20gb), you can't get through the whole review without seeing the word "iPod" 15 times. They don't review. They compare. To the iPod. To say that players get too confusing when they have more features and say that the iPod doesn't have the extras like an fm radio or inline recording so it's easier to use is ridiculous.

Merouby, I don't want this to become a flame war, so I agree that Apple made a great player. Cnet did and should give the iPods around an 8 rating. However, don't compare the iPod to every other player in the reviews. That's called biased.

[merouby]

Grant, I agree with you. But don't get disturbed by the fact that other DAPs are usually compared to the iPod. It's due to it's popularity as the market leader. Just like say, a Neon get's compared to a Corolla/Civic, or a Passat that gets compared to a Camry/Accord. It's bound to happen.

[Flip]

I don't get the car analogy.

I think CNET's editors are smoking crystal meth.

[skauff83]

CNet just does silly things like when they lowered the score of a creative player because it didn't support iTunes. The iPod is a good player, but it seems like Cnet automatically deducts points off of some players if they aren't iPods, and if they are too much like iPods, then they become apple ripoffs. It's baffling logic, really.

[comfortablyNUMB]

Yeah, the iPod is sooooo easy to use, and some of it has to do with it's small amount of features besides the "extras." The X5 is packed with features, it does just about anything a DAP has been able to do, and Cnet says that all the features make the player too hard to use compared to the iPod.

Now, come on. You can't really compare the two. An iPod is a great DAP for a wide range of people, especially people who are new to mp3 players. The X5, because of all it's features and people not knowing much about it, will appeal to tech geeks, audiophiles, and people looking for an alternative to the iPod. You can't take points off from a player for it being too hard to use BECAUSE of its features and then say "well the iPod is easy to use because of its smaller feature set." It's a rediculous statement. I know comparisons are made in reviews, but it's nice when they are unbiased. Cnet is just biased.

[skauff83]

I honestly don't get the "too many features to be user-friendly" arguement. The menu for actually playing your songs is almost exactly the same, and I don't think you're going to confuse "song library" with "voice recording" on the menus. If you do, maybe you should be kept away from electrical devices....

[TheBigNewt]

I like the video a lot, but lists like this are nothing but a bunch of hype, like the list of vendors that comes up when you search for a store using Yahoo. You think Apple doesn't pay cNet? If you do I've got a real estate deal for you in Iraq.

[comfortablyNUMB]

I honestly don't get the "too many features to be user-friendly" arguement. The menu for actually playing your songs is almost exactly the same, and I don't think you're going to confuse "song library" with "voice recording" on the menus. If you do, maybe you should be kept away from electrical devices....


My point exactly.

[steve777]

Merouby, I don't want this to become a flame war, so I agree that Apple made a great player. Cnet did and should give the iPods around an 8 rating. However, don't compare the iPod to every other player in the reviews. That's called biased.

They have too, it is their job. The iPod is the industry leader. They have sold how many million units? It's like in Car and Driver when they compare luxury sedans to the BMW, it's what most people want to know, "how does product x stand up aginst the compition." I do agree that they over-do the comparison, sometimes they will compare every aspect of a DAP agianst the iPod, instead of just putting it in one or two paragraphs.

[Balinsky]

I have no problem with the ipod just thfact that none of my friends replace the stock headphones. They are so flat it drives me bannanas listening to them. And the fact that their on the go playlist is very clumsy compared to the add to selected that I use everyday.

And the fact that iTunes is the single worst music management software I have ever put my hands on. You can use other software with the ipod but most people are blind to that fact.

[Balinsky]

And I forgot to mention the fact that ipod got their priorities wrong battery life > thin. I have my dj in my pocket almost every day.

[fomoco]

And the fact that iTunes is the single worst music management software I have ever put my hands on. You can use other software with the ipod but most people are blind to that fact.

Sorry Balinsky, I know your in love with MediaMonkey, but I disagree.

No Podcasting support.
No video playback support.
No AAC or Audible support.
No smart playlists.
No music store.
Does not support full sync options with iPod(Video,Podcasts,Photos,Notes,Calender,Contacts )

Does not use CDDB/Gracenote.
No Mac OS version.

And to top it off, you have to buy the gold version to get the full feature set and burning beyond 4x. You get all of that and more for free with iTunes.

[Balinsky]

I wasn't singling out MM it is just the best for me. iTunes doesn't organize your music in any way. You basically have to search for everything. There is no way to see exactly what you have in a digestable way. I actually had a fried that bought some music that I had already gave him. It was in his library and he didn't know.

But personally I have no use for podcasts or audible support. But I can see how other people like/need that functionality. I also have no use for a music store. If I wanted to buy music I can drive so...

As for smart playlists MM does have very versitile user defined "AutoPlaylists" (granted you need the full version to make your own)

On to video support angain you are not entirely correct. Using a winamp plugin you can play any video file you want. I don't have a use for that either I just use VLC player(has no library but is very light and has codecs built in)

Again The problem I have with itunes has most to do with my friends. I don't know what they have so I don't know what to search for. And if I tried to use it my collection would explode into one big unorganized mess.

[fomoco]

It's actually very easy to sort using the browser view. And you can view/sort by tag.
If your files are not properly tagged, your library will be a complete mess. But if you adhere to correct ID3 tagging it's organized perfectly.

If you want to get into plugins, you can add OGG and FLAC support to iTunes, plus a bunch of visualizers, skins, etc.

I also forgot to mention that iTunes also supports DAAP which allows users to share librarys on a local network and Airtunes, wireless music streaming to a Airport express.

[Balinsky]

This is turning into an uniformed little fight but.. :rolleyes:

I use the same MM library across both my pcs on my network. And I knew that itunes supported plugins I installed the audioscrobler plugin on my friends itunes so I could see what he was listening to.

Plugins are a great thing about any program. I know that MusicMatch doesn't support them and that is a pain.

This is just a question but can iTunes playanything but .mov files. I set up my friends ipod video up and I know I had to convert for the player.

Oh and I think this thred has been hijacked :) ...maybe

Edit: I forgot to respond to your tagging comment. All of my 11000+ tracks are fully tagged. I am a bitch about that. Again I have never used iTunes(I found my true love why should I) I can only speak from limited experience with others setup.

[dino]

iTunes can play mpeg 4 (.mp4) as well as the proprietary quicktime format (.mov). But I think that's about it for video support.