iPod Video (Rockbox'd) or Zune?

[Obstinate]

I've had my H320 for forever, and absolutely LOVE it. But the size of it, and the size of the hard drive, just won't do anymore. I'm in the market for a player with 60-80 gigs, and I was thinking about either an iPod Video, Creative Zen Vision:M, or a Zune 80.

I don't know if I could go without Rockbox. I enjoy the customizability, plugging it in and having a hard disk coming up, switching from stereo to mono mode whenever I need to, the WPS's, album art, and things of that nature. I record sometime, but I'd keep my H320 for that or get a flash player.

So which one would work for that? Great sound quality, being able to arrange my music in folders, and being able to switch from stereo to mono to karaoke and back?

[LambdaCalculus]

Forget all of those and get yourself a Gigabeat F, X, or S from eBay. 'Nuff said.

[cool_walking_]

After moving from an iPod Video to a Gigabeat S, the iPod's slower CPU is *very* noticeable.  The UI on the iPod is a bit sluggish, and to get smooth fullscreen video playback, you must encode videos to 12fps or lower.

There is currently one major limitation with the Gigabeat S: Rockbox can't charge.  You need to boot into the OF to charge the battery.  This *might* not be so bad except for the fact that the OF has a slightly overzealous DRM implementation, which likes to randomly format the hard disk.  If you can hold out 'til charging is working, though, this would be the one to get.

I don't have a Gigabeat F, but it basically seems like a slightly less powerful S, which would make it a happy medium.

EDIT: By the way, the Gigabeat S is pretty much the same as the Zune (although apparently the Zune doesn't have the "randomly format" bug).

Also see http://rockbox.org/wiki/BuyersGuide

[Obstinate]

Oh man I did my research, the Gigabeat S and F are AMAZING. Are they moddable to put in a bigger HD?

And to what extent is the problem with the S reformatting? I'd love to get that one but hate to lose all my music.

[LambdaCalculus]

Yes, both are rather easy to upgrade with larger hard drives. This page will explain more about what kinds of drives you can put into your devices.

(NOTE: The Gigabeat S isn't listed on that page yet, but the S uses a ZIF connector, similar to the iPod video and Gigabeat X. The S is listed; never mind.)

The "drive reformatting" problem is rather rare, and only really would happen if you tried tampering with the MediaLibrary*.edb files on the main partition of the Gigabeat S.

[Obstinate]

Oh really? So if I don't plan on using WMP11 whatsoever then it shouldn't be a problem?

[LambdaCalculus]

Nope. Besides, Rockbox will allow the Gigabeat S to be used as a regular UMS device, meaning you get drag-and-drop ability.

[cool_walking_]

On my S, I've almost never used the OF, but 2 days ago I booted into the OF for the first time in ages and got a message warning that it was about to "remove all media items".  Fortunately it seemed to be waiting for me to press something (there was an "OK" button), so I just rebooted and it doesn't seem to have done anything.  I don't think I want to go back into the OF again without backing up everything.

I've never touched any .edb files.  I have had some filesystem corruption a few times (which I can only blame on the Rockbox USB stack), but fsck.vfat only mentioned files that I had just copied over, no .edb files.  Things might have been complicated because the OF uses TFAT...

[GodEater]

I use my S a lot - never had the reformatting thing happen to me at all.

[Obstinate]

If only they weren't so bloody hard to find I'd definitely consider purchasing one!


Oh and a few more questions: Is it easy to replace the battery with a longer lasting one? I've heard of lots of battery problems and would like something that lasts me around 12 hours or so. And possibly to replace with a bigger HD. Is that hard? Like if I bought the 20 GB, to replace it with a 60 or 80?

[cool_walking_]

I think you mean 30GB, not 20GB.  The 30GB model has a slimmer backplate than the 60GB, so you can only replace the drive with a single-platter drive, unless you can appropriate a 60GB model's backplate (thanks again, homielowe ).

I haven't seen any replacement batteries, but I haven't been looking.

[homielowe]

cool_walking_: You're welcome