Gapless Playback Support

[admin_exported]

Is there any alternative to the i-pods that give true gapless playback of music?

I have read that the Sansa View does it. However it all depends on the encoding software.

I was using media player 11 and it does not do gapless even with .wav.

Media Monkey does but its database is useless - no art work or info on most of my albums.

Trying to get a player to match the software and be happy with the outcome is doing my head in.

Apples are just to unreliable with a bad rep for battery life, screens giving up and poor after sales support were they often try to get out of repairs.

After hours of googling and reading amazon reviews I want to avoid apple, but it’s now the only player that can be trusted to do gapless.

I used Sony for ages, the sonic stage software wasn’t the best but it worked. It got all my art and track info no worries.

Then Sony in their infinite wisdom of continually shafting their customers dropped all support for ATRAC which done gapless playback perfectly and left me with a library encoded with ATRAC tunes but no new player to support them. I mean how hard, could it have been for Sony to add the codec for this format in their new players. Instead they dropped their customers like a stone - great one there Sony!

P.S. Could anyone at What-Hifi ask Sony why they done this and will any new players have gapless support in the .mp4 & .wav formats.

I really do like the sound and reliability of the Sony players, but their marketing & treatment of customers is shocking.

 

[John Duncan]

ask_yer_ma!!:Apples are just to unreliable with a bad rep for battery life, screens giving up and poor after sales support were they often try to get out of repairs.

Nope...

 

[Anonymous]

Nope -What

 

[John Duncan]

Three iPods spanning five years, never a single issue. Pre- and After-sales service has been exemplary on all my apple products. And integration and sound quality can't really be beat (headphones aside).

 

[Anonymous]

You may have been lucky. the girl beside me here in the office has stopped using them as her third one has just failed. Add to the fact that the tunes she downloaded to the I-pod are now lost and that she now has to re-buy them again is hardly what you could call a great service. In the office about six or seven people have had major issues with both flash and HDD models.

I was looking for constructive advice on alternatives - not fanboys preaching the gospel according to apple.

As the original message states I was looking for anything not apple.

So if anyone has real info on other products and not just the usual fanboy responses that forums always get it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

ask_yer_ma!!:

So if anyone has real info on other products and not just the usual fanboy responses that forums always get it would be greatly appreciated.

Well, you really know how to make a good impression, don't you ? If JD gives an honest opinion you could be a little more appreciative, couldn't you ?

 

[John Duncan]

I think you'll find I'm anything but a 'fanboy', but hey.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh look the fanboy has a fan...lol.

Its not that I am not being blunt, its just that its totally pointless responses as I have made my mind up as stated.

So why it has to be asked.

 

[Anonymous]

ask_yer_ma!!:
Oh look the fanboy has a fan...lol.

Its not that I am not being blunt, its just that its totally pointless responses as I have made my mind up as stated.

So why it has to be asked.

No, the valued forum member is supported by one who'd rather you minded your manners when posting on here. You are rude, rather than direct, and if that's how the 'other' forums behave then go back there where your witty banter will hopefully gain the answer you so badly need.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you want a kleenex - Dry your eyes.

All this and still no constructive feed back

 

[John Duncan]

And I was trying to suggest that you've made up your mind based on a reliability issue that I haven't experienced, thus pointing you back towards a solution to your requirement - ie gapless playback - which, as you point out, is the only one "to be trusted to do it".

But then, I'm a fanboy and you shouldn't trust a word I say.

Or you could try googling "wmp11 gapless playback" and reading one of the 12,000 results returned, the second of which appeared to have a solution for your problem.

 

[Anonymous]

ask_yer_ma!!:
Do you want a kleenex - Dry your eyes.

Wow, how long did it taje you to come up with that ?

ask_yer_ma!!: All this and still no constructive feed back

Funny that ? Reap what you will sow etc.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:And I was trying to suggest that you've made up your mind based on a reliability issue that I haven't experienced, thus pointing you back towards a solution to your requirement - ie gapless playback - which, as you point out, is the only one "to be trusted to do it". But then, I'm a fanboy and you shouldn't trust a word I say. Or you could try googling "wmp11 gapless playback" and reading one of the 12,000 results returned, the second of which appeared to have a solution for your problem.

"The second of which" sorts the software out with foobar etc......done all that before coming here. Then the players don't do gapless playback also stated. I have googled many times and found work arounds and solutions but none that synchronise the hardware with the software to give a totall gapless playback solution.

Please feel free to continue to google as I have done and if you find anything new that I have not let me know.

 

[Anonymous]

Seriuosly - lol.

entertaining to say the least.

 

[John Duncan]

Well, good luck with that. Your charm is going to help you find the help you're looking for, I'm sure.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers......lol

Perhaps I should have went to a finishing school....no hard feelings.......come on barbie lets go party....lol

 

[John Duncan]

Just saw a Which reliability survey at the inlaws - Apple iPod, 96% with no problems up to four years old (1,500 respondents), Samsung 96% (100), Sony 97% (150). Apple came top in customer satisfaction with 80%, then came Archos and iRiver (off top of head) with 75% and 65%.

Am not going to editorialise.

 

[Anonymous]

ipod mini - 4 years old and still working - though the kids no longer thing it has much street cred.

ipod 30gb - was working fine (with great battery life) until the wife lost it - and i dont think even you can blame that on apple (well, you could of course).

ipod touch - 4 weeks old and still working.

no experience with after sales service because the things dont go wrong. although of course, i havent sat on any of them, nor dropped them out of a 2nd storey window onto a concrete surface.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

iPod nano - battery needed replacing, but it was constantly on charge in the missus' car, still working fine. Avoided the extortionate charge from apple and used a 3rd party - £25 shipped.

iPod classic 160 - works perfectly, 5 months old, battery life still like new.