[diogenes]

I am thinking about purchasing a portable audio player mainly to play audiobooks on. Thus far it looks like an ipod mini will work, but I would like to consider other makes and models as well.

However, I would like some feedback on what is generally considered to be a good to great player with respect to audiobook playback.

Sadly, the only criteria I can give, besides something that will not immediately disintegrate upon purchase, is a bookmarking feature.

 

[aleitry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diogenes However, I would like some feedback on what is generally considered to be a good to great player with respect to audiobook playback. Sadly, the only criteria I can give, besides something that will not immediately disintegrate upon purchase, is a bookmarking feature.

the first issue is which sources you'll be drawing from to get audiobooks. meaning, if you are going with audible i believe ipod is the dap for you. this is because it's a solid player that audible already supports. trust me, you dont want to wait for audible support to occur [i.e. zen micro or iriver h10].

however, if you are planning on ripping your own audiobooks or are planning on getting them as drmed wmas, then I think the zen micro is a good choice.


now, depending on where you'll get your audiobooks from I come back again to the ipod family or the zen micro. ipods have auto bookmarking playing audible files. also, even if some drmed wmas do not allow for automatic bookmarking, the zen micro I owned supported bookmarks awesomely. mind you, this is a feature the player supported [can create approx. 20 bookmarks on any type of file].


ok, that's what I have. I mentioned those daps because those are the ones I've personally owned. i believe they are both solid.

 

[blessingx]

In addition to what aleitry said, there are a few other Audible players like the Rio Carbon or Forge. See Device Central on Audible to find more players.

As for standard audiobooks, if you rip a whole disc (join tracks) in AAC format and change the file extensions from .m4a to .m4b these too will be bookmarkable on all iPods (in addition to showing up in the Audiobook selection). Right now there is no bookmarking feature for standard MP3s on the iPod.

You can see more info here - http://www.ipodlounge.com/index.php/...od-audiobooks/

Several libraries are now loaning out books on iPod Shuffles. No display, but if you file is bookmarkable and you're listening straight through who cares.

I'm a big fan of audiobooks. About half comes from Audible, quarter from local libraries and rest from friends. Audible is definitely worth considering and if you're buying anyway they have $100 off various players (including iPods) with a 1 year membership.

Also take a look at the internet Podcasting phenom out there. Can get free Nightline, Meet the Press, etc. broadcasts. Nearly every player will support these.

 

[aleitry]

blessingx,

nice to hear I'm not alone on the audiobook kick. i see you have an ipod, so the following may not apply to you, but if you have people in nyc + they have players supporting drmed wmas, the ny public lib offers downloadable audiobooks.

so far there are about 800 titles. not necessarily cutting edge offerings, but nice to have nonetheless.

 

[stargirl]

I use my Rio Carbon to listen to audiobooks. It's a good alternative to the iPod mini if you (like myself) don't have the $$.

I picked up my Rio Carbon for under 200 canadian!

 

[blessingx]

Aleitry, that's really great about the NYC library. Damn WMA though.

Wish we had something similar here. Hell wish we had something besides cassettes in SF. I have to use suburban libraries for most audiobooks and DVDs (hint to Bay Area members - Mtn. View has a great collection of Criterion DVDs).

 

[IpaqMan]

I have used various players for my audiobooks and have been listening to books for years. I have both Audible content and content ripped from CDs.

I use a Shuffle and Muvo N200 for my Audible content, but I much prefer my Iaudio 5 for mp3 audiobooks. The I5 has the best bookmarking feature that I have seen. I would give the Rio Nitrus a second best.

The I5 has a playlist like mechanism to display the track names of the bookmarked tracks-positions. It holds up to 20 bookmarks. While listening, you press and hold the record button for a few seconds to store a bookmark. The Rio places second because it doesn't name the tracks in the bookmark list. You get nine bookmarks that are listed as numbers 1 to 9. You have to listen to each bookmark to find out what it is.

 

[diogenes]

Thanks for the replies.

I have the audible deal in mind.
However, the Teaching Company produces excellent lecture series that I will want to transfer from cd to whatever portable player I end up with.
So, will that complicate things in anyway?

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diogenes So, will that complicate things in anyway?

If you rip and encode in MP3, no for the players that support MP3 bookmarking. You may want to find a way to join all the tracks for one long bookmarked file (iTunes can help even if you don't use an iPod here). For the iPod you need to click Join Files in iTunes, encode to AAC instead of MP3 and change the extension. So an extra step of changing the extension there.

Having one long file instead of lots of 3-5 mintues ones will cause a little battery hit, but at least for me I'll take that and the loss of 'titled passages/chapters' for a bookmark I don't have to look at.

 

[BIGtrouble77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diogenes Thanks for the replies. I have the audible deal in mind. However, the Teaching Company produces excellent lecture series that I will want to transfer from cd to whatever portable player I end up with. So, will that complicate things in anyway?

I have a few of the Teaching Company's lessons. They are absolutely amazing, my favorite is the History of Ancient Egypt.

Anyway, I have an iAudio X5 and it's great for audio books. I set the side button to bookmark to make listening to my lectures/books really convenient.

The X5 is not audible compatible, but I play all of my books on it. You need River Past to do the conversion, but it works very well and it's pretty quick. I don't recommend buying a player that supports drm services directly because it becomes a HUGE pain down the road activating devices. I've had Audible several years and they give me such a hard time when I have to activate new players (I've had about 20 devices since I first got audible.)

So now audible is just activated to my pc and I convert all my book over to mp3 for my treo and X5. It's slightly more work but you eliminate virtually all hassles down the road and you have complete control of what you paid for.

-BT