Gordo

I fancy one of these (have about 30Gb of music to put on it ) but object strongly to paying £400 in the UK when they're $500 in the US (£271). Anyone any idea how to get hold of one at the US price (without going there, doh!).

Also, am I right in thinking that the US ones are better in that they're not volume restricted whereas the UK ones are?

cheers
Gordo

class_A

Yep, Euro iPods have a restricted headphone volume output. You can remove this though, just like a 112Mph limiter

Have you calculated US price + shipping + import duty + VAT + UK plug? Might not work out that much cheaper than buying UK.

Do you know one who's travelling to the US soon who could carry one back on their person, thus possibly avoiding some of the above charges?

Gordo

UK plug's not an issue - pretty easy to swap it over.

Haven't spotted anyone who posts to the UK yet (Apple won't on their site, not surprisingly).

Presumably it's a lottery as to whether you have to pay import duty/VAT or not?

G

gregh

apparently if someone were to post you an iPod and mark it as a gift you may not pay duty/VAT.

I was over there 2 weeks ago and picked up a nice 20gb model

regards,

greg

GaryK

yeah and all those w@nkers offering ipods on UK/US ebay for £20 for *information* on getting them cheap should be shot, looks like its another good old 'matrix' a la phones and consoles that are a complete con.

Gary

Iain Young

Alternatively you could do what I did and get a 60gb Creative Zen Xtra. It's 100 quid cheaper than the ipod 40gb, 20gb bigger storage capacity, longer battery life, can stream the audio off it through the pc, use it as an external hard disc etc. Also, with the built in eax effects, (optional automatic volume levelling, reverb effects etc), the sound quality is arguably better than the iPod (IMHO of course )

The only downside is that it doesn't work with iTunes, but as I never intend on using that service anyway (I'd rather buy the cd and rip it) I don't see that as a problem (for me anyway).

Iain

angrynorth

...can stream the audio off it through the pc, use it as an external hard disc etc. Also, with the built in eax effects, (optional automatic volume levelling, reverb effects etc), the sound quality is arguably better than the iPod (IMHO of course )

The iPod does all of this.

The other downside is its friendly nickname the iSore

Just out of interest why would you never use iTunes?

angrynorth

Also
Creative Zen =112 X 75 X 22 mm
Weight
226 grams

iPod=104 by 61 by 15 mm
Weight
158 grams

Iain Young

Why would I use iTunes?

Even when encoded at the highest quality settings, aac / wma files do not sound as good as the original cd. So I buy the cds, (so I can listen at max quality in the car / on the hifi at home), and rip to wma for listening to at work or on the move.

Considering that the zen is 100 quid cheaper and much larger capacity, I can live with the slight size difference and an extra 60 grams or so, (it mostly just sits on the desk next to the computer anyway), as for me, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

Oh, and I don't care what other people call them, (rather immature name calling really - these people really ought to get out more). I'm more concerned with the features and how it performs. Besides, I actually quite like the look of it.

Iain

JackClark

iPOD wins for accesorys too. I have the iTrip and it's a winner, I can walk from my car to my/other peoples house with the iPOD in my bag and still carry on listening to the same album.

I don't download tunes, I use iTunes to rip my CD's at whatever quality I like. Been ripping since the 25th and still going!

And as an extra bonus for the Ladies/Metrosexuals out there the iPOD has a mirror on the back.

Iain Young

I can do that with the Zen as well

Sounds as though you can pretty much do exactly the same things with both machines, but the Zen has higher capacity and is cheaper. I'm still waiting for a convincing reason for why the iPod is better

JackClark

It's the mirror

JackClark

Oh yeah and don't forget, "Chicks dig iPODs"

Iain Young

Ah, I knew there had to be a good reason

angrynorth

Good reason, we have been through this before.

Microsoft + DRM controlled WMA = Frightening future.

Iain Young

Aha, but did you know that you can encode wma without enabling the DRM. You don't even have to use media player to encode the things if you don't want to (I don't).

As I've said before, I don't really care what format it's in as long as it works and sounds reasonable. Interestingly, the zen can now also play back AAC encoded files (using the RealNetworks encoder).

angrynorth

You can now, you won't be able to soon. The next version of WMP will come with the DRM pre-enabled and you will not be able to turn it off.

That is interesting about the zen playing AAC now though, that is a good thing as its an open non-profitable standard which should be pushed to the top.

Iain Young

And anyway, why is a Microsoft controlled future any more frightening than an Apple controlled future? (seeing as Apple will not allow their iTunes AAC encoder to be used on anything but an iPod).

Iain Young

I use a 3rd party tool to encode my wma files, which allows you to encode any version of wma (from the very first to the latest), without the drm enabled and so upgrading media player will not affect this.

Like you, I'd like to see AAC become the standard however....

angrynorth

Firstly AAC is not an Apple thing, it belongs to Dolby and is open standard, anyone can use it. So no matter what happened it would not be an Apple controlled future.

Also AAC works fine on Windows, so its even less likely to be Apple controlled.

I think you may need to reconsider your question as to why Microsoft having control of virtually everyones music collection is frightening.

Iain Young

I know AAC is not owned by apple, but the security they place within the files via the iTunes site is Apple controlled. You can only playback an iTunes AAC file on an Apple friendly device / piece of software. Likewise, when you download a RealNetworks AAC file, it will only playback in RealNetworks friendly devices / software because of their security algorithms.

The format may be the same, but the security isn't.

And Microsoft won't have control of my music because I'll keep encoding it with the non-drm version of wma

angrynorth

The DRM on iTunes only applies to music bought online. It enables you to play the tracks on 3 devices which you can chop and change as you see fit. IE if you buy a new PC you just click "deauthorise this computer" and copy it to your new computer. You can also burn unlimited CD's

If you rip a CD then the iTunes DRM is not enabled.

The new WMA version that ships with next WMP only authorises 2 devices and you can only burn "back ups"

If you rip a WMA with the new version the DRM is enabled and applied to your CD's.

angrynorth

You won't have a problem, nor will most Scoobynet users, its the people that evolution forgot about that will struggle, and therefore further cement MS position as a monopoly in the music community too.

Iain Young

That much is true I was talking personally rather than about the public at large.

Let's hope that AAC becomes the all conquering format it deserves to be

angrynorth

YAY, agreement

Gordo

Look, not interested in other players - iTunes is excellent (I abandoned WMP ages ago - crashes too often, can't handle the volume of files, no search facility etc etc) - and have a lot of music in MP3 format which I want to now play on an IPod.

So, back to my original question - has anyone spotted a US supplier happy to send to the UK in an import duty avoidance styleee?

angrynorth

Sorry for hijacking the thread

You could try asking someone on a US forum to post you one out. I don't know of anywhere that sells them cheaper or will ship from the US to here

Iain Young

I did have a investigate of this a while ago, and one dealer (sorry can't remember which one) told me that they weren't allowed to sell the iPod to non-USA countries, and if they did they risked getting their distribution rights with Apple terminated. I don't know how true this is, but I've had it happen with one or two other things I've tried to buy from the states, so it could be.

I suspect your only option is to find someone over there who you trust, get the iPod delivered to them, then get them to send it to you as a gift (without any invoices inside the parcel).

JackClark

Lots on ebay. Risky mind.

GaryK

yep and the zen tries to look cool......and fails miserably

the ipod redefines cool!

So its got a bigger hard drive and its cheaper? If everything was about cost then no premium goods would be sold. Sorry but creative make very average sound and graphics cards and it looks like they have now turned their attention to making average MP3 players.

Gary