Does this player support random playback?

If so, is the pseudo-random generator predictable (I've had a player that played the songs in the same order every time random was used), or is it something where I don't have to 'seed' it by skipping a 'random' number of tracks?

I just had a very bad experience with Creative's Nomad MuVo (USB port broke after a few months, they wanted to charge $40 to repair it), and I'm looking for something with drag-and-drop file loading and a respectable life expectancy. If there is no random, however, I'm better off sticking with my four-year-old DLink with its unfriendly interface and simple-random functionality.

No randomizer. Again, files are merely played F.I.F.O.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Okay, thanks! I've yet to find a player with the features of my MuVo, but I'm not about to buy another player from a company that doesn't provide a full year labor warranty.

Yeah, and if there's anything Ultra is really good at it's standing behind their product.

You might want to wait until the next version of this player comes out. Hopefully I'll get one to test, but I hear it'll have folder support and randomization. Should be worth a look.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

That sounds promising! Any idea when it'll be out?

I'm glad to hear they stand behind their products. I can't recall the manufacturer, but I have a thumb drive that's gone through the washing machine and still runs like a champ... I wish more electronics were that durable.

Can't say. They're planning a whole new product launch, but won't say when because they still have "old" product to go through.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Well, I guess that's understandable from a marketting point of view.

Hey, I don't know if you get any kind of input since you do the reviews, but one thing I really wished my MuVo had, and something I've yet to see in any thumb-drive/mp3 player hybrid, is the ability to play MP3s from the device while it's plugged into the PC.

As a college student, I use public computers fairly often (labs, classrooms, etc), and I can't count the number of times I've sat in a lab listening to my MP3s and had my battery die. Especially for a player like this where the battery is charged while it's plugged in, I think it would be really neat to be able to listen to your music through the headphone jack on the device.

I guess the assumption is that if you're at a PC, you can use the PC to listen to the music, but not all public access PCs' sound cards are accessible to their users. If the player itself cannot process the music while charging the battery, perhaps it could include software (like the e-mail package) that will run without installation and send its audio to the player's headphone jack.

Like I said, I don't know how much influence you have, but I think it would be a fantastic feature, especially for college students / internet cafe regulars.

Some gentleman emailed me (instead of posting in the forums) about his inability to copy files to the MP3 player. I responded, but the Re: email address was deemed invalid by SBC's server.

So.... Sir, if you're out there, here's my response:

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Ooops, am new to forums and didn't realize it went directly to you.

It worked...and I can't believe how it was so easy. I think it took maybe 10 minutes to switch it to mp3, rip the cd, then sync 8 songs onto the player. Thank goodness for people like you. And it has graphics while the music is playing. This stuff just amazes me. Now I want an MP3 that you can download and view digital pictures on with the music and that takes digital pictures? That would be absolutely fantastic!

Oh, and I'm a girl. Again, thank you so much. And I was afraid that your answer was going to be to technical....

And meant to add that I wish SBC would do the same thing to all the trash emails I get.

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cznative

Oops... Sorry... Ma'am.

Anyhoo... You can have an MP3 player that allows you to take and view digital pictures while listening to your music....

Take a look at some of the high-end cell phones.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check them out. But I think I would prefer something without a phone attached to it too. I have the best pay as you go phone plan with Virgin and I don't think they have a phone that does all that. Don't think I want to switch carriers either.

I do have another question though.....if I burn a cd from the cd I downloaded in the mp3 format will it play on a regular cd player? It's playing okay right now on my computer but I don't have a cd player in the house. I know it will work in my car as it says my cd player is mp3 compatible. Whew, this high tech stuff is confusing but so interesting. Wish I was 12 years old then I wouldn't have any problems with all this new fangled stuff.

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cznative

Most current CD players, yes. Like I have a Sharper Image CD player and a Sony that will play MP3's just like they're regular CD's.. if not cooler because the ID3 tag (the artist and track info) shows up on the LCD. But I also have a Technics CD player from when carousel players first came out and a 2002 Jetta/Bora that will NOT play MP3's. Although the new Jetta WILL.

On that same note, most DVD players will play MP3 CD's as well.

What I do is catalog them on my PC as MP3's, and then use Media Player 10 to burn them BACK to another CD as regular CD audio format to play them wherever I may roam. However, I do try to keep them in MP3 format whenever possible because I can fit 10 hours of music @ 128Kbps on a single CD.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Thanks so much for your help. You have been very informative. But how do I burn them back in regular CD audio format?

I hope I'm not imposing to much by asking so many questions.

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cznative

In XP, do just like you were burning any CD with the MP3 files, but tell it to make an audio disc and not a data disc. As long as you have Media Player 10, it should work.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)