Hard drive MP3 players - what is worth looking at ?

[steveinspain]

Themis - please explain further - I thought ipods could only be used with itunes.
What is mediamonkey and how do you make ipods use it ?
Are they then seen on a pc just as an iRiver is, or any other external hard drive ?
If so, I am seriously interested !

[Themis]

MediaMonkey is the best (imho) software for managing tags and organizing big libraries. It can replace iTunes and it works with almost all MP3 players.
It uses an internal database to manage the library, which means that it does this very quickly. It can monitor a library within seconds (which means that it updates its database automatically), useful when you rip with another program - like dbPoweramp.

You can manage iPod synchronizing just like with iTunes, using intelligent (or simple) playlists.
You can get an evaluation copy here : http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/
It is not very expensive (at about 20$ I think)

[steveinspain]

Thanks Themis - I'll try it out !

[Themis]

Andre uses Mediamonkey as a streamer in his setup, I think.

[Rare Bird]

Aye Media Monkey is great..Fast as lightning regarding track selection

[Themis]

Myself, I have the combo
dbPoweramp for ripping/transcoding, and
Mediamonkey for tags/library management/iPod sync
these two are real killer apps.

[DanJennings]

I used to use media monkey, but have now switched to J-River Media Center
It does everything media monkey does, but is even more customisable, comes with Asio support by default, and is more efficient at syncing my Archos 605, it is also a video player, and has an excellent ripper.
Sort of all the good parts of Mediamonkey, itunes and winamp...