Anyone know any MP3 players that will remember where you were in a track, even if you play other tracks in between? For someone who's into longish podcasts interspersed with a bit of music.

Ta

Many Sony players remember where you are in a podcast. Best check the specifics against each model.


The mp3 file has to be placed into the special [podcast] directory on the player, it's simple drag 'n drop with Sony players nowadays.

I haven't seen any limit with my Sony NWZ-S639f with regards podcasts and keeping your place. I have about 20 podcasts on there at the moment and all of them remember their last played position. It works very well.

I have also put music in the podcast directory and the system keeps track of where you are in the music just as with podcasts. Useful for very long tracks.


Music in the normal music directory does not keep track of position though. Just as you would expect.

Anything in the podcast directory does not show up in the normal music search/shuffle etc... But you can still go into the podcast library and see what podcasts are there of course.


Create a directory in [Podcasts] and place the files into that directory for it to work.

iPod Nano?

Never noticed that facility so you might be forced to fast forward.

Philips tend to be ceap decent quality.
An 8GB Raga was £30 at Argos a week ago so maybe the same now.
That might seem cheap but flash memory is now relatively very cheap.

Erm.... what is this feature called? Does it even have a name? Maybe I should search the instruction manuals for "will remember where I reached in my podcast and take me back there thank you very much"?

Strangely enough, this is not a totally sarky reply... thanks for the pointers to Sony and I will investigate their players further. But if there is a magic keyword that will help my quest, do tell

If it's billed as supporting audio-books it will remember playback position. Hence I suggested the Nano (as my daughter listens to audio books on it), but I'm sure others do too.

OK, so this is where I'm at. The mp3 player is for my Dad who is after a simple aural-only experience (that is not to say no display, rather he won't be watching any videos). I'd rather not subject him to iTunes, but if that is the best option then so be it.

These people recommend iPod Nano but that is an earlier generation. Certainly an easy FF/RW is a very good thing, but is it the same on the new nano - is there a virtual click wheel?

And I have just read an instruction manual for the Sony NWZ-A844 / A845 / A846 / A847, and I am none the wiser vis-a-vis podcast-pausability.

Yes sadly the new Nanos are all touchscreen. My daughter is using the older version for her audiobooks etc. and that had physical buttons and no touchscreen.

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/d...scy=GB&slg=ENG

I'm curious as to if any of my Sonys have special audio book folder now.

The Sony NWZ-A84X range are not what I would call cheap!, I suppose it's a personal thing.

I would guess that podcast support across all Sonys is the same, it would be amazing if it isn't but you never know with Sony. But I don't know which models support it.


Note that the NWZ-A84X range are considered to be rather quiet, might be a problem for classical music and speech. Pop/rock tends to be dynamically compressed and therefore LOUD.

The NWZ-A845 certainly supports podcasts, but...

Having just read the relevant chapter it does not mention "position remember" or whatever it's called.

Also it seems that to transfer podcasts needs Windows Media Player to "sync" the file or even iTunes, this is different from my NWZ-S639f which is just drag 'n drop.

So who knows? I would suggest starting specific threads about the NWZ-A84X on the subject of podcasts/position remember.

The Sansa Clip+ is probably the best for the money. Great for podcasts and audiobooks, it remembers the position in each track. Sound quality is top notch too and you can expand with sdhc cards.

EDIT: Yes it remembers the position even if you play other things inbetween. It also supports audible and DRM wma,

Not being able to afford another mp3er with this feature, I've 'made do' by simply splitting my 2-3hr radio shows up into 10min segments - using one of the many-many free mp3 splitter progs out there.

( I also put the 3hr show into 3 albums, requiring me to manually select the next album when the current one is finished. I listen in bed and usually fall asleep after ~20mins. Doing this I save battey life as the player will shut down after an hour, rather than after 3 )

Wish I'd known about the feature you're after before spending my £££, and when this one dies I'm making sure my next player has it, along with being able to delete files via button clicks rather than being required to connect it up to the computer.


Guess I got the only Sansa which doesn't have this ability.

Which one do you have? They might have ported the rockbox firmware to it which would give you this feature.

the 4 gig one (e260) with the blue circle wheel selector thingy on the front.

Yeah Rockbox will run on that and give you file resuming, bookmarks, games, all sorts of extra. It takes a little playing around with and a little while to get used to but it is well worth the effort.

Go to http://www.rockbox.org/download/ if you want to get the installer. I think it sets it up as a dual boot system so you can run either the original firmware or rockbox.

will checkit oot.

You definitely should, I'm tempted by an e2xx model myself given the screen and rockbox.

You can run doom, some gameboy games, set up a coverflow interface, looks pretty sweet on that little screen.

The Clip + probably wins over the Raga because of the expansion slot.

The Sony is not quite considered 'topic cheap' though the OP went cheap on cheap.