Which MP3 player best for long flights?
 

I have an Archos Jukebox 20GB player that uses rechargeable AA's. The problem is that the battery life is short (<5 hrs), which means taking extra batteries or a bulky recharger that takes hours to charge up the batteries.

I'm looking for a new player that has much better battery life, and lighter unit weight. I've heard that Rio and Dell's players might fit the bill.

MP3 players are probably the greatest invention for long-haul flyers since.....I don't know what!

Any suggestions on models?

Interestingly, after I saw your title but before I started reading your post, the first thing I thought of was "one of the old AA battery-based players". I get 6-7 hours from well-charged 2100mAh NiMH AA's on my ancient Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox. That'll get me a transcon flight; for longer flights a single extra set of batteries has sufficed.

It's true that you may need to swap batteries, but the batteries are cheap, readily available, and if you run out of charged ones you can even buy a set of alkalines in a pinch. Can't do that with players that use proprietary cells -- should you find yourself delayed, you may end up with no music.

That said, I actually have two MP3 players for different uses. My Nomad Jukebox (which I upgraded to a 40 gig drive) is for when I'm relatively stationary -- in the car, on a plane, etc. I also have a Muvo2 4GB, which gets a good 12 hours on a charge and is TINY, great for when I'm on the go.

The Dell Jukebox is probably the best choice, available from just $189 and battery power to last up to 15 hours.

An ipod won't work that well as it usually quits on you after just 6 hours...

Rio Karma. Last month I used it almost non-stop on WAS - EWR, then EWR-AMS, then AMS - TXL . And it still had juice left by the time I was at the hotel.
I think Rio promotes it as having as having a 15 hour bat. life. I would say they are not lying . Plus, the charger accepts voltages from 100 to 240 v.

Dell Jukebox
 

I have the Dell 20G model and a Archos 20G v2 model. The Dell gets about 2x the battery life in the "real world". The only negative about the Dell is that you must use the included software (MusicMatch) to transfer files. I perfer the Archos becuase I can just drag the files over and I've setup my recording preferences so that it plays by Album, then track number (in order). But that's a small issue.

Amazon has the Archos v2 for under $150 after rebate (no shipping or taxes!), the Dell is a little bit more.

Hope this helps.

Bruce

I am thinking of getting one of these, I like that it can play Ogg Vorbis files AND that it has ethernet....

Perhaps this weekend :)

On a full charge, my iPod has lasted all the way from SFO to CDG. I never stopped it along the way. Note this is an iPod from 2002. I've heard the newer ones have smaller batteries in them.

Some tips for extending the battery life:
1) Don't jump all over the player on random tracks, instead, just let the tracks play sequentially. Jumping all over causes more battery drain since the hard drive is working more. I'm not sure this applies if you are using an MP3 player that uses flash memory.

2) Don't use the backlight

3) Let the battery drain totally before recharging. I know that Li-ION is supposed to not benefit from this but seems to work for me on my Li-ION battery devices. I usually set the iPod on play and let it run all night if I need to drain the battery.

I'm sure they're probably selling some charger that will work in the laptop power outlets also these days...

iHP 120/140
 

My suggestion: iRiver. It does have a great battery life, about 12-15 hours, dpending on bitrate, etc. Sound to me is great, and it has few nice added features, that I like.

such as Optical In/Out: you can hook it up to stereo, and, more important, you can convert CD right into the player. It is not a violation of copy protection laws, and it works on copy-protected CD´s :)

It comes with a remote control, whch I find very handy, both in fligh and in other situations: you can everything from the remote, which has a little LCD screen, and keep the player tucked away. Size is like IPOD. It´s not the cheapest, but for me has been worth he money.

I have a Dell and it has fantastic battery life. Also, the charger is international. I think the 15 hrs is an underestimate. I think I see close to 20 hours. JFK-SFO-PVG listening the whole way, moderate use of backlight for playlist construction, etc and plenty left when I got to Shanghai. JFK-NRT a few times also and plenty left when I arrived each time. Im delighted to be getting a mini-IPOD, it has great sound and is a lot smaller than the Dell, but Im hanging on to the Dell for long hauls.

Like NARacer, I too, have an iHP-120. I've used it on few transpac and transatlantic flights. Probably only turned off while watching a movie or 2 (and take-off/landing too). Never had the power running out on me. Of course, I always made sure it was charged before the flight. It's really nice not having to worry about conserving power. Definately wouldn't get on a plane without it.

This is most feature rich player when I brought it back in Nov '03. I'm not sure about the Dell and Mini-iPOD as they were released later.

Several models, including the iPod, can be used with cigarette lighter type adapters.

Belkin, Monster, and XTremeMac all make good ones for the ipod. They can all be bought at Apple's Web store.

If I'm using mine for an extended period of time I'll just bring along the adapter and plug it in for the duration of the flight/drive/whatever. Most long-haul planes have power jacks now.

I have seen the adaptors for IPODs that will work with the system on AA planes. Is there one which will work on the UA type onboard power systems? Another option of course is to charge off a laptop which works fine for IPODs if you have a laptop with you.

I have a first generation 5gb iPod and while the battery is losing its grip on reality, I have yet to have it give up on any longhaul fight that it began fully charged. What I find somewhat absurd here is that the player needs to last whatever the stated flight duration is.

Let's set some guidelines here, unless you are completely anti-social, have a bladder the size of a supertanker, and have no intention of sleeping on an extended flight then you won't be using your chosen player for more that 7 or 8 hours in even the most extraordinary of circumstances.

All that said, I have trip after trip appreciated the short, simple cable I bought several years ago in tokyo that attaches my Powerbook to the Empower system without all the intervening bricks. And, I also enjoy the second battery I have installed in my IBM ThinkPad that lengthens out its duration to 4-5 hours.

Hmm, last trip I took to NRT I played music for pretty much 14 hours non-stop. Wouldnt be the first time either. While you may find your guidelines to be as you state, perhaps others dont. As far as I am aware I am not considered antisocial. Those Wagner operas are just long. But, whatever.

I knew I should have put a smiley after my second paragraph. :o