Portable Music (MP3) Players Options

[jcdietz03]

I decided I need one of these. I found a podcast I want to listen to on the road. Yeah, its 2008 and I'm finally getting a MP3 player. So...

What is the best MP3 player? I have heard a lot about iPod. It is true what they say? (i.e., that iPod is the best MP3 player). My family members have iPods and they say they like them.

What MP3 player do you use and which one would you recommend for podcast listening?

My music collection consists entirely of unprotected game music MP3s. I don't listen to music too often.

I'm willing to spend $200.

[jcdietz03]

I decided to go with the Sansa e260.

I was thinking about something like COWON A3 Personal Video Player or Archos 605 WiFi. I think these devices need to get better b4 I buy one.

Archos: Won't play MKV files.
COWON: No touch screen control.
Yeah, I'm awfully picky.

The e260 got decent reviews and some recommendations here. I'm sure I'll be happy with it. I hear the video on this thing is terrible. You need to transcode everything to ultra-small yet still the same file size quicktime, and as we all know quicktime sucks.

Also, my NDS is a media player thanks to the almighty R4. Turns your DS into a media player! This is what I use now. It'd be better to have a dedicated device, as storage space is higher, interface is better, and battery life is longer.