Hi Bill, This is a very much subjective thing, as there are many factors that will affect how much data you can place on the player and how much time that data will play.
One thing that will greatly affect the outcome of any files you place on the player will be the frequency and bit rate of the files. For example, some people like to keep their audio tracks at a frequency of 44100 Hertz, and a bit rate of 128 kilobytes per second, or kbps, as it is more commonly known. Usually, these files can tend to get rather large, and better sounding without compromising too much in the CD quality of the track. Other's like to place actual CD quality tracks and nothing else, in which case, they will tend to be 44100 Hz, and a bit rate of, between 160 and 192 kbps. Keep in mind that these are usually stereo files, and hence their large size. A typical music file, saved at the above bit rate and frequency will usually be around 5 to 8 megabytes, and this is usually running around a 3 to 4 minute song. Now, if you compare this file, with the same bit rate and frequency, to another file, which is saved at a frequency of 22050 Hz, and 64 kbps, the file will be half the size of the larger file, and still play for the same amount of time, and so, you can see how subjective it can truly be. As you may or may not know, I am moderator of a list for Blind Movie Buffs, and people often upload audio tracks of various movies to some file share site. While most people prefer to save their movie soundtracks at the traditional frequency and bit rate, as mentioned above, once I get a hold of the track, I convert it to a smaller bit rate, that of half the bit rate and frequency, in order to avoid too much space being taken up by the files, as my ears don't actually hear the difference between the two bit rates. Others prefer to keep the bit rates as they are, and consequently own about 5 or 6 terabyte drives sitting on their shelves. Again, what ever bit rate you keep your files at, will vary from file to file, but 4 gigabytes will hold a great deal of data, and, as a result, a large number of play hours, regardless of the bit rate and frequency. If it helps, before I got my Muvo MP3 player, I was burning CD data discs with the movies I downloaded. Once I converted the movies to the bit rate I prefer, with each movie running about 2 hours or so in length, I was able to fit about 12 to 13 movies on each 700 megabyte CD. If I left them as is, I was only able to fit half that number on the CD, or, around 6 or 7. So, that meant I could have over 26 hours of play time on that one CD, or only 12 hours of play time on the bulkier bit rate, and so, you can see how easy my choice was. Like I said, it's very subjective, and only you can decide how much data you can place on the player, considering the files you are going to be placing on there, and their respective bit rates and frequencies. Hope this helps. Victor Co-moderator Blind Movie Buffs List Guidedogs List
