If you are thinking about buying a music player lately, you would have heard about MP3 players. But what about MP4 and MP5 players? Do you know what are the differences among three of them? Here is some information on musics player technologies to help you decide on what suits your needs.

MP3
MP3 (short for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3) is a popular digital audio encoding format. In simple words, it is a format which encodes and compresses data, without compromising on the quality of sound. Layer 3 is one of the three coding schemes used for the compression of audio signals. A device that is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent the audio recording, by retaining the sound from the original uncompressed state. By compressing, certain sounds that cannot be heard by the listener outside the normal human hearing range are removed. This makes the sound clearly audible to the listener.

MP4
Mpeg-4 Part 14, a multimedia container format commonly known as Mpeg-4. It is a device that stores digital audio and digital video streams, especially those defined by mpeg. Subtitles and still images are also stored. Mpeg-4 Part 14 allows streaming over the Internet. The filename extension for Mpeg-4 Part 14 files is .mp4, thus the name mp4. Devices that play .mp4 files are referred to as mp4 players.

A little deeper dive
An mp3 player is a type of a digital audio player. Digital music files can be stored and organized, as well as played in such a player. In fact, mp3 is the most used format that a DAP (digital audio player) plays.

MP3 is a 1971 audio encoding system that reduces the size of files at about 10% its full length, so it is very popular, since instead of 20 songs (3 minutes or so each) you can have on a normal music CD, you can have almost two hundred songs with good audio quality.

However, there are three distinctive categories that differentiate Mp3 Players based on their different size, price, storage capacity, color or design.
Hard drive based MP3 players
Micro hard drive based MP3 players
Flash based MP3 players.

They are largely used to store digital audio and video files. Officially, the extension for filenames of MPEG-4 Part 14 is .mp4. So in truth, players that play .mp4 files are actually MP4 players.

The major similarity that MP3 and MP4 players have is that the technology they are using. Both the formats are compression technologies. Both MP3 and MP4 players convert standard analogue audio tracks into smaller digital files that can be played on the computer.
However, while an MP3 player is a basic gadget, an MP4 player is an advanced version of the MP3 player.

The evolution of mp4 player devices has led to providing more features such as fm tuner, voice recorder, email, and Internet browser capability. As they are capable of delivering audio and video at the same time.

MP4 players come mainly in two formats:
1. Hard Drive based MP4 players.
2. Flash Drive based MP4 players.

The hard drive based player’s offers greater storage capacity, and usually support for a larger variety of media formats. Flash drive based players have smaller storage capacities, but as an advantage give a smaller form factor and has no internal moving parts.

What about Mp5 Players?
Besides having all the functions of the Mp3 and Mp4 players these Mp5 players usually have built-in DV cameras. Movies can easily be transcoded into Real Media’s RM and RMVB format video from movie/video websites to their MP5 players. Built-in SD and MMC card slots allow users to extend the memory capacity of their MP5 players.

MP5 players always have at least a 2.4 inch vivid color TFT display screens in order to meet the high consumer demand of playing high resolution video on a portable multimedia device. MP5 players have full featured functions with accommodation for expansion. We can even synchronize this Mp5 player to technologies like Wi fi, Blue tooth, GPS (Global Positioning System), DVB T.

Which suits me best?
Before getting on to pick up one of those players, just check your needs. If you want to listen to musics during your workout, traveling then you need a player with longer battery time. So Mp3 player will do for you. On the other hand if you need a player to watch movies, music videos then without hesitation go for an MP4 player. If you can afford more and interested in having many features in one device then go for an Mp5 player.

Before going to have one, check out for
-Storage capacity of the player
-Screen brightness
-Resolution
-Quality of the audio both headphones and speakers
-Battery life

In a nutshell
MP3 player is a device with in-built audio player (MP3, WMA, sometimes OGG format). Sometimes it also offers in-built radio.
MP4 player is also a video player and can show images in JPG/BMP/GIF formats. It must offer a nice screen etc.
MP5 is something new and usually used in marketing and a MP5 device must have in-built camera, radio, video and of course music player.

Author is a blogger and adviser of consumer electronics and posts information on best online deals everyday.