I Pod You Pod, We All Pod for iPod

My birthday is coming up at the end of the month (gah!) and my parents have insisted on buying me a portable mp3 player as a gift. So much so that my dad has the money all ready to be spent this second. Unfortunately I've been so busy with school I haven't had a chance to research what's good/bad, new, or actually what's even out there. I've never owned an mp3 player and am unfamiliar with even the common features. I have been told that although an iPod is the most popular it's not necessarily the best. I do know there are two main times - smaller ones that are flash memory and larger ones that are like hard drives. Right nowI can say that I'm not too crazy about being able to watch movies on my music player but the advantage of getting a big hard drive one would be being able to store some of my homework on it.

Anyone recommend a certain brand or model? Or even a good website to check out for reviews? Any suggestions can help point me in teh right way.