Ok, so I'm a numptie.

[BliarOut]

I'm sure I'm gonna regret asking this for the rest of my PH life, but I'm an MP3 numptie

My kids are getting baby MP3 players for chrimbo. So how do I get my CD's on them?

Walks away whistling and waits for the howls of derision

[stone]

Use something such as Windows media player to rip CD's to your PC in MP3 format (select in options) Then drag and drop MP3 files onto MP3 player which will appear as a removable drive

>> Edited by stone on Wednesday 21st December 17:13

[Mikey G]

Windows Media player will rip them to both MP3 and WMA format easily and will also supply album information

Doh beaten to it

But to add dont forget you can alter the bit rate, the higher the bitrate the better the quality but the more space they will take up

>> Edited by Mikey G on Wednesday 21st December 17:14

[r988]

I suppose you will need to rip your CDs to MP3 format using whatever ripping program you prefer. Then transfer MP3s onto player using drag and drop assuming a small USB type Mp3 player. The more fancy ones will probably have software included that does it for you.

[pentoman]

itunes will rip to mp3 as well. Some earlier versions of Windows Media Player do not have built in ripping to mp3 (only wma - microsoft's own format, which there's nothing wrong with if your player supports it, which it most likely will unless very cheap).

russell

[pdV6]

Just in case you're a total numpty, its best to note that the MP3 player needs to be plugged in to your PC via an appropriate cable before trying any dragging & dropping!

[anniesdad]

What the hell is an MP3?

[Podie]

Bit :geek: but here you go..

MP3 is a compression format that uses PCM, and discards parts of the audio stream that (in theory) cannot be heard by humans - bit like MiniDisc. It's a lossy format, but much like its JPEG counterpart - it kinda does the job for most people.

MP£ is actually a shortened version of MPEG Layer 3 - as it's the third generation of the technology. IIRC Layer 1 is used for DAB radio...

What the bit rate up... Media Player 10 will do "rip" (copy) it for you to the HDD... change the settings in options to 320kbps. As an idea of the compression, a CD typically has a bit rate of 1400kbps.

So, you can now "rip" CD's to your PC and be "down with the kids"..

>> Edited by Podie on Wednesday 21st December 18:21

[flossythepig]

anniesdad said:

What the hell is an MP3?

It's a Member of Parliament cubed but the 3 slipped.

Hugh

[BliarOut]

Thanks folks, especially Podie for giving me the jibe to be down and hip wid da mofo's

PD, I'm a numptie, but not that much of a numptie

[roadsweeper]

Personally I've copied all my CDs to my data repository in lossless format and then rip them off there into whatever format I need (MP3, WAV, AAC, etc.)

[LongQ]

Bear in mind that a number of players, for various reasons, have an internal database of the music 'installed' so it is often appropriate to drag and drop viw the software they provide.

The database may be for Digital Rights Management (Apple/Sony come to mind) or it may be more for convenience and adding something to the user experience - Creative for one - by offering an index and various fast ways to get at the sounds one wishes to hear or for selection by genre for example.

As far as 'ripping' is concerned there are many options these days as has been illustrated above. I still use good old MusicMatch though I will confess it is an oldish version when the free release still allowed recording from analogue sources via 'line in'.

One might ask what you are doing putting your music on devices bought for the kids ... but hey, the toys are in your family so until Nanny says otherwise you can do what you like with them I suppose!

[Fish]

I use EAC Exact Audio Copy and it can rip to the HDD very fast if needed adjust bit rates and use freedb to get the track info..

[Hanslow]

I use CDex, it's free and easy to use and like the one mentioned above, interfaces to the web portals to get track listings / artist info for you.