MP3 Novice in need of expert advice!

[Tinderstick]

Hi,

Just bought an Mp3 Player of eBay (£30, 256MB). From Hong Kong, no Brand (?). Heard reviews of these players on here and seem pretty good.

I need some advice on how to get my music on it!!! I have an old 500mhz, Pent III PC, no CD Writer, with a dial up connection. I presume I can still plug it in USB port but downloads will be slower?

I have access to (my old man's!) laptop - which is Pent 4, 2.4ghz, with Broadband and a CD/DVD writer. Guess I can use this to download mp3's quicker?

I have large CD collection which I want to convert into MP3 format.

Questions:

• Where can I (or even can I?) get free Mp3's legally online (Limewire?).
• How can I easily turn my CD's into MP3 albums (any downloadable software)
• Is it even worth trying to download using dial up on my ancient PC?

Any advice very gratefully received.

Thanks

 

[bodhi]

Use windows media player 10 to rip your cd's into mp3 format. Its very good. Also, wouldn't want to try and download mp3's over dial up, would take a long time. With 256Mb you will prob be able to fit two albums on it at a time. Although, it depends what quality you rip the albums at.

Does your dads laptop have windows xp, a usb port and media player 10? If so, i would use that.

 

[Tinderstick]

thanks.

If I download WMP 10 onto my PC, I presume I can still put a CD in the tray, WMP10 will read it and then I can convert it into MP3's? Does it give you the option to convert tracks into different size MP3's and therefore choose what quality?

Thanks

 

[bodhi]

Yeah, i was wondering how to do this the other day and chris on here said media player 10 was the best. I looked through the options which are pretty straight forward and it is damn good. Ive set it up so i just put a cd in and it automatically rips it. Go back 5 mins later and i have the whole cd, including the front cover artwork etc, in my mp3 folder. Just play about with it. Although, if you do it at 320 then you will be probably about 200Mb per cd. Which is ok if you have a 20Gb Ipod, but maybe not the best for your player. Guess thats up to you. Ripping them at 128 would maybe be better. Im sure ive given you accurate advice, but if not then i'll soon get told off!

 

[Quadophile]

Bodhi,

Need not worry, your advice is not incorrect. You did well.

There is however an alternative that i would like to suggest.

dBPowerAmp which is a very good MP3 creater in the sense that it also has the added advantage of creating variable bit rate MP3's from your CD Collection. VBR (Variable Bit Rate) is excellent when you need the highest quality and reasonable file size. The saving could be anywhere between 25%-40% depending on the content and setting you choose.

I use that sometimes to create MP3's for listening to on the computer while browsing. Ideally 192Kbps set on VBR works great as it can go all the way upto 320 and as low as 128 without really compromising. This way a very decent file size is created. You will be able to squeeze more files on your player.

Lame happens to be the best MP3 encoder there is and this is what the dBPowerAmp uses. Try this out along with the one suggested by bodhi and see which suits you better.

 

[Tinderstick]

Thank you for your time and wisdom fellas. I will do as you say and let you know what I find out.

Cheers

 

[KGB-911]

I much prefer iTunes (www.itunes.com) free program from apple. - The best way to convert in my opionion.

I do not think there is a legal way to download MP3's

KGB