Starting out with an MP3 thingy

[dewaltdisney]

Mrs D has decided that she would like a small Ipod type music player. She has a load of CD's that she would like to install on it so can someone guide me on the best way to go. I have in mind copying her CD's to the device, however I go about doing that. Is this possible? Can I buy a cheapie MP3 player as I am not sure she will stick with it after I have ponced around setting it up etc.

Any guidance appreciated

Ta

DWD

[Someone-Else]

I was similar in my thoughts.
What do I want that for, I have nothing to go on it etc. So I brought an ipod nano (small little square thing)



Biggest mistake ever. Nothing wrong with it at all, its just that It turns out I had more music than I thought I had.

I assume like me you know little / nothing about them, so in-short you have to convert all music into MP3's each MP3 is small, but when you have "just a few" cd's it soon mounts up and the ipod nano can only hold 16 GB, and wouldn't you know it my collection came to about 21GB.

I am now the proud owner of an ipod classic which has 160 GB of space.

You can also get an ipod touch, which you can get aps for (makes it do all sorts of things) but I think that at £320 for one that has only 64GB of space its not worth it just for music.

I also joined itunes and "downloaded" all sorts of really old favorite songs from my era.

I am saying get which ever brand of mp3 player you like, but get the one with the biggest storage capacity you can as you will soon fill it up.

My ipod nano now sits in the car and connects to the incar "radio" with about 50 tracks on it (and lots of space)

I also found out (Don't know if any other mp3 player can do this, as I only have my ipods) but you can make play lists.
So for example you can put all your cd's onto your ipod, then make a play list from any or all of your music. in that you could have track 2 from album 1, tracks 1 & 5 from album 2, tracks 3, 1, 9 from album 5 and call it "keyboard music"

Just because a track has been used in one play list does NOT mean you can't use it in another.

There are also a lot of music to mp3 converters out there, but if you have windows, you will probably find that windows media player will do it for you.

You also don't have to listen through headphones / ear buds, there is also available speaker / docking stations that charge your ipod while everyone can share the music. I have my ipod playing now.

[dewaltdisney]

That is useful to know, thank you.

Is it possible to copy CD's onto my PC and convert them to MP3 (if they are not already in that format?) or does anti piracy prevent this? I will buy a unit with as big a memory as I can get but I did not want to proceed if we will have to start from scratch and re-buy all the music we have for download.

Thanks

DWD

[Someone-Else]

Is it possible to copy CD's onto my PC and convert them to MP3

Yes, CD's will not be in mp3 format, but you will probably find that your "windows media player" will convert them for you, if not there are lots of free programs out there that will.

My only "problem" with doing that (I did it too) is that when the ipod "went wrong" it shuffled all the tracks by number not album, so I ended up with 4 tracks called 1 and 4 tracks all called 2, and 4 tracks called 3 etc. But the tracks and albums I got from itunes were not affected. To be honest, I think it was me "pressing the wrong button" that caused the ipod to "go wrong" also with the new itunes you get a free cloud, it stores everything you buy, so if you wipe your ipod (I don't mean wipe it with a damp cloth) you can download everything again free. (I had to do that when this pc crashed big style)

I also realised by itunes keeping a copy for me, I could get rid of all the old cds, and have space for ...............

I admit buying from itunes can be expensive, but I do think its worth it, but its up to you. (Average track price is 79p) but you can also buy some albums for £4 -7 (obviously the more obscure artists)

But as this is a forum, others may have different opinions.

[dewaltdisney]

Great, thanks for that.

I will play around and see if I can add some of our CD's when we have bought a player. I am sure in due course we will download from Itunes but it seems a waste to pay twice for old favourites.

I will let you know how it goes

DWD

[BillyGoat]

Not a big Apple fan, but can't fault their products - they know how to make music players.

If you are going the Apple route, don't waste your time with third party tools ripping your music CDs, go straight to the devil himself and use iTunes. It's free to download, so you can get started now.

Any CD you put in and rip will have all the artwork (covers, etc), tracks named correctly, in order and ready to sync on your impending ipod purchase. Why reinvent the wheel.

While the iPod touch's are expensive, they are VERY useful for other things - it's basically an iPhone without the phone bit. Think of the internet shopping she can be doing while she listens to her music, plus she can watch TV episodes (iTunes again) or read ebooks on the dinky screen if she wants. think of the hours of Angry birds and the quiet time you can do what you want.....

Go see them in the shop, get a feel for the size she wants....if it's gym going/sporty then she don't want a brick in her arm/pocket. Likewise, if the music collection is epic and her tastes vary, don't get a small capacity memory.

Watch out for docks....don't know if the new connector (lightning connector) has made it onto the new devices - if it has, it will render most docks useless without an adapator or a 3.5mm cable (which won't charge it while playing).

Good luck!

BG

[EJJ150847]

Both the Wife and I have Ipods she also has an Ipad, we copy the CDs to the PC, individual selected tracks or the whole CD. We also download music from Itunes as required.

On the PC I have set up individual playlists, Christmas playlists and Grandchildren Playlists. I have an Ipod system in my car so I can select which playlist to play or just 'Shuffle' we also have an Ipod dock so we can play the songs indoors and a portable unit we take on holidays.

As said before you can download the album covers.

I find Itunes user friendly and you can set up to use on 2 or 3 PCs, Ipads etc.


John

PS you can also sort music into genres, rock, pop, country, classical.

[BillyGoat]

I find Itunes user friendly and you can set up to use on 2 or 3 PCs, Ipads etc.

I have to say, as far as software goes, that is what I describe as 'legal malware'. The fact you are pretty much forced to use it to manage your devices and get any kind of use of them is horrendous and the user interface must date back to when computers were first made.

Funny thing is, if any other manufacturer tried to force such software on there (coughnonamescough), they would be in the court with an antitrust/anticompetitive suit before you could say boo!

[Megaross]

You know whats a pain in the arse, trying to get vinyl/ tapes onto an MP3 player.
I use a walkman half the time these days, it's pretty rare I listen to music outside of the house though without being in my car or the pub though so I basically never use these devices anyway.
Used to be a religious iPod user when I was a bus commuter though, was never fussed about it being an iPod but it was an ipod video and it lasted me about 4 years before the battery totally crapped out.

Itunes used to be a lot more user friendly but the recent update has had me pulling my hair our, I've had to go out and learn macros and all sorts of sh*t to keep my digitised music collection tidy because of some of the functionality they removed from it. It's made it so much harder to navigate.

I'd actually say get a Zune and the addon for XBMC, easier to work in my opinion, once it's all set up, because 99% of the time it will organise your music and films for you.