MP3 player questions

[Chuck_Clark]

In one sense, my wife and I are rather like the old Jack Spratt nursery rhyme. Martha is tech-crazy but utterly lacking in technical skills. I made my living with computers and networks and all that goes with it - but I'm increasing tech-indifferent. I'd rather play a whistle than a CD and I'd rather play with my dogs than an X-Box.

It's happened again. She's figured out that those things all the kids are listening to are not radios but MP3 players - and wants one. Fate being what it is, I assume that the care and feeding of the lil' beastie will fall to me. So, I ned some info - and C&F seems to have someone who's knowledgable about just about everything. So, while y'all might find these questions elementary, please bear with me.

1. OK, so it can store a thousand songs. Just how do they get in there? Not the storage tecjhnology, that part I understand - but will this entail hundreds of my hours sitting at a keyboard loading, deleting and replacing files one at a time?

2. I know there are plenty of sites where you can download. MP3 files with varying degrees of cost and legality. But what if we already have most of what she wants on CDs? What steps and effort go into taking a song from a track on a CD to a file in the belly of the MP3 beast?

3. About the CD/MP3 combos I've seen, are these really two devices with one set of controls or wll I have to burn a new stack of CDs full of MP3 cuts?

4. What is/are the best brand(s)?

5. Do any of them use replaceable storage media like a plug-in chip or a card? If we want to share a device, how do I accommodate the problem that her tastes run to opera, big band and pop while mine are pretty much set on folk, Celtic and New Age?

6. What should I have asked but didn't?

[antstastegood]

Disclaimer: I don't own one.

On question 2: Getting the CD tracks into mp3 format is pretty simple with something like CDex (free!) http://www.cdex.n3.net/ I suggest a bitrate of at least 160 kbps.

On question 4: I have heard that the dark side of the iPod is the hidden cost of a new battery.

[Chuck_Clark]

One more question just occurred to me -

I only have (and want) a 56K dial-up connection (with an actual transfer rate that seldom exceede 48K). If I were to want to download any tunes, would the lack of broadband be a problem?

[Rando7]

Chuck, I just bought a MP3 player recently and did some research on them. There are probably others out there with more experience but I'll tell you what I found out.

The two major types of MP3 players are hard drive storage and flash memory storage. The advantage of the flash memory is that there are no moving parts so they can't skip, making them good for people who like to listen to music while exercising. The advantage of the hard drive types is that they have a much higher storage capacity as compared to the flash memory types. I listen a lot while riding my bike so got the flash memory type, a RCA Lyra. So a lot depends on what you are planning to do while using the MP3 player.

1. OK, so it can store a thousand songs. Just how do they get in there? Not the storage tecjhnology, that part I understand - but will this entail hundreds of my hours sitting at a keyboard loading, deleting and replacing files one at a time?

2. I know there are plenty of sites where you can download. MP3 files with varying degrees of cost and legality. But what if we already have most of what she wants on CDs? What steps and effort go into taking a song from a track on a CD to a file in the belly of the MP3 beast?

My player came with Musicmatch software which you use to download the MP3 files to your player through a USB connection. The software can also convert files from your CDs into MP3 files so you can put them on your player. Yeah it takes a while to do the conversion but you basically set it up and it can run in the background while you do something else.

3. About the CD/MP3 combos I've seen, are these really two devices with one set of controls or wll I have to burn a new stack of CDs full of MP3 cuts?

Can't say if there are true combos available but yes some of them are basically CD players that play off an inserted disc in either CD or MP3 format, so be careful what you are buying.

4. What is/are the best brand(s)?

I think the name brands like Creative Labs, Rio, IRiver, Apple IPod, RCA etc are your best bet. there may be some great cheap brands out there but I didn't trust them.

5. Do any of them use replaceable storage media like a plug-in chip or a card? If we want to share a device, how do I accommodate the problem that her tastes run to opera, big band and pop while mine are pretty much set on folk, Celtic and New Age?

Mine is expandable by using secure digital cards as are most of the flash memory types. Don't know if the hard drive types are expandable but tend to doubt it as you can fit a gazillion songs on them already. the cards ain't cheap, a 256 MB card is about 50-60 bucks.

6. What should I have asked but didn't?

How can I help George Bush in his quest for re-election?

[shadoe42]

I also own a Lyra 1701 and i love the thing. For the money it is the best thing going. THe Lyra is around 100 dollars. It comes with 128 meg internal and it has a Secure Digital Card slot. Unless something new has come out it is the only mp3 player in its prices range(around 100 bucks) that has this amount of memory and the card slot.I currently have a 64 meg card slotted into mind and I have total around 72 tracks total on the player.

For downloading songs your 56K is going to be slow. THe software the Lyra comes with does a pretty good job of ripping Mp3s from your own cds though. And it is easy to use.

Transfer if thru a usb cable that comes with the lyra. Good thing is WIn XP reads the lyra like it is a regular device so you can transfer files directly to the device thru Windows Explorer.

With one duracel AAA battery it will run solid for around 12ish hours. That is literally running for 12 hours straight without stopping. Using it at work I can normally get a week out of one battery.

[BillChin]

I looked into many MP3 players before deciding on a voice recorder because my main application is recording live music.

There are the hard drive based models such as the Apple Ipod, Creative Labs Zen, Archos Jukebox. Of these the Ipods seem to be the most reliable, the Archos and other off brands the least. One drawback to the Ipod is that the rechargeable battery is difficult to replace.

Flash based players are more durable. Creative has the MuVo with four-gigabytes of flash memory for about $200. If your wife wants a lot of songs without having to swap, combined with durability and portability, this might be the way to go.

There are also CD players that will play MP3s off CDs that you burn on the computer. This offers some flexibility, but it is not what most people think of when a MP3 player is mentioned.

Dial up 56k is a serious limitation. Another route is to rip MP3s off CDs that you own or buy. A typical music MP3 at 128k resolution is 3 or 4 megabytes, and 15 to 25 minutes of download time at 56k. Multiply that by 100 songs and I shudder.
+ Bill

[Norma]

I have a Rio MP3 player. I download songs from my favorite MP3 site onto a folder on my desktop. MP3's are small, I have hundreds of songs. When I want to go for a walk, or rake the grass or vaccum, I go to the computer, open up the software that came with my RIO, and drag and drop files from that folder into it. On my walk, there is no skipping, and the MP3 player is as light as a feather and so small I can stick it in the back pocket of my jeans. It holds about 40 songs. I used to have a CD player (wave). It gobbled up batteries, skipped, and I had to have a fanny pack for it. I'm with my RIO.
P.S. I don't have 56K modem

[Cori]

#2: Before I accidentally emigrated, I decided to MP3 my entire music collection. About 100 CDs took several days of intensive labour to transfer. I have one of the MP3-CD players (looks just like a normal portable CD player) and it works out what the heck type of disc I've stuck in there itself - very handy.

#1&5: I categorised my music broadly according to style and put 8-12 albums on each MP3-CD. However, to transfer music to a standalone MP3 player (like an iPod or the aforementioned Rio's which I've heard are very good too) you'll probably just point and click with the software provided. I have no actual experience of this, but I'd expect the software should have some way to make up playlists which can be loaded easily - thus you and your wife can select your own music and load it up when it's your turn with the new toy.

6. What should I have asked but didn't? Perhaps: "Do y'all recommend this..?: I'd personally answer YES, wholeheartedly. I can now travel with hundreds of hours of music in an extremely economic amount of space. It's also nice to put on a MP3-CD and have it play all day without repeating songs (jazzy-blues on Sundays, requiems on a Friday evening, angry music on Monday etc.) It hasn't affected my buying habits at all - I do "acquire" music online, but if I like it, I make the effort to hunt down a legal copy.

Oh - yes. Check what connections are needed! iPods need a Firewire port, most others need a spare USB port - your 'puter is probably fine, but it's worth double-checking you'll be able to plug the thing in with the minimum of hassle (on my laptop there's only one USB port, which I like to have a mouse in ... would have been a pain to load and reload a standalone MP3 player.)

And storage! Others will know this better than me, but some of the cheapy standalone MP3 players only have enough room for an album or two - which is fine for short commutes&trips, but if you have a low boredom threshold it'll be a pain changing your playlist all the time. So either a nice "lotsaGigs" iPod, or else lots of handy flash cards or similar.

Hope some of this helps - enjoy!

[fancypiper]

Well, I have about 9 gigs of oggvorbis coded music on my computer (my entire CD collection and most of my tapes and part of my vinyl collection and I use XMMS. I have the greatest ITM plus some odds and ends jukebox in the world (possibly). I just got 7 CDs from a friend crammed with home recordings that I need to rip and encode. Some great stuff by some people I have met and want to meet.

I am waiting for something better to come out than they have at present for a portable player.

Maybe a cheap used laptop, Linux and earphones would be a good solution, if you can stand the weight to tote.

[Stu H]

Hi Chuck, I've just bought an I-Pod & am very impressed with it. Main points:

A very large capacity (up to 10,000 tracks!)

I takes about 5 mins in total to transfer a 12 track CD onto the I-Pod including typing out the tracks manually - although you can download CD info.

Good sound quality in the car (via the cassette port)

Ease of use

These are the main aspects for me although I am sure that there are others.

All in all a super bit of kit, but then it was (so I believe) designed by an Englishman!

[MarcusR]

As with jewellery get her that little extra!

/MarcusR

[dtravers]

A minor correction: An Apple iPod will use Firewire or USB2.0 connections.

Also, if you only have one USB port (heaven forbid!), you can buy USB hubs. I currently have a USB keyboard, mouse, printer, joystick and webcam. The system I have only had 4 USB ports so I just got a hub... less hassle that way.

-Derek-