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MP3 converter?

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bczoom

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My son got a MP3 player for Christmas.

My question is, what's the best solution (I'm assuming software) for converting what's on one of his CD's into a MP3 format so we can put it on the player.

I also assume there's no legal issues with taking songs off a personal CD and putting it on your own MP3 player, correct?

Although I don't yet condone it, I'm assuming there's going to be a time when he'll want to subscribe to (or whatever you have to do) to some service for buying a tune or 2 off the internet. Any suggestions on good sites to get songs from? What's the going rate for downloading a song? Although I haven't paid close attention, I believe I've seen gift-cards or something at electronics stores where you pre-buy music downloads. Are these cards normally a discount?
 
I thought that iTunes only converted to the useless iPod only, propitiatory format (what ever that is).

I know that I had a bunch of MP3's that are now unusable to me since I no longer use the POS iPod-nano I was given.
 
iTunes just up'd the price for current songs to 1.29 per download and lowered the price for older music to .69 cents. I've never tried to convert the iTune ones to MP3, but since Dave posted it I guess you can do that.
Walmart also was a cheap place to download from. They were priced at .89 cents each a year or so ago.

To convert your CD's songs to MP3's I used Winamp. It used to be a free download ..guessing it still is. It's a player and a file converter all in one. It has been 3+ years since I converted anything to MP3, so I'm probably way out of date on what best to use for converting songs.
 
My daughter's Barbie MP3 players also support .wma files so I just used Windows Media Player to convert their Hannah Montana CD's. :pat:

Check what file formats it supports.
 
Windows Media Player does a pretty good job of converting cd's to mp3's and cataloging your music. Make sure you rip the cd's at the highest bit rate (320 Kbps) to ensure the best sound quality. I ripped all my cd's into my computer last year and just play them in WMP through a blue tooth hookup to my stereo. Works great! You can also create playlists to upload to your mp3 player, unless its an iPod. WMP does not interface with either iTunes or an iPod.
 
bczoom said:
It's not an iPod so itunes isn't an option, correct?.
Click to expand...

iTunes will work fine for converting your CD's to MP3 files as well as a central place to manage those files. Most non-iPod players simply plug in to the USB and show up as an external hard drive. Some come with a utility to upload/download files, some you jsut copy the files manually.
 

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jpr62902 said:
Windows Media Player does a pretty good job of converting cd's to mp3's and cataloging your music. Make sure you rip the cd's at the highest bit rate (320 Kbps) to ensure the best sound quality. I ripped all my cd's into my computer last year and just play them in WMP through a blue tooth hookup to my stereo. Works great! You can also create playlists to upload to your mp3 player, unless its an iPod. WMP does not interface with either iTunes or an iPod.
Click to expand...
Also a good option.
 
I like win media player, but have found using the "lossless" transfer while sounding best thorugh stereo speakers, does not work in MP3 players.
 
Just remember that Lossless or High Quality means a larger file size. For your average kid they aren't going to notice the quality issues and would rather cram more crap on their player.
 
I would avoid iTunes. I think it is a POS. I've tried it several times and several versions always created problems that Apple always had to release a patch for. Yet, some how the Apple blowhards (I use Apple and like Apples, just like Windows better) always said it was Microsoft's fault. Yet, Microsoft wouldn't change anything?:whistling:

Anyway, for conversion I would just use Windows Media Player. That is what I usually use. It works well and is pretty fast and can download the artist/song information from the web saving you the trouble of entering.

Decent places to buy songs so that you don't have to have a subscription are Wal-Mart and Amazon. These will both come down in MP3 format so that you don't have to deal with DRM. Though most (including finally Apple as of yesterday) now sell (most of) their songs in DRM-free MP3 format.
 
Thanks everyone. I went with Windows Media Player as it was already installed.

My knowledge of Windows Media Player was that it popped up when I had a video or something and that I can pause or rewind.

It only took a second to learn how to (and use) the "Rip" function. Within a minute, my son understood as well.
 
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