Can anyone give me some quick advice. I bought a 1G MP3 player for a try and I am not a person that enjoys tinkering, I like results without much hassle. Problem is I don't have a clue where to go and what to do. I looked at Itunes and MP3.com and I expected to see something about MP3 formats but instead I see several formats listed and none of them are MP3. What does this mean? I have a CD burner and have created CD audio discs with NERO but I don't have a clue what WMA, WAVE, and all those file names should mean to me--a person wanting to use a MP3 player and download songs. Also who is the best site, Napster, Itunes, Musicmatch or who? Can a non apple product work on Itunes? I have dial up, is it worth the hassle to download songs with a slow system or how long will it take with dial up? I realize I sound dumb, thats because I am totally new to this and I am not a techno junky that tinkers. I don't know where to start. Can anyone give me some advice
I'll try to assist you as best as I can Do you want to buy MP3 tracks off the Internet or do you want to put albums and songs you already have on the player? WAVE (or sometimes knows as just WAV) = Is the best sounding quality music files you can create. They are the actual files from the CD itself uncompressed. WMA (Windows Media Audi) = Is Microsofts own digital audio format. It's not as good as MP3 and should be avoided. MP3 = Is the most popular digital audio format. Stick with MP3 seeing as you have an MP3 player. Dont go with Napster as they encode their files in WMA format which sucks. I don't know much about Musicmatch so I can't comment on the service. Only choose iTunes if you have or plan to get an iPod. You could use a P2P app like Limewire but be ware that they are illegal and must be used at your own risk. No. Only apple products will work with iTunes. Depends what speed your dial up is and how big the music files are you want to download. Obviously broadband would be better as it's quicker. Hope this helps. If you have anymore questions just ask.
Thanks for the reply 1. Actually I want to do both: a- Record to the MP3 player from my own collection of CDs b-Record to the MP3 player from downloaded songs and also burn CDs with these songs c- Do both a an b countless times from the same files. 2. I read that the WMA is not as good quality as the MP3 but it is smaller. Personally I can't tell the difference, maybe my ears are too old. The thing that confuses me is that I went to a website called MP3.com and it would search for a song and find the sites you could download the song to your "MP3". THe kicker was none of them listed were in a MP3 format. I saw these formats WMA, RAX, IPEG and AAC. I thought MP3 meant file TYPE! I notice that when I did a GOOGLE search for MP3 downloads one of the sites was NAPTSTER. NAPSTER talks about MP3 players but their files are in WMA. I would think a MP3 player would take MP3 files and not IPEGs, WMAs, RAXs or WAV files. WHAT AM I MISSISNG HERE? 3. I have no clue what you mean with this quote ""You could use a P2P app like Limewire but be ware that they are illegal and must be used at your own risk."" 3. So only Apple products work with Itunes. Well I have a PC and I am a Microsoft beleiver. So can you convert those files into another format to make them work? Can you burn audio CDs from Itunes? 4. I checked out my NERO 5.5. It says it can burn AUDIO, MP3 and WMA CDs. So it sounds like I would be limited if I go with ITUNES, is that correct? I really appreciate the help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Use a program called Exact Audio Copy (EAC for short). It is by far the best MP3 ripper available. Follow all the steps in this guide to get you started = http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/mydeneaclame.cfm Yes you can do both. Yes, MP3.com doesn't actually supply the song it directs you to sites which do have the songs. I would avoid using MP3.com as it seems crap. Avoid Napster as well. They encode their files in WMA which is a dreadful format. I wouldn't listen to anything they say as it seems like their talking crap too. A good site which offers MP3 files is http://www.allofmp3.com/ . You have to pay for each track but the prices seem quite cheap. They have thousands of albums to choose from. P2P (Peer 2 Peer File Sharing) is downloading files such as music for free. The thing with this though is that it is illegal. So if you do decide to pursue this option do it at your own risk. There are loads of P2P apps such as Limewire, Bit Torrent and E-mule. The iPod can actually work with other programs such as WinAmp, Real Player and Windows Media player. You can't make audio cd's from music files downloaded from iTunes as they have DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection encrypted into them. You can't make audio cd's out of music files downloaded off iTunes as I said above because they have protection on them. Hope this helped. If you still want any more advice feel free to ask.
Okay Here are the instructions I must first run the provided CD, I have not done that yet and I don't know what it is. THe player is to be used a removable drive. My player said it must use Windows Media Player and that the player is NOT compatible with iTunes and will NOT play DRM protected files unless it is first copied via Windows Media Player or the music management software compatible with online music store....... a.what is DRM and how do I know if a song has it? b. Do I need additional music management software? The instructions say I can drap and drop files to my player. It also said I can RIP or TRANSFER/Sync tracks to my player.....whats the difference I went to the MP3 site you suggested. It sounds so much easier than the others, but I have not done it yet. Is this site Russian? I also saw where it will download in different file types. It said thre was 3 levels of MP3s....thats news to me! Which should I choose? I will I be able to burn these songs to a audio CD? I did not see how many songs are on this site? You mentioned some additional software for burning CDs. What is this for and/or do I really need it?
I think they are referring to the installation cd that came with the player. Put the cd in your disc drive and follow the prompts that come up. It will probably install the driver on your PC which is needed in order for your PC to recognize the MP3 player. 1) DRM (Digital Rights Management) is protection used by online music services such as iTunes and Napster. To tell if a file has DRM implemented in it click on the file and go to it's properties which should say yes or no. If you have Windows XP then an easier way is to right click the toolbar in the directory the file is in and click on protected. Then it should say either yes or no. 2) I don't think you do It's basically the same thing. 1) Yes the site is based in Russia 2) When you say 3 different levels of MP3 do you mean quality wise. Because you can choose what quality level you want. There are probably thousands of songs on the site. And the site is legal too. Nero is the only thing you need to burn cd's.
FrancoB, I've been downloading music from allofmp3.com for over a year now & have never had any problems with them. It really is very easy if you download their allofomp3 Explorer on to your computer. It will update itself once a day & you can explore their music library at your leisure. You can listen to any song completely if you wish. Then you can download 1 song at a time or a whole CD if you want. When you click on the order button you get a box asking for the file type(mp3, wma,etc..). I download all my music in mp3 format at a bitrate of 192 or 256. This may be a little higher than you want but that's up to taste. Remember that the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality. If you are worried about getting ripped off by this site, don't worry, like I said I've given them a LOT of my money & never had any problem. When you download some CD's from them it will create a folder on your main Harddrive called "My Music". All of your downloads from them will be put in this folder. Very neat & orderly. Now I'm not familiar with the brand of mp3 player you have, but if it's capable of Drag & Drop, You should just have to Drag the music folders that you downloaded to the mp3 player icon & it should copy those files onto your player. When it comes to my CD collection, I use Audiograbber to rip the music to my computer & from there I can load them on to my mp3 player if I wish. Here is where you can get it. http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/download.html Just remember to also download the Lame MP3 DLL. It's very simple to use.
Error #1: You can use iTunes with non Mac players in iTunes for MAC, or iTunes for Windows. You just have to convert the .acc files to MP3. It's not difficult. Error #2: WMA files have better quality at half the filesize and compression rate as MP3. MP3 just became popular before WMA came of age; that is why more people use it.
If you download WMA DRM files, you can play them in Windows Media Player just long enough to get the license for it. Then it will transfer to your player. I am a Technical Support Agent for Rio Audio. I work for the same company who does tech support for the brand of player you have. I will be keeping an eye on this thread. Most of the information you got was correct, but be careful. Even the most confident sounding assistance can be faulty. I have been wrong myself many times.
That's not true. MP3 beats WMA any day of the week. If you want a better alternative to MP3 then choose something like MPC or OGG.
Thanks all of you! I still have not proceeded very far. The thing I have done is upgraded my Windows Media Player for XP from 9 series to 10 series. It took 2 tries but seems to work great. Although the only thing I have been doing is RIPPING (I still call it copying my CDs)my CD library getting ready for this downloading of the players. I wanted to take care of this first and that was a big job. I hope everything still works well with NERO Now I see no problem with the Windows Media Player. It seems to work fine. WHY WOULD I WANT OTHER/ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE LIKE "Exact Audio Copy (EAC for short) or AUDIOGRABBER" THAT SOMEONE SUGGESTED? I AM NOT ANTI-MICROSOFT AND IN FACT I PREFER THOSE PRODUCTS SINCE I SEEM TO HAVE LESS PROBLEMS AND I DON'T LIKE TO TINKER? HOW CAN IT BE ANY BETTER THAN PUTTING IN A CD AND CLICKING ON RIP AND IT WORKS? PLEASE EXPLAIN Windows Media Player puts everything to WMA and I don't have a clue if I will have the choice of loading or burning as MP3 or WMA? I just got today from a friend a audio CD that was a mixture of songs and he said he bought and downloaded them all from Itunes. I took the CD and ripped it with Windows Media Player with no problem. THis CD also plays in my car player and home player and on my computer. BITRATE- Now that is news to me. Why 3 levels and why would you want the lowest quality? I mean who goes into audio recording thinking "hey I don't really care how it sounds"? Please explain why I am given those choices and what the tradeoffs are? WHAT BITRATE SHOULD I USE? I did pull down off of my shelf the book "XP FOR IDIOTS". It claims that WMA is a smaller and better sounding format than MP3. That MP3Pro is equivalent but not all things can handle MP3Pro. I think the Microsoft website challenges others to listen at the difference claiming WMA is superior. SO CAN WE AGREE WHICH IS BETTER OR IS THERE THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE (I dont have a clue)? Does the Russian AllofMP3 website have number of songs comparable to Napster or Itunes? I have to admit that being Russian does seem a little more risky to me. How many of you have used it? Are Ipods only Apple? I see others claiming they have an Ipod when I don't think it is. How can a MP3 player be an MP3 player if it takes WMA files? Does that not make it a WMA player? What are all those little machines that take compressed music files, what are they really? I really don't know if my little cheap machine takes WMA, MP3, MP3Pro, RAX, AAC, IPEGs and ETC. It seems that everyone calls them an Ipod or maybe an MP3 player and looks like they are marketed that way as well.
Exact Audio Copy has been proved to be the best MP3 ripper available. It checks every sector of the CD for errors where as other rippers don't. It makes the resulting MP3 files identical to the original cd where as the other rippers can't. It is highly regarded by top audio experts. If you don't want to use EAC and feel more happy using Windows Media Player then do so. I'm just making you aware that there are better rippers out there than Windows Media Player. I have V.10 of WMP and you have a choice of ripping to MP3 and 3 differnt types of WMA. 1) Normal, 2) Lossless and 3) Variable Bit Rate. Re-ripping an audio cd consisting of MP3 files or any other lossy format will result in quality lost. But if you don't mind then it doesn't matter. There's 3 different types of Bit Rates for MP3 files. 1) VBR (Variable Bit Rate), 2) CBR (Constant Bit Rate) and 3) ABR (Average Bit Rate). ABR is the least popular so I wouldn't worry too much about that. CBR is still regarded as the most popular type of Bit Rate for MP3 files. CBR means each frame of Audio stays the same throughout the duration of the song. The most common levels of Bit Rate for CBR files are 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, and 320. You can get lower than 128 but it sounds dreadful. 128 is the bog standard you should listen to. 320 is the highest and best quality. VBR is better than CBR and will eventually overtake it as the number 1 compression type. VBR is good for 2 reasons. 1) Each frame of Audio is different depending on how much compression is needed. A VBR song will fluctuate constantly. 2) The file sizes are typically less than those of CBR but still sound better than CBR. I wouldn't believe everything Microsoft says. MP3 has been proven to be better than WMA. Stick with MP3. Allofmp3 probably has more choice than iTunes and Napster. Another user of the site Digidave said he uses it and hasn't encountered a problem yet. So it probably is legit. iPods are only made by Apple. Most MP3 players can play WMA files as well as MP3 files.
Most of what Weazel200 says is true. Except: WMAs are not a lower quality compression format than MP3. That is rediculous. It is really just a matter of familiarity. Second, There is no such MP3 compression that makes an exact copy of a CDA file(CD file), even EAC. All MP3 compression rates are lossy, just some more than others. I am sure that EAC is an excellent software package, but nobody on this planet is going to tell the difference between any two software titles when encoding an MP3 at the same rate on each title. Now, there is no such thing as an MP3 player. They are all Digital Audio Players, and some will play Ogg Vorbis and FLAC as well, although very few. Most, if not all playu WMAs and MP3s. iPOD is a brand name, and MP3 player is a common term used to describe Digital Audio Players. If you have a Mass Storage Class player, then you don't need any software to use it. You can just drag and drop files into it using My Computer on your PC. Also you can put any file you want on it. You just will not see any non MP3 or WMA files on the display when it is disconnected from the PC. Please indicate what brand and model of player you have. I may be able to assist your interest better if I had that information. Not all Digital Audio Players are created equal. Please reply.
I have an ILO Digital Audio MP3 Player, 1GB. It was purchased from Wal-Mart for $99. I wanted something under $100 dolars and I did not want something with a hard drive. I liked the size and price and also that it had 3 icons at the bottom of the box: "Play For Sure Audio Microsoft" "Plays Windows Media" "Plays MP3"
As you can plainly see FrancoB, you stirred up a hornets nest. When it comes to mp3, wma, or any other file type, it really is a preference call. I would just like to make a couple key points on the matter. 1)On my player wma files take up battery life. I don't know if this is with all players. I don't even know how much. 2)The Bitrate makes a difference in quality of the file. You asked in one post, "Why would anybody want a low quality?". On these small players you are very limited to space. The lower the bitrate, the smaller the file size. The smaller the file sizes, the more songs that will fit on a player. If you were listening to this music on a high quality stereo system you probably would hear a difference. On these mp3 players with cheap headsets or earbuds, I don't believe you will hear a difference between 128kps & 192kps. I wouldn't go any lower than 128 though. 3)With my player there are updates to the drivers that I can get to use the drag & drop method but it's just as easy for me to use the explorer that came with the player to load the music onto my player. It's very simple to use & why mess with a good thing. 4)I use mp3 instead of wma because I found that sometimes through compressing you lose the loudness of the music. I then use mp3Gain to fix this problem. I'm not sure there is any software that will do the same for a wma file. So, as you have probably figured out by now, there are a lot of opinions on all these matters & it can get extremely confusing. As long as the music is on your computer & then being copied to the player, you can't really harm anything by experimenting. If you find out you would like to be able to get more music on your player, than lower the bitrate(quality)& see if you like it. One more thing, Allofmp3.com has been a great site for me. Like I said in a previous post, I've never had a problem. You should really check them out. I recommend it to all my friends. Just today, I downloaded some old Monkeys tunes. Okay, you can stop laughing now!! They did have a couple of good songs. They have everything from ABBA to Zappa. These are just my unsolicited opinions. Take them for what there worth. Good Luck!
I have found allofMp3 to be much easier to use and is more straightforward, compared to Napster. I have dial up and to sample songs seems to take a long time on both websites, allofMp3 may be a little quicker. Now I have to admit that allofMp3 being a Russian website and the prices seem way too cheap compared to Napster. Sounds too good to be true, what gives?
@ FrancoB This is from the AllofMP3 website: The price of the files that you download is determined by their quality that is by the file size and type. The price of 1 Mb is 0.02 USD. You will NOT be charged for either previewing tracks or for the encoding process. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- So basically you are paying for how much data you download and not each indiviudal song like iTunes and Napster.
Thanks to all for the help. Everything is working. Right now I am downloading my free songs from Wal-Mart and I notice if you buy individual songs they are cheaper than Napster. Still have not decided on allofMP3/ One more question---bitrate I notice on my downloads I defualt to 128, is that okay? Is that okay for CDs? Can I change that if I want and can I change it after I download?
I always choose the best sounding bit rate for MP3 files. 1st choice is VBR, 2nd is 320 and so on. The lowest I would go is 128. But it depends on how low you can go. If the website your downloading these MP3's off offer files with higher bit rates then choose the highest ones possible. You can change the quality from one bit rate to another but it's pointless as the file won't sound any better.
I have a problem with your device.I load up some files(about994.39MB)then when finished I remove the player by the "safely remove hardware" on my Windows XP edition PC with windows media player 10 as instructed.BUT when I go back to load more files at a later time, they (the previous files that were loaded) are removed completely.I also delete to the Recycling Bin all those previous files and playlists from WMP after I loaded them the firsttime I assumed they are no longer needed.Do I have to keep the software on my PC for this deletion to stop happening? Do I have to load all the files each time I add new files? Is it some setting In WMP? Thank you for any help you can provide.
