MP3 advice needed

[Coco H]

I think I want one.

So where could I buy a cheap one?

Then when I have it - do I go to a site plug in my credit card details and then can download?

In which case any safe sites to download from? Do I need one with big memory?

Anything else I need to think of?

[MilnerR]

Legal downloads are easy to get hold of today. If you get an iPOD go to iTunes, anything else go to napster. Of course you can download illegally via peer 2 peer networks such as limewire but i wouldn't condone that for a second. As far ad memory is concerned you have to decide what you want to use the player for. If its just for your commute or the odd train/plane journey then 256 - 512 mb will be plenty. MP3's take up aprox 1mb per minute at 128kbs. If you want to digitise and play all your Cds then you'd be better off with a hard drive based machine with several gigabytes of storage.

Personally i use my IPAQ pocket PC. You can buy one for around £200 and they play windows medi audio files as well as MP3s. Storage is via SD cards or compact flash cards which are pretty cheap now. (you can also watch films on IPAQs as well)

[catretriever]

I may be stating the obvious but you don't have to download music from t'internet. You can use your PC to convert your existing CD collection to MP3 files which you can then transfer to your chosen device. Of course, this doesn't preclude also using download sites.

As far as storage size goes, I would recommend going for a hard disk player with storage measured in Gigabytes rather than Megabytes. That way you won't need to be continually trasferring files on and off the player, as you will be able to carry around your complete collection all the time.

[Wildfire]

Check out www.mp3players.co.uk service is very good and they give some good advice on the phone.

[Coco H]

Ok great thanks.

Will I need special software to convert my cds?

[MilnerR]

Coco H said:

Ok great thanks. Will I need special software to convert my cds?

Windows media will convert CDs to windows media audio. However there's plenty of free software that can rip CDs to MP3. When buying a player it might be worth seeing if it will play ogg vorbis files as the compression is higher without loss of quality...

[Wildfire]

If you get a good one, you can use wmv files, which are just like mp3s but smaller, and the added bonus is that Windows Media (series 9) player rips to wmv. And as MEdia Player is default on Windows you can do it for free. Connect to the internet and Media Player Automatically names your tracks as well, so when you put them on to your mp3 player they will be named.

[parrot of doom]

Have a look at Archos devices, iPods are overpriced shite.

I certainly wouldn't recommend iTunes, its very expensive. Go to www.allofmp3.com its much much cheaper.

[AllTorque]

My Archos Gmini is fantastic, and does video and games as well.

However for cheapness, Dabs have a 5Gb player for 89quid which is a steal....

Hope this helps

[neil.b]

parrot of doom said:

Have a look at Archos devices, iPods are overpriced shite.

In your opinion.

parrot of doom said:

I certainly wouldn't recommend iTunes, its very expensive. Go to www.allofmp3.com its much much cheaper.

That's because Allofmp3 is only quasi-legal.

[thebluemonkey]

parrot of doom said:

Have a look at Archos devices, iPods are overpriced shite.

Previously I would've called you nasty names and spat in your eye for saying such a thing, but now I have to concede the point. My latest one has spent more time with Apple than it has with me, unfortunately this doesn't appear to be a one off incident either. They built up a good reputation with their first generation ones, which I'm forced to use at the moment, and ruined it by releasing unreliable crap recently.

[telecat]

I hate MP3 but My Son wanted one and the advice given was to get the Sony NW-HD3. It comes with the software to convert CD's to AAc and MP3 as well as download on to the unit. Sounds better than the Apple but it should being designed by an Audio company retaher than a computer company.

[Wildfire]

parrot of doom said:

Have a look at Archos devices, iPods are overpriced shite. I certainly wouldn't recommend iTunes, its very expensive. Go to www.allofmp3.com its much much cheaper.

I have an Archos Multimedia Jukebox 20Gb, came out around the same time as the first gen iPods. Great piece of technology build quality!! My gf's brothers have iPods, they seem ok, but I do agree over priced.