MP3 help, please...

[Danskman]

So, taking the long flight to Germany again this weekend, and I had to buy a new discman. Get to the store and start looking at portable CD players, and notice the MP3 players. Hmmmm... extremely small size (I like that), and I don't have to pack a dozen CD's (like that too). I'm sold. I have no idea how many songs 128MB will hold, so I ask the salesperson, and he says 100's. Done deal. I get it home and start copying songs from CD's into my PC (Windows XP). Seems like approx one minute = one MB, so a four minute song is about four MB's. I was only able to fit 33 songs on the MP3 player. I go into the windows settings and see that there is a sliding scale on the "copy music" that regulates quality and file size. So I slide it all the way to the left, and copy a song, and it's about 20% the size it was before. Excellent. That should give me about 150 songs, and that's fine. Anyway, when I copy the song to the MP3 player, it won't play. Message in the MP3 player window says "Wrong file". Went to the manufacturer's website, but nada. Help? TIA.

[RickM]

Mike, Is the quality up to your standards with the quality setting at it lowest (compression at it's highest)?

There are many inexpensive MP3 players that have storage in the 20 -30 Gigabyte range.

Sorry I can't give the tech advise you need. Just trying to help.

[Danskman]

20-30 GIGAbyte range??? I paid about $100 for 128MB, and the 256MB units were in the $150-$180 range. (FRY's electronics) What am I missing here?

The compressed files sound ok on the computer, but haven't been able to listen to them on the MP3 player yet, due to this problem.

[rcecale]

Mike,

Are you copying the files straight over from the CD to your Hard Drive?

You may wanna try using a "ripping" program such as AudioGrabber

This prog won't convert the CD Files directly to MP3's without a particular upgrade. Just go the the LAME MP3 DLL. section of this page and follow the instructions. It's really simple.

Randy

[mikester]

The sales person lied to you or was just plain stupid. It's very common knowledge that a decen quality MP3 = a MB per minute of song. So - 128 would not hold what they stated unless you brought the quality down very low (below radio quality likely).

I would take it back - open box or no and ask for at the very least a store credit.

[Danskman]

Originally posted by rcecale
Mike,

Are you copying the files straight over from the CD to your Hard Drive?

You may wanna try using a "ripping" program such as AudioGrabber

This prog won't convert the CD Files directly to MP3's without a particular upgrade. Just go the the LAME MP3 DLL. section of this page and follow the instructions. It's really simple.

Randy

Yes, I am copying straight from CD to my hard drive. I also noticed that the files created are not MP3 files, but WMA files. I think that might be the problem.

[RickM]

Here's one example:

http://www.ecost.com/ecost/ecce/shop/detail.asp?dpno=294784

[trj911]

The sales guy gave you bad info. I think you got as many songs on there as it will hold.

[84porsche]

You would be better off to purchase an MP3 CD Player. You can burn one/two cds with 700 MB each which should keep you busy for several hours. The salesman played games with you. They are just trying to make a sale. 128MB is not alot when it comes to MP3s, it however is more than a standard cd but you would be better off with what I mentioned and you don't have to worry about involving the player with your computer.

[nostatic]

Take back what you bought. Go buy an iPod. Your user difficulties will go away.

[Danskman]

Originally posted by nostatic
Take back what you bought. Go buy an iPod. Your user difficulties will go away.

Can I use an iPod with a PC, or do they only work on a Mac?

[RickM]

Apparently it runs on both platforms.

This should be informative... 10GB iPod for $169 from Apple

[Saintly]

Hi, I have a 40Gb iPod and it works very well.
the issue that you are probbly having with the current MP3 player (besides the limited capacity) is that windows is probbly making WM, WMA or WMV format files to play in windows media player.
You need to make MP3 files.
I would be very surprised if the MP3 player didn't come with a simple MP3 ripping program but if it didn't then you can download many different free programs from the internet.
Just in case you cannot see the extensions of your files (the default), i would reccommend going to windows explorer and then:
1) click the right icon on the menu bar (views) and select details
2) click on the tools menu and then select folder options, click the view tab and set your options like this.

then select apply and then select apply to all folders.
then click ok and you will be able to see all of the detail that you need.
You can now confirm what type of files that you have been making.
it's a start anyway.

[rcecale]

Originally posted by Danskman
Yes, I am copying straight from CD to my hard drive. I also noticed that the files created are not MP3 files, but WMA files. I think that might be the problem.

I would definitely recommend a "ripper" program, such as AudioGrabber then.

Once converted to an MP3, you can pretty much use them anywhere...an MP3 player, an iPod and even your PC. Jump back to my original post, Mike, and give AudioGrabber a try. If you have any questions, you can PM me...I check this board several times a day.

Randy

[nostatic]

Originally posted by Danskman
Can I use an iPod with a PC, or do they only work on a Mac?

Mac and PC. Pretty flawless integration. Great software. Great hardware.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

[rcecale]

iTunes is awesome!

Coming from a PC* guy, that's saying a lot!


Randy

* PC does NOT stand for Politically Correct!

[cegerer]

Thanks Todd .... finally took your advice and took the plunge. Just signed up and the software side is fantastic. Just tried it thru the MP3 player in my cellphone (Kyocera 7135) and it actually sounds pretty good. Will have to start iPod shopping now .....

One thing I noticed is that many artists offer entire albums for $9.99 but only 1 or 2 singles at $0.99. Am I missing something, or is the single selection limited? -- Curt