Korean Job Discussion Forums

[optimus d]

i recently got an ipod and want to reduce my stockpile of cds by saving them into it. now im not very technically savvy, but - correct me if im wrong - im under the impression that wav files take up more memory than the mp3 equivalent. so in order to maximize the amount of music i can save - and cds i can chuck - i would like to convert my cds to mp3 format. does anyone know of a good program/software that does this - something real user friendly, and if possible free for dloading? thanx.

me

[the saint]

Windows Media Player v10 will do it. I also seem to remember v9 offering the same choice. Anyway, install v10 and you won't be sorry anyway.

Then go to tools > Options and click on the Rip Music tab. There you'll see a drop down where you can choose what format either mp3 or wmv to rip music to your HDD with. The best thing about this is the slider underneath which you can use to adjust quality of the files and this tells you in real time how much each CD is likely to take up so you can adjust away to your hearts content.

v10 also contains a very useful and drag and drop sync function to transfer music to your device.

[Bulsajo]

Music Match Juke box, Media Player etc.

I recommend CDex

[agraham]

I can't speak for WMP 10, since I run Windows 2000 and WMP 10 is only available for XP...

But in WMP 9 you can't encode to MP3 without paying for a third party codec. They're not much, only about 10 bucks, but it's just an example of Microsoft sticking thier dick in your mashed potatoes cause they want MP3 to die and be replaced by WMA. As if.

You can see the available codecs "plugins" for WMP 9 at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9Series/GettingStarted//Personalization/Plugins.asp

Old versions of WMP could encode to MP3, but once you "upgrade" you can never "downgrade" again.

Bastards.

[jazblanc77]

WinAmp is great. You can rip CD's into WMA, MP3, MP4, or AAC at any quality or size. The best thing about WinAmp Pro is that it also adds tags to your rips so you don't have to do it manually.

BTW, if you are going to use Windows Media Player, make sure you turn off your GUI options, meaning "unclick" every box in the tools>options>privacy area. They are a security risk for inbound traffic and they also communicate with other computers, telling them how WMP is being used.

[JAMZ]

ya winamp is really good

[jazblanc77]

Buy the Pro version.

[Gregarious Monk]

You can try CDex. It's open-source and free to download.

http://www.cdex.n3.net/

You can rip a CD into WAV, WAV to MP3, CD to MP3. It handles CDDB over the internet or locally and inserts ID3 tags and builds foldernames based on a simple configuration in the options. I've been using it for a while and it does the job, I haven't really done a hardcore comparison to other ripping utilities but I don't get any complaints about the files I've encoded using it. The only negative you might experience is having to do all the reading to figure out whether you want to use ABR, VBR, etc., etc.

[optimus d]

thanks for all the tips. the media player route seems pretty straightforward. but ***, i may just hit u up for the........ thanks again all.

[Bulsajo]

The nice thing about CDex is that you can rip copy-protected CDs with it.

[the saint]

[jazblanc77]

[Gregarious Monk]

CDex does the ID3 tags properly, based on the CDDB information with no DRM coming into the equation. You can tailor the tags

The LAME encoding (based on Fraunhofer's test code and improved) used by CDex is awesome, to boot. Try it and see it you like it. It's complelely free with no locked features or impending registration to deal with.