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General discussion

How do I convert cds to mp3

Aug 19, 2005 5:50PM PDT

Hi everyone. Bit of a newby to all this, so sorry if this is a silly question. I have just bought a
sat-nav for the car, and it will play back MP3 files. My question is, how do I convert my CDs to MP3 so that I can transfer them? My operating system is XP. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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You have many options.
Aug 19, 2005 7:45PM PDT

The process of extracting audio or video data from a CD or DVD is called ?ripping.? Converting that data into an mp3 or another compressed format is called ?encoding.? If you include those keywords in your search string, you?ll get more useful information. There are many fine CD ripping guides online.

You?ll also need some software, which may already be installed in your PC. For example, if you keep Windows XP up do date, then you may be able to use the latest version Windows Media Player (WMP10) to rip and encode in one step. iTunes is another popular solution. If you have an iPod, you probably already have it installed. Otherwise you?ll have to download it from Apple?s site.

More advanced users can get better-sounding results by installing Exact Audio Copy (EAC), arguably the best ripper out there, and LAME, a competent mp3 encoder. Both are free. If you install them properly, EAC can also rip and encode in one step. Beginners will almost certainly find a friendlier user interface on WMP10 or iTunes. If you choose EAC/LAME and you get stuck, you?ll have to RTFM.

Another attractive alternative, especially if you have hundreds of CDs to convert, is to hire someone else to do it for you. Several companies offer ripping and encoding services; here?s one of the better ones:

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_ripping.html

They seem to know what they?re doing. They also sell a good-sounding network mp3 player called the Squeezebox 2, which has a small cult following among Internet audiophiles. I don?t know if they use EAC, but they use LAME and they have flexible options when it comes to encoding. They?ll even encode to other formats besides mp3: wma, ogg, flac, aac, etc.

Good luck.

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Read the other thread also.
Aug 19, 2005 8:03PM PDT