MP3 questions

[Bix Dugan]

I'm about to get my first mp3 player (from Woot.com) but I have no idea what to do when I get it.

This is the unit I'm getting:

www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=3500552

Can someone point me to a good "MP3 for Dummies" how-to website? Is the mp3 even a good file type to use nowadays?
The player I'm getting also has video, so there's that...


Will it come with software? Do I just use the Windows XP that's on my computer?

Where do you find material to download into it? (besides Rifftracks hehe)


I have a lot of albums I'd like to transfer to the player. I have a turntable, but it's not a USB turntable. It does have phono outputs AND line outputs. Can I just connect the RCA stereo line output to the "In" jack of the sound card (3.5mm)?

I read a lot of the comments on the woot discussion page. A lot of them were talking about something called "rock-boxing" the playlist...?

As usual, Bix is on the cutting edge of new technology. My vast VHS collection proves that.

I would appreciate your inputs.
Thanks.

[Captain Hygiene]

That's exactly the model I got earlier this year. I've had zero problems with it, and I like the fact that you can expand the memory with micro-SD memory cards. I didn't have to install anything, other than just hooking the player up to the computer with the included charging cable, and it's worked fine with three different computers I've used.

Everything I've put onto the player has been mp3 files that I've ripped from my CDs onto the computer. When you plug the player into a USB port on your computer, you can open a directory with all of the subdirectories (e.g. "music" and "videos") on the Fuze. Then, if you have music or video files on the computer, you can just drag them into the Fuze's folders to save them.

I could be completely wrong, but if I understand you correctly, I don't think you can directly pipe your albums into the player itself without recording them first into some digital format.

[Bix Dugan]

Thanks Jamie.
I may have to invest in a USB turntable then, to take advantage of all my new (used) vinyl. Last week, I found 3 George Carlin albums for 50 cents each. I'd like to put those on the player.

[spidervodka]

REAL brief summary:

* the AAC format supposedly sounds better than the MP3 format. I made a few test tracks at the same bitrate for each and couldn't tell the difference. I just stick to MP3s.

* FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec - sounds the best, but it can only compress a track up to @55% of its original size, whereas MP3 - a "lossy" codec - can go up to something like 95% using one the lower bitrates but with an obvious loss of sound quality. Not all players can handle FLAC though.

* in my opinion encode your CDs using the 128kbps bitrate choice at a minimum, otherwise high frequency sounds become very obviously "swishy" and overall the music starts becoming rather indistinct. Personally speaking, 192kbps is the minimum I use, and 256kbps when memory space is not an issue. Higher than 256 - for portable and car use - just isn't worth it to me. Even on my home audio system 256 becomes quite difficult to discern from the original CD.

* according to some audio gear sites I am a member of, different MP3 encoders vary as far as how well they convert .wav files into MP3 files, while DEcoders i.e. your Sansa player all decode the files with pretty much the same quality. That's because an encoder must decide which parts of the music are imperceptible to the human ear, and it's those portions which are then deleted from the file (this why MP3 and AAC are called lossy formats; technically speaking they are "perceptual coding" formats). A decoder simply puts the bits back together again, a relatively easy operation. And the lower the bitrate, the more that is deleted. High frequencies, which require the most data to store, are negatively affected first.

[Chuck]

Windows Media Player will burn the tracks you want to the hard drive in an MP3 format (if you direct it to do so) and then you can transfer them to your device using the appropriate software.

[Bix Dugan]

I managed to do it!
I connected the turntable to an amplifier I bought for $5.00 at a garage sale (didn't want to use my brother's 30-year-old Kenwood) and used a cord that fed the speaker output into the "line in" on the sound card in the PC.
Then I used a free Digital Music Converter called Audacity (free download) to record a track. Then I entered info like Track title, Album name, artist, etc.

I am now listening to Elvis Costello - I Can't Stand Up on my mp3 player!
Now I only have about 297 albums left to go.

[Captain Hygiene]

Good deal! Glad everything worked out for you - I avoided mp3 players for a while, but I couldn't live without one now.

[solgroupie]

i avoided getting one too, but got one as a birthday present last year. it wouldn't work. sent it back. got another one. it worked for a few days and then stopped working. sent it back too. the third one worked for several months and then it died. i guess it wasn't meant to be. but i really liked having one (when it worked, anyway).

[Bix Dugan]

The sansa Fuse I got gave up the ghost when I plugged it into a (cheap-o) auto 12 volt-to-USB adapter from Radio Shack (it was probably reversed-polarity).
So I got an even smaller Sansa (the Clip Plus), and Woot has since replaced my dead Fuze.
Converting albums to mp3 takes a while, because I have to stop every track to enter info and convert. But the Carlin albums are easy because i just do whole sides in one shot.

Now, to put The Sinister Urge on the Fuze! hehehe

[Captain Hygiene]

I've never tried videos on it, but it may cure your fix for watching 1.5" high movies.