Transferring from CD to MP3

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Marie

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Portable CD players appear to be obsolete and when I tried to purchase a new one to replace an original Panasonic which has "given up the ghost" after 6 years great service I was told I "need to get an MP3" which is "what everybody uses now".

Is it possible to transfer the contents of my precious contemporary poetry CD's onto an MP3 and how do I do it? Is it via my computer (which is a SONY with all kinds of music-centre and visual-centre facilities which I've never used and don't know how to).

Do I need special adaptors/connectors or whatever the leads and attachments are called?

Help and advice would be very much appreciated by this non-technological old wrinklie.
 
well you could always just ignore the advice from the sales person who told you that. Obviously an mp3 player is alot more expensive than a portable cd player. You can still buy them too, just look elsewhere. Im sure argos have some for starters.
But if you do want to go the mp3 route. You could buy an ipod. Install itunes on your computer. Load all your cd's onto itunes. Then whack them on the ipod via a usb cable (comes with ipod).

im just using ipod as an example, im sure its the same way for other mp3 players just different software.

hope this helps
 
my niece got a nice looking sony portable cd play for eur 30 last weekend. u should be able to get one in most places.
 
Bosshog said:
Obviously an mp3 player is alot more expensive than a portable cd player.
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Not necessarily/any more. I just bought a 1Gb mp3 player (will hold about 25 albums, or 250/300 music tracks) for €36.49 in Argos. It's on p. 11 of their current 'September price drops' catalogue, or item # on their website (reduced from £34.99/€60.49 until 19th September). They also have a on the same page for €26.49. But I'd encourage you to give the mp3 thing a try — you might never look back! :)

If you're running Windows on your PC, your [broken link removed] will convert your audio CDs easy-peasy. The only cable you'll need is the USB cable that comes with any mp3 player...
[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
 
DrMoriarty said:
If you're running Windows on your PC, your [broken link removed] will convert your audio CDs easy-peasy. The only cable you'll need is the USB cable that comes with any mp3 player...
[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
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How does [broken link removed] help with CD to MP3 conversion!?
 
Sorry. The cable is for transferring your mp3s from your computer to the player, Marie... :rolleyes:

Here's a fairly straightforward guide to 'ripping' audio CDs using Windows Media Player 10.
 
DrMoriarty said:
Not necessarily/any more. I just bought a 1Gb mp3 player (will hold about 25 albums, or 250/300 music tracks) for €36.49 in Argos. It's on p. 11 of their current 'September price drops' catalogue, or item # on their website (reduced from £34.99/€60.49 until 19th September). They also have a on the same page for €26.49.
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ok, fair enough, but my point was that the salesperson was probably trying to flog a €200 - €400 mp3 plyer to a person who was looking for a €25 - €50 portable cd player.
 
And probably a nice expensive extended warranty 'that you'd really need', I agree..! ;)

€36.49 for a 1GB player (from an Irish retailer) would have been unthinkable a year ago, but these things are just dropping in price at a fantastic rate.
 
GBP£25 (c. €37) including GBP£4 P&P for a no frills MP3 player (GBP£10) and 1GB SD Card (GBP£10.29) from 7DayShop in case it's of any use to anybody. And it has the advantage of doubling up as an SD Card reader (albeit at USB 1.1 speeds) and unlike players with built-in flash memory which has a long but limited lifetime (i.e. it eventually stops working after may erase/write cycles) you don't have to throw it away when the memory goes bad. I have one and find it pretty good. My main complaint is that battery life is not great and I use rechargeable 900mAh AAAs which get cycled quite regularly with it.
 
You could also go for one of the portable CD players that play MP3 CDs. Bit bulkier than the normal MP3 option but on the plus side,

1) Plays normal CDs as well as MP3 CDs (about 200-300 tracks)

2) Excellent battery life - far superior to ANY MP3 player

3) 1GB player has only marginally more room than a single 700MB CD (you could own several CDs with MP3s rather than constantly deleting/adding music from a 1GB player)
 
Jimoslimos said:
You could also go for one of the portable CD players that play MP3 CDs. Bit bulkier than the normal MP3 option but on the plus side,

1) Plays normal CDs as well as MP3 CDs (about 200-300 tracks)

2) Excellent battery life - far superior to ANY MP3 player

3) 1GB player has only marginally more room than a single 700MB CD (you could own several CDs with MP3s rather than constantly deleting/adding music from a 1GB player)
Click to expand...

I bought the Aldi one recently for 28 euro. About to return it. The Shock Protection is rubbish. It takes the first 2-3 mins of each song to build up the ESP memory....so for the first 2-3 mins the cd keeps jumping.....by the time the buffering has kicked in the song is over and it happens again on the next song!
 
legend99 said:
I bought the Aldi one recently for 28 euro. About to return it. The Shock Protection is rubbish. It takes the first 2-3 mins of each song to build up the ESP memory....so for the first 2-3 mins the cd keeps jumping.....by the time the buffering has kicked in the song is over and it happens again on the next song!
Click to expand...

Well the one I own is a Sony (D-NE511), about 4-5yrs old at this stage and as far as I can remember it was one of the first portable CD players to play MP3 CDs. I've never had any trouble with it even after dropping it a couple of times. ESP is perfect particularly since it only spends about 20-30 secs spinning the disc to load up each song. Battery life is claimed to be up to 80hrs when playing MP3 CDs and from experience I can say that this is definitely the case if not better (although this is probably helped by having a small display with no backlight)
 
MP3 players are undoubtably smaller, cooler, more modern and trendier than portable CD Players.

However, if the original poster wants a portable CD player as he has lots of CDs and is happy to carry them around, then I would say to go ahead and buy one. Most decent portable CD players will also playback MP3s stored on CD as well.

I would not buy a 20 squid Argos or Lidl or whatever throwaway piece of kit. Buy something with a brand such as Sony or Philips behind it - it won't cost much more but will be worth it. I had a Pioneer portable CD player 10 years ago with had decent anti-skip (10 seconds). No MP3 of course but it was a great player. Still have it somewhere in the attic, probably...

The reason to go with an MP3 player (as opposed to a CD/MP3) would be battery life, size, weight and, in many cases, superior storage. But they will typically cost more money.

CNet have a good MP3 Player Buying Guide which has price and feature comparisons and some how-tos. Prices and some model nos. are from USA but the relative prices are similar over here.
 
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