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Posted by Larry W. Virden on 10/15/53 11:29
You are asking several questions:
1. into what format should i digitize my music?
2. what software should i use to do this?
3. what hardware will play that format?
4. what specialty software do i need to manage the software afterwards?
5. what if i also want to buy new music digitally downloaded from the
various web sites - does that change any of the above recommendations?
6. what other considerations need to occur when making this decision?
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1. there's a couple approaches here. someone else here on the group
recommended digitizing (ripping) your collection into a lossless
format, so that you have the best possible quality. That's a good
idea. HOWEVER, it does mean that you either have to find a player that
plays that format, or you have to convert the files into another format
(replicating the files and resulting in even more disk space being
used) before downloading them onto a player. Other formats often
recommended are Ogg, MP3, and WMA. Lots of pros and cons with the
format chosen.
However, the format you probably want to aim towards, for transfer to
your player, will be MP3 or WMA.
More players use one or both of these, meaning that you have more
choices for hardware.
2. There has already been a couple of recommendations for software to
"rip" your music elsewhere in this thread. I'm using FreeRIP right now,
even though the last version I downloaded crashed the Win98SE system I
am forced to use. The computer you are using at home is important to
the decision of what software you use - some systems are more suited
for some software.
iTunes, for instance, only runs on Win2k/WinXP or MacOSX.
3. You mentioned iPods - they play at least a couple formats - a
proprietary format that only Apple players play (well, without you
converting the files), as well as MP3. Some of the other players have
similar setups - play mp3 or wma and often a speciality format that
allows them more control over what is done with a song (whether it was
free or purchased). I just ran across an artist who was offering a
free full track on their web site, but it will expire at the end of
2005 so it can't play any longer. You have to decide whether purchasing
music which sometimes can only play on one machine, which you have to
repurchase if your computer disk crashes, etc. is something that is a
big deal for you.
4. The choice of hardware will often narrow some of these choices. A
player which appears just like a removable disk on your system allows
you to drag and drop your files yourself. On the other hand, some
people don't want to manually manage the tracks. Many players come
with some sort of software to sync the files, build playlists, select
new songs based on what you've been listening, or whatever. And there
are some players (Apple and Sony are a couple of these) which the
vendor attempts to lock you into using their software to manage the
music. If you want to have more selection in music management, you
probably want to factor that into your hardware choice.
5. Again, if you want to buy new music online, this is definitely going
to play a factor in what hardware you choose. if you want to buy
itunes music, then you are going to either need an ipod, or run a
computer that runs the itunes desktop software, and then work out some
way to 'convert' the music for download to your player. Likewise, if
you want to buy via yahoo, wal-mart, or whatever, then you either have
to buy a particular type of player (which will not be an ipod, and may
not be some of the others you look at), or you have to somehow convert
their files into an appropriate format.
6. what other features do you want? To play books from audible.com? To
also play radio? To voice record, or to record things from a line-in
connection? do you want a small amount of memory, which won't skip? A
flash based player is what you probably want then. They range from 64
meg (about 1-20 songs) up to 4 GB (the ipod nano... which I believe can
handle 1-1000 or so songs). I have one of these. Nice, light-weight,
but frustrating to have to keep changing music regularly to get a
choice. Do you want most of your collection in the unit at all times
(even though it means that the player will be more suseptible to
problems if you drop or jar it)? Hard drive players range from 5 GB up
to about 100 GB (if you look at the pocket A/V type units).
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