BACK TO BASICS?

[Granny]

Shallotman, my understanding is that it's a portable CD player which can be small enough to clip to your belt, put in a pocket etc. You record onto it via a computer and it has a very large memory.

I'm sure this is much too simplistic and probably wrong, but it's a start.

And what I'd like to know is what were mp1 and mp2 players?
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Granny

[Shallot Man]

Re MP1 & MP2, Could this refer to the caliber of Members of Parliament. shallotman

[Geoff]

Did you really mean to ask?
- MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is a standard technology and format for compressing a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file) while preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played. MP3 files (identified with the file name suffix of ".mp3") are available for downloading from a number of Web sites. Many Windows users will find that they have a player built into their operating system. Otherwise, you can download a player from one of several popular MP3 sites. MP3 files are usually download-and-play files rather than streaming sound files that you link-and-listen-to with RealPlayer and similar products (However, streaming MP3 is possible.) Winamp (PC), iTunes(Mac), and mpeg123 (UNIX) are popular MP3 players, but there are many others. To create an MP3 file, you use a program called a ripper to get a selection from a CD onto your hard disk and another program called an encoder to convert the selection to an MP3 file. Most people, however, simply download MP3s from someone else and play them.

digital audio is typically created by taking 16 binary digit samples a second of the analog signal. Since this signal is typically spread out over a spectrum of 44.1 thousand cycles per second (kHz), this means that one second of CD quality sound requires 1.4 million bits of data. Using their knowledge of how people actually perceive sound, the developers of MP3 devised a compression algorithm that reduces data about sound that most listeners can not perceive. MP3 is currently the most powerful algorithm in a series of audio encoding standards developed under the sponsorship of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and formalized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Since it is relatively easy to create MP3 files from CD selections and make them available on Web sites for downloading, companies and sites that promote the MP3 format are sometimes accused of encouraging copyright violations. (It is illegal to copy music from a CD and redistribute it unless you have the copyright owner's permission.) On the other hand, MP3 enthusiasts claim that what CD publishers are afraid of is any kind of non-CD distribution. While there are several proposals for how to discourage such piracy, there is currently no secure distribution and copyright management standard that publishers and other parties agree upon.

Several Web sites are promoting MP3 as both a high-quality audio format and as a way in which self-publishers can gain ready access to an audience. While Napster drove adoption of the format in the late 1990s through P2P file sharing, the iTunes Music Store (from Apple Computer) has created a online venue for consumers to legally download MP3s from a catalog of more than a million songs, paying anywhere from $0.99 for one song to $9.99 for an entire album.

MP1 and MP2 were previous standards where to degree of compression was not so high so the resultant file sizes were bigger.

[Di]

Geoff, has anyone ever told you that you can be scary sometimes,

[Shallot Man]

Geoff. I think after reading your explanation, I am likely to get nightmares tonight, shallotman

[Weed]

Geoff

I would like to thank you for a concise explanation which in the main I followed, although you did lose me on the second paragraph a couple of times with some big words

So if I decided to buy an MP3 player would I need an iPod....whatever that is?
My interpretation of an iPod is that it is a hand held computer that can talk to my PC....mind you I am probably totally wrong

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Weed you are right, that you are wrong wrong.

[lizzie]

Hi Weed

You can buy an ipod if you so wish. I wanted the limited edition U2 one which was black and red, and autographed by the boys. I couldn't get one cos they'd sold out. They are available via ebay for around £4000

An mp3 player is a basic ipod but much easier to use and more reliable. I have friends who've bought an ipod and they can be tempremental. With a £20 job, if it goes wrong you don't mind so much. Asda do a fab one for about £25 but you can get them cheaper. To be honest, do you really want to store 3000 tracks?

You can use the media player on the pc to download your music. You burn the cd onto media player which transfers the music onto your computer memory. There is a button on the right hand side of the windows media screen labelled "sync" You drag over the tracks you want, plug in the mp3 to your usb port, press sync and it's done.

I'm a computer idiot and I can do it.........

Go on, treat yourself....

[Weed]

Thanks for your comprehensive explanation Lizzie

I can just imagine me saying to the Governor that I would like an iPod for Christmas 'ONLY' £4,000... after I had picked myself up off the floor...

I agree.... who would want 3000 tracks

Then again I do have some classic 45 and LP records I would love transfered onto CD's if that could be done by an idiot like me then I may well just need that 3000 track player

[richard p]

hi weed if you google something like "copying lp to computer" you will get loads of info on how to connect a deck and what free software to download.
places like maplin now sell record decks which plug into a usb port, well under a hundred quid now.

mind you the kids tell me that any track ever recorded is available to download from the internet... whether its legal or not is another matter... and whether the quality matches vynyl on decent deck with a valve amp and decent speakers????

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Weed, i think you forgot to mention your 78s.

[Primrose]

Weed - you're not the only one who still owns vinyl records. We have a collection of nearly 200 records which my OH started to transfer to CD nearly a year ago. Other more pressing tasks took over after about three had been done, and a few months ago my father-in-law died, leaving my husband his huge collection of CD's and vinyl records!. So now we have a double whammy of vinyl to sort out and transfer. I fear by the time we have sorted out which ones are duplicates and the chore has been finished CD's will be totally obsolete, if they're not already.

[Weed]

Thanks all

I have 'googled' as advised (and it wasn't too painful)I see that Maplin do a piece of kit that, on the surface, looks fairly idiot proof... now my challenge is to convince the Governor that it is a good idea
Over the years I have collected vinyl and tapes that really are redundant in today's society...what a shame

Please don't ask me about the titles as you are sure to cause me some serious embarrassment

My Governor disowned me years ago musically ...she's the pop chick and I'm just a dinosaur

[Granny]

I'd forgotten I'd asked about this and the thread title didn't remind me. Thanks for the explanation Geoff - i understood the gist of it if not the big words - as Weed so aptly put it. I might even practice the big words and use them on my kids.
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Granny