cd's and mp3 players

JERSEYTEX7

JERSEYTEX7

Joined
Dec 3, 2005
Messages
405
Is there an mp3 player that will record CD's from a Cd player without a computer? I have an extensive CD collection but an ancient computer system with Windows 98 and no CDRW/DVD burner. My system does play CD'c and DVD's, though. Any comments appreciated.
 
Most MP3 players focus on being small, so are unlikely to feature a CD drive.

CD burner drives are like $50 these days. Upgrade your PC with one.
 
I am not computer literate, but I thought I had seen an MP# player that could rip directly from a non-computer source. Of course, stupid me. I didnt write the name down. OK, an external drive- the literature says you have to have an USB port. Is that the port in back of my hard drive tower where my printer is connected?And thanks for the info.
 
JERSEYTEX7 said:
OK, an external drive- the literature says you have to have an USB port. Is that the port in back of my hard drive tower where my printer is connected?And thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

That depends on your computer. The ones sold today can have up to six or more USB ports, some in front, and some in back. Some of the older ones may have only one or two.

If your computer has only one USB port, there are converters available that can split your single USB port into four or more ports so you can leave your printer hooked up.
 
An external USB drive will be a bit more expensive than an internal would and won't be as fast, but it will work. Windows 98 does USB very well. Windows 2000 does not do USB very well. Apparently, somewhere between 98 and 2000, they lost that formula. Fortunately, they seem to have found it again for XP.
 
You mention your system will play CDs. You dont need a CD writer drive to use an MP3 player. If you use a program like CDEX to rip the CD (you only need to be able to read the CD to rip it to MP3) and then upload it to the MP3 player over USB that should work. All you should need is a computer with a CD reader drive, a USB port and an operating system that supports whatever MP3 player you buy
 
My MP3 player can record in real time from any source. It comes with a cable compatible with the headphone jack on most stereos. You play the song and the device makes an MP3 recording. It's labour intensive way to make an MP3 collection however. The feature would come in handy to rip a song that I like from someones CD player if I was away from my computer and so inclined to engage in such illegal activity - which I am of course not;).

The machine is a Zen Neon and has a 5gb hard drive.
 
If you want to directly record music onto your mp3 player from a headphone jack like Ming65 mentioned, look for an MP3 player that features Line-In Recording. Be warned, it is rather labor intensive (like an above poster mentioned), and will lead to some tracks lumped together since it separates them by detecting silence between tracks.

Look at the end of the plug on the printer cable that is inserted into your computer. Is it like this:
other5sx.jpg


Or is it something like this?


The second one is the USB thing everyone has mentioned. If it's like that, you should be able to connect any mp3 player on the market to your computer, and put music on it that way.

It doesn't matter if your computer has a CD or DVD burner. All a burner does is allow you to is to copy whatever music you would like onto a blank CD. That's not important for the matter at hand, and you don't need to worry about it.

If you want to listen to music while driving, satellite radio might also be an option.
 
JERSEYTEX7 said:
Is there an mp3 player that will record CD's from a Cd player without a computer?
Click to expand...

If you want to copy CDs, an MP3 player is not a good tool for the job. The term MP3 comes from the fact that these devices use the MP3 compression algorithm (some also support other algorithms).

The music on CDs is not compressed.

This is why 70 minutes of music takes about 600MBytes on a CD but can be stored in an MP3 player in less than 100.

Unfortunately, the MP3 algorithm, like any compression algorithm which achieves that level of compression, is not lossless. There is an inevitable loss of quality when you use MP3 (or any other highly effective compression algorithm).

MP3 is good for casual listening. Most people listen to MP3s using either tinny little computer speakers or very limited ear-bud headphones, so the quality of the source isn't that important anyway. But, to copy CDs (which is legal as long as a) the copy is for your own personal use, and b) you do not expect to play both copies at the same time) going through the MP3 (or other) compression and decompression process would be a shame. Copy CDs directly.
 
Gollnick said:
Windows 98 does USB very well. Windows 2000 does not do USB very well.
Click to expand...

Only if it's patched with SR2 (and it ought to be by now:) ) and you have the device driver, should be available at the manufacturer website.

USB was not plug and play for 98.

But, to copy CDs (which is legal as long as a) the copy is for your own personal use,...
Click to expand...

Under the standards of Fair Use, yes, but not always under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Phil
 
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