MP3 players

[pagey3]

Ok -this is a bit of a dumb question, but how good are mp3 players - are they worth getting or are they going to be outdated pretty soon?  Where do you get the mp3s from, how do the players connect to your computer - is it via USB?  Can you put illegally downloaded music on them or does it have to be from legal download sites (what are some legal download sites by the way?!)?  can you put music from CDs you already have onto them?cheers!

[jenky]

When you turn a music track on your pc into an mp3 track you can choose at which quality you want to save it. Obviously the higher the quality, the greater the file size. The bitrate of 128 bps corresponds roughly to cd quality so saving at that size will give you tracks that sound pretty much as good as cd, and take up about 1 megabyte per minute.

Most players will connect to your pc via USB, and will simply appear as an extra drive on the screen. You can then just drag and drop the tracks you want.

I'm sure you wouldn't want to save illegaly obtained tracks on it, but basically - if it's on your pc, you can get it on to your mp3 player.

As far as the format becoming outdated, in some minds it already is! There are other digital storgae formats such as WMA and Ogg-Vorbis. Each have their own pros and cons, such as smaller file sizes for the same quality. Most players will say which formats they are compatible with.

[Mattk]

320 is actually near cd quality but any quality of 128 or higher is extremely good.mp3's and players will be around for a long time yet as they are still very much on the up

[fbg40]

I have recently bought my first MP3 player, a 256Mb version by Panasonic. Sound quality is superb, transferring via drag and drop is wonderfully fast. The only drawback with 256 Mb is that I can't get enough music on it!! To this end, my wife has promised me a 4Gb version for Christmas - I can't wait.

Go ahead, treat yourself - or better still, get someone to treat you. Happy listening.