mp3 mp4

[Charlie911]

Okay I understand audio is transferred to a CD by mp3. But almost all cd's are at most 80 minutes.

So how come I have just bought from ebay (ok probably not entirely legal no doubt) but I have the entire Harry Potter books 1-7 on audio file AND every book wo written page? Is the answer that it is written onto a dvd?

Come on guys, please help :-)

[VHG]

Audio and music CDs bought from shops are NOT in mp3 format but in a different format. To get the best sound quality they can only get 80 minutes on a CD.

But to make audio files smaller somebody came up with a way of compressing the file to make it smaller (but lose some sound quality). This was called mp3.

So an mp3 file is smaller than a "proper" audio file, but has worse sound quality.

Because of this you can get hundreds of mp3 files on a CD, whereas you can only get 80 minutes of "proper" audio.

You can prove this by copying some mp3 files to CD in "audio" format using say Windows Media Player. You will only be able to get 12 or so mp3 music files (depening on length) onto a CD in audio format.

But this CD will then be able to be played in any "normal" CD player.

[society]

VHG, you've thought me so much! Thanks x

[squarebear]

You can also get different qualities of mp3 and can fit hours and hours of sounds on a CD if you encode it correctly.

[Charlie911]

VHG: This is all a bit technical for me. In simple terms, I have 4 audio tapes that run for a total of 4 hours. So how do I "compress" these files to enable me to get this all onto 1 cd or dvd?

Can you explain as if you are talking to an idiot please? Because in reality.... you are!! Thanks VHG :-)

Oh and can you also explain how I add chapters to the cd please?

Audio and music CDs bought from shops are NOT in mp3 format but in a different format. To get the best sound quality they can only get 80 minutes on a CD.

But to make audio files smaller somebody came up with a way of compressing the file to make it smaller (but lose some sound quality). This was called mp3.

So an mp3 file is smaller than a "proper" audio file, but has worse sound quality.

Because of this you can get hundreds of mp3 files on a CD, whereas you can only get 80 minutes of "proper" audio.

You can prove this by copying some mp3 files to CD in "audio" format using say Windows Media Player. You will only be able to get 12 or so mp3 music files (depening on length) onto a CD in audio format.

But this CD will then be able to be played in any "normal" CD player. Thanks for your help but it is still a bit technical for me.

[squarebear]

You record the tapes onto your PC using an audio lead and a sound editor, then convert them to mp3 using something like Musicmatch jukebox. Compressing them to anything less than 128kbps will make the audio quality worse but the file will be smaller and so you can fit more on a CD.