There are two real issues to consider when selecting a ripper: 1) the quality of the encoder and 2) the quality of the encoder. OH, and there might be a third: 3)the quality of the encoder.
CDEX uses the Lame encoder which is generally held to be one of the best around. I have no idea what MP3 encoder WMP uses. One can get a feel for how Apple feels about encoding in MP3 format by the fact that the pulldown in iTunes shows "mp3" - all lower case; generally not how "MP3"'s are noted. Apple, of course, wants you to use AAC format. Microsoft wants WMA format. Real wants whatever bizarre and arcane format they use by default. I want none of those -- I want clean, high bitrate MP3s. There are tons of MP3 encoders out there, and it may be possible to cause either WMP or iTunes to use a "good" one, but I just use CDEX for everything and don't worry about it. There are some other considerations beyond the first three listed above, such as 4) speed and 5) ease of use, but, really, you only want to do this once, so why not do it as well as possible, within limits (EAC takes an hour or two to rip a CD - beyond my threshold for #4). Read extensively about MP3 encoders and you'll see that it does matter and that (unless something better has come along recently) Lame is the best! With SD cards (sorry 755p owners) growing to 8gb and beyond, one really no longer has to worry too much about keeping the bitrate down to encode songs for the Treo. I keep things at 256kbps and that sounds just fine, if a bit "thin" like all MP3's do. http://www.mp3-converter.com/encoders/mp3_encoder_reviews.htm is a page I just found that might be a good place to jump into the Internet ocean to learn more about this. Cheers, Don -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ltrelanel Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 8:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Treo] Re: Create MP3s From A CD Thanks to everyone! I ended up using Windows Media Player -- Bloody Microsoft!:-) -- but I definately want to check out the others for future reference. Thanks again! Chuck --- In [email protected], Alli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The easiest way is to use the free Windows Media Player (that comes with > Windows) or the equally free iTunes, and have them rip the cd to mp3. > You'll have to change the default settings on both, but they do it just > fine. > > ltrelanel wrote: > > It's been a long time since I bought a CD and I think I'm having a > > brain block or a senior moment, but my wife bought a CD that she would > > like to convert to MP3s and put on her SD card to play on the Real > > Player that came with her 650, and my Roxio CD creator doesn't seem to > > want to do this. Is there an easy way to do this? Does Digital Rights > > Management block me from doing this? How are people doing this now? > > > > Thanks in advance to the group, > > > > Chuck
