Digital MP3 files and MP3 players

Beginners Guide to Digital MP3 files/players

From the start of this blog I'm assuming you have some basic computing knowledge and just need a lot more information to play music on an item you want to buy or have bought.

The Hardware

Personal players (Like ipods)

These are like the walkman's of yester year but instead of tape or mini-disc they have (like all mp3 players) flash memory inside. This is great as they are no moving parts and no chance of the thing breaking mechanically.

Car Stereo's

There is now a need for all music players to have the ability to use these files, car stereo's may allow you to play a CD/DVD with mp3 files on it or download to the stereo itself, maybe even plug a usb key (mentioned later) into it via the usb port on the front.

Hifi's

Similiar to car stereo setup, assume they opperate the same.

USB key MP3 player

This will look like an ordinary USB memory stick but have the capability to play music files you put onto it rather than pluggin it into a something that can play the files, it's all built into one.

You will always see a reference to memory size in MB's or Gb's, this is an broad inidication of how may files/music tracks that can be stored.

1Gb usually stores (14 cd's worth-about 300 songs)
2Gb usually stores(27 cd's worth-about 550 songs)
4Gb usually stores(45 cd's worth-about 900 songs)

Larger storage media exists in the form of a hard disk devices just like you have in your pc. The sizes can be very large like 20Gb devices or even larger.

Q : How do I know what size the files are ?

ans : They are rounghly 2-4Mb each. These are all rough estimates.


The Software

Lets begin with a simple MP3 file. This is what contain the music you want to play, there are lots of these files on the internet, just use google and enter mp3. Remember to only download legal files and avoid illegal sites.

Q : How do I create these files from my cd collection ?

ans : Download a convertor tool from the internet for free, use google to search for them.

Q : How do I get the get the MP3 files from my PC to the device ?

ans : There are two ways, one would be to use a memory card reader on your pc. The other would be to fix a cable from the computer to the device and download them.

You should now be confident enough to know what Hardware is involved, how the MP3 files relate to the equipment and what software you need to convert your music collection.