Help on MP3's please

[bondy 10]

My girlfriend is wanting to listen to her own music choice whilst down at the gym, and is thinking about a recordable Minidisc.

I was thinking about an MP3 player as they are really small.

 

I haven't experienced the world of MP3 so need some general info as to how it works, but also:-

 

What capacity MP3 player would you reccomend?

 

What spec PC is needed to download MP3's and how long does it take?

 

What are the best sites to get music from?

 

Cheers

[Lickable 10]

MP3 is better than Minidisc, IMO.

 

If its only for the Gym, a 1gb would probably be good enough. You could fit over 100 songs on that.

 

You need a PC with a soundcard and a USB port, doesnt need much power... Speakers would be a bonus too

 

Itunes is good for music, alternativly, search pervious subjects in this forum and you will find loads of sites.

 

Have fun!

[some_boy 10]

ok, mp3's take roughly 1mb a minute.

 

so a 4min pop song is 4mb at near cd quality.

 

as lickable says 1Gb be good for a hundred songs.

 

mp3's dont need much processor power, so pretty much any pc that can take windows 98 and has a sound card, speakers will play back mp3's.

 

i use winamp but there are loads of players that do the job.

 

any more questions feel free to PM me.

[Cyclone 10]

1gb is overkill for the gym, unless you plan on spending the majority of the day there.

I manage with a 64mb player, but ideally you'd probably want twice or four times that.

This has the advantage of being solid state and so cheaper and skip proof.

 

There's plenty of free software around to rip and encode your own cd's, winamp does it, windows media player does it, then you just transfer the files using usb.

[igm1 10]

I prefer minidisc, but that's just my opinion.

 

MP3 might be better for the gym.

[bondy 10]

Thanks for your replies, all appreciated!

[steevie/d 10]

ive got a ondio 128 meg player and it is good for about 4hr of music in mp3 format but they are all heavy on battries so bear this in mind when down at the gym you can also have wma format too but thats a whole new different story they dont take as much memory up but sound quality may be marginally poorer best regards steve>>> ive got loads of mp3s on disc all latest tunes too if you pm me i will give you deatails of what ive got if ive not got it i know a man who can if you know what i mean lol