pepe63xnotuse Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Could someone please help use,with some pretty(very!) basic queries concerning MP3 players...? We're clueless when it comes to techy stuff but we're thinking of transfering some of our mountain of CDs onto an MP3 player,which would make things a lot simpler when in the MH.. The Kenwood CD player in our MH,has an "auxillary input" socket,which I *assume* would take an MP3 player?..would I be correct in thinking that..? ..and if I am,does any "display" on the MP3 player get shown on the main display..?(..or would it in effect just be utilising the speaker/amp system?). Also are you able to power them from the cigar lighter(via an adapter?) We've also seen mention of "transmitters"(..as in "Buyers who bought this,also bought these..." etc!),what do they do...? We're not after anything too extravagant but at the same time we may as well spend a few quid more and get something decent... Any advice guidance very greatfully accepted... (..but please..keep it simple... :D ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 I'm thinking along the same lines :D ...............Is a Ipod the same as a Mp3?.........and I don't have a input socket on my Kenwood so can I get something you stick in the CD slot :-S ....which I seem to recall you could with the old cassette type *-) Nice to know I'm not the only technical ludite (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Couple of thoughts which might help you guys a bit..... An ipod is one brand of MP3 player, which just happens to do quite a lot of other stuff as well. Unless you desperately want to do all the other techie stuff with it, my advice would be to avoid ipods like the plague....they are way overpriced for the memory (basically, number of songs/photos/films etc you can fit on it; and also the itunes computer software that most people have to use ('cos they ain't savvy about using anything else) is utter rubbish, and converts files into a silly format that only itunes can read. There isn't (so far as I'm aware) anything at all like a pretend CD that you could shove into your MH CD slot, and then use the dangling cable from it to play MP3's. Some people, including us, have tried the "radio transmitter" thingy....which you attach to the output of your MP3 player, and then you tune your MH radio to some frequency and it picks up the signals. Dunno what they are like in the UK, but here in Spain the one I tried was utterly utterly dire. Recpetion was crap at the best of times, and anytime you enter an area where the frequency you've set it to actually has any "proper" radio broadcasts, they bleed all over your music. Others may have a different experience of such things, but I'd say avoid them like the plague if you are gonna be using MP3's whilst on the move. It is usually possible for an in-car entertainment shop/workshop to custom fit for you a 3.5 mm "aux" jack socket, connected to the appropriate wires into the rear of the unit and emerging somewhere on your dashboard if your radio/CD doesn't have one.........however the cost might outweigh the actual purchase of a new unit with such a socket already included....they aren't very costly nowadays. Usually if using your own MP3 player through your vehicle radio, the display on the radio won't show the track info....you'll have to look at your MP3 player screen to see that/line up next tracks/organise your playlists etc. My advice would be to buy any MP3 player that has a big screen, that has 32MB at least ( more would be even better if you've got a load of CD's) of memory space, that has a the standard 3.5mm jack output socket, and for which you can buy a 12 volt cigarette socket power cable as an accessory. Remember also that whatever you buy, you'll then have a balls-aching job to load all your CD tracks into your home PC, convert them into MP3 format, and then use the computer software for your MP3 player to organise them into an MP3 library and then download all that you want to play onto your MP3 player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 Thanks for that :-D ..No,I didn't think that I needed to be going down the ipod route anyway... ..and no,I'm not exactly looking forward to sitting down,sorting through all our CD and sticking 'em on the Mp3 player :-S ..but I suppose if I do them in batches(..maybe MY chosen CDs first... ;-) )and as long as I can keep them pretty organised(..which I *assume* can be done on some of the cheaper bits of kit?),it won't seem *such* a chore... :D So thats; Decent memory Large display 3.5mm aux plug Ability to be powered from 12v socket. :-D Thanks again... ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Sounds like a new radio then :-( ...................At least I've started loading my laptop with my CD's :D ................sorting them into a library will be fun.......not done that yet (lol) Thanks for the post Pepe, and the reply Bruce :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Buy an Ipod shuffle, cost about £30. Join itunes - simple, if you can post on here - you can join itunes. Buy your music from the site and it loads them onto your shuffle - easy stuff. Once you've worked it out you'll be loading albums singles whatever in seconds. When you have time and the skills, you can load your existing cd's onto your laptop and convert into mp3 files. Sounds difficult? Course it does, but it's not, if you just take your time and read the instructions from fellow dummies on google. You will need 2 basics. One the ability to to read and two the ability to use a mouse and/or keyboard. As you have posted on her I'll assume you can manage it, and I'm NOT being a sarcastic sod. Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 LordThornber - 2011-06-11 9:24 PM As you have posted on her I'll assume you can manage it, and I'm NOT being a sarcastic sod. Martyn I know what you mean Martyn :D...............but I have learn't more about how to work computors from this forum than I have from anywhere else :D Considering I've had a web site since 1999 I ought know what I'm doing (lol) ..............but in truth the website was put up by a friend of ours who wanted to have a go at designing a website, I think its still live somewhere www.theoriginalpelmetcompany.co.uk..........I've always liked a short snappy title LOL......... and I only bought a computor because my accountant said I could buy it for nothing......ie business expense :D..................it did look good in my office B-) ................although I still don't trust em for doing my book work 8-) ...which I do in old fashion ledgers using a pen and a calculator B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 When we decided to downsize our house I decided that we were storing far too much stuff. As part of the exercise I recorded all of our media onto the computer - CDs, VHS, DVDs, vinyl and all the photos - yes it took a while as we had a lot of stuff to get through but we now have plenty of space. The upside is we can take all of our movies, music and photos with us. We have everything backed up on an Archos 5 500gb Internet Tablet (might be more than you want to spend) and a spare hard drive at home. The Archos is smaller than my hand but carries all our entertainment - it has bluetooth so can play music through the bluetooth cab radio and it is charged via the USB socket on the radio (radio £39 FROM lidl). It has wifi (wireless N) so we can use it for internet browsing and email. With the optional cradle it becomes a video recorder and both the recordings and the ripped DVDs / CDs and photos can be shown on the van tv or on its own screen. It does have a 3.5mm jack so can be plugged directly into a car radio with an audio in. The Archos has an Android system so you can use many of the apps like Laputa (electronic books similar to the kindle) - so with all that how much space and more importantly weight have we saved in the 'van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 pepe63 - 2011-06-11 12:52 PM Could someone please help use,with some pretty(very!) basic queries concerning MP3 players...? We're clueless when it comes to techy stuff but we're thinking of transfering some of our mountain of CDs onto an MP3 player,which would make things a lot simpler when in the MH.. The Kenwood CD player in our MH,has an "auxillary input" socket,which I *assume* would take an MP3 player?..would I be correct in thinking that..? ..and if I am,does any "display" on the MP3 player get shown on the main display..?(..or would it in effect just be utilising the speaker/amp system?). Also are you able to power them from the cigar lighter(via an adapter?) We've also seen mention of "transmitters"(..as in "Buyers who bought this,also bought these..." etc!),what do they do...? We're not after anything too extravagant but at the same time we may as well spend a few quid more and get something decent... Any advice guidance very greatfully accepted... (..but please..keep it simple... :D ) For the CD player to show what is being played it needs to have a USB socket, I guess yours is just a 3.5mm socket which you use a lead from headphone socket on mp3 player. I don't know of any mp3 players that are power by cigar lighter, but then I've never looked for this. You don't need transmitter as you have aux input, but we have a Belkin one for our old Astra, works well if you choose the right freq to set it. There is another slightly more clumbsy way of doing it, convert to mp3 and burn onto cd if your cd player can play mp3's, you can get at least 10 albums on a cd this way. but I would stick to mp3 player idea as it's also good to take music if your flying away. When buying mp3 player don't just buy the cheapest, some have tiny displays you will struggle to read others have rubbish navigation, thats where iPod wins, but I'm sure others must be as good. For converting music I use Audiograbber, it's free and works well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 Right then..we've bought ourselves an MP3 player(a Philips GoGear)..and now we need a little more assistance please... :-S We've got windows 7 and when trying to follow instructions that we've looked up online,we are instructed to click a "Rip" tab in Media player, however we only have Play - Burn - Sync tabs!? I assume that you CAN copy CDs too MP3 with Windows 7/Media Player ?? :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 ...yes you can. I don't find the latest version of WMP as intuitive to use as earlier ones, but if you actually put a CD into your drive once WMP is started (or even not if you have WMP set as your default player), then the Rip options and Rip command appear. You will need to decide what format you wish to rip in (MP3, WMA, etc.) and what bit-rate you want to rip at (the higher the bit-rate, the better the quality, but the fewer tracks you can get in a given capacity), and set them in "rip settings". Check what your player can handle, once set the options survive until they are changed. (WMA is supposedly better quality at lower bit-rates than MP3, but is less compatible with some devices - the Philips will probably play it). You may wish to set the location to which the music is ripped, but by default it will go to "Music". HTH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 We find 128 best compromise between quality and storage, but I supose it depends how good your hearing is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted June 13, 2011 Author Share Posted June 13, 2011 Thanks again..I've managed to fathom it out now.. :$ ..part of the trouble was,the websites that I was following for advice(.."click this", "select that" etc),were showing me different screens, to the one that I was getting... Anyway got it sorted now! ;-) Thanks again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.