Entertainment

MP3 is a compressed music format, which means you can take many of your Audio CDs, convert them to MP3 and fit them on one recordable CD disk.

Where can you play MP3s? PCs, Macs, MP3 players, iPods, cell phones, all Blackberry phones. With a cable you can take these handheld items and connect them to a home stereo. With a FM transmitter you can send your music through your car stereo speakers if it does not have an adapter already. You can purchase an FM transmitter at Radio Shack for about $20.

Many of us have our music on CD format. This was a very good format for more than 25 years. Lately the trend has been purchasing only the songs you want. So what do we do with the stacks of CDs since they will not readily play on an iPod?

Download and install iTunes on your computer. I have tried many music players, including Windows Media Player, and iTunes has the advantage. Not only does it do things well, but many people use it. The reason this is important is because if you have a question or problem with iTunes you can type your question in Yahoo or Google and have it resolved.

iTunes default ripping process converts your CDs into the AA3 format. While different audio formats have their pros and cons I recommend using MP3 for your music. MP3 allows you greater portability in playing your music. For example you can play MP3 files on an iPod but you usually cannot play an AA3 file on an MP3 player.

To modify this setting click on Edit, Preferences, under the General tab click Import Settings…

Choose MP3 Encoder and select 160 kbps. The bit rate Setting: affects the playback quality. The higher the bit rate the better the sound. Start at 160 kbps (kilobits per second). If you want better sound quality select 192 kbps (or higher under the Custom… option). The tradeoff is the increasing size of the music file when the quality is increased. If you have a lot of music, this is a consideration. Using error correction is a good option if you want to eliminate errors during the conversion.

Keep in mind you are not limited to music CDs. If you have a collection of Audio Book CDs and you want to hear them during your car inspection wait or while driving on the Garden State Parkway on a Friday afternoon, rip them as well. Please obey copyright laws whenever ripping any content.

Do not run any disk intensive software on your PC when you are ripping music else you will get stutters on your music transfers. For example, if your virus scan runs while you are ripping music you will probably have flaws in the final product. I found this out after transferring over 200 CDs, then listening to them. D'Oh!

iTunes organizes your music and audio books and displays them for you for easy play. iTunes may not always organize your content how you want. Many times compilation CDs, original soundtracks and duets are categorized in a way you will not prefer. For example, on Whitney Houston’s 1st album almost all her songs list under \Whitney Houston. However her duet with Teddy Pendergrass was filed under \Whitney Houston & Teddy Pendergrass. So that one song is considered a one song album. I moved this one song to the folder which contained the rest of that album. My suggestion is to restructure your files and folders using Windows Explorer, using Cut, Copy & Paste.

The iTunes file that organizes your files: iTunes Music Library.itl. After reorganizing your files using Windows Explorer to put your music where you want and not where iTunes dictates, exit iTunes and erase this file. It is usually found in C:\Documents and Settings\your login name\My Documents\My Music\iTunes. Your music will not be displayed when you run iTunes again. To reconfigure your music list click File, Add Folder to Library…, highlight the folder where your music is stored and click [OK]. Your list is then recreated reflecting the folder changes you made.

iTunes also has a pretty diverse streaming Radio component that is really convenient if you want to play music with limited or no ads and of a wide spectrum of variety. Choose 80’s, 90’s, Reggae, talk or sports. The quality varies so under the View, View Options menu selection choose Bit Rate to see the quality you should expect when choosing your station.

The nice thing about many modern cell phones is they come with memory. This memory is either installed already and/or purchased afterwards for increased space. If you connect your phone with a cable to your PC you will probably access that memory card as a drive on your computer. To view this memory card as a drive and folder load [My Computer] and open the new drive letter that appears when you connect your phone. Look for subfolders called Music or Pictures. This is where your entertainment data is stored. You can Copy & Paste between your C: drive and the phone’s memory card to transfer files. This not only serves as an emergency backup to your media files but it allows you to listen to your music and view your pictures on both devices.

If your cell phone has MP3 capability you can plug your headphones into it and use your cell phone as a MP3 music player. In the past few years there was never a need for me to purchase an iPod or similar music player because my phones played music. It is a convenience not to have to carry an extra electronic device. If you are in the market for a new phone consider purchasing one with mixed media capability. TMobile has a free phone (with paid service) that takes photos, plays music and comes with headphones. My Mom has it. It is really a nice phone and very thin as well.

www.Pandora.com

Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service that plays on the web and some web based cell phones. If you enter a song or artist Pandora plays musically similar selections for you. While playing a suggested song you can give a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down to each. Giving the Thumbs down to a song skips it and prevents that song from playing again and prevents similar types of songs. There are some limitations, like allowing only 40 free hours per month, but it is a great site. If you are throwing a party and would like to hear songs you may not have played if you were feeding in CDs this is an excellent alternative.

He started the company in 1991 to provide Sales, Service and Support of PC Hardware and Software.

Rafael services the small business community, as well as home networks and laptop users.