Page 1 of converting wma or cds to mp3......how do you do it????

trying to convert my music to mp3.... i can convert from mp3 using windows media player but cannot find a way to convert to mp3.
i have windows xp running if that helps..

I use CDex to convert my CD`s to mp3 format. Not sure if it does wma - but I`ve never looked!

Better still - it`s free and easy to use.:

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

I personally find iTunes pretty good for that. (another freebie)

I use Windows Media player to rip my CDs to mp3. You need to change some settings first, or it`ll rip to wma by default.

Open Media Player (probably best to make sure you have a newish version - I`m using version 10, but have also done it with the last couple of versions too). Once you`ve opened Media Player, click on the TOOLS menu, then choose OPTIONS.

Click on the RIp Music tab, and where it says Rip Settings, Format, you`ll probably find it`s set to Windows Media Audio (WMA). Click the drop down arrow, and choose mp3 instead. Then use the slider at the bottom to set the bitrate quality you want the mp3s to be. I have mine all the way to the left (128kbps), that sounds fine to me. You can set it higher, which will give better quality, but bigger files, so you`ll fit less on. I can`t tell the difference at 128kbps to be honest.

If you want ripping to start automatically when you insert a CD you can tick the two boxes under the Format box. Then click APPLY and OK.

You might also want to change the file location it saves files to so they`re easy to get to. Use the browse box at the top to change the default location for saving files to where you want it to put them. For example, I have mine saved in My Documents/My Music/mp3 Files. Just make a new folder where you want it and point it to that. Also click the File Name Button, and choose what information you want it to put in the file name. I just have it set to Song Title.

Then click APPLY and OK again if you already did it, and close the options box. When you put a CD in it should start ripping straight away. You can also choose to work it manually using the Rip Tab in Media Player.

I downloaded mine from here for free and I`ve found it to be really good.

www.dbpoweramp.com

Hope that helps.

Richard

HD462, I tried to rip some tracks off a CD this evening using the latest version of Windows Media Player (version 10). A pop up box advised I needed to buy some additional ripping software, the price ranged from US$9.99 to £5.95. Do you have any third party software loaded or did WMP rip the tracks and convert to MP3 on it`s own?

It just does it on it`s own as far as I`m aware, so long as you set the format to mp3 as I mentioned above. I do have other programs that to it, Real Player (used to use that before when older versions of Media Player didn`t do it), and dbpoweramp, but never really used that yet except to view file info.

Maybe it was just a pop-up ad trying to get you to buy un-neccessary software?