My recommendation for CD recorder would be to make sure you purchase it
locally through a major outlet that will allow you to return it.  I have
installed many units for people and I've worked with HP, Mitsumi, Sony
and JVC.  I finally got them all working but it was a challenge.  The
latest one that I installed just would not work on the individuals
computer but did work on one of my computers.  I finally tracked it down
to an old IDE driver specific to the motherboard.  I also have run into
2 or 3 bad drives that I had to return.  Now I try to buy this
particular component locally.

For a player the most popular to date is "WinAmp" at www.nullsoft.com .
They give it out for free but do ask for a $10-$20 donation.  It's a
great player and has the ability to have a customized face using what
they call "skins".  Many publish their favorite "skins" for others to
use.

Pulling the songs off a CD onto your hard drive is "Ripping" and 2
programs that allow you to "Rip" and convert to MP3 in one step are,

1) http://members.tripod.com/~cd2mp3/     This one is free but I have
had some problems with a couple of CD drives.

2) http://www.poikosoft.com/cdda/      I think this one was shareware
and asking $30 and very reliable.

Both can "Rip" a full CD and convert to MP3 and both can take individual
"WAV" files and convert to MP3 format.

Another interesting thing is there is now a portable music CD player
that can play common CD Audio as well as CD MP3 disks.  It's a little
expensive today but I'm sure that the price will drop quickly :-)

http://www.naiam.com/mp3info.html

The Genie is officially out of the bottle :-)
--
John H. Miller
Miller Technical Services
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