In short, no.

You could copy the cd files to your hard drives (about 600 MB per cd, I
believe), and/or rip the files to 64k, but anything else you do will have to
lose something - whether or not that something is acceptable is the
question.

A car does not permit as much dynamic range as your home stereo, so it is
entirely reasonable to accept a great deal of loss.  There is likely some
software somewhere that will permit an acceptable transfer to smaller
compatable files  that would play in your car, but I have not searched it
out.

I have ripped a large part of my cd collection at 192k for my IPOD, and it
takes about 15 gig on my computer.  I could not begin to fit the whole
collection onto my hard drives (two 36gig WD Raptors - high speed serial
drives).

What you really want to do as far as your car is concerned is pick and
choose the best stuff for custom cd's.  To do that, you only need to copy
the best stuff over to your hard drives - not put the entire collection on
the computer.  Then, as much of the stuff for your Rio could go over as you
had the patience to rip.

Interestingly enough, I have not listened to my IPOD nearly as much as I
have to the music on my computer.  I downloaded ITUNES from Apple and
ripped my favorite cd's to the computer to transfer to the IPOD.  But then I
listen to them while I play Freecell or Mahjong, for hours at a time I am
ashamed to say. :)  Unfortunately they do not play well while web surfing.

BTW, what you do not want to do is rip the cd's to the computer, then change
the bit rates.  Always make a fresh version.  I mean, do not make, say, 384k
copies then change them to 64k.

(I suppose that some of this is borderline legal;  I have always bought a cd
before using it.  If a friend gives me something and I like it, then I buy
the cd.)

Disclaimer:  I am not an expert on this stuff, but I am a mathematician,
computer engineer, stereo enthusiast, and IPOD owner who has studied the
subject a bit.

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Favre" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2004 10:01 PM
Subject: [PCSOFT] Shrinking High Quality MP3's to Smaller Size for Flash


> Are there any utilities or ways in which I can burn my CD library to my
> hard drive in a "lossless" audio format, but then convert them to a
> smaller
> size as I export them to my Rio audio player.  The "lossless" format
> creates files much to large for my MP3 player to handle (it is a
> flashmemory RIO player, not a hard drive IPOD).  The idea is that I
> would
> have a full backup of my audio library that I could then put on CD's if
> I
> want them for my car, but not burn them to CD in a manner that sounds
> crappy.  For my flash player, the company recommmended selecting the
> 64kb/s
> format.  This produces average mp3 file sizes of around 3,000k.   Any
> direction to forums that discuss this or direct feedback would be
> greatly
> appreciated.  Thank you in advance.
>
>

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