Best Music Storage System

[sd_fuller]

Hi - I have a ton of CDs and would like to convert them to audio files and then store on an external hard drive (I think) that I could connect to my receiver (which I need to purchase as my old one doesn't have any HDMI connections) - and so have a few questions for all the Tom's Hardware forums users...

(A) What is the best way to go about converting the CDs to audio files? formats, software, etc.?

(B) Is there anything specific I should look for in an external drive? If that is the best option.

(C) I would really like a way to see the song being played (either on the drive itself, or elsewhere) - suggestions?

(D) Anything else I should consider? Software service, etc.

Thanks in advance,
Scott

 

[drtweak]

A) There are a lot of CD Ripping programs out there. Most popular are probably just Windows Media Player and iTunes. I only use iTunes to catalog my music not to play it though but that's me. In the settings for both I would set it to 320Kbps for the bit rate to get a little better sound quality or if hard drive space isn't an issue convert it to a WAV file which you can make it uncompressed audio so it get more of the real sound.

B) Any kind of protable hard drive will do. The bigger the better and they are pretty cheap these days. I'd go with a Western Digital brand over a Seagate though.

C) You should either 1) Need a high end receiver that has a USB port and will do stuff like this (like most of the newer car stereos do) or 2) Get a music playing device. This can be anything from an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Table of any brand, Your phone, Ect. There are a lot of apps out there (And if you do iTune's and have an apple device it will be easier) that allow you to just stream your music from your PC.

D) Will depend on what you plan to do. If you want to stream it should a device from your PC then yea you need to make sure you have those guys. If you get a receiver or a device to plug into it that plays music off a USB drive then you will need that.

 

[GoldenGamerUK]

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