Is it worth it to convert all CDs to MP3?

[instantfamily]

I am probably hopelessly behind the times: we have a collection of 200+ music CDs. We have a PC and an old Ipod (4GB if I am not mistaken) that's never used.

DC are starting to scratch use the CDs, so I am considering transferring all our music to Itunes/MP3.

But what are the (dis)advantages of this except that I am saving my music from the DC? I am envisaging months to transfer everything and then only to have the PC crash and loose it all. Do I need to get a bigger IPOD in order to have more than a fraction of my music on there? do you not shift around music all the time then in order to have access to all your music?

And is the sound quality really the same?

I've lost some very precious and difficult to replace CDs to accidental scratches. I now convert them all to MP3 as soon as I buy them. Any that the DCs particularly like that they want to play on the CD players in their rooms get copied back onto blank CDs so it doesn't matter if they get scratched.

It will take a while to wade through them all but you can do it in the background while you're on mumsnet working on your PC.

The sound quality depends on how you create the MP3s. The lower the bit-rate (eg, 96Kbps) the worse the quality. Set it to a reasonably high bit-rate like 160Kbps or 192Kbps and you probably won't be able to tell the difference.

I've got an 8GB MP3 player and I keep a selection of my favourites on it and then shuffle other music, podcasts, audiobooks etc on and off as I feel like it. Out of your 200 CDs I'm guessing you probably only listen to maybe 20 or 30 with any regularity.

I've got two PCs so my music is backed up on both. If you've only got one then it might be worth getting an external hard disk that you can back-up the music to. If you're using iTunes to download stuff from the iTunes store it's particularly important to back it up carefully.

thanks Snorbs.

You won't lose your music as you will still have the cd's.
I find that i tend to listen to my musuc more if I have it on my ipod.

do you plug your ipods into your cars? i just can't think of times when to take out an ipod. mine would be permanently attached to the stereo, I think.

Think of the iPod as a music library rather than a walkman type thing. Yes it plugs into a dock, my friend's iPod never leave her kitchen, but she never has to go rooting round for a particular cd. It also means you can buy the one track you like, rather than a whole cd of things you're not bothered about (I'm assuming you don;'t use iTunes at all).

I've got a 160GB iPod and all of my (far more than 200) cds fit on there no problem. plus loads of videos and podcasts.

AllThreeWays is right as well. I listen to things that I might not usually bother with if I had to go and hunt the cd down.

sounds good. I may use all this time on MN for something useful after all.

We have put all of our CDs onto iTunes. We did it all in one week, each evening, and worked through them all methodically. Now, whenever a new CD is bought it goes straight on, or - in the case of DD, many are downloaded directly. We also back up iTunes library onto the external hard disk every so often. We still have the CDs though.

On iTunes we have various playlists. The whole lot goes onto DH's big iPod. Me and DD have our own playlists for my iPhone and DD's iTouch.

Dh's car has iPod connectivity, and my new one (comes 1st March) will have too.

There's free CD to MP3 ripping software that will do batches of CDs and does an online lookup for artwork etc for each album.

It might be useful whether or not you end up using iTunes to sync with your iPod (and certainly might also be used by people who have an MP3 player or their phone plays MP3s).

Ripstation Micro download can be used for PCs running XP, Vista or Windows 7. You need to register an e-mail address to be able to use GD3 the CD database used for lookups. The setup software is only 8 MB, so will download quite quickly even on slow connections.

iTunes downloads are not replaced officially by Apple (have heard they may sometimes be persuaded) so best to have an external drive to make a backup of any downloads/ purchases. Backups are authorised for personal use.