This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Ripping a CD to Your Hard Disk
Windows Media Player lets you copy music from your CDs to your PC’s hard drive. You can then listen to these digital audio files on your computer, transfer the files to a portable music player, or burn your own custom mix CDs. This process of copying files from a CD to your hard disk is called ripping.
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Insert the CD you want to rip into your PC’s CD-ROM drive.
Switch to the larger WMP window by clicking Switch to Library.
Make sure the CD is selected in the navigation pane. Then set the recording format by clicking Rip Settings, Format, and then selecting either Windows Media Audio or MP3.Tip: File Format
For near-universal compatibility with other music player software and hardware, rip to the MP3 format. For slightly better audio quality with smaller file sizes, rip to the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format.
Tip: Bit Rate
The higher the bit rate you select for audio quality, the better the sound. For WMA format files, 128Kbps is the default; 192Kbps is a good setting for MP3 files.
Select the recording quality by clicking Rip Settings, Audio Quality and then selecting the desired bit rate.
Put a check mark by the tracks you want to copy.
When you’ve selected which tracks to rip, click Rip CD.
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Tip: Connect to the Internet
Before you rip a CD, you should make sure your PC is connected to the Internet. This lets WMP download track names and CD cover art for the songs you’re ripping.
Tip: Quick Rip
After you’ve first set the rip settings for your recordings, you can rip directly from the Now Playing window by clicking Rip CD.