response 5 of 85:

Oct 15 13:50 UTC 2003

It's not that much work.  In my experience there are only two things you
have to do to keep CDs unscratched:

- Put them back in the jewel box when you're done playing them.
and...
- Put them back in the jewel box when you're done playing them.

Really, that's it.  A CD wallet will work too, though not quite as well.
 CDs get scratched when you set them down, playing side down, on some
random surface.  The dust and grit that are always around will
inevitably scratch them if you do that.  If you look carefully at a
jewel box, you'll realize only the center hub actually touches anything
while the CD is inside it.

I've never had a CD get badly scratched (enough to affect playback) this
way.  The only exception is a disc that a defective CD-ROM drive dumped
back in the tray while it was still spinning.

response 7 of 85:

Oct 15 15:09 UTC 2003

(I wouldn't recommend DATs unless you're recording audio pieces of 
considerable length [i.e., a half-hour radio program] or something where
you don't want to skip around from track to track.  minidiscs are a good
option; I seem to remember that the format uses a cartridge medium, which
is more resistant to scratches than exposed media such as vinyl and CDs.)

(right now, my preferred format is either MP3 or OGG on a CD.  as a
recovering music collector, I owned a LOT of singles and maxi-singles, and
there's really no point in this day an age to have just 1-4 songs on a
disc when you can rip and combine.)

response 9 of 85:

Oct 15 15:19 UTC 2003

Minor scratches it CDs can be polished out using toothpaste.

response 11 of 85:

Oct 15 17:15 UTC 2003

  Whenever I borrow a CD from the library I'm appalled by the scratches
  on it.  I can only ever recall having scratched two of my own CDs
  beyond repair (out of nearly 1500) -- one of them I dropped on a
  gravel driveway, and the other got mangled by the CD player when I
  didn't set it in the tray properly and then tried to close the drawer.
  Lots of people must have bad CD-handling habits, though, because quite
  frequently when I borrow a CD from the library or rent a DVD from the
  video store the disc looks as though it's been sandblasted.

  Like the other respondents who say they have no problem with their CDs
  I don't feel like I do anything particularly special to care for mine --
  I just always keep them in the jewel boxes when they're not in the player.

  Lately, however, my CDs are even less likely to suffer mishap, as I've
  switched almost exclusively to MP3s for listening.  My record collection
  was too large to haul to Alaska when I moved this summer so it's in 
  storage in Michigan.  Before I left Washington, however, I ripped every
  album I own to MP3 and put them all on an external 100Gbyte drive that
  I can fit in a backpack.  My originals are all protected and I can carry
  my music with me wherever I go.

response 13 of 85:

Oct 15 18:36 UTC 2003

Actually if you keep the CDs and don't give/sell copies to other people you're
technically legal.  

I still prefer CDs.  I reload my computers often enough to not want to bother
with hard drive storage, plus I'd rather not compromise sound quality with
MP3 or other lossy-compression format.  I'll use Minidiscs in the car and on
trips, though.  

response 15 of 85:

Oct 15 19:42 UTC 2003

I have a question for folks. I have been thinking about buying an mp3 
player so that I can listen to music while I am walking my dogs. I have 
no idea how to turn my cd's into mp3's. I assume it is legal. Is there 
special software a person has to buy to do this. Also, what is a good 
mp3 player? Is it possible to get one that can be used in the car too?

response 17 of 85:

Oct 15 20:44 UTC 2003

Slynne, would you like a walkman type tape deck and a tape recorder?

response 19 of 85:

Oct 15 21:40 UTC 2003

  re #162:  
  > I have no idea how to turn my cd's into mp3's. I assume it is legal.

  It seems to be.

  > Is there special software a person has to buy to do this?

  You do need software which will "rip" (extract the digital audio
  information from your CDs) and then encode to MP3, but there are
  plenty of packages you can download for free that will do that.
  If you want a polished package with a graphical user interface,
  MusicMatch is a fairly decent choice.  I think the ripping speed
  in the free download version is limited but it'll work.

  If you want more faithful audio reproduction, I am very happy
  with the results I get from "lame", which can be downloaded
  freely.  However, although it's not difficult to use it's also
  not a polished package for beginners.

  > Also, what is a good mp3 player?

  I strongly recommend the Apple iPod.  It's an excellent mp3 player,
  and refurbished 10 Gbyte models were recently selling for $169 from
  Apple.  If you're planning on doing something much more active than
  walking (for example jogging or aerobics) you might want to choose a
  different type of mp3 player.  Right now there are two main types of
  mp3 devices -- the hard-disk-based players like the iPod and solid-state
  players that use built-in memory or flash memory cards and have no
  moving parts.  Although the solid-state-storage players offer far
  less storage than the disk-based players they're less delicate and
  more robust for high-impact exercise situations.

  > Is it possible to get one that can be used in the car too?

  Yes.  Almost any mp3 player will work with the accessory kits they
  sell for car use.  I've got one for my iPod that has a small 
  battery-powered FM retransmitter.  I turn on the iPod and the
  retransmitter and listen to the music on my car radio.  If your
  car stereo has a tape deck you might prefer an adaptor with a
  cassette interface.  Best of all, if your car stereo has an audio
  input jack you don't need a special gizmo at all, just a cable.

  I'm compelled to say again how much I really, really, really, like
  my iPod.  Although I'm eagerly waiting for someone to produce an
  even better device, I don't think its disk-based competitors are
  in its class yet.

response 21 of 85:

Oct 15 22:05 UTC 2003

  Yes.  Though originally they only came in the Mac version, 
  now there's a Mac version and a PC version.  You can also
  convert one to the other by re-flashing the firmware, so
  it's not an insurmountable problem if you wind up with the
  wrong type.

response 23 of 85:

Oct 16 13:49 UTC 2003

Re #13: I've heard it's illegal because computer CD-RW devices are not
covered by the Home Recording Act.  Only audio CD-RW burners (that take
the special audio blanks) are.  Realistically, though, no one is going
to be hauled into court over this.

Re #19: LAME is my pick of stand-alone encoder, too.  It's generally
rated highly in tests.  Please don't use Bladeenc.  Trust me, it's awful.

For audio ripping I like Exact Audio Copy.  It does a great job
extracting audio even from damaged CDs.  I even used it to salvage a
scratched CD, once.

The disadvantage of doing it this way is it's a two-step process.  There
are products out there like RealJukebox that can rip and encode in one
step, but I haven't used them so I can't comment on the quality.

I like MP3-CD players because the media is so cheap.  I can fit over a
hundred songs on a single CD-R blank.  They're bulky so they're probably
not the best choice for jogging, but they work great in the car.  I have
two of them, a portable one (that can be used with a tape adapter) and
an in-dash one I bought later.