A/V Cd's to MP3 or something similar

I hope this hasn't been popsted before but i can't find a similar thread so...

Right guys i've decided to back up all my cd's i've accumulated over the years as i stupipdly left a good chunk of my cd's on a train. Anyway all the cd's i'm going to be copying are going to be stored on a new hard drive i've purchased so storage and space isn't going to be a problem. I do however want to try and keep as much of the origianl quality as possiable.

The problem being that apart from using media player and getting an entire collection of relativly untransfearable WMA's i think it might make the process of adding all my songs to an MP3 player all the more hard. The advantages of media player though is that its very easy to update the album info and get all the tags right. Anyway the question is:

"Does anybody know any free software or a program that i can use to copy all my music into MP3's or something just as universal and also be able to update all the album info"

Please note that although i don't actaully own an MP3 player yet i do plan on buying an Ipod/Iriver or something in the near future so i'd like the format to be as universal as possiable to make the process of adding all my files as easy as possiable without having to be limited by the file formats.

 

I use CDex to convert my CDs to MP3 and it works great. Freeware proggy bug free and good support.

 

FLAC if space isnt a issue 1/2 the size of a cd and loseless. Alternatively burn the CD's straight onto your harddisk or onto CDR's. TBH I havent heard FLAC myself but alot of people praise it. Dunno if theres any easy to use programs nowadays with a nice clicky GUI to encode it up, you may have to use a few command line progs to get em in order. Atleast with a loseless codec u'll only have to worry about your system bottlenecking and/or the loss of quality on the encode or burn.

Drew

 

i use EAC for ripping with lame to encode with a command line of --alt-preset standard -m s or maybe --alt-preset extreme -m s for higher bitrates but imho standard is about right.

EAC is the best ripper i have ever used, highly recommended.

 

I use DMC Audio ripper. and you can choose the quality of the rip right up and passed studio quality.

 

Agreed with Jedi, EAC and LAME for MP3s, you can set it to rip and encode with one button press [may be a few more clicks, I've never personally done it ]

 

I use EAC and Lame also, I would use the encoder directly in EAC since it suports lame, but I like to use 170 kbit ABR so I have to use razorlame seperately.

 

Ditto here, plus it does a few other neat little things.

 

i use EAC and dMC both are good but dMC is the easier to use !!

 

jus copy and paste the commandline razorlame uses for 170k abr into the command line option for lame in eac, now u can do it all at once

 

/me waits for penski to come and praise OGG or any uncompressed audio format.

 

good thing is CDex curcumvents any copy protection on the CD

 

AHHH, wav files are where it's at

Nah, LAME for me, CDDA X-tractor because I couldn't get CDex to work on my new computer (windows XP problem ) and it's great because it can pull all the album info off a cddb server on the net so you don't even have to type anything - you just get the songs you want at the quality you specify with the filename and ID3 (and ID3v2) tags you want!

But as far as super-dooper uber-high-quality rips go you can't beat AC3 straight off a DVD. Pure audiophile bliss

 

iTunes import facility is very fast and set to 320vbr sounds great ...

 

dmc is prolly my favorite. Easy and quick to use. I've had no problems with 1000+ songs. And of course, it's free.

 

ogg is great, especially at low bitrates. Works well with dual audio movies

 

EAC to rip into either FLAC or APE format. Don't bother with that lossy nonsense.

*shakes fist at internet* Damn you, MP3! Now everyone thinks lossy is ok!