| What are Mp3s MP3 is an audio compression
codec that allows users to compress songs, speeches, and monkey sounds (Yes, they're
out there...) dramatically without noticeable loss of quality. MP3 stands for
Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3), and because its
ability to compress songs, it became de facto standard for music distribution
over the web.
MPEGs MPEG, pronounced M-peg, is the nickname given
to a family of international standards used for coding audio-visual information
in digital compressed format. MPEG developed not only the MP3s, but played important
roles in many other audio-visual technologies including mpeg movies and DVD.
How Does Mp3 Work? Magic. :) Actually, it's quite simple (in concept,
that is). What MP3 codec does, is that it gets rid of parts of audio that you
and I cannot hear. Our human ears are quite limited in that after hearing something
loud, you can't hear quiet sound for short period of time. MP3 codec calculates
and deletes that part. This is how MP3 achieves its great compression ratio without
the apparent quality loss.
Are Mp3s Legal? MP3 is just a file
format. MP3s by themselves are perfectly legal. Also, if you rip MP3s from a CD
that you own, and use it for your personal enjoyment, it is legal. However, it
becomes illegal when you start trading MP3s or give MP3s away to your friends
without permission from the copyright holder.
How Do I Play Mp3? There
are a number of MP3 players out there, from software that runs on your computer
to hand-held portable MP3 players. WinAmp, is the most popular mp3 player at the
moment and has the most amount of skins and plugins. Another popular mp3 player
is Sonique. The addresses for downloading mp3 players are below
Mp3 Skips A Lot? MP3 requires
a lot of computer resources. If your computer is not fast enough, or if you are
doing something cpu-intensive, MP3 will skip. You might be able to go into Preferences
of MP3 players and set it to lower quality to listen to the music without skipping.
Otherwise you could consider upgrading your computer with a better processor or
memory. Memory is quite cheap at the moment, and our partner web site "UK
Shop Index" lists plenty of UK computer shops that sell computer memory at
very low prices.
What are File Sharing Programs? Napster
and Gnutella are two types
file sharing programs that allows you to trade files with other Napster (or Gnutella)
users. Once you find the file you want, you download directly from that other
person's computer. You can find other other file server programs above, these
include Aimster, Audiogalaxy, Bearshare, Limeware and morpheus. All these programs
are similer in design and features to either napster or gnutella.
|
