AN MP3 TUTORIAL

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If you are not familiar with MP3 technology the following tutorial should answer most of your questions. There's nothing difficult to understand - it's just one of those things where if someone has never explained it to you then the "unknown" can be intimidating. We have structured the tutorial around eight questions:

• What is an MP3 file ?
  
  
• What is an MP3 download ?
  
  
• What is the difference between an "Audio CD" a "Data CD" and an "MP3 CD" ?
  
  
• Will my car's CD player play an MP3 CD ?
  
  
• What if my CD player can not play an MP3 CD ?
  
  
• How do I get my MP3 download ?
  
  
• How do I get MP3 files off an MP3 CD ?
  
  
• What can I do with my MP3 files ?
  
  

If you have additional questions about MP3 files, please consult the help section of Windows Media Player (comes standard on Windows) or iTunes (comes standard on Apples)...or consult a friend. Please be aware that the MoodyAudio.com call center is not equipped to provide education/training in this regard.

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What is an MP3 file ?

An MP3 file is simply another way to store an audio file compared to the file normally stored on an audio CD. That's it. The question is, why store use a different format?

Imagine a situation where you had an encyclopeida set you wanted to send to friend Being large, it is expensive and incovenient to send and it will take a long time to arrive. Fortunately you realize you know another language that can communicate the same information but with alot few words. In fact, if the book was written in that language it would be 30 times smaller! If a computer could translate the book for you....and your friend's computer could transalate it back to English, it would make a lot of sense to do the translation before sending the encylopedia set.

That's whatn an MP3 file does for us with audio. It is simply a different "language" that our computers can use for representing music and speech.

In the seventies a format was developed for recording and making "audio CDs". It was great but had one draw back...it need 10 milion bytes of data for every minute of audio. In the nineties a new format was developed that only required 1/30th that much data.

How does that impact you? Well, rather than put 75 minutes of audio on a CD it is now possible to put 40 hours of audio on it...OR...rather than having a 40 talk "Set" taking up bookshelf space you can hold the same amount of material on a single CD in your desk drawer...OR...rather than waiting for over an hour to download an audio file you can now download it in under three minutes.

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What is an MP3 download ?

An MP3 download is a way to move the material to you over the internet without incurring postage costs and incurring the delays associated with mailing a physical product. When you order the material you will be able to immediately transfer the file to your computer. We discuss later in this tutorial how you actually can use the file. The bottom line is that the computer does all the work for you, and since you can make and audio CD from the MP3 file yourself, you can do everything with the file that you could do with an audio CD...and then some.

Just a few years ago if you wanted material you needed to order it and then wait for someone to fill your order and mail it to you. Now you can receive the material within minutes of ordering it...and at a lower cost.

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What is the difference between and Audio CD, a Date CD and an MP3 CD ?

When you mail a letter in the United States you know where to put the stamp, the destination address and the return address...even knowing how to orient the data on the envelope. The post office knows how to orient the envelope and then read the necessary data. We take all that for granted. Now, some countries don't adhere to the US format and if you send a letter overseas with a US format on it the foreign post office will reject the letter.

Think of a CD as an evelope but, rather than it being paper a person writes on, it is a piece of plastic that a computer writes on.

If you have an audio CD...that is formated to be read by an audio CD "post office" (an audio CD player). If you have a data or an MP3 CD it is addressed to be read by a different "post office"...a computer. The formats are very different for very good reasons. The most obvious one is that an audio CD only has one file on it...a very long one...while a data CD usually has many files on it arranged just like files on your computer's hard drive.

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Will my car's CD player play an MP3 CD ?

Older audio CD players are looking for a specific format of the data on the CD...the "audio CD format". Going back to the post office analogy...sticking an MP3 CD into an audio CD player is like putting a Canadia postal code on a US bound package. The post office will look at it and not know what do do with it.

Newer CD players tend to be more intelligent. They will look for the audio CD format and if they don't see it will see if the data looks like it's an MP3 CD. If so it will play the MP3 files.

You will have to check the instruction manual for your CD player (or check the manufacturer's website) to determine if it will play an MP3 CD. The staff at MoodyAudio asks for two things in this regard. First, our staff has no way of knowing whether or not your CD players will play MP3 CDs so please do not contact our call center or submit a customer service ticket asking us to find out. Second, plesae do not purchase MP3 CDs from MoodyAudio with the intent of testing them in your player and returning them if they don't work. Everyone's willingness to assist us by respecting these requests will help us keep ministry costs down so we can continue to provide this material to everyone.

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What if my CD player can not play an MP3 CD ?

You have several alternatives which are discussed below. Just remember that your computer can translate between the MP3 format and the audio CD format...and your computer has a CD drive in it that can most likely burn CDs. So you can always make an audio CD taht will work in your player. If you are running Windows just use Windows Media player...it came with your computer. If you are using an Apple, use iTunes. As a side note, iTunes can be downloaded for free from www.Apple.com if you want to run it on your Windows-based machine. Our experience is that people find iTunes to be easier to use.

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How do I get my MP3 download ?

When you complete your order you will see links for downloading your talks. Download the files by clicking on each link. It really is best to wait until a file has finished transferring before starting another download.

When you click on a link to download an MP3 file you will be asked if you want to open it or save it. SAVE the file (we suggest saving it to your "desktop" for now). The file you receive will be a "zip" folder. Double click on the folder to open it and you will see your MP3 file. Drag the file from the folder onto your desktop and then delete the folder since you won't need it anymore. You can now move your MP3 file to wherever you want to store it on your computer. This way it won't clutter your desktop and you'll be less likely to accidentally deleted.

If you don't download the MP3 file when you complete your order you can come back to MoodyAudio.com, log back into your account and download the material...so don't worry if you don't have the time to do the download after you place your order. Or if you run into problems download, just remember you can always come back at your convenience to resume the process - we will keep the material available for you for at least 30 days.

Now that you have the files on your computer, open up Windows Media Player or iTunes and drag the MP3 file into that application's window. You will see the talk title and speaker information and you can play the file simply by clicking on it. But you can do more...as we explain below.

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How do I get MP3 files off an MP3 CD ?

Usually you will not want to play files directly from your MP3 CD. But even if you do it is wise to first back up the files on your computer in case the CD gets damaged or lost.

To back up your MP3 CD, copy all the MP3 files from the CD onto your computer's hard disk and tuck them securly away in a folder somewhere. If your computer crashes you will have your MP3 files backed up on the original MP3 CD. And should your MP3 CD gets damaged you will have your files backed up on the computer's hard drive.

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What can I do with my MP3 files ?

You can listen to your MP3 files in a variety of ways:

To listen on your computer, simply click on the file in Windows Media Player (or iTunes).

To listen on an MP3 player follow your player's directions for downloading the files from your computer to the player.

To listen on a standard audio CD player, user your computer to make your own audio CD. Pick up a blank CD-R from an office supply store (they cost about $0.35) and tell Windows Media Player (or iTunes) to convert the MP3 file to an audio CD. The software will make an audio CD on your computer's CD drive.

To listen in your car...

Either make an audio CD as described above, or use an MP3 player that interfaces to your car's stereo. There are three ways to do this...but you'll have to consult the instructions for your MP3 player and car stereo: (1) Some players will have a cassette tape interface that you can plug into the car's tape player. (2) Some cars will actually have an auxiliary audio jack you can plug your MP3 player into and (3) some MP3 players can transmti their audio on an FM channel you can tune your car radio to. Again, check your car stereo and MP3 player manuals. But always remember, you can use your computer to make an audio CD from an MP3 file, and that audio CD will work in any audio CD player.

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