Jay Honeck wrote:


Unfortunately, the CD player is built-in to the panel, and is only a couple
of years old -- so I'm not looking to replace it.

Any recommendations on software that will convert MP3 files to something
that is playable on a "regular" CD player?


The .mp3 files need to be converted to .wav files in order to be saved on an
AUDIO CD (playable on a regular CD player.) Most every digital media player
(Winamp, Windows Media Player, ect.) has this capability, as well as the
capabliity to go in the other direction, ie, from .wav to .mp3. The conversion
is done by software and is a purely digital process.

You need to pre-convert, and save on your hard drive, all the .wav files you
want to put on the CD before you burn it. The conversion will take from a few
seconds to tens of seconds per track, depending on the speed of your processor.
The .wav files take up lots of space - about 10.6 megabytes per minute of
audio; roughly 10 times the space of a .mp3 - so you'll need about 800 MB free
hard disk space to fill up an entire CD-R (you'll probably want to delete the
..wav files afterwards.) The tracks on any one CD-R must all be laid down in one
burn operation; you can't do "incremental" burns where you burn several tracks,
stop, and come back later to burn more (actually you can, but most standard
players will only see the first set.)

As long as you've got an in-panel CD player and a PC with a CD burner, I
wouldn't bother with a portable MP3 player in the airplane. CD-R's are cheap
and don't take up much room, and it probably wouldn't take too many to hold all
your favorite tracks. With your MP3 collection on your hard drive, just burn
some new CDs when you get tired of the old ones.

Have fun (hope this helps...)

Mark/C182L