I also didn't want to go the iTunes route and I had around 250 LPs as well as a similar number of CDs to worry about. I used the built-in Window media player that was with XP (at the time) and used that to copy all of the CDs over a couple of weeks. It looks up album art automatically and I have never had any issues with it.

The LPs were a differnt story so I purchased some software and spent the best part of two years moving them to the HD. I also have an iPod but still use the Windows media player to do all the transfers - again, I bought some software to assist.

If your car CD player is not too old, you can just copy mp3 tracks to a writable CD (assuming that you have a CD writer in your PC) and play as normal. If you have an aux socket on your car stereo, you should also be able to connect any mp3 player by using the player's headphone socket with a cable suitable for your car's aux socket. If you are driving around in a fairly new (flash) car, you may already have iPod connections built in.

I have a number of portable mp3 players, and even though I am not an Apple fan, the iPod is pretty good at what it does. I have over 10,000 tracks, with album art for everything, and still have plenty of space left for more.

However, I also have my music backed up: one copy on the desktop, one copy on the iPod, one copy on the laptop, and a final copy on a backup HD (along with other data that I need to back up e.g. all my Quake maps and stuff) outside of the PC. Again, I use bought software to organise the backups.

I am now in the process of cataloguing my LPs ready to try an eBay sale.

Bit of a ramble, sorry about that. 

Kindle locks you in to buying books from Amazon -- usually they'll have pretty good deals but it's still a very unwelcome limitation and considering Amazon's questionable business practices (for instance, they've engineered their finances so that they don't have to pay any business tax in the UK, effectively allowing them to trample any competition) I'd advise either getting a Sony e-reader or a tablet which is much more versatile and could also solve your music dilema if you choose the right one.

iPods are well-made hardware but sadly Apple are as closed minded as Amazon when it comes to limiting their customers' choices to their own advantage. It would also require installing iTunes, which is the worst software in the world. Most Android smartphones can be used as a decent enough MP3 player if you install the right apps. 

You can buy an FM device that takes a feed from the portable mp3 player, passes it through a small FM transmitter, which you then pick up on your car radio just like any other FM radio station - your mp3 player is effectively the radio station albeit that it happens to be inside your car.

The downside to that is finding a suitable FM frequency that is far enough away from other, more powerful transmissions, is not always easy. Also, as you travel around, you can move in and out of the range of stronger signals, which buggers up your mp3 player's signal. I found that it worked OK locally but when going on longer journies, I would have to regularly change frequencies to keep a clear signal. My particular FM player has 6 presets, which I have also programmed into the car radio, so it is not too bad.

That all probably sounds far more complicated than it really is. 

Nothing wrong with mp3s. MP4 is just mp3 with apple's arsehole attached. You can back your media up onto....


...computers!!!

People have been doing it for years.

</sarcasm> 

i'm still one of those guy's who want cd's and dvd's of their games/music/movies.
Nothing wrong with it. 

i gotta go convert all my vhs cassettes... 

...should I convert my penis to an usb plug? 

avoid mp3 at all costs! That said, I own Macs since more than 20 years. and my current iPod is a 4 yo 80gigs classic. Both iTunz on my cpu and the pod are packed with 800 albums. 4 years ago I've re-encoded/dlded everything in mp3 320kbps and got rid of everything else. Mp3 is not the best lossy format, but it's universal. 320kbps for quality. Avoid anything below. Use/check for CBR (constant bit rate)encodings. This is mandatory with gapless albums: the apple soap system doesn't stitch VBR (variable BR) files so well. It often results in sound glitches between songs or worse, it just stops playing at the end of a song due to bit rate difference between songs. Lossless and iPod is a nono. Although it may seem to play OK, the buffer size of the pod is too small to store big aiff or wav files. The pod becomes very unstable and stutters or stops when shaken a tad. Very bad in as a choice for car audio! Regarding this problem, Apple lossless (aac) provides better sound than mp3 and smaller size as aiff/wav, but is proprietary. Needless to say you can't use flac or ape with an ipod.

En r�sum�, I love my pod and I use it a lot: backpacking, camping, always in a pocket, easy to hook on whatever sound system to save the party, cool with earphones� TEH easy going music solution. But� if you're picky with quality and/or used to listen music on good audio gear or PA system, these mp3 will sound like crap. I'll add here a huge thumbs down about anything you can buy on iTunz: low bit rate encodings (you can't even check what encoding is used b4 buying!!), still crippled with DRM� long story short: a very expensive pack of BS for herds!

I'm a lossless lover. Flac or Ape are the most common (free) formats. You can play them as is, although you'll get the best sound quality once expanded to wav or aiff. Lossless files can be burn to CD on the fly (true mirrors of originals!). I currently have some 2000 lossless albums, all nested on a 2TB HDD together with my iTunz library. I use a small nifty free player, loaded with all type of AU plugins to route the sound through various small and bigger sound systems in my house. Cpu as the hub. Remote control software + cellphone�
Now when it comes to my van, I just love a big fat quality sound to drive with. My advice, stick to CDs! Run some parallel tests with an ipod� The difference will blatantly jump to your ears! Now, CDs are so cheap, easy and fast to burn� My car is rigged wit a CD charger full of copies. Lossless files stay home with my precious original CDs collection. CD copies are so cool. They're expendable and duh� even sound as good as originals!

En r�sum� de r�sum�: If the main criteria for you is smaller as possible, always at hand not so much nitpick about sound quality: go for a pod.
If sound quality is above all the deal for you but you're still concerned (a bit) about HDD space (even nowadays?), go for lossless or audio CDs.
And why not going for both?

Last word, iTunz is a big fat bulky mall for the masses. Still a necessary evil companion of a pod (3rd party pod managers are cool and required if you once want to transfer songs from your pod to someone else's cpu (iTunz doesn't allow that!!). The less you use it, the less you *upgrade* it, the better. Find a compatible iTunz version for your pod, then stick to it! ITunz behavior is for sure the most user-unfriendly I ever met on the Mac. Go figure! 

This is mandatory with gapless albums: the apple soap system doesn't stitch VBR (variable BR) files so well.
Thanks for this, I always wondered why it did this. :S
Gonna take ages to rerip everything. :\ 

if you want quality, use ogg vorbis. I am not saying that as lunix lunatic but because it is a fact that vorbis sounds better than mp3 at similar bitrate.

if you plan to transcode, use flac. if you must use mp3, use v0 or whatever you can hear (abx test).

if you think you can hear the difference between a good encoded vorbis or mp3 and the lossless source, make an abx test.

johnxmas does not seem to know anything if he suggests that a wav sounds different from a flac. lossless means lossless.

if you must have a ipod (god, why), put rockbox on it. otherwise I can recommend the sansa clip+ (with rockbox of course). it is tiny, light, cheap, you can stick SD cards into it, works as normal usb storage. I got 36gb in mine.

I would not rip myself but just download rips from somewhere to save time and ,energy.

I hear Amazon sells good music too.

those fm transmitters might suck and not work, depending on what you (uk regulations etc)