Change Chinese CD to electronics file

[elina]

One of our Mexican customers received our package, but unfortunately the following CD was damaged during Mexican customs check.

http://www.lovemandarin.com/book.asp?id=900

He asked us to do his a favor to change the CD into electronics file, then send it by an attachment in our email to him.

In his letter, he said:

“send it using a audio player like "windows media player", "real player" and not to copy it directly of the CD.”

We have "windows media player" in our computer, but when we use it and want to open the driver D, it shows 设备中没有光盘D/ no disk in driver D. Then how can we do?

Thanks.

[roddy]

Sounds like there is a problem with the CD drive or the CD disc. If you start Windows Media Player and then select the 'Rip' menu and follow the instructions, you should be ok - assuming everything else is workign

[flameproof]

All 4 or just 1? If just 1, why not just send a new one?

You can't send a CD by email. 600Mb or so is just too big.

[roddy]

Think it through

First off the publisher has probably only put 20 minutes of audio on there so they can charge for more CDs. Secondly, it's only going to be voice so you aren't going to need a very high bit rate. Capacity of a data CD might be 700MB, but there's nowhere near that much data on your average audio CD.

Checking one CSL CD I have ripped to my hard drive - it's 32 minutes of audio. I encoded it at 192Kbits/s, which is way more than necessary, and it's still only 60MBs.

[elina]

Thanks, Roddy, but where’s the 'Rip' menu on the interface of "windows media player" (on the top or on the left? what’s the Chinese word of 'Rip' on the interface of "windows media player"), we have a Chinese version of "windows media player", and nearly never use it. We just used our 音响/ Hi Fi to play the CD, no problem with the CD at least.

Thank you, Flameproof, just one CD was damaged. We are glad to send it again to him, even if free of charge. Because as a leader of a university, he has bought a lot of products from us. But it seems that he will need to pay the import customs duty for this free one, not mention the long time period for the package to arrive Mexico city from Beijing:

3 months by sea mail, or 2-4 weeks by airmail.

[roddy]

Try this, see if it helps. If it doesn't, find a helpful teenager

[flameproof]

Roddy

you are right, but remember that those burned CDs not run on every CD player. Leave alone MP3s. 20 Minutes of WAV are still 200Mb or so.

elina

How much does it cost to send one CD by airmail? rmb 20? I can't understand that you even mentioned "surface" and "cost"...

Why not just send it EMS, should take less then 5 days. The send it as sample of no commercial value. As a company my priority would be to keep the customer happy.

For a good customer I would do it right away. You can do still do the transfer stuff later....

Sometimes it's funny in China, you can get into endless arguments about RMB 50, and then go to dinner and Kara-OK for RMB 3000 ....

[skylee]

elina, you could consider using NeoAudio to do the conversion. It is free and easy to use.

I tried to use Windows Media Player once but could not figure out how to convert the CD tracks to MP3 format instead of WMA format.

[elina]

Now I think maybe the size of the attachment IS a problem, I just checked our email box at yahoo.com.cn, it’s said the maximum of attachment is 20MB, maybe too small for one CD, even like 60MB mentioned by Roddy.

Flameproof, thank you for your advice. Please carefully read my previous post, I mean we DON’T mind to send the product again to him free of charge by sea mail or airmail mail, and it will add the cost of import customs duty to HIM. By the way, we never use EMS for our overseas customers, but using FedEx, which is more reliable and effective, which will cost RMB 343.00 yuan for one CD. Even in this case, we can still consider this method. I agree with you, a company should make their customers having a happy shopping experience, and we have been always tried our best to do that, believe or not, till now our every customer feels happy with us and consider us “very kind”.

Thank you, Skylee, we will begin to learn it.

[flameproof]

well, I would keep my customers happy, and still not use Fedex. That is costly, but those couriers often have their own import channels, and charge for it high.

I think Airmail is cheap and reasonably OK. And I don't think the customer has cost on his side, just declare it as "sample of no commercial value" with a $3.00 value or so.

For a VERY LARGE file you can use some free file storage sites, such as www.megaupload.com , it's free, maximum is 500Mb. The customer then can D/L from there.

[roddy]

You'll probably find you have 10 6MB mp3 files or something though, not one 60MB one, so you can email them separately. Plus you could use a different email account anyway.

As a company my priority would be to keep the customer happy.

She's doing what the customer requested. That'd make me happy. I'd ignore everything you're saying as you're just making things more complicated.

[elina]

I think Airmail is cheap and reasonably OK. And I don't think the customer has cost on his side, just declare it as "sample of no commercial value" with a $3.00 value or so.

I think it’s a good idea. And thanks for the tip of using some free file storage sites.

Thanks again, Roddy.

I’m very grateful for all of your patience to a computer idiot like me.

[flameproof]

hehe, ripping CDs is quite a task for a PC hostile person. Even a subject I am not expert in.... (I did it once, but had clipping sounds in the MP3 tracks)

Actually one question, is the CD only a Audio CD? (means used in a music CD player vs. a PC). If it's a CD-rom it's even more complicated (ISO ripping and ISO burning)

I think just sending it is really the easiest thing. And then try other stuff while it's on its way.

elina

How about some comments on graded beginners reading material in my request here:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=101164

[gato]

See this if you still want to use Windows Media Player

http://www.mhkbbs.com/dis.asp?bkid=1943&pagesu=1

CD转MP3、音乐刻录CD，用windows播放器media player就可完成

[elina]

ripping CDs is quite a task for a PC hostile person.

I agree, I think we may need to find a REAL person on hand to help this out, instead of you online FAKE guys

Flameproof, the CD is not a CD-ROM, only an Audio CD. And forgive my late comments on your thread, maybe tomorrow, because I’m hungry now, and need to have dinner. And then, take care of my little son to go to bed.

I think we will at first learn the software mentioned by Gato, because it’s in Chinese! Appreciated, Gato.

[elina]

Since there’re some problems with our computers, which don’t recognize the CD, we did the conversion in a shop along the street with RMB 8 yuan. And then, we tried to send the 7 electronics files to our customers through our email boxes @yahoo.com.cn and @yeah.net, we’re told the attachment is too large. The total size of the 7 electronics files are 92MB, several of them are 20MB or so. And then, we tried the site of www.megaupload.com, it’s only for pictures upload, not for Audio files like MP3.

We have searched in the internet for some free file upload sites, only found these sites limit each file under 10MB. Does someone know if there’s such a free site, which can let people upload and download Audio files, especially in English language, so that it will be convenient for our Mexican customers to use.

Thanks.

[gato]

Elina, Xdrive might work. It allows you to upload files and share them with others. You have to create a free AOL screen name first before you can use it.

http://www.xdrive.com/faq.jsp

[roddy]

What about Gmail? Allows you unlimited attachments, no? Or do I have that wrong.

[flameproof]

And then, we tried the site of www.megaupload.com, it’s only for pictures upload,

No, you can upload whatever you like. I just upload a MP3 - no problem!

Try again!

1. click "browse" and chose the file you want to upload

2. under "Please enter a meaningful file description" input i.e. "chinese1"

3. click send

[elina]

Feedback:

http://www.xdrive.com/faq.jsp works, but with slower speed than www.megaupload.com.

Gmail said the maximum is 10mb.

Flameproof, we used the Chinese version of www.megaupload.com just now, don’t know why it showed something like “you should upload files in JPG, GIF format” in Chinese. And according to your post, I used the English version of www.megaupload.com, it works! Also with very fast speed! I just finished uploading one of the 7 electronics files, and going to have a rest.

You guys are so helpful! Thanks a lot! No others, just invite you to listen to the songs that I listened to just now during the boring upload working time, but don’t know if you enjoy them:

http://www1.haoting.com/play/haotingsonglian.asp?id=12226&id=12228&id=12230&id=12231&id=12232&B1.x=33&B1.y=10#

Have a happy weekend.