What is an MP3 Player?

MPEG-1, Layer 3 or MP3 is standard format for digital audio compression and it is defined by MPEG or Moving Pictures Experts Group. MP3 is an audio file which is compressed with this standard. Intrinsically speaking, an MP3 player is any electronic device which can play these audio files. However, these days, an MP3 player is referred to any device which can play music files in different formats.

Memory and sizes

MP3 players come in different memory and sizes. However, they are really small and easy to carry around. Latest MP3 players can store hundreds or thousands of music files which are mostly songs. All the music is usually transferred to the MP3 player using a computer. However there are players which are capable of downloading music files directly from internet.

MP3 players usually use flash technology for storing content. Flash is compact and doesn’t use much space. Also, flash technology uses battery life more economically. However, flash based storage drives can’t get too big in memory and if you need much more space, then it is recommended that you go for hard disk based music players. Flash based MP3 players are also more expensive.

Features

MP3 players come with small screen and users can read the name of songs and related info. Screen is also used for user interface and you can choose different options. Some MP3 players have touchscreen interface and hence users can simply tap on the display. Most music players have headphones bundled with it and some also have speakers built in.

Digital hubs

There are some non-portable MP3 players too. They are called media centres or digital hubs and are crosses between the computers and stereo components. With the network connections, (mostly wireless) users can access MP3 files and other such content that is stored on computers through a network. With standard audio visual connections, users can integrate it with home entertainment systems. Such devices mostly have remote control and use TVs for playback info and menus.

Digital hubs have one advantage – it lets multiple devices access files at same time. All files can be stored in hubs easily and the MP3 players which have Wi-Fi connectivity can access these files easily. This turns MP3 collection in music library which has multiple copies of all songs.