Foo - Explain this to me #3, computer idiot edition.

So I have this new cd player in my car. It also plays MP3's. Only problem is, the music files need to be converted into MP3 files before you can put them on a disk as MP3 files, and I simply don't know how. Media Player doesn't seem to have a function to do this, and since Media Player is the only such program I have on my computer, I am rather clueless at this point. Any advise you guys and gals can give me will be appreciated.

You need a CD ripping software. A quick search on google for freebies came up with this:
http://www.eusing.com/CDRipper/CDRipper.htm

You're ripping MP3's from what source?

Check this out, an all-in-one player/CD-ripper/MP3-encoder package: WinAmp (http://www.winamp.com/player/).

Oh yea, forgot about winamp. Thats a great program, I've not used it in months but its great.

I've got Windows Media Player 10 and it saves files as mp3s.

You're ripping MP3's from what source?

CD's

I really like CDex. Very versatile, pretty easy to use, etc.

CD's

You can't do better than this:

Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/)

If you want quick and simple, just do it through Winamp (my player of choice) or Windows Media Player.

CDEX and Exact Audio Copy are very good too. CDEX was a great ripper, but it hasn't been updated in a few years and has trouble with some of the newer CDs if they have any "do no copy" schemes on them. Exact Audio Copy isn't as user friendly as CDEX, but is technically probably the best ripping software out there (and what *I* use now a days).

Winamp wants 20 bucks for the version that does MP3's, so I deleted the MF'er and downloaded Media Player 11. It does burn MP3 disks, but the disk I made earlier of every Metallica CD (except of course for the nauseating Saint Anger), had this stupid little problem. I put the albums on the burn list in chronological order, and by default Media Player put the albums in alphabetical order. Not a really big deal, at least it works.

Winamp wants 20 bucks for the version that does MP3's, so I deleted the MF'er and downloaded Media Player 11. It does burn MP3 disks, but the disk I made earlier of every Metallica CD (except of course for the nauseating Saint Anger), had this stupid little problem. I put the albums on the burn list in chronological order, and by default Media Player put the albums in alphabetical order. Not a really big deal, at least it works.
One word of warning....from someone who has learned the hard way.

When you burn CDs that are to be played in a stero (esp. car stero), they are a little touchier than normal. When you burn them, try to burn them at the slowest or damn near slowest speed possible. I try to burn them at 8x or 4x. When you burn at normal speeds, the CDs seem to have quirky problems like skipping and such.