Just thought I'd update this, partly as you've been so helpful WM and partly it may help anyone else who cones along
And if anyone can add anything helpful, please feel free
Btw Suff as mentioned before, no the mp3-player doesn't 'do' m3u.
I re-formatted the mp3 player, since it had on whole albums I didn't want. I also deleted all the albums that I'd ripped from our own cds, as they were in .wma format. Fine for the mp3, not for the stereo system, which only plays .mp3.
So then started all over again...
Didn't need to use Freerip or anything, as you can choose to save in /mp3 format when you rip via WMP. (NB the only problem with the mp3 player and windows media player is if you actually try to sync it and load directly).
I have a lovely list now on the mp3, but not in 'playlists'. The mp3 instructions say this is done by entering the menu while in playback, and adding to playlist - well, I haven't yet been able to access that and anyway it's a stupid faff.
I did as WM suggested, loaded Cds, created a new folder (in Music) and gave it a name, copied the tracks I wanted into that folder, then plugged in the mp3 and copied that folder into its Music file.
It's there and it plays (hoorah!), but it only appears in the 'Int dir' so next I will try dragging it into the album folder.
There is probably a sensible way to get the same list onto a cd but the way I tried didn't work (it might be a duff cd but no way of knowing that). I tried burning it from Music...didn't work. The cd says it has them on, but it won't play.
I've now gone back to WMP, dragged all the tracks I wanted into a burn list, and got them onto a cd from that - but having spent a nice while deciding on the order, it's not playing them in that order at all!
But it is playing them
50 tracks, it's up to no.26 (Jean Genie anyone?), all singy-dancy-do the housework-to type songs - not that I'm doing any of course, I'm 'busy'