Remove index.php and parameter name from URL - php

Question

Hi I am making a site where I want nice and clean links. I am trying to make a link with a get parameter look alot cleaner. Here is a sample link of how the link is at the moment:
http://www.example.com/index.php?item=cd-player
Here is how I want the link to look:
http://www.example.com/cd-player
I have been able to get rid of index.php from the url to leave just the parameter but I need help in getting rid of the "?item" bit as well.
Here is what I have tried so far:
RewriteRule ^index\.php(.*)$ /$1 [R,L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ /?item=$1 [L,QSA]
Also, this may be a php code rather than a code for the .htaccess file, but if a user enters http://www.example.com/cd-player, how will it know that "cd-player" is the value of a get variable called "item"?
EDIT: The problem I am having with the answers below is that I am using the following code to remove file extensions and the code in the answers below treats the files as a query:
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]

Answer 1

Try this instead :
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?item=$1 [L]

Answer 2

You need 2 rules actually:
RewriteEngine On
# external redirect from actual URL to pretty one
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php\?item=([^\s&]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1? [R=302,L,NE]
# add .php extension
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_URI}\.php -f [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.+?)/?$ /$1.php [L]
# internal forward from pretty URL to actual one
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?item=$1 [L,QSA]

Answer 3

You need to do it like this. This will allow you to have clean links
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f
RewriteRule ^([^/.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]
#This means if its not a real file
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
#This means if its not a real directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
#Then take the capture and rewrite it
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?item=$1 [L]