I sometimes burn a load of MP3s onto a cd to listen to on an MP3/CD stereo I have and on the DVD player downstairs. Since I got Vista I’m no longer able to do this using Windows Media Player. What alternative software would you recommend?
I use Nero. It can be a bit bloated, but you can just install the minimal. It’s not free, but the shareware version doesn’t expire as far as I know.
I haven’t tried this in Vista, but can’t you also just drag files to a blank CD? Or will it assume you want to convert them to .wav and then .cda? It might be worth a try, just make sure it will fit 100+ songs on one CD and not a dozen.
It seems to burn a DATA CD that only PCs will read. The DVD player doesn’t read them. This seems new to Vista as I’ve never had such a problem before. It is very frustrating.
I take it then you can read the mp3 files on the cd in the computer drive. You may need to close the session on the cd. Next the cd medium may not work with the particular player you are using. A laser and medium incompatibility happens often enough to be an item to check. I would be sure to close the session on the cd first thing.
Yep, have done that.
bump
See if this info helps:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/b47eb51a-ea6d-4d97-97b0-2d07a59316981033.mspx
It does indeed, it seems I need to use the Mastered format in order to play the discs in my DVD player. I wasn’t able to find the relevant information myself on their site. Thanks so much!
I use Win2000Pro, so don’t know if this will help, but I’ve been able to use iTunes to do what you want. Go to “Edit”, then “preferences”, click the “advanced” tab, then “burning” tab. Check “MP3 CD” box. Don’t forget to change it back when you are finished.
Of course, putting iTunes on your computer is a horrible thing to do, according to many people here. 
I prefer to use the Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 that came with the burner I bought when I built this computer. But iTunes has been pretty handy for making and organising HUGE playlists of MP3s.
On preview: Never mind.
Happy to help.
I record over 9 hours of NPR every weekend to listen to on my car stereo, so burning MP3s to a data CD is a big part of my life. Sad to learn Vista makes it such a pain.
It’s not Vista. It’s a Windows Media Player issue. It appears Microsoft removed the ability to play such files from the latest release of WMP.
Maybe I’m just misunderstanding what the problem the OP was having is. In XP to burn a data CD full of MP3s, all I have to do is right click on whatever files I want, choose “Send to,” and pick my CD burner. Then when the wizard starts, I tell it I want a data CD rather than an audio CD. Media Player never gets involved.
I have an older PC and never have luck with good burns using Windows software.
Express Burn has worked consistently well for me (and it’s free).
Normalize the audio before burning with MP3 Gain (also free).