As it stands, the default for burning CDs with Media Player is to limit each CD to 80 minutes regardless of the total size of the files you’re putting onto the CD. So, for example, if you burn 20 tracks each of 4 minutes length but averaging, say, 5 Mb per track, you can’t add more to the disc. Even though the disc may have had capacity for another 600 Mb, the fact that you’ve put 80 minutes of music onto it is what counts.
Is there a way to change Media Player so that instead of being limited to 80 minutes for each CD you burn, you can use the full capacity of the CD (say, 700 Mb) regardless of the total number of minutes of music that you’re burning onto it?
I’m confused. When you burn an audio CD, you’re converting your audio files (wma, mp3, ogg, whatever) to the native CD format. That format is much larger that the audio format. What that means is, 80 minutes of music is going to take up all 660 mB, give or take, regardless of how small the original files were.
There isn’t as much empty space as you think there is.
I didn’t know that about the gain in size when converting to native CD format. I hadn’t the slightest idea - but that basically takes away my motivation. Let me ask, though, any idea how much that, say, 100 Mb of mp3 files “grows” into on the CD? Is it really that close to the disc’s capacity? Wow.
It depends on the compression setting when the original mp3’s were ripped - if they are low quality, a small file could produce more music (in duration) than a large high quality file.
Since most players support mp3 format, you may want to choose the burn option “data CD”. This basically copies the files intact to the disc.
I have version 11… hopefully they are not too dissimilar.
On the toolbar there is a “Burn” button with a small arrow below it. Clicking the arrow drops down a set of options including the choice between “Audio CD” and “Data CD”.
For more info, press F1 for help. Go into contents and find “Burning your own CD’s” in the main categories.