I spent a few hours burning my first two CD’s (yeah, I know… we just got running water in the cave, too). Problem is, the damn things won’t play in my car. Is it the quality of the blank CD’s I used or is it the burner?
If it’s the latter, the dude at Best Buy’s gonna git himself a size 12 upside the head. :mad:
What kind of media did you use? CD-RW won’t play in a conventional CD player. CD-R will.
Also, if you don’t already know, a regular CD player can’t play mp3s. You have to first decompress them. Some CD burner programs (like Adaptec Easy CD, which came with my burner) will do this for you automatically. Just make sure you select audio CD instead of data CD. If your rippin’ program doesn’t have that feature, you can probably find some shareware utilities that will do it for you.
What software are you using, Toast? Jam? An Adaptec product for the Microsoft platform? Something else?
If the s/w you are using is not specific to audio CDs (i.e., it also burns data CDROMS), are you sure you used Audio CD format for the disk format? (Just because you use AIFF files or tracks from an existing audio CD doesn’t mean the result is going to play on an audio CD player).
You may also have stretched the data pipeline too far, i.e., set the burner speed to max when your throughput is insufficient to keep the burner supplied in bits at the rate it needs them. This is far more often an issue for audio CD than for data CD. If this is your problem, you could try enlarging your cache space in your burner software’s prefs.
Burners are pretty standardized by now for audio burning so unless you got a really old CD head unit in your car or a defective burner it’s probably a media issue ie use CDR not CDRW as mentioned before).
Try playing the CD audio disk in a home or portable CD player (not the PC). If you are just throwing MP3’s on a disk this will not work, as others have mentioned, as they need to be converted to CD audio files before burning.
Some older CD players are unable to play CR-RW and even older ones cannot play CD-R. This is because the difference in reflectance (i.e. contrast) between pit & not-pit is lower in CD-R than regular CD and lower still in CD-RW. Older players were not designed to cope with this lower contrast.
We wrote about this before. Try using a music CD not a data cd. Close the cd & make sure you select to make an audio cd.
Music CD won’t make a whit of difference- make sure you’re using “Music CD” setting with whatever software you’re utilising for burning and ensure that its a CDR and NOT a CDRW. Some older CD players have problems playing CDRs, period (I’ve found most of em to be in crappy old boomboxes). Best way to test if its the player is by testing on another dedicated CD player.
Just FTR, I have CD players that date back to 1986, and all of them will play CD-Rs to some extent (yes, CD-RWs are another story). However, I have had problems with some CD players (two made by Panasonic and one by Optimus/Radio Shack) reading some CD-Rs, notably generic 80-minutes ones. My car’s CD changer, however, reads them fine. So I’d recommend trying these in a different CD player first; if they work, experiment with different brands of CD-R until you find one that your car’s CD player likes. Choosing the whole-disk-at-once option is also a good idea.
I think someone said here that music cd’s have a special reflective coating on one side, that’s why they make them.
Nope. Don’t touch Music CDs. The only difference with them is that they have a special code that indicates a royalty has been paid to the RIAA, which allows them to be used in standalone (stereo system, not PC) burners.
My suggestion would be like the others. Use a CDR, and make sure you’re burning as “Audio CD”. Also, make sure you’re not just tossing 30 MP3s onto a disc. That won’t work.
Do you have a Kenwood CD player in your car? Kenwood Car CD players have problems with CD-R discs. Most won’t play CD-Rs unless they are very high quality…even then, they will exhibit some scratchiness of sound after playing CD-Rs for an hour straight or so. I’ve seen this on 3 different Kenwood CD players, and all were different models. They just don’t handle CD-Rs that well.
Jman
I had this exact same problem with my Kenwood changer a few days ago. Incidentally, the CD-R(Memorex) worked just fine in the in-dash deck.
Here’s a couple links re CD burning issues - maybe I’ve been lucky, but I’ve yet to make any coasters.
http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/
http://www.cdrwcentral.com/
-mdf
Its been pretty much covered here. Some side notes –
be sure you are closing the session. If you dont there is no table of contents for the player to read.
Once you close a CD, most music players will not read past that point. Any music you add there after wont be seen.
There are 2 in dash CD players that are able to read CDRW’s and MP3’s off of those CD’s. One is made by Aiwa and one by kenwood. I personally have the Aiwa and I highly recommend it.
It can also be the brand of CD-R that you use…
I’ve found from personal experience that Memorex CD-Rs do not work as well for burning audio CDs. They also degrade fairly quickly and become unreadable as data CDs.
What I’ve found that works is either Sony or TDK CD-Rs.
I actually work for a music store & we sell specific cds for music ONLY. They are pricey though. Havent used any, being deaf & all Im sure you can understand.
Another way is take a cd that works in your cdplayer in the car & put it in your computer & see what format it is & copy that for the one you want.
As I said above, avoid these. These are EXACTLY the same as regular CDRs, only they have special encoding that allows them to be used on those stereo component audio only burners. They have had a royalty paid to the RIAA to cover the fact that you’re going to use them to copy your own CDs. DO NOT buy them for use in a computer based burner. There’s no point.