# Help - CD Burning gone bad! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431 "2005-01-06T19:16:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/1 "2005-01-06T19:16:56Z")
I have burnt so many coasters - please help! I tried burning an .avi file to CD with Nero and all went well - Nero said the burn was successful. When I tried playing it, however, WMP came up with an “unknown error”. Oh well. So I burnt it again. Same error. The (hard disc) version plays fine. I have burnt .avi’s before without problem. I tried a different .avi file. Same error. I burnt at a slow speed. Same error. I tried an mp3 file. No problem. It plays fine. I downloaded the latest version of Nero. Same error. What now? Any ideas as to what I should try to identify the problem? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/2 "2005-01-06T19:20:21Z")
What happens if you copy the files from the CD to a directory on your hard disk and attempt to play them? ---
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/3 "2005-01-06T19:23:44Z")
> [@mks57](#): > > What happens if you copy the files from the CD to a directory on your hard disk and attempt to play them? I tried this! It copies fine, right till the end, and then the CD starts whirring and it came up with some sort of error message. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/4 "2005-01-06T19:32:14Z")
How large was the AVI file? It is possible that eventhough NERO was saying all was fine, that it just barely couldn’t fit on a CD-R. I would try converting the file to another format using [tmpgenc](http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/tmpgenc.cfm) or a similar type of program and then try burning to CD-R again. ---
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/5 "2005-01-06T19:36:37Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#): > > How large was the AVI file? It is possible that eventhough NERO was saying all was fine, that it just barely couldn’t fit on a CD-R. > > I would try converting the file to another format using [tmpgenc](http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/tmpgenc.cfm) or a similar type of program and then try burning to CD-R again. Uh OK. It was large ~ 700MB. That has not been a problem before, I don’t think. I will try again with a file of half that size and see if I end up with another coaster! ---
**Author:** ![InvidiousCourgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/6 "2005-01-06T19:56:16Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#): > > How large was the AVI file? It is possible that eventhough NERO was saying all was fine, that it just barely couldn’t fit on a CD-R. > > I would try converting the file to another format using [tmpgenc](http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/tmpgenc.cfm) or a similar type of program and then try burning to CD-R again. Well goddamn **Dragwyr** , the smaller sized avi worked just fine! I am amazed because I thought I had burnt 700 MB files fine in the past. Perhaps I am confused! Anyway, now I know the problem, so thank you very much! ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-cd-burning-gone-bad/283431/7 "2005-01-07T15:54:08Z")
No problem. Happy burning! 🙂