# mp3 CD burning question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550 "2010-10-27T17:10:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/1 "2010-10-27T17:10:28Z")
So I burned a bunch of mp3 song files to a CD and they play back fine on my computer but not on my car player (that has mp3 feature which I’ve used before) nor on my home DVD player (which I’ve also done before). I have Windows Vista and probably the most recent version of Windows Media Player. I burned them from the Windows Explorer by selecting the folder, checking the boxes beside all the mp3 files to select them all and hitting the Burn button. I didn’t get any kind of error messages during the burn. When I put the CD in my car player, it acts like it’s trying to read for about 10-15 seconds, then says “no songs”. When I put it in the home DVD player it ‘reads’ for 10-15 seconds and then says ‘NoPlay’. I checked that it wasn’t inserted upside-down. It seems to me the mp3 files must be OK since they play back on the computer but I don’t know why they don’t play on the other devices. Any ideas are greatly appreciated…thanks. ---
**Author:** ![pyromyte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@pyromyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyromyte)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/2 "2010-10-27T17:15:04Z")
Sometimes for the other non-PC devices (car players, DVD players, etc) you have to ‘close’ the disc. Did you hit that option before burning? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/3 "2010-10-27T17:27:31Z")
finalize would be another term in some burning processes to make the disc readable on other devices. that done it can be the media. some brands or quality of media might not work well in noncomputer devices. the car player might be less tolerant than the dvd player. ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/4 "2010-10-27T19:07:05Z")
Also, make sure all the files are actually mp3 files…a FLAC or mp4 might not be compatible with your non-computer players. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/5 "2010-10-27T19:27:19Z")
The first time I used a CD-RW and didn’t see any sign of a close/finalize operation being done. The second time I used a CD-R and after the burn when I went to eject the disc, there was a message saying it was preparing the disc to be used on other devices…it took probably 45 seconds to do that before ejecting. I don’t see any close option in the Media Player/Explorer interface, just the Burn button. Windows Media Player has a Burn menu but it completely baffles me as far as how to navigate to the directory of mp3 files I’m trying to burn. I guess I will look for some other software to try. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/6 "2010-10-27T19:31:20Z")
> [@Woeg](#): > > Also, make sure all the files are actually mp3 files. Another vote for this. If you originally ripped them using Windows, you might have been using WMA format by default. ---
**Author:** ![lonestar88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lonestar88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonestar88)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/7 "2010-10-27T19:50:29Z")
As stated above, you probably didn’t close or finalize your session. > **[Windows help & learning](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows)** > > Find help and how-to articles for Windows operating systems. Get support for Windows and learn about installation, updates, privacy, security and more. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/8 "2010-10-27T20:01:08Z")
Also read the manuals for the car and home players to make sure the MP3 files don’t have to be in a certain directory structure or anything. ---
**Author:** ![curious11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@curious11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious11)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/9 "2010-10-27T20:01:26Z")
You may also have a Variable Bit Rate compressed mp3 instead of a Constant Bit Rate compressed mp3. There may or may not be a preferred method of compression for the different players. I suggest you re-rip 1 song at CBR 192, joint stereo. and see if that works before re-ripping all the songs. Most non-computer players won’t recognize a CD-RW. Good Luck! ---
**Author:** ![Lare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Lare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lare)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/10 "2010-10-27T20:03:26Z")
Another possibility is that the created CD is a data CD instead of an audio (music) CD. Many car/home players will only play audio CDs but a computer would have no trouble reading the data files and starting the music program to play them. ---
**Author:** ![J-P\_L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/j-p_l/32/3156_2.png) [@J-P\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J-P_L)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/11 "2010-10-27T23:10:53Z")
I asked a very similar question in this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=567161) I came to the conclusion that my problems were as mentioned by others 1. not closing the CD and 2. exceeding the maximum length for file and directory names ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/12 "2010-10-27T23:31:05Z")
> [@Lare](#): > > Another possibility is that the created CD is a data CD instead of an audio (music) CD. Many car/home players will only play audio CDs but a computer would have no trouble reading the data files and starting the music program to play them. I second this. You have to look at the CD player and verify that is actually says MP3 on it; otherwise, it likely only plays audio CDs and can’t handle MP3s or WAVs or FLACs or WMA files. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/13 "2010-10-27T23:52:11Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I second this. You have to look at the CD player and verify that is actually says MP3 on it; otherwise, it likely only plays audio CDs and can’t handle MP3s or WAVs or FLACs or WMA files. This is good advice for other people reading the thread who may have similar problems, but the OP specifically said > [@NetTrekker](#): > > my car player (that has mp3 feature which I’ve used before) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/14 "2010-10-28T00:08:55Z")
**Thudlow Boink** : Ah. Right. Well, I second the notion that the OP needs to verify that they’re actually burning MP3s, as opposed to some other format. Also, it might be the case that the file names are too long or they use odd characters. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/15 "2010-10-28T03:23:18Z")
Well, the file names had special characters like underscores and quotes, so I removed them by renaming. Then I found out the original file names were still embedded in the mp3 files as id3 tags, so I went into file properties and stripped out the titles. I thought that might do the trick but no luck. These are mostly MIDI files that I converted to mp3 with a utility. Windows Explorer shows them as type ‘MP3 Format Sound’. I guess I’ll try the remove all properties option next… ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/16 "2010-10-28T04:29:53Z")
The CD player in my vehicle is a good 10 years old and was one of the first I ever saw with mp3 capability. It plays them with underscores, quotes and long file names just fine. It can also display either the file name or information in the tags. I guess it’s possible, but I’d be surprised if that was your problem. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/17 "2010-10-28T10:57:08Z")
Another possible problem is if the files in the disk are organized in folders. The older mp3-on-CD players I’ve had couldn’t read folder structures, newer ones can and, of course, so can a computer. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/18 "2010-10-28T15:32:58Z")
Can you play regular CDs on your car stereo? If so just use [Foobar](http://www.foobar2000.org/) or another converter to convert your mp3 files into WAV format. You won’t get nearly as many, (.wav is much bigger) but it’ll work The OP said, he’s played mp3 discs before. My question is, “do you still have those discs?” If so, can they still be played? If so, then you need to pop that mp3 disc into your computer and go to Start -\> Computer -\> Drive (which everone the CD drive is) Then you want to open it and see what the mp3 files look like, that way you can look at it. What is your car stero? Do you have a manual for it? If so what is it? That way perhaps someone here can go online and look it up and see the directions for mp3 play. One thing about mp3s could also be your burner. I’ve burned mp3s that just won’t play. I then reburn them and it works fine. Your CD player/burner could be on it’s way out and making errors. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mp3-cd-burning-question/558550/19 "2010-10-29T02:59:18Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Can you play regular CDs on your car stereo? If so just use [Foobar](http://www.foobar2000.org/) or another converter to convert your mp3 files into WAV format. You won’t get nearly as many, (.wav is much bigger) but it’ll work WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER !! That gets the job done. WAV’s are even better because the disc(s) are for the 'rents who don’t have mp3 support on their car stereo (they were mainly for them to listen to on their DVD player while crafting but they’d like to be able to play them in the car as well). Foobar worked fine and yes, it took 2 discs instead of 1 but that’s fine…each holds about 25 songs and 1 hour+ of listening pleasure. I still wish I knew what was wrong with the mp3’s but oh well, I’m moving on… Thanks to everyone for the input 🙂