Pretty much what the title says. It plays CDs no problem, yet it doesn’t recognize the fact that I have a CD full of MP3s. Am I burning the CD wrong?
When I put my MP3 CD in it reads it as a regular music CD with one 60-some minute track on it. 
The instructions offer no help. They just say “Put MP3s on your CD and it will automatically detect them!” The website is no help, either. It is a Memorex if anyone wonders.
Thanks for any help.
I had this problem too when I first got my CD/MP3 player. I use Toast, so I’m not sure what the option would be if you use different burning software. But the problem I was having, I was burning the MP3s as pure data. Changing the burning option to “MP3 Disc” did the trick for me.
In the manual for my DVD player that plays MP3 it says variable rate MP3s such as those created with Real’s ripping software won’t work. Maybe that applies to your device as well.
If it’s reading it as a music CD, then that means you are burning the disc as an audio CD and not as a data cd with MP3 files.
You need to make sure your burning software does NOT convert the MP3 files into CD audio tracks. If there is a choice between audio and data cd when you are creating the disc, choose data.
Oh, no, I burn it as a data disk.
Hmm, I do use variable rate encoding. 
Well, let me try re-ripping them as straight rate and see what happens. Hopefully not more coasters! 
Unfortunately, Anamorphic, my burner has no such option.
An mp3 CD player doesn’t look at all the mp3s on the disc, it looks at one playlist and uses that to see which files are on the disc.
Download winamp and stick a playlist file on the CD, it will probably have to be named something special - check the manual.
Hope this is of some help.
Hmm, no… not word one about playlists. Right now I’m attempting to put them in folders to sort of force the player into MP3 mode.
After that comes the static rate encoding.
What’s the deal with ISO images?
Also to add even more things to try out, the mp3’s have to be inthe root directory not subfolders.
I’m fairly certain it’s the lack of a playlist that causes the player to believe it’s not an mp3 data disc, so it assumes it’s an ‘other’ disc - and like an audio CD player handles a data disc as a 1-track audio disc. Have you googled up the manufacturer/model number for help?
ISO images are files that store all data on a CD in a single file - everything in there is duplicated so if you wish to create an exact duplicate of a CD you copy/create an ISO file on your hard disk and then burn it. This is useful for copying master audio discs, discs which require particular data in specific sectors of the disc etc…
k2dave, I can’t put them in anything but a track. I think that’s my problem.
the.donkey, it isn’t looking for playlists.
I’ve called memorex. I think the lady I talked to didn’t know what an MP3 was. This is such bullshit.
When you said “When I put my MP3 CD in it reads it as a regular music CD with one 60-some minute track on it.” does it actually play all the music you put in the disc? What exactly is happening?
Just for laughs, take one of your CDs that you burned with MP3s, place it in the cd drive of your PC. Open a Command Prompt window, change directory to the CD (often it’s d:), then do a dir. Cut and past the results into the thread here.
What software are you using to burn the disc?
G:\>dir
Volume in drive G is Data disc 5
Volume Serial Number is 1EB9-2585
Directory of G:\
ENDHIT~5 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p End Hits
ENDONE~7 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p End on End
FUGAZI <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p Fugazi
INONT~11 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p In on the Kill Taker
NUMBE~13 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p Number 5
ONELA~15 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p One Last Wish
REDME~17 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p Red Medicine
REPEATER <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p Repeater
STEAD~21 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p Steady Diet of Nothing
THEAR~23 <DIR> 05-25-02 7:13p The Argument
0 file(s) 0 bytes
10 dir(s) 0 bytes free
And no, it doesn’t play a thing. It totally thinks it is an audio CD.
Oh, yeah, software. I’ve got a Toshiba DVD CDR/RW drive. I’m just using the software that comes with it.
Should I be able to burn a disc without tracks?
Maybe k2dave is correct, and the device doesn’t know what to do with subdirectories. Perhaps try a disc with no subdirs, with just non-variable-bitrate mp3 files in the root.
Nope. I’ve made them with and without subdirectories.
Odd. It’s very possible that your player is simply defective. Try exchanging it for a new one. I at one time had a defective RCA Mp3 player, so I took it back, and didn’t want the exchange. Later, I ended up getting a RioVolt SP250, which I like a lot. The real question is this: Can you play the MP3s on the CD on your computer, with WinAMP? If so, the disc is fine, and the player is doign something wrong. If not, there’s something wrong with the disc.
Oh…or, it could be burned as a different type of ISO disc. Make sure you’re burning as ISO Type 1. If you did burn as Type 1, try Type 2 for the hell of it!
Jman
Are you sure you made them without subdirs AND without variable-bit-rate mp3s?
I bet you did, and I’m leaning toward the device being defective. I also have a RioVolt like Jman, but the older 150 model. It handles everything thrown at it, including variable bit rates and even WMA files. I recommend it.
Of course, I’ve since destroyed the packaging. I’ll try the different ISO types…
Thanks for all the input here, everyone.
As a sidenote, to anyone who’s MP3 player works, can you put your CD into a regular CD player and tell me if it treats it like an audio CD with one long track?