Will nobody make a Cdrw system that will fucking work for me?!?

The BBQ Pit
#1

What the fuck?!? I’ve fucking had it with this shit!

I subscribe to a radio show that offers each day’s show in MP3 format for download with all ads cut out. I’ve decided it’s much easier to just burn it to disk and listen to it in the family room than set up wireless speakers. The only problem I’ve really hit is the fact it takes 4 CD-R’s each day to burn them. That’s 20 disks a week that can never be used again and end up in the landfill. I’m no rabid environmentalist, but as a conservationist I just can’t see creating that much waste if it can be seriously curtailed.

So I figure I’ll use CD-RW’s. I can use the same 4 disks for an extended time before having to toss them. Except, well, they don’t fucking work!

Let me give the stats. I have a LiteOn DVD +/- R-RW burner. It supports up to 24x CD-RW. I’ve tried (Yes, I see the pattern here) Memorex 4x CD-RW as well as Memorex 24x “Ultra-speed” CD-RW. I can burn to both right out of the box. I can even, most times, erase the disk and reburn with great quality. However, it’s when I get to the third burn.

The motherfucker will not work. On any of the disks. I can see getting one or two bad disks out of a bundle of five. I’ll give up 40% of my cash if I can just get the fuckers to work! Maybe it’s got something to do with brand incompatability?

FUCK THAT LITTLE NOTION!!!

These fucking things don’t work in the Memorex DVD RW burner mounted right below it. Granted it only writes DVD at 2.4x, hence the LiteOn, but I fucking know Goddamn well it can write to a 4x CD-RW! Of course, that’s assuming it will erase the fucking 4x disk. Which it won’t. Which is now beginning to spin me off into a plane of insanity I never thought could exist.

In case anyone is wondering, I’m not exactly using an off-the-wall brand of software to do this with. I’m using Nero. The 6.whateverthefuck version. And I’m starting out with each reburn by doing a full erase of each disk. Not a quick erase. Furthermore, unless the software itself is a lying assbag, it confirms the fucking thing is empty before I attempt to do the burn.

I don’t even know where to go from here. I’m about to give up on the RW disks and just fill the earth with my liottle silvery disks of laughter for future generations to find. They’ll probably marvel at how many disks could possibly amass in one area with ‘AOL’ printed on them. (Maybe I should label them all Straight Dopers so we can be remembered after the Stoopids breed us out) :frowning:

I’ll take any advice on this. I’m truly at a loss. I want to call Memorex about it, but they only man the phones during the hours I’m at work. And considering the criminally insane invective I’d spew, I’d more likely be shot than fired by my coworkers. Out of pity. They like me.

Man this shit pisses me off!

#2

*Without * AOL…

Man, I’m more pissed than I thought :mad:

#3

The definition of CD-RW doesn’t meet CD standards (technical standards, regarding the way the things operate). If you want an audio CD, use a a CD-R.

#4

Well, the fuckwads should state that clearly. I’ve yet to see a disclaimer on these things that state they can’t be used for multiple audio sessions.

#5

I symphasize with you. My luck with CD-RWs has been just awful, and I am still wary of the whole medium. On one occasion, I backed up a fair amount of data on several CD-RWs. Double checked to make sure the transfer was successful and everything. Of course, when I later went back to take advantage of the backups, every single CD had completely and utterly died. How… helpful.

Of course, the CD-RW drive wasn’t much help either. It was actually almost beautiful how terrifying it became, insisting on crashing the computer should anyone even consider putting anything inside of it (this is not an exaggeration). This was probably for the best, for it warned me against ever again trying to back something up with it.

#6

Only some CD players will play CDRWs. They’ll say so right on the package. There’s your problem.

#7

Um. I mentioned these are all played in the same system in the family room. That’s not the problem.

#8

You may be downloading the radio programs in MP3 format, but if each show is taking 4 CD-Rs, it sounds as though you’re burning them as uncompressed audio (i.e. Red Book CD audio standard).

Can your family-room CD player play MP3 files burned on a CD-R disk? If so, even in the worst case scenario, you can at least greatly reduce the number of CD-R disks needed (typically, FM quality is about 128kbps for MP3, which would give you over 11 hours of audio). You may also find, however, that if your CD player can read MP3s from a CD-R, that it may also read be able to read them from a CD-RW. The Red Book CD audio standard is very different from a regular computer file system (such as is used in a CD-R or CD-RW full of MP3s), and compatibility results may differ between the two standards.

In other words, CD-RW setups that may fail horribly in rewriteable “Red Book audio” sessions may work perfectly in rewriteable “data” (e.g. MP3) sessions.

What make & model is your family-room CD player?

#9

In paragraph 2 above, it should read:

Also, if the show’s content is mostly talk, you can cut back the bitrate to 64kbps and get 22 hours per disk, which sounds like a week’s worth of show for you. So, even if you can’t get the rewriteables to work, you’ll at least cut down on landfill.

#10

It’s a Philips DFR 1600 all-in-one surround cinema type deal. The show is 4 hours long, with each hour offered as the MP3 download seperately. Each hour as is takes a total of about 500MB and 38-42 minutes or so. Yes, it would greatly help if I could at least compress it to the point of getting 2 “hours” on each disk.

Again, burning to a CDRW out of the box will work fine on the system. After erasing it once and reburning I have a slighter better than half chance of listening to it. Beyond that, it’s 80/20 that the disk isn’t recognized/has that “popping” sound continuously while playing.

And the ultra-speed ones say on the wrapping that they’re the “perfect” choice for audio files. Nothing about a limit of one burn per disk.

I’ll check out your link. Also, anyone know of any utilities (even within XP) that do a better job of making a disk like-new so the burner can’t tell the difference?

#11

OK, so your player is in fact a DVD/CD player as part of a home theater, by the looks of it (I’ll look into it more later this evening). That means that it will almost certainly play “data” CD-Rs with MP3-encoded files.

What you’re apparently doing at the moment is using Nero to burn “Audio CDs” (i.e. the Red Book format for CDs that dates back to the early 1980’s). This may seem to be the logical way to go, but in your case it’s not the best way. The MP3s that you download are compressed, but when you “burn as audio”, they get decompressed to about 500MB for ~42 minutes (presumably 1 hour show - 18 minutes for ads). The MP3s that you download are probably about 45MB each (look on your hard disk and check this!). If it’s a talk show rather than music, they may be ~22MB each (depends on MP3"bitrate").

What you need to do is use Nero to burn the disks as “data”, not “audio”. Try with a CD-R first; you should easily fit all four 42-minute MP3s on a single CD-R with loads of room to spare. For your first test disk, try “closing” it after burning, so you’re increasing the chances of compatibility (later on you can try multi-session CD-R, but we want to get positive results early in the game for morale purposes!).

If the CD-R works with MP3s, try a fresh CD-RW (i.e. not one you’ve already burned audio on). Burn all four MP3s for a given show on it. Try it in the DFR-1600. Does it work? If so, you’re home free. If not, you can go back to CD-Rs with MP3s, but at least you’ll be getting more hours (say 11 or 22 per CD-R) than if you were burning them as “Audio”.

Good luck — let us know how it works!

#12

I’ve just re-read the OP, and it appears that you have one further option, which is to burn the downloaded MP3s to DVD (either DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, or DVD-RW). If the CD-RW method still doesn’t work for you (even using MP3 data disks rather than audio), this is something you might consider.

You should be able to burn about six or twelve weeks of radio shows (depending on MP3 bitrate) on one DVD disk before it is full, so even if your DFR-1600 absolutely refuses to deal with re-writeable media, you won’t be so much in competition with AOL for landfill bragging rights. :slight_smile:

[If the MP3s have a fixed 128kbps (kilobits per seond) bitrate, that’s equal to 16kBytes/sec, or 960kB/minute. Thus a 40-minute (on average) “hour” will take 38.4MB, and each entire show will take ~154MB. At five shows per week, that’s 770MB/week. Thus, a 4.7GB DVD will hold nearly 6 weeks. If the downloaded MP3 bitrate is 64kbps, you’ll get nearly 12 weeks per DVD].

#13

How are you erasing them? Is it some ‘quick erase’ function in your CD writing software? Is there a ‘full erase’ option?

Also/if not, try using DeepBurner (free edition) to erase the media.

#14

Good Og, people, read poor ole duffer’s OP before posting. He said it was only on the third burn that it stopped working in the family room. He said he did full erase not quick erase.

I sympathise. I just bought a DVD/CD burner and the amount of dud disks and crashes is just beyond belief. These things have got a long way to go before they are reliable.

#15

OK, I missed a lot of info in amongst the invective; I still suggest trying DeepBurner to erase the media.

#16

Good Lord, why all this fuss? If you’re not going to make them a permanent part of your music collection, why not just buy a huge, honkin’ hard disk and store them on that?

#17

I think duffer wants to listen to them away from the computer.

#18

Stick the Mp3’s on an iPod or similar and feed it to the line-in on your hi-fi. No coasters, no shuffling CD’s to find the right track, and an excuse to buy another shiny gadget. Mmmmmmm… Gadget.

#19

Well, I can sell him a Walkman real cheap–and an 8-track for his car even cheaper! :smiley:

#20

The only place other than the computer I’d listen to them would be in the family room or the car on road trips. Can’t see justifying the cost of an MP3 player for that. Same reason leaving them on a HDD won’t work.

I’m going to try the data CD angle. I sort of thought of it, but didn’t do it because I thought that was just for backing up things like spreadsheets and the like for use on PC’s.

I’m also going to try that deep erase utility mentioned. I’ll let ya know what happens.