Burning Music To A CD-R Question

spywriter007 · 07 Dec 2014

Hi All,

I have a question. This question pertains to two types of PCs -- A Windows PC and a Mac.

So here goes...

Recently I burned a standard CD-R on my Windows 7 'puter of some MP3 files I had. Typically when I create a CD of MP3s, I just create folders of the artist's name and then put the MP3s in those folders and then burn the CD-R like you would with any other set of data files.

I have done this before many, many times and never had any problems with playing any of these CDs of MP3s on any Windows computer --- whether it's at work or elsewhere.

But here's the problem:

I decided to give this CD-R of MP3 files to a friend... but they have a Mac and are not able to play it.

Is this because of I-tunes or what? The CD player on their computer is working fine... so it's not a hardware issue. Is it some sort of compatibility thing due to the fact that it's a mac? And is there anything they can they do to make it work?

I don't use I-tunes btw.

Anyway, any insight or advice any of you can give would be greatly appreciated. I would like to share more music with my friend in the future so I want to figure out how to make it work.

Cricket

AddRAM · 07 Dec 2014

Can a Mac play MP3s ?

spywriter007 · 07 Dec 2014

MP3s should be a standard file format... at least that is what I thought.

I know my brother can play the MP3s I send him in his I-pod.... but he has to monkey around with I-tunes to get them to import correctly into his MP3 player.

fireberd · 07 Dec 2014

If you burned an MP3 CD that is not a "standard" audio CD. A standard audio CD is wav files (16 bit/44.1Khz).
MP3's are burned like a "data" disc, not an "audio" disc.

I suspect wrong format on the disc.

I use Nero so I'm not familiar with the Windows or Windows Media Player burning capabilities.

A little more info on the Disc you burned would help in troubleshooting.

I do a lot of audio CD burning as I have a recording studio.

spywriter007 · 07 Dec 2014

Hi Fireberd,

No that's not the issue... As I said in my very first post. I burnt it like a data disk... on a standard 700 mb CD-R.

Cricket

fireberd · 07 Dec 2014

Sorry, I saw the "Music" and jumped on that.

What program did you use to burn the CD?

spywriter007 · 07 Dec 2014

Hi Fireberd

It's Power2Go by Cyber Link...that is what I used. I didn't have any problems playing this CD-R of data on any other Windows computer, so it's definitely a Mac thing. I am thinking my friend needs to import the MP3 files into I-tunes or something to get them to play.

Cricket

fireberd · 07 Dec 2014

Try that disc in a car or stereo that will play mp3's and see if it plays.

I've seen discs that were burned on one PC that would only play on that PC.

spywriter007 · 07 Dec 2014

Hello firebird,

I tried it elsewhere.. and it worked just fine. Like I said in my first post, I have never had issues with CD-Rs not playing on other PCs. It just seems to be a PC to Mac thing.

Anyway I did some more research on the issue and here's what I found:

I came across a forum where one person mentioned that they had burned a CD of photos on their Windows machine, but that their brother couldn't play the CD on his Mac.

Another person replied to the post and said that they encountered the same problem but that when they "finalized" the CD (so no further data can be burned to it), they were able to get the CD that was burned on their PC to work in Mac computers.

BTW... I don't know if finalization is the answer or not as I have no ability to test it and other than my friend I don't know too many Mac users.

Do you have any other ideas?

Cricket

fireberd · 07 Dec 2014

I'm not familiar with the burning program you have. If you make are "regular" data CD-R it is finalized when its burned, at least with Nero (and Roxio and CDBurnerXP).

If you use packet burning, that allows more data to be burned to a CD then finalizing can be a problem. But packet burning should be avoided as it is the least reliable method.

Download the free CDBurnerXP (It says XP but its compatible with Win7 and Win 8) and burn a CD-R with that program and see what happens.