Solved Problem burning music CD's

[RoWin7]

I've done this procedure, problem-free, maybe 50 times before with the same program. This is puzzling:

-I have 19 MP3's on my computer. I opened BurnAwareFree, selected "Audio CD" dragged all the files to the window and burned. When done, they're all 1 KB cda's, not MP3's, and the titles are gone. The date of recording is 12/01/1994, impossible for Dinah, and definitely not today's date. Can't find anything of help on BurnAware's site.

-Secondly, I use VLC for playing videos and music, but I don't know if it burns. Their wiki is overly complicated and verbose. If BurnAware is buggy, I'd rather use VLC.

-Will this CD play on my car radio? Some of my CD's don't, although they appear as mp3's.

 

[fireberd]

It would appear BurnAware converted the MP3's to wav files (what is required for a regular audio CD). If you list the files that is what is shown, a 1K CDA file. That is why you have to "rip" audio files from a CD to a PC. If you just copy it won't work.

Second issue, some CD's play and some do not in my car. Some car CD players will only play regular Audio CD's and not MP3 CD's. So that part is determined by the car players capability. Another issue, with older car audio CD players is the speed the audio CD is burned at. Older car (and home) CD players will not play audio CD's burned at high speeds - they will either skip or not play at all. I have a CD Audio production facility setup in my recording studio. My audio CD burn speed "standard" is 8X. 8X assures they will play in almost all older audio CD players. This is a problem in most current hardware SATA interface CD burners as the lowest burn speed is 16X. If the car audio CD player is new or relatively new its not an issue as they will play audio CD's at higher burn speeds.

I don't use VLC so I can't answer your questions on that.

 

[RoWin7]

"That is why you have to "rip" audio files from a CD to a PC. If you just copy it won't work. "

They weren't copied from a CD, but were videos converted to MP3 by the program FreemakeVideo-MP3Boom. All the other CD's I've done this way have the track names showing in Windows Explorer and MP3 format.

Is it more reliable to do my conversions into .wav files? I can copy and print the track names.

I bought the car used and can't judge the age of the player, but you're right about some skipping, while others are fine. They were all copied as MP3's, but I don't know the speed. I'll be more attentive to copy-speed now.

At home, my CD player died, so I play my music on my computers with no issues.

 

[Snick]

Try ImgBurn, I use it all the time to BURN CDs/DVDs
The Official ImgBurn Website

MediaMonkey for DVD to Computer.
MediaMonkey » Free Media Jukebox, Music Manager, CD Ripper ...

 

[RoWin7]

ImgBurn will do. I don't burn DVD's or use complex multimedia functions.

I would still like to know the Q I posed in post #3. Should I should be converting my MP3's or videos to .wav before burning the disc, knowing that my car stereo is probably old.?

 

[Barman58]

I took the leap a few years ago for Car Music playback - I went fully digital, although my current player,[ A pioneer DAB unit that cost just over £100], has a CD player it has only been used once, just for "proof of Life" after purchase, [it can be slightly embarrassing if a passenger has a CD they wish to play, on a journey and you cannot as the player does not work].

A totally digital setup does mean that I do not have any playback jumping issues, which is useful in a car with a sport suspension

It's also a full Digital media Bluetooth device so plays Music from my phone, [in addition to giving me full hands free calling]. One good thing is that it plays a lot of formats including full HQ Flac, [if I am not happy with 320 MP3].

I have a number of Mini USB3 64GB sticks that I set up with folder based album sets, [MediaMonkey and DriveSort], handle the building of sets, although as it's a simple copy/paste operation it's not essential.

At home I am also totally digital, with a central Media store on PC and NAS that is accessible from devices as required I have a Digital media unit that gives me FM/DAB and fully maintained worldwide Internet radio access. This is a newish unit that is "Bleeding Edge" in that it does not have a Local CD player or a USB input, but is fully wireless and Bluetooth so works well

 

[fireberd]

The ripping comment was just a side note.
Some Audio CD burning programs will convert an MP3 to wav for burning and some will not. I use Nero BurningRom and it will convert, although any MP3 I have I will convert it myself beforehand.

Imgburn is a popular burning program, but I find it not user friendly compared to some others. I have a copy, even though I have the (paid) Nero, but only for burning iso's. For a free program I like CDBurnerXP.

One other warning on the burned CD's. DO NOT use paper labels. They can flake off and if they do the car CD player is basically "toast". I remember GM and Ford used to put a clause in their warranties about paper labels and if they were used and caused problems to the CD player it would not be covered under warranty.

 

[Jeyneko]

OFFTOPIC: This thread make me think of this song: Feeder - 'Buck Rogers' - Official Music Video - HD - YouTube

ONTOPIC: How old is your car, depending on the car and its radio firmware/hardware it may be able to play MP3s on a CD, maybe not. If it's from about the mid-XP era or later (2004+) I'd probably safely assume it would work since that's when it kinda became more and more popular to burn CDs with MP3s. Also, make sure you burn your CDs at a lower rate if they're cheap bought ones, if they're premium quality it probably won't matter to the speed:quality ratio.

Also, seconded on CDBurnerXP. I always found it nicer to use than ImgBurn.

 

[fireberd]

Jeyneko, I mentioned the burn speed. As I have a recording studio and an audio CD production system that will burn multiple discs at the same time, I and a friend did a lot of testing of audio CD's, and the burn speed was the key. Better quality discs and they will last longer (I used Taiyo-Yuden until they discontinued them) but cheap ones will usually work. The key is the burn speed and 12X seemed to be the make/break point, for older audio CD players. As my burners have 8X capability that is what I use.

I do a lot burning for clients that sell their CD's at concerts and out a couple thousand CD's I've burned there has only been one that was questionable. I use Nero BurningRom to burn audio CD's and also use the verify after burn feature to ensure disc burning. I also only burn Ink jet printable CD-R's and have a CD/DVD disc printer to print labels on the discs. NO Paper Labels.

Here in the US, I had a 2008 vehicle and it would only play audio CD's, not MP3's. It wasn't until I got a 2012 vehicle that I had both Audio CD and MP3 compatibility.

 

[RoWin7]

I took the leap a few years ago for Car Music playback - I went fully digital, although my current player,[ A pioneer DAB unit that cost just over £100], has a CD player it has only been used once, just for "proof of Life" after purchase, [it can be slightly embarrassing if a passenger has a CD they wish to play, on a journey and you cannot as the player does not work].

A totally digital setup does mean that I do not have any playback jumping issues, which is useful in a car with a sport suspension

It's also a full Digital media Bluetooth device so plays Music from my phone, [in addition to giving me full hands free calling]. One good thing is that it plays a lot of formats including full HQ Flac, [if I am not happy with 320 MP3].

I have a number of Mini USB3 64GB sticks that I set up with folder based album sets, [MediaMonkey and DriveSort], handle the building of sets, although as it's a simple copy/paste operation it's not essential.

At home I am also totally digital, with a central Media store on PC and NAS that is accessible from devices as required I have a Digital media unit that gives me FM/DAB and fully maintained worldwide Internet radio access. This is a newish unit that is "Bleeding Edge" in that it does not have a Local CD player or a USB input, but is fully wireless and Bluetooth so works well

Glad you're having fun and like describing your setup, but this is OT to my problem. I keep my multimedia simple.

 

[RoWin7]

OFFTOPIC: This thread make me think of this song: Feeder - 'Buck Rogers' - Official Music Video - HD - YouTube

ONTOPIC: How old is your car, depending on the car and its radio firmware/hardware it may be able to play MP3s on a CD, maybe not. If it's from about the mid-XP era or later (2004+) I'd probably safely assume it would work since that's when it kinda became more and more popular to burn CDs with MP3s. Also, make sure you burn your CDs at a lower rate if they're cheap bought ones, if they're premium quality it probably won't matter to the speed:quality ratio.

Also, seconded on CDBurnerXP. I always found it nicer to use than ImgBurn.

Car is 2005, I bought it used 2 years ago, and at some point the original radio/CD player had been replaced. I hadn't used the CD player till a few weeks ago, which is why the problem just appeared recently on some CDs.


I understand about the slower burn speed.
Player is Sony cd3xgt310, manual is copyrighted 2006.
I have now asked this 3 times, with no reply. Should I convert my tracks to .wav instead of mp3?

 

[RoWin7]

Switched to CDBurnerXP (yes, compat with 7 and 8,) it can burn at 8x, and the files are turned into cda's. Resolved.

 

[fireberd]

I see you got it sorted out.

I thought I answered your question about converting to wav first. If you want regular audio CD's that requires burning a wav file. However, many audio CD burning programs will convert an MP3 to wav for you. Thus if the program that you are using to burn converts then there is no need to do it first.

One comment on an MP3 file. It is "something less than full fidelity", where a wav file is full fidelity. However converting an MP3 to wav does not restore the full fidelity, the converted wav file will still be at the fidelity of the MP3.

 

[Jeyneko]

Ahh, I'm not exactly an expert in cars, I was kinda going by old memory which probably has failed me

Anyhow. CDAs are probably a little bit like cue sheets for data I guess. They basically point to where the data/track is on disc.
I don't know how else to explain it because I don't fully know but rereading your post the CDs should work in your car and play fine

Oh, you sorted it out. Didn't see that glad CDBXP works for you
As for that question, don't. It won't make a quality difference, it won't restore anything. MP3 is a pretty poor format in terms of quality at lower than 256kbps unless you're using some fancy compression like LAME, tbh... if you're ripping audio CDs try AAC or FLAC, can't remember if these are supported by CDBXP

 

[Barman58]

Just for clarification ...

What is CDA? What Opens a CDA? File Format List from WhatIs.com

a WAV file is a proprietary format developed By Microsoft for Game and System Audio, it can of course be used for Music audio

Flac is a lossless format designed specifically to retain Quality for Digitised sound - Of course the format is much larger than the MP3 format, although most people in a vehicle with ancillary ambient noise will not really notice the loss of audio quality of MP3. FLAC - Wikipedia

 

[RoWin7]

I see you got it sorted out.

I thought I answered your question about converting to wav first. If you want regular audio CD's that requires burning a wav file. However, many audio CD burning programs will convert an MP3 to wav for you. Thus if the program that you are using to burn converts then there is no need to do it first.

One comment on an MP3 file. It is "something less than full fidelity", where a wav file is full fidelity. However converting an MP3 to wav does not restore the full fidelity, the converted wav file will still be at the fidelity of the MP3.

Good enough for my car. I'm way past the age when I worried about such things.

Many thanks to you all.