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Problems with Burning CDs

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

07:13 / 26.01.04

I've recently been trying to burn CDs on my newish computer (under a year). I have tried both Nero Express and using the Windows Media Player. As far as myself and some of my more technically minded friends can tell both the programs convert MP3s into CDA files. Now when burnt the CDs will play on my computer, in my car stereo and they will play badly on my Panasonic clock radio bought last year but they will not play on my 5-6 year old Sony stereo. I have a lot of other burnt CDs which play okay on my stereo, so does anyone have any ideas as to why these ones won't play? Would it be better to convert the MP3s to WAV files and then burn them? If so can anyone point me to some conversion share ware?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

07:38 / 26.01.04

Try changing brand on the CD-R's. Some older CD players just don't like CD-R's full stop, some are a bit fussy about certain brands.

You may have to get a newer CD player.

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

09:29 / 26.01.04

The thing is I've tried it with two different brands, one of which I've used before with no problems and as I say my stereo's never given me any problems playing burnt CDs before.

rizla mission

11:39 / 26.01.04

That sounds really frustrating..

Obviously the CDA files are exactly the same ones you'd get on prerecorded CDs, so I'd guess it's unlikely to be the file format that's the problem..

You should try them on a variety of different CD players, and if they work on all of them, you should take a fucking hammer to your CD player. If they only work on some of them, maybe your CD-burning drive and/or CDR brand is a bit messed up, and if they work on none of them, well it could be some really big problem or something..

Reading that back it seems like the most pointless advice ever, for which I apologise.

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

13:44 / 26.01.04

I cannot fully express how totally fucking frustrating this is.

I have tried it on a number of different players and it works badly on some, fine on other but not at all on my Sony (which I love and I'm not taking a hammer to) and there's no reason for it as it's played burnt discs in the past including from one of the brands I've tried this time around. I'm kinding of hoping it's my copy of Nero but then using the Windows media player didn't help either. I'm hoping it's not the burner itself because I would imagine that will be a pain to fix.

w1rebaby

14:01 / 26.01.04

I suspect your problem is the medium - while I'm not an expert I think the format of the actual data burnt should be the same whatever program you are using (CDA is a standard format after all). Converting MP3 to WAV first will not help.

You could try finding a burnt CD that your stereo will play, checking the brand on that and buying some of those, or you could try buying a selection of different brands and trying each one, if you're really really bored and a bit flush. You could try getting friends to burn you audio CDs on your CD-Rs to see if it's a drive problem (I doubt it, since your burnt CDs play okay on other players).

But basically I think it's the CD-Rs.

w1rebaby

14:05 / 26.01.04

Oh, I've just seen that you've played stuff from the same brand on it before. Duh.

Okay, well, in that case I'm not sure. I don't know enough about drive mechanisms to know whether they've changed or make much difference to the makeup of the disc - I wouldn't have thought so.

Have you used the same software to burn CDs to the same media which worked? In which case, it must be the drive, really.

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

14:54 / 26.01.04

Cheers for your response Fridge.

"Have you used the same software to burn CDs to the same media which worked?"

I'm not entirely sure I understand the question. I've tried burning CDs with both nero Express and Windows Media player and neither of them have worked. Basically I've got lots of burnt discs from lots of different brands all of which play on my Stereo it's only discs which are burnt in my computer that don't seem to work in it. Does that help?

The more I think about it the more I think it's my computer which is fucking annoying.

Lionheart

15:32 / 26.01.04

Are you using CD-Rs or CD-RWs?

Also, are the burn options set to "end session at end of copying" or something like that? What that means is that once you burn data/audio onto the disc you won't be able to burn anything else onto it afterwards. If this option is turned off your cds might not play on older stereos.

Baz Auckland

16:15 / 26.01.04

I've found that it helps if you reduce the copying speed to x1 instead of x8/16, etc. It will take a long time to burn, but the CD will play on other devices better... buying brand name CDs helps a lot I've found the hard way (with 50 no-name cheap CDs giving me no end of trouble...)

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

18:19 / 26.01.04

Lionheart the first disc I tried was CD-R the second lot where CD-RW. I can't find the "end session at end of copying" option on either the Windows Media Player or Nero Express, have you any idea where I can find it?

Baz I reduced the speed to x1 earlier on today (and I'm keeping it at that level) still no joy. The CD-R was a Maxell and the CD-RW are Packard Bell.

w1rebaby

00:28 / 27.01.04

Given that you've burnt CDs with the same media using the same software with a different drive that have worked, I'm inclined to believe it's the drive, since that's the only thing that's changed.

Sorry.

You could try to get hold of a full version of Nero, since I'm told that has more sophisticated burning options (WMP9 is shit IME). File sharing is your friend here. Apart from that, sorry, but I think you may be fucked.

Have you spoken to tech support for your new machine? They may be able to help, unlikely but it's possible.

This is interesting if a bit creepy because I've not heard of a drive that can't burn audio CDs suitable for all machines.

Smoothly

00:51 / 27.01.04

Can't other applications interfere with the burning process? Are you shutting everything else down first?
Also, might it be worth increasing the RAM buffer manually? Not that I fully understand what the RAM buffer does, mind you, but I've noticed that that is an option in Nero Express. It recommends that you set it to at least 40% of your total installed memory for a more reliable burn.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

05:07 / 27.01.04

Try iTunes. It doesn't have much in the way of options when compared to Nero or Toast, but its free, very simple to use and appears to burn CD-Rs that will play pretty much anywhere. The only problem is that it doesn't use WMA files, so if you have used WMP9 for a while and picked WMA over MP3 for encoding music you might have to re-rip some CDs.

luminocity

10:56 / 27.01.04

I thought that normal CD players weren't supposed to be able to play CD-RW? If that's true, it leaves the possiblity of that first CDR being duff in some way, but the drive etc being fine.
Also, I second the iTunes rec. It's a nicely designed interface, much easier to use than any other music software i've tried. My only complaint is that it doesn't let me edit cuts and gain on my mp3s.

w1rebaby

12:57 / 27.01.04

The only problem is that it doesn't use WMA files, so if you have used WMP9 for a while and picked WMA over MP3 for encoding music you might have to re-rip some CDs.

You never want to rip into WMA or any other proprietorial format anyway.

Spatula Clarke

13:43 / 27.01.04

What luminocity said. I've always understood that CD-RWs won't play on standard CD players.

Have you installed any new software? Similarly, have you made sure that you've got the latest patches installed? I had a problem with Easy CD Creator a while back after I swapped from Windows 2000 to XP. Discs played on my PC fine, but not anywhere else. Sorted out after I installed the relevant patch.

Smoothly

14:03 / 27.01.04

While we're talking about it...

I sometimes find that the audio gets out of sync with the video when I make VCDs from mpeg files. Does anyone know the likely cause of that?

topical b

18:47 / 27.01.04

try burning at a lower speed. my dvd player won't read a vcd burned over 8x. many of the newer burners default as high as 52x.

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

10:43 / 28.01.04

First of all thanks to everyone who responded to this it's proved most helpful. I'm taking a day or two off from trying to sort this out because of work and not wanting to through my OPC out of the window.

That said can anyone confirm what Randy and luminocity where saying about CD-RW not being ably to play on normal stereos?

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

20:55 / 02.02.04

Okay I feel slightly silly now. Luminocity and Randy were correct, cheers guys. It would seem that the first CDR I tried was bust got some new CDR discs and they work fine.

Thanks for your help.

Smoothly

16:08 / 05.02.04

On a related note, can anyone recommend a piece of software I can use to cut large mpeg or avi files into smaller chunks for the purpose of burning them to VCDs? If there's a simple freeware programme out there, that'd be great - but if there's a commercial video-editting application out there that does this and more (but one that's not totally impenetrable to the novice), I'd be interested to hear about that also.

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