Burning CDs

[natalie_1982]

I haven't burned anything for about two years and have forgotten how to do anything! I downloaded a few albums and burned them (with nero) to CDR discs, but they won't play in a car cd player, DVD player, or my stereo and when I put them in the pc, it reads them as a blank disc. The file formats are MP3. Am I missing something completely obvious?? Thanks all :-)

[weeal]

Hi Nat
Have they been burned as MP3 though? maybe the file format has altered? I did this once but was using mediaplayer to burn them and couldnt play them anywhere but the PC.
You wont be able to check the CD if nothing reads it tho, check the settings youre using on Nero perhaps?
or
Do it again using Windows Mediaplayer (RIP) and choose the MP3 format

[natalie_1982]

Woohoo! Thanks Al, you are a star, I used WMP and it worked. I have managed to DVDs with Nero which is why I was getting confuddled, hey ho. Thanks again xx

[weeal]

No probs just glad it worked for you, thought maybe a real techie would come along any minute tho and say somethin else lol

[ACtheTROLL]

lol - hi weeal
something else ......

ok now for the real something else
there are two main audio formats ... commercial cd and mp3 (this is a total lie ... but go with it for a bit)

commercial CDs are the equivalent of bitmaps ... and when you see a 65 or 70 minute lable on a cd ... it's referring to audio time of tunes recorded in this format

this is the format that ALL CD players can handle
and in nero ... it's shown as "new audio cd"

mp3 is classed as data and not audio (another lie ... but stick with me) - true as far as nero is concerned.

new cars may well have an mp3 option built into the CD player (but generally still can't see DVDs of any type)

so if you've bunged 6,000,000 MP3s on a DVD ... you have little chance of playing it in your (or any other) car

1,000,000 MP3s in a CD MAY play
but to be certain ... you need to burn them as audio CDs which will convert the MP3s for you .... unfortunately instead of 1,000,000 tracks ... you'll get between 12 and 14!

the other option is to nip down to Halfords and get them to fit you a new fangled radio/cd player which also handles MP3s
(We have a vauxhaul no mp3 and a toyota yes mp3 (both 07 - so "older" is a relative term)

the other other option is to bung them on to your MP3 player and buy a gizmo from tesco that will let you play it over your car radio

[ChuckFickens]

Welcome back AC, hope you had a good holiday.

[weeal]

Hi Ac
ok and now weeal is bamboozled lol
Will read it a few times till it sinks in

[ACtheTROLL]

chuck
cheers ... yep very good ta ... 1 off rain, cloud and windy - the rest nice an' warm
long walks, long drinks, long time 'till the next one ;(

weeal
's easy ... honest - all you really need to know is
a good old fashioned cd will do 60-70 minutes .... or 12-14 tracks (an old LP's worth) it's used in all CDs you buy at the shop.

basically mp3 is a cleaver data format that lets you squeeze 100s of tracks into the same space.
used for PCs and MP3 players - (also the soundtrack of most video DVDs)

but more importantly just about every device that does play MP3 will tell you it does ....
if it doesn't say it will .... it won't

now the bit you don't have to read .....

the CD format is "red book audio"
the new is mp3

but all you NEED to know is you have to convert one into the other .... either by ripping a cd ... (rba > mp3)
(which windows media player will do)
or by recording mp3 >rba
which nero will do

it's a bit zen though ....because mp3 is data ... you can see individual files in windows explorer.

BUT
red book audio is a format that's exclusive to CDs
and so if you just look at an audio CD you won't see not nuffink. (but there are filters available that will)

so you can't copy MP3 to RBA and store it on your HDD -
because it's not actually a file format
that's why you HAVE to rip an audio CD ... but can just copy MP3s to another folder.