Burning songs to cd to play in car

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Sometimes, when I burn audio to a cd, it works in my car. Other times, it doesn’t. is there a trick? Does it depend on whether I burn MP3’s or WAV files to disk? Am I correct in stating that a car CD player cannot read MP3’s but it can read WAV files?

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It depends on your car stereo. Most newer car stereos (less than 3 years old) are capable of playing MP3 or WMA files so you can burn CDs with these file types. If this is the case then you should see this written somewhere on the face of the stereo.

If your stereo cannot play these file types then you will need to burn music in WAV format. This is not my preferred option since a CD in Wav format can only hold 80 minutes of music whereas a CD with mp3s might easily hold 10 hours of music.

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Sometimes, when I burn audio to a cd, it works in my car. Other times, it doesn’t. is there a trick? Does it depend on whether I burn MP3’s or WAV files to disk? Am I correct in stating that a car CD player cannot read MP3’s but it can read WAV files?

what is the model of your car stereo?

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Audio CDs should work in any car stereo, whether the original files were WAV, MP3. WMA or anything else. But note that I said “audio CD” which is not the same as a data CD filled with MP3 and WMA files. For an audio CD, the burner software converts the MP3, WMA, whatever file into audio format.

As an example, my car plays only audio CDs. I create audio CDs using a variety of file types and they play just fine since it is an audio CD. My daughter’s car has a CD player that also plays data MP3/WMA CDs, which are really data CDs containing MP3 and WMA files. It can also play plain old audio CDs.

Now, if you are creating audio CDs and some play and some do not, note the CD manufacturer’s name and do NOT buy CDs from them any more. Personally, I don’t buy no-name or Imation CDs as I have had problems with both. I have had no problems with Memorex, Sony or HP CDs.

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I remember having a similar problem a few years back, and found that I had forgotten to close the burned CD. Once I started doing that they would play in my car system just fine.

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I’m trying to use Windows Media Player to burn a series of 5 WAV files to disk. First, Windows Media Player gave me this error when I tried adding the files to the Burn List pane: “It is not possible to determine if this file can fit on a disc because Windows Media Player cannot detect the length of the file. Playing the file before burning may enable the Player to detect the file length.”

So I tried playing the 5 WAV files first, but still no luck.

Then I instead selected the 5 WAV files and played them, and then clicked the Burn button up top and picked “Burn ‘Now Playing’ List to E:”. When I tried that, I got this error: “Windows Media Player cannot open the WAV file.” However, WMP can open the WAV file. In fact, it was playing the WAV files just before I tried to burn them.

I’m using an Imation 700 MB – 80 min 52x 1x-52x Compatible CD-R.

Why won’t it work?

UPDATE: I used Windows to burn the files. Now to see if my car can play these WAV files.

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I use CDBurnerXP for anything other than a straight data copy. Free and easy to use.

cheers, Paul

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I use CDBurnerXP for anything other than a straight data copy. Free and easy to use.

cheers, Paul

same here.

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Instead of WMP, try Media Monkey.

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I was able to successfully burn the files using Windows (not Windows Media Player). HOwever, when I burned the WAV files, they did not play in my car.

I have a Kenwood MP3 WMA Mitsubishi Motors stereo with cd player and tuner.

The cd worked in my laptop and in my wife’s laptop, but not in my car or at my work computer.

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As it’s a car stereo the laser may be on it’s way out – car stereos have to survive temperature and shock extremes and tend to have shorter lives than their indoor cousins.
Have you tried “finalising” the CD before using it in the car?
Try using another CD burner?

cheers, Paul

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would wav files get rejected if they were not a standard 48k or 42k cycles? if they would check/and or standardize them and see if that works (also if nothing else suggested works).

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WAV files on CD are standard (44.1k sample rate, 16bits) and should play on any CD player. If you are recording in a different sample/bit rate all bets are off.

cheers, Paul

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Paul, I’m not sure I would agree that “WAV files on CD are standard (44.1k sample rate, 16bits) and should play on any CD player.” The car sterio says “MP3” and “WMA” on it. If it were also able to play WAV’s, then wouldn’t it also say “WAV”?

JMT

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Paul, I’m not sure I would agree that “WAV files on CD are standard (44.1k sample rate, 16bits) and should play on any CD player.” The car sterio says “MP3” and “WMA” on it. If it were also able to play WAV’s, then wouldn’t it also say “WAV”?

JMT

i have to agree with this one sir, this player doesnt support wav files.

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The easiest way to tell if the player is MP3/WMA only is to load a standard shop CD that does not contain media files. This is guaranteed to be WAV only.

cheers, Paul

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I think there is some confusion in this thread about the difference between a “data” CD that contains audio files such as MP3s or WMAs in an arbitrary file structure, and an “audio” CD (Red Book standard / CDA) which is specially formatted to be playable by any CD player. The latter uses an uncompressed WAV format for audio tracks, but since there is no advantage in playing uncompressed WAV files in other file structures, there’s no reason to advertise compatibility with that format.

==Edit==

I don’t know why your CD burning software is picky about the source files.

My older CD-R audio CDs sometimes fail reading the first track. If I quickly use the button to skip forward one track after loading the CD, and then back one track, then I can play that first track without error. I think it’s possible that some deterioration of the media (e.g., from the heat of the car or cheapness of the media) may be at fault.

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