Making CD's?

  • Thread starter Thread starter chamelious
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chamelious

www.thesunexplodes.com
I've always had this problem. When writing music to CD's to be played in actual CD players, they sometimes dont work on older devices, like the CD player in my car.

Is there anything to be done about this?
 
Yeah- I just use Nero. They always play in SOME Cd players, just not all.
 
There's an old boombox I have that doesn't play CDRs that I burn but plays "pro"/store-bought CDs just fine. Not exactly sure why. I use CD Architect which I know for sure does everything correctly, maybe it's the media?
 
Yeah. I wondered why cd players play the store ones but not the burned ones. There must be some sort of differance.
 
Many old CD players cannot play burned disks.

There is NOTHING you can do in your computer to correct that - only upgrade the CD player.
No different type of disks will help you.

They just will not play a burned disk.... they need pressed disks; the pits in the disk have a totally different shape.

Anything made in the last 4 or 5 years should be able to play burned disks, but there is NO guarantee...

(Same goes for older DVD players when you try to get them to play burned DVD video disks....)
 
Many old CD players cannot play burned disks.

There is NOTHING you can do in your computer to correct that - only upgrade the CD player.
No different type of disks will help you.

They just will not play a burned disk.... they need pressed disks; the pits in the disk have a totally different shape.
Good to know that, I always thought that you had to burn the tracks in another format but probably that's not true :)
 
Hmm, what do all the self made musicians and amatuer recordists do about this problem?
 
Hmm, what do all the self made musicians and amatuer recordists do about this problem?
One good idea would be to have an experienced mastering engineer create the production master - which generally isn't very expensive.
But I'm a little biased about such things.

Anyway -- There are plenty of programs out there that don't write to spec. Some players will play them, some won't. I've never had a problem with older machines (even 1985 machines that say "DIGITAL" on them) play a properly authored disc.
 
I use a late 80's Marantz & it plays everything I put in it.
Swap programs for burning & see if the problem persists.
Try burning the same files on a different burner & again see if the prob persists.
Check & write down all the settings in your burner prog. Then reset to default & try a burn. Phone a friend who has had successs with the same prog you use & compare settings.
I reckon it's in the burn process that the problems exists - but I'm probably wrong.
I consistently burn with nero, I did try a couple of other that gave me some grief, but that's not to say i recommend it - I use it. There are several I wouldn't recommend though like recordnow by sonic but then again that may just be me.
You might also try the old fashioned lense cleaner in the burner & player too - esp the player.
 
Many old CD players cannot play burned disks.

There is NOTHING you can do in your computer to correct that - only upgrade the CD player.
No different type of disks will help you.

They just will not play a burned disk.... they need pressed disks; the pits in the disk have a totally different shape.

Anything made in the last 4 or 5 years should be able to play burned disks, but there is NO guarantee...

(Same goes for older DVD players when you try to get them to play burned DVD video disks....)

It's a lot more complicated than that. Most CD hardware built since the first CD burners came out in the late 80s or early 90s should play burned discs. However, there are a lot of "buts" involved.

  • I don't think I've ever heard of burned media working with anything built before 1990 or so, but there are probably exceptions.
  • Discs with colored backings often won't play reliably in optical drives built before about 1995.
  • Discs with gold foil instead of aluminum often have compatibility problems with drives prior to about 1995 as well.
  • Discs with high track density (700 MB CD-R media) won't play reliably in many drives built more than about five years old.
  • Discs burned at over 1x are unlikely to play reliably in anything built prior to about 1995.

The real kicks in the nuts are the last two. It is almost impossible to find modern burners that still support 1x burning, which makes it hard to burn discs that play on older players.

Similarly, it is almost impossible to buy 650MB CD-R media anymore, which means that it is almost impossible for you to burn CDs that will play reliably in older players now. The difference is that 700MB media is just within the allowed track pitch spec for CD media. As a result, if an older optical drive isn't calibrated almost perfectly, it will have real problems seeking and reading the TOC on higher density media.

Note: all dates listed above are based on experience burning data CD-Rs for computer use. Audio CD players should have similar date ranges, but the specific years will be inexact. :-)

Since DVD-R media came out only a couple years after the first pressed media (1995 vs. 1997) and since almost nobody bought DVD players before about 1998 anyway, statistically speaking, any DVD player that won't play burned media is almost certainly defective and should meet the same fate as the printer in Office Space.
 
get a new cd player. Old cd players had problems playing burned cds (really old ones...) but I've never seen new cd players have issues playing burned cds...It might sound silly, but I'm serious. CD players are cheap...there's no reason to hold on to a cd player that's pre 1995...none...you could go to the store and grab a new one for less than $100 that will be 100x better than something that's over a decade old.
 
Older CD players MAY be better built - as i more solid chasis, less plastic in the structure etc - such thingsMAY make a difference in playback quality depending on the set up, amp, speakers and media. My 1st CD player only did play, pause, next track, open & close, weight a tonne with a hevay caste base etc. very stable, very accurate and was square rather than the now ubiquitous "Hi Fi rack space" wide & deep. I was convinced to get rid of it when the laser died (replacements weren't yet cheap) and now find that the tech that convinced me has it as the PRIME piece in his system.
I hang on to & havehad repaired my CD player because it is a good one and, I know this'll get a laugh, I can hear A difference that I am either used to or prefer. My marantz 52 SE is now without a motorised tray (replacement parts no longer available for the gears which crumbled) so I has a little knob put on the front of the tray so I can manually open (after pressing open for chip/prog reasons) & close it.
It plays really well, I keep it clean & it'll outlast yet another a new one.
BUT you could always buy another one if you're having trouble - then again a lot of people don't really care about the sound quality & use their DVD players as the CD player. try your discs in the DVD player & see if they play OK there.
 
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