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Topic: Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo (Read 17842 times) previous topic - next topic
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Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

New here.  I downloaded and converted (FVD Suite) a slew of YouTube music videos - some motion, some still - to .mp3's for playing on my car CD player.  The problem I'm running into is that "Burn Audio CD (for any CD player)" in Media Monkey and "Create an Audio CD (that can be played on normal CD players)" in Ashampoo Burning Studio turn out CDs with .cda files - Track01.cda, Track02.cda, etc. - which are useless.  OTOH, if I burn them as data files for players that support .mp3, the CD plays in the car but it shows as one file and there's no audio.  In a PC or a standalone DVD/CD player (attached to TV), the same CDs play correctly and the >> button moves tracks.  I've downloaded and burned regular CDs for my car stereo before, but this is the first time I've tried to concoct a CD from disparate sources.  I must be missing something.  Any ideas?  Thanks,

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #2 –
Part of your confusion is that you don't seem to realize that audio CDs don't have tags. At best they might have CD text, but most players don't recognize it, and many burners don't record it unless you specifically enable it. That is why the "files" (which they aren't) show up as Track01.cda etc.

Edit: typo

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #3 –
Quote from: highstream on
[...]"Create an Audio CD (that can be played on normal CD players)" in Ashampoo Burning Studio turn out CDs with .cda files - Track01.cda, Track02.cda, etc. - which are useless.

Those *.cda files are just a pc compatible representation of what's a standard audio CD. Why do you consider them useless? They should play in any CD player (if you close the session and the disc, Ashampoo should take care of this though). Far from useless, unless you care to elaborate.

Quote from: highstream on
[...] if I burn them as data files for players that support .mp3, the CD plays in the car but it shows as one file and there's no audio.

Your car stereo detects an audio CD instead of a data CD. In my experience, this only happens if the player is unaware of data (aka mp3) CD's. (Read: are you sure that your car stereo even supports mp3 CD's?)

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #4 –
Thanks for your replies.  When the .cda's didn't play on computer and thinking they don't have musical info, I never checked them in the car.  My mistake.  Is "track" the standard title with CDs or is there a way to get the individual text to show? 

ripr, I assume you are referring to copyright issues, of which I was aware before posting.  These YouTube videos/songs almost entirely come from the 1930s and 1940s; I picked the links up from http://blip.fm/profile/lindyhopper/playlist.  Since they apparently haven't been challenged and my use is entirely personal, I assume that this is at worst a gray area.

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #5 –
There is nothing on the CD with the name "Track". That is just the name that your PC displays to indicate one segment of the audio on the disc.

What is actually on the CD is one continuous audio track, plus a table of contents to tell the player at what point each "track" begins and ends.

In addition, there can be secondary information called "CD Text" with very short names for the CD and each of its tracks. This is used very little and most people are not aware that it is there (which it rarely is).

When you load a CD into your computer and it promptly displays all of the information about that disc, the player is actually downloading that information from an online database.

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #6 –
Quote
When the .cda's didn't play on computer and thinking they don't have musical info, I never checked them in the car.
Your computer should be able to play the CD, or the individual tracks, just like any other audio CD (with Windows Media Player, etc.).  But, if you click on one of the CDA files they may not play (depending on your player software).  In fact the "CDA" files don't really exist as individual files!  Your operating system is getting the track information from the CDs table of contents.    (This is why it takes special software to "rip" an audio  CD...  You can't simply copy the CDA files, because they don't exist!) 


Quote
Is "track" the standard title with CDs or is there a way to get the individual text to show?
That's all you get...    As pdq said, this "tag" information simply does not exist on most audio CDs. 

If you see any title/artist information on your car player (with some audio CDs), that's optional CD text.  When you play an audio CD on your computer, the player software takes a "fingerprint" or "signature" of the CD, and trys to find a match on the Internet, and then it can download and display the information.

When you make your own compilation CD, obviously there is no match in the online database.  Or, if you don't have an internet connection and you play a "new" CD on your computer (a CD that's never been played on your computer) you won't see the title/artist information.

Quote
These YouTube videos/songs almost entirely come from the 1930s and 1940s; I picked the links up from http://blip.fm/profile/lindyhopper/playlist. Since they apparently haven't been challenged and my use is entirely personal, I assume that this is at worst a gray area.
Depending on where you live, the copyrights may not have expired.    I'm pretty sure that old movies like "The Wizard Of Oz" are still under copyright in the U.S.    For a variety of reasons, sometimes the "recording" or "performance" or "release" is under copyright, even though the music copyright has long expired (i.e. Beethoven or Mozart).

On this forum, it's probably best to just to "keep quiet" if you've downloaded something...    And, you've probably noticed that YouTube doesn't have a "download" button...  YouTube trys to prevent you from downloading anything!

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #7 –
Thanks for the informative replies.  It's helped me understand some things I've done off and on for years without really knowing why.

Problem burning .mp3 files to CD for car stereo

Reply #8 –
If you start with tracks that have a distinguishing name (as well as song title, this can include performer, author, and anything else, up to the limit of the number of characters supported), and the CD writer does CD text (not universal but I've never worked with one that doesn't), these track titles will be written to the CD. Then, if you have a player that supports CD text (not very common), the titles will display. Tags for mp3, FLAC, and other formats, support considerably more information than CD test can accommodate.

If there is CD text on the CD, and your CD ROM drive supports CD text, the text will become the track title when you extract the songs. Programs like EAC will display these on screen before you do any extraction. All the many hundreds of CDs I written have CD text titles; few commercial CDs do.