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CD Burning Compatability Guide

Intro

I hate the radio. Pop radio stations always plays the top 5 current songs and rock radio stations only play just the 5 songs they always had. I got sick of it. Unfortunetly, my Iphones charging port (also audio jack) is broken and my car doesn't have bluetooth. So, what do I do? Well, burn CDs of course. You'd think it would be as easy as dragging the music files into the disc drive but there are many variables to whether a CD player can read a disc.
If you're not careful you'll be confused as to why your CD player is not playing your burned CD.

This guide is not meant to convince you to start burning CDs nor is it meant to teach you how to burn CDs (though showing methods to burn CDs will be required in making your CDs compatible). This guide is meant to help you figure out the type of CD and the type of files you need to burn on the CD and their nuances to be able to play music on your CD player without any issues.

Determining the Compatability of Your CD Player

To determine the compatability of your CD player please click yes or no for these questions:

I don't care. Just take me to the method that will give me a CD compatible with most CD players.

Was your CD player made before 1988?

Yes
No

Does your CD player state it can support CD-rw?

Yes
No

Does your CD player list that it can play MP3, WMV, AAC or other audio files?

Yes
No

Does your CD player list that it can play MP3, WMV, AAC or other audio files?

Yes
No

Method 0

Your Cd player might play music if you follow Method 1. But there's a chance your Cd player won't play Cd-r or any other burned Cds as the Cd player was never intended to play burned Cds. If it works, cool. If it doesn't, there's not really anyway to fix that.


Method 1

To burn CDs that are compatible with your player. Make sure you buy CD-R’s. Not CD-R+W or CD-RW.

you can only write to CD-Rs once so make the most out of the disk and burn all the songs you want on it all at once.

Once you have acquired your CD-R discs you need to make the music you are going to add onto the disc abides to the “red book” standard. Programs that burn music onto discs (Windows Media Player, CDBurnerXP) will automatically convert the files for you but if you want to be technical you can convert/export music in the Wave (.wav) format with 2 channels (stereo), a sample rate of 44.1kHz for both channels and a bitrate of 1411.2kbits/s (16 signed bits per sample). Once you have burnt the music onto the disc it should work in most CD players.


Method 2

Follow Method 1 but you can use CD-RWs as well as CD-Rs.
Something you should note though is even if CD players state it can support CD-RW. There's a possibility that the CD player will break in a way where it can read CD-Rs but not CD-RWs.
Another note is while CD-RWs are rewritable meaning if you mess up or wanna add different tracks, you can wipe the disc and rewrite to it. CD-RWs are more expensive than CD-Rs so it might be more cost effective to buy CD-Rs and hope you don't mess up.


Method 3

If your CD player states it can play a file format such as mp3. That means you can use that format with any preset (e.g. sample rate, bitrate, stereo or mono). This means if your CD player supports mp3. You can have your files be 320kbps. Or compress it so you can fit even more music (way more than 80min).

I've read the more compressed your audio files are the more likely it'll skip after wear and tear. So less compressed files or following Method 1 might be better for you.

Something cool is my CD player allows me to put audio files in folders, letting you to skip and repeat groups of music.
For the CD type. Use CD-R, however, if your CD player supports mp3s or another file format, most likely it also supports CD-RW.

If the CD burner program offers to either burn a data CD or burn a music CD. If you're burning mp3s or another file format pick data CD.
An example of this is in Windows Medio Player where you have to make sure to change to Data CD in burn options.


Method 4

Follow Method 3 but you can use definetly use CD-RWs alongside CD-Rs.
Something you should note though is even if CD players state it can support CD-RW. There's a possibility that the CD player will break in a way where it can read CD-Rs but not CD-RWs.
Another note is while CD-RWs are rewritable meaning if you mess up or wanna add different tracks, you can wipe the disc and rewrite to it. CD-RWs are more expensive than CD-Rs so it might be more cost effective to buy CD-Rs and hope you don't mess up.


Conclusion

I hope this helps when trying to burn CDs. Since I've barely burned CDs myself. There might be other factors I might not know about. If I've made any mistakes. Message me at https://neocities.org/site/mediocremetastasis
Good luck on your burning adventures.

References