CD won't play - why?

[Matthew Bryson]

I just burned a CD of some things I recorded - this was my first time burning a CD of any type. I experienced what I've seen various friends deal with over the last few years - The CD wouldn't play in my CD player. I've had friends give me CD's that they've burned, and many times it only works in certain CD players (works in the house, not in the car) or it doesn't work on any CD players, only on a computer…

What is the problem with these CD's? Do I need a better burn program, or better blank CD's? Do I need to make a different file type before I burn?

What I did - I recorded some tracks from my porta studio to my computer using the line in to the PC. I recorded to the PC using Audacity, then I exported the song as a WAV file (to the desk top) My computer wanted to open the file with Windows Media Player, so I used Media Player to "add to burn list" and burned to CD. As I said above, that CD won't play on any of my CD players.

[TL5]

Just a guess, you made a data CD with the wav file instead of an audio CD.

You can sometimes figure out if this is the case by simply putting the disc in your PC drive and opening the folder via my computer. If the files are .wav or .mp3 you made a data disc, which will NOT play in a standard audio cd player.

The file type is .cda (IIRC) for an audio CD.

[TL5]

OK, more.. I just double checked here at my desk.

Audio cd files are .cda
depending on your system defaults, You MAY have to click "My Computer" then right click on the drive name with the disc (D drive, E drive??) inserted. You should get a menu, click "explore" in order to show you the files on the disc.

[Matthew Bryson]

Originally Posted by TL5

OK, more.. I just double checked here at my desk.

Audio cd files are .cda
depending on your system defaults, You MAY have to click "My Computer" then right click on the drive name with the disc (D drive, E drive??) inserted. You should get a menu, click "explore" in order to show you the files on the disc.

Thanks for the info... I did as you said, and it shows as a CDA Audio CD
I have one friend who claims to have trouble when burning to cheap CDs... so I might try again with a better blank CD... after that, I'm at a loss for what to do.

[TL5]

Well it was a guess and I guessed wrong.

I've never had a CD to burn, show the files as cda then not play. I dunno? Sorry.

Does it play in your computer?

[Basshole]

As much as manufacturers would like you to believe otherwise, there are still often incompatibilities that exist between different burners and players.

I remember that I used to run into DAT tapes all the time that would refuse to play in my Sony DAT, but would play just fine in my Panasonic...

Try different brands of media, especially different colors (the writable side - the dye layer). The reason being that different lasers focus better on different spectral colors.

This variance is why there is a small area of the CDR in the specification that is used just for test burning, before the disc write actually begins. The laser hits it, and then reads it back to see if the burn was "hot enough" or not. The laser is then adjusted accordingly, and the disc is written out.

This is why certain burners prefer gold media, silver media, blue media, etc. Their lasers just happen to work better on that type/color dye. Likewise, readers have an easier time reading certain "colors" as well.

Experiment. You just might find a media type that works, and bridges the gap between your different pieces of equipment...or then again, you might find that your particular combination of writer and reader will just simply never play nice together.

Good luck.