CD recording problem (1 Viewer)

[Don Peskin]

I just got a Gateway computer with a comination CDr/rw - DVDrom drive. I bought a small pack of TDK data CDRs to test the drive. I've copied 6 of my CDs, so I could keep them at work. All play fine on my computer drive but when I tried to play them in my cd player I ran into problems. 3 played fine, 1 wouldn't play at all, and 2 would play but had an anoying scratchy sound. What's going on?

 

[John Watson]

I take it you're not new to CD burning, but perhaps this site may have tips.

http://www.cdrfaq.org/

Actually I think this subject may have come up here in the last 6 months, the difficulty some people have with CD - RW data disks (is that what you used?) not playing on normal cd players at home or in cars?

Perhaps a search here at HTF may turn up some of those discussions.

 

[MarkHastings]

All play fine on my computer drive but when I tried to play them in my cd player I ran into problems

This sounds like a case of "not Finalizing the disc".

I'm not 100% positive on this, but I believe that when a disc is finalized, an "index" is written onto the disc. This index is what all CD players read first. The index contains all the info like: How many tracks are on the disc, what the length of each track is, what the length of the entire disc is, etc.

Without this "index", your CD player doesn't know how to read the 1's and 0's on the disc. The reason why your computer is able to read a non-finalized disc is because almost all cd's players (in computers) can read the digital info directly with an "index".

Why is there a choice to finalize or not? Well, once a disc is finalized, no more audio can be added to the disc. If a disc is not-finalized, you can go back and add more songs to the disc. But since the disc will only play in your computer, it's best to finalize every disc.

 

[Paul Bartlet]

Why is there a choice to finalize or not? Well, once a disc is finalized, no more audio can be added to the disc. If a disc is not-finalized, you can go back and add more songs to the disc. But since the disc will only play in your computer, it's best to finalize every disc

Well, yes and no. When burning a Audio CD, the first thing written to the CD is the TOC "Table of Contents". This is what tells CD players, how many and where the Tracks are located.
So, say for example, you burned 4 songs and didn't finalize CD, then next day added 4 more and then did finalize. Your computer drive will see 8 tracks, any other CD player (home system, walkman, car...) will only see 4.
The TOC only contains 4 tracks. This is all they see on the disk. The TOC will not but updated with the additional tracks, it has be written as 4.

Strange problem though, some different brands of CDR's may not work in some CD players, but u used all the same brand.
Perhaps try to copy them again at a slower speed, the Read MUST be as fast as the Write. Burners have gotten very quick, you can burn at 48x these days, but CD's can't be Read at that speed (if u did disk to disk copy).
Also, try to extract audio to HD, then burn for HD. Your HD can keep up to current Burn speeds.

I use Exact Audio for making my own mp3s, it can also Extract audio from cd's very well. It's free, and many consider it the best. It will extract audio with "error correction". Try burning them disks after grabbing audio with this.

 

[MarkHastings]

When burning a Audio CD, the first thing written to the CD is the TOC "Table of Contents"

Untrue. That's what the process of "Finalizing" is meant for...

Take a look at this PDF. http://www.totalaudio.co.uk/CDR/CDR-W33man.pdf
Page 9 says "Finalizing is the process of writing a TOC"

 

[Paul Bartlet]

My bad, TOC is written when u finalize CD. I was sure you couldn't multi session with audio cd, but you can :b

 

[Don Peskin]

Thanks for the responses.
I was using TDK CD-R discs whose max is 16 times. The first cd I burned I didn't know to set the speed so the computer did it faster than the disc was supposed to handle - it played fine. On the second disc when I set the software to 16x - it crackled. The speed of recording isn't making any difference.
I used the disc copy feature which automatically finalizes the cd so that's not a problem. On a couple of copies it started out ok and after a song or two the crackling began.
Just for the record, I am brand new to this.

 

[Kevin P]

Try a different brand of CD-R, your mileage may vary depending on your CD player and brand of CD-R used.

I've had good luck with Sony, Imation, Fuji and Verbatim discs. I've had not so good luck with some no-name cheapo brands (though I would expect TDK would be ok).

KJP

 

[MarkHastings]

On a couple of copies it started out ok and after a song or two the crackling began.

I've been burning CD's for almost 6 years now and I don't think I've ever heard of something like that happening. As Kevin said, it could be the CD's you are using. Have you even tried burning at a lower rate? Even though it says 16x and you burn at 16x, it still might be too fast.

 

[Luis Esp]

I've just tried a few cdrs by SmartBuy, and though it states 16x, I've had to use a 4x to not get any coasters. I have'nt had any problems recording up to 24x with other cdrs, mainly Fuji, TDK and Maxell.

I've also had to burn at slower speed with the black coloured cdrs, even though they also recorded at 16x.

 

[Ken Seeber]

What software are you using?

 

[Don Peskin]

roxio easy cd creator came with the pc

 

[Ted Lee]

as alread clarified, toc is written at the end. otherwise howz it gonna know what on the cd?

all the good points are already covered.

1. copy at slower speed (probable cause)
2. copy files to hd first (speeds up copying anyway)
3. change media (iffy...)

i don't remember for sure, but i think easy cd creator has some sort of option where you can "analyze" your drive. you pop in both audio and data cd's and it will do whatever the heck it does and give you a recommended setting.

since you have a new pc, i'm sure it's up to snuff performance wise.

 

[MarkHastings]

You might want to be certain that the current version of CD burning software is compatible with your system.

i.e. Easy CD Creator needs the latest version to work with Win XP.

Don, what version of windows are you running? and what is the version of your CD creator software?

The latest is 5.3.4. If the software came with the computer then it's most likely the "Basic" or "Starter Kit" which can be ugraded from the link at the bottom of this page:
http://www.roxio.com/en/support/ecdc...pdatesv5.jhtml

 

[Don Peskin]

I know this sounds like a dumb question but how do I find out what versions I have?

 

[Ted Lee]

go to help / about easy cd creator. it will tell you there.

 

[Don Peskin]

thanks. I just checked and I do have an older version. You would think a new computer would come with the latest versions of software, guess not.

 

[Ted Lee]

You would think a new computer would come with the latest versions of software, guess not.

yeah, you would think. i rarely find that to be the case. most of the time the stuff is several months old. this usually has to do with the lag time between development, third party contracts, and backlog.

it's always a good idea to install the software, then check for upgrades.

 

[Don Peskin]

Well, I downloaded the updated softwar from the Roxio site. It was easier than I thought but took just over 45 minutes as the data rate was under 4kb even though I have a 56kb modum. Now I just have to find the time to try again.