Hello everybody,
I have distributed many of the music CD’s I made. Random people have told me that the CD"s don’t work on some of their players. For example the CD’s will work in the car, but not on the home player. Or they will work in the computer but not in the home player, etc.
Any ideas why this might be happening?
Thank you,
Ms. Cosby Gibson
New York State
My suspicion is that you are creating data CDs and not Music CDs - see thsi article in the Wiki: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_burn_CDs
WC
Thank you, I will give it a try! 
Hi,
Still having trouble with this. Is it that the recordings should have been made differently?
Thanks,
Cosby
If you have made a proper audio CD and you open it in Windows Explorer, you should see a list of CDA tracks (track_number.cda) rather than a list of audio files (track_name.mp3, track_name.wav, track_name.mpg etc).
Be sure to use good quality CDR’s
Don’t use rewritable disks (CDRW)
Use only stereo files that are recorded as “16 bit, 44100 Hz, Microsoft PCM, WAV” format.
Avoid “overfilling” a CD - keep the total playing time to under 70 minutes
Use CD burning software such as Nero, Toast, Easy CD Creator, K3B… rather than Windows Media player.
Dear Mr. Fiddle,
Thank you very much for your excellent advice, I really appreciate it.
When I go to open the song file, the extension is mp3.
Thank you,
Cosby
I’ve had the same type of problems. I’m using Sonic as the CD burner software. I’ve checked Windows Explorer. I’m making CDA (CD audio) files on a music CD. My settings appear to be correct in audacity, though I don’t know for sure. CD’s don’t work in my home stereo. They work fine in a portable CD/radio stereo. They are distorted and choppy and there is a lot of clicking noise on my computer and my car stereo. I want to listen in my car, but the quality isn’t very good. I’ve recorded at the proper sound levels, and in stereo. There is something about the WAV files that is not being read correctly. At this point, I don’t have a clue. It’s very frustrating. I’ve made several CD’s from cassette tapes, only to find out that the CD’s aren’t playing properly.
I’m looking for advice also. Thanks
I’m assuming that you are using Microsoft Windows?
Windows XP or Vista?
In Windows. when you open “My Documents” or any other folder, it opens in “Windows Explorer”.
This is a typical view of Windows Explorer on XP:
If the files on your CD are MP3 files, then you have indeed made a data CD rather than an audio CD.
Ideally you should make a new CD from the original files (and make it an “audio CD” this time).
If you no longer have the original music files, then you can get them from the data CD that you have made. The reason that it is better to use the original files is that when you convert a file to MP3, there is some loss of sound quality.
To get the audio files from your data CD onto your hard drive:
Make a folder on your computer, and simply copy the MP3 files from the data CD into that folder.
If you are using Nero to burn your CDs, choose “New Audio CD” and drag all the audio files that you want on the CD from Nero’s “browser window” into its “compilation window”.
Using Nero Express, or Nero Essentials, simply use the CD wizard for making an audio CD.
Note that Nero (and the lite versions) can automatically convert mp3s into the correct WAV format, so you do not need to convert them manually.
If you are using other software to make the audio CD, then you may need to convert the MP3’s into “16 bit, 44100 Hz, Microsoft PCM, WAV” format before you make the CD.
To convert the files with Audacity, make sure that the project rate is set to 44100 (you can set the default project rate in “Edit > Preferences > Quality”, or set it manually from the project rate box at the bottom of the main Audacity window). Open an MP3, the Export it as a WAV file. In Audacity 1.3.x you should check the options in the Export dialogue to make sure that it is set for 16 bit WAV.
Ill be brief strochim because you are hijacking someone else’s question. Since you have the .cda files showing on the computer it looks like you are making the CDs correctly. Some CD players are more fussy about the CD quality than others. Some will even refuse to recognise that there is a disk present if it doesn’t like that particular brand of disk.
Avoid using CD-RW disks, as these are frequently rejected by CD players.
Try a different brand of CD.
Check on line to see if there are any “firmware updates” for your CD writer (these updates can help improve the burned CD quality, and improve compatibility with different brands of CD).
Try changing the burn speed - sometimes burning the disk at a slower (or faster) speed can improve the CD quality.
Try out some CDR’s that someone else has made on your home stereo and car CD players. You may find that these players just don’t like CDRs.
To: cgib55 and stevethefiddle,
After reading your advice, I tried different CD-R’s. I was using Sony, and having trouble. I switched to Maxell, and everything seems to be working fine. It plays in all of my CD players without trouble, so far. That seems to be a good enough answer for my situation.
Sorry for butting in this conversation. Hope this helps.
Thanks
Thank you very much for your excellent answer. I will try it as soon as I can. 
RE: disc type. I’ve tried so many tyoes in my computer to burn, but the only ones that seem to work are Sony CD-RW which are $5.00 for five CD’s. I’ve tried the stack-type, and also less expensive ones, but they did not work. I wish I could find a good solution, since I intend to make a lot of copies of my CD.
Thank you again for your effort,
Cosby
Cosby,
I use TDK CD-R80 I buy them by the 100 on a spindle - cost in the UK c. £11-12 per 100 i.e 18-20 US cents per disc. On my third batch now and have had only two duds that turned into coaster/beermats.
I selected TDK on the basis of using their SA tapes with excellent results in my Nakamichi tape deck over may years.
WC
Just to add another possibility.
I have a Sony home DVD/CD player Model No: DVP S325 that will not play any home recorded/finalised DVDs & Audio CDs. It will only play commercially recorded ones. 
However, I also have a £19.99 Alba unit that will play absolutely anything I record. It will even play one of my audio cds that’s been recorded on a CD-RW!
Thank you everyone for excellent information. I will look into all of it, and I’m very appreciative!
Mr. Camtechman, why do you think your Sony player won’t play those CD’s?? It’s almost like these machines are haunted or something. 
Thank you!