DVD player won't play recording

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

I’ve got a memorex dvd player. It says it can play dolby and mp3. The model is mvd2042.

I’m able to play professional audio cds but it won’t play the ones I recorded although I followed all the instructions in the tutorial.

I’m using windows 7 pro x64 and Audacity version 2.1.0

Suggestions?

Thanks.

2

Does the CD play on the computer?

When you look at the CD with Windows explorer, what do you see?

If you see something like “track01.cda” that’s an audio CD. If you’re seeing WAV or MP3 files it’s not an audio CD.

Some older DVD players (and older CD players) had trouble with burned (homemade) discs but if can play MP3 it’s probably not that old.

3

It says : track01.cda but the brand of the disk seems to be “disc”.

I recorded onto a memorex dvd +r dl also and it’s a .wpl file There’s also an .ac3 file on the disk along with a folder that has a .wav file

All these files play on the computer.

Maybe if I erase everything and format the dvd disk and put only the audio file?

Thanks…

4

I recorded onto a memorex dvd +r dl also and it’s a .wpl file There’s also an .ac3 file on the disk along with a folder that has a .wav file

That’s a NOT a standard audio CD. The problem could be any or all of those things. Once you deviate from the standards it depends on the player. Most CD players can’t read a DVD disc at all so it’s not going to play in your car stereo (unless your car stereo plays DVDs) or in a CD player.

I suggest burning a CD-R, and configure your burning software to make an audio CD.

You shouldn’t have AC3 files or WAV files. The CDA files are not “real”. I.e. if you try to copy or drag CDA files from the CD to your hard drive, that shouldn’t work because the files on an audio CD are not computer files… When I try to drag a CDA file to my hard drive I get a shortcut, not an audio file. You need “CD ripping” software to get the audio off a CD and convert it to WAV or MP3, etc.

although I followed all the instructions in the tutorial.

What tutorial? What burning application did you use?



…I found the user manual for your DVD player online. It says it can play MP3 files or audio CDs, It doesn’t say it can play WAV or AC3 files (although the manual incorrectly implies that audio CDs have WAV files, which they do not.) All DVD players can play VOB files with MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio (in a VIDEO-TS folder as part of a video DVD), but only some DVD players can play AC3 audio files.

This is from page 28:

Can this unit read regular music CDs?
Yes it can. However, you cannot mix MP3s and WAV files on the same CD. If you do this, the CD Player will play only the MP3 files.

Can I use the MP3 extension for non-audio data files?
No, this may result in serious malfunction and harmful noise interference.

Can I mix MP3 files with other file types on the CDR?
Yes, but your CD player will ignore those files and read only the MP3 files on the CDR.

Does this unit support subdirectories (subfolders)?
Yes, it can read MP3 files from subfolders.

5

The tutorial I followed was an Audacity tutorial on how to burn an audio cd. I used Windows Media as the burning software.

When I check the properties of these memorex dvds it says it can hold 7.9 gbs.

I want to fill it with a whitenoise file using “repeat”. I’m wondering how long it would play if it’s a 7.9 gb audio file. Also, would it play on the dvd player.

Thanks for your help.

6

CDs and DVDs are very different. The tutorial in the manual is for CDs, not DVDs.

I can’t guarantee this will work because I don’t have a Memorex mvd2042, but I think there’s a good chance it will.

  1. Export your tracks from Audacity as MP3 (requires LAME to be installed. See: Installing and updating Audacity on Windows - Audacity Manual
    When exporting, set the export options to 128 kbps CBR (see: MP3 Export Options - Audacity Manual)
    (A 4 hour MP3 with these settings will fit on a data CD)

  2. Burn the files to a CD (not a DVD) and select the CD type as “data CD” (not audio CD).

  3. Refer to the DVD manual for how to play MP3 disks.

7

I exported the file to mp3. The tutorial said to use File>Export>Export to MP3 but when I clicked Export it brought up a Save As type window. I selected the mp3 type and clicked on options.
It was already set to 128 kbps but there was no option for CBR.

Will post again with results.

8

It’s the “Constant” option. (“CBR” stands for “Constant Bit-Rate”)

9

It was already set to 128 kbps but there was no option for CBR.

Hopefully, this will work for you.

Some notes about MP3:

  • As you probably know, MP3 is lossy compression. It throws-away data* to make a smaller file, plus it uses some other “tricks” for compression. A 128 kpbs MP3 is about 1/10th the size of a “CD quality” WAV file.**

  • The bitrate (kbps) is kilo_bits_ per second. There 8 bits in a byte, so you can divide by 8 to get the file size in kilo_bytes_ per second.

Higher bitrate = less compression = bigger files = better quality (maybe)

Lower bitrate = more compression = smaller files = lower quality (maybe)

Sometimes a 192kbps and a 320kbps file will both sound identical to the uncompressed original (or identical to each other) so we can’t say a higher bitrate is always higher quality.

128kbps may be OK, but since you (apparently) have plenty of disc space you may want to use something higher.

  • There are 3 basic modes:
    CBR = Constant Bit Rate. 320kbps is the highest bitrate and 320kbps CBR is usually considered the highest quality setting.

VBR = Variable Bit Rate. It makes the compression “smarter”… Moment-to-moment it uses a lower bitrate for “easy to compress sounds” or silence and a higher bitrate for “complex sounds”. V0 is the “best” VBR setting and V9 gives you the most compression (smallest files).

ABR = Average Bit Rate. This is also a variable bitrate, but it targets an overall-average so you can get a predictable file size.

  • There is also an option for Joint Stereo. It’s almost always best to choose Joint Stereo. It another option that makes the compression “smarter” by combining the sounds that are identical in the left & right channels and compressing it only once, so it makes better-use of the “bits”… That’s a simplified explanation, but the Joint Stereo stuff itself is completely lossless and reversible. It just makes the lossy part work better.



    One more thing… Your CD burning application usually will have an option for making an “audio CD” or a “data CD”.

If you burn an audio CD from an MP3 the burning application will decompress the MP3 and your disc won’t have MP3s. It will be like a “professional CD”, if you use a blank CD-R instead of a DVD-R. (Of course, it’s best to avoid lossy MP3 if you are making a regular audio CD.)

If you burn a data CD, you’ll get the MP3 files. (I think that’s what you want.)








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  • MP3 tries to throw-away you can’t hear anyway… Imagine you’re at a rock concert and someone is talking a few feet away. You can’t hear the talking because it’s drown-out by the music. If you were recording the rock concert, the talking would get recorded but again, you’d never know it. MP3 throws-away those “little details” that you can’t hear.

** Audio CDs don’t contain WAV files but they use the same underlying uncompressed PCM format.

10

burning software to make an audio CD.

And just because this can get fuzzy, Audio CD is a thing. It’s not a generic title for anything round and shiny with sound on it.

It’s a specific format with sound in WAV-like quality and space-saving data structure. If you present an MP3 to an Audio CD author and burner program, the first thing it’s going to do is decompress the sound to perfect quality WAV and then format and burn it. It’s better than even chance it’s not going to fit. Audio CDs are not all that big and everybody is used to tiny, efficient MP3 files.

If you lead a clean life, you’re only going to get 80 minutes of stereo show on there. Usually less.

Koz

11

I forgot this one.

You know you have a “real” Audio CD Author and Burn program because it will ask you for the number of seconds between the songs—the gap. Only Audio CDs have that setting.

Koz

12

Yes it is, but some “DVD players” will play MP3s from “DATA CDs”.
“cisz” (the op) says he has one of these: https://www.cnet.com/products/memorex-mvd2042/specs/