Cd won't play on old cd player

[nickb]

I transfered music from tape to cd. I went from tape recorder to laptop using behringr 202 incterface. It recordered well and I created a cd using windows media player. It plays well off mylaptop but wont't play on my old cd player. Suggestions please.

[justinburnett]

Well, there are a few possible reasons that I can think of:

1) You somehow burned the audio to the disc as files. This would let you use them on the computer but not a CD player. You have to specifically select "audio cd" in your burning software. Also make sure you select "close disc" or "finalize disc", or it won't play.

2) Yo may have burned the disc as "Track At Once" rather than Disc At Once". Some CD players won't play TAO CDs.

3)If your CD player is really old, its laser may not have the power to play a burned CD, since their reflectivity is lower than 'real' CDs. This is probably not the issue if your player is less than 10 years old. You can check this by trying it in a newer player.


Do any of these sound like they might apply?

Take care
-J-

[nickb]

I think the issue may be #3. My unit is a combo, turntable, cd player, and cassette player. I am abe to play my cd's that I purchase (professional/pre recorder) on my cd player, but, the cd I made... it doesnt play on the combo unit which is about 20 years old. So, maybe it is the age.

[justinburnett]

Ok, that does sound like it could be the problem. Try it in a newer player and see if it works

[steve]

At least 9 out of 10 times that this question comes up the answer is #1
By default Windows Media Player creates CDs that do not play on most stand alone CD players. You have to specifically tell it to make an Audio CD.
Personally I find Windows Media Player to be a terrible program for burning CDs and would recommend using CDBurnerXP (free) http://cdburnerxp.se/

[nickb]

Thank you, Justin and Steve!
Steve, I tried your suggestion but, it still isn't working. I burned the CD, put it into my (old) CD Player and then it spins for a few seconds then stops. I did this a few times. THEN, I put in one of my professional/pre-recorded CD's, and it worked fine.
One further question..............Where should my Windows Autoplay setting be set to? When the prompt comes up, there is no option for choosing CD Burner XP. I am at a total loss. Thanks a million, guys.

[nickb]

Ok............Sucess!! I burnt another CD and played it back on my son's (newer) portable radio/CD Player and IT PLAYS. Tried the same CD on my old 20 year old unit and it doesn't play. So, maybe the oroblem was a combination of the od unit and, Windows Media Player. Thanks again for your input.

[kozikowski]

CD Burner XP has nothing to do with Windows Media. You launch CD Burner XP and use it to open or import your music files.

These aren't "burner" programs. They're Music CD Authoring Programs. They produce the special file format that Music CDs need to make them universally playable and yes, I do have really old CD players and they all work perfectly given the proper burned disks. The one in my truck is 1992.

You can't be using insanely cheap disks. Don't even bother if the disk says "Hi Qwality" or "HiQ" on it. They can have bad dye layers and produce bad CDs even if you do everything else right. I use Sony CD-R. The other CD variations, CD-RW, will not work reliably.

You know you're using a good Authoring program when it starts asking you about the standard 2-second gap between songs. Straight Burner programs won't do that.

They threw mud in the game when they started to produce CD Players that would play Data Disks with MP3 song on. My sister has a car that will do that. You can go along for a long time thinking you have a Music CD when you don't -- until the first time you hit a real CD Player and it falls flat.

Koz

[kozikowski]

One more. It's a little magic how fast the disk is made. If you start creating beer mats instead of music, try to slow down the burn rate. I have one burner that does not work reliably at "Maximum Speed" (X32 or higher) but produces perfect disks at X16. I have a really old HP burner that produces perfect disks at X4, but nothing higher.

Koz

[steve]

One more. It's a little magic how fast the disk is made. If you start creating beer mats instead of music, try to slow down the burn rate. I have one burner that does not work reliably at "Maximum Speed" (X32 or higher) but produces perfect disks at X16. I have a really old HP burner that produces perfect disks at X4, but nothing higher.

Koz

Magic indeed. I have a CD burner that only burns reliably at full speed and produces lots of coasters at slower speeds.