Car CD players

[Mem]

Do you have to burn a CD in a certain format for it to work in your car's CD player? Is there a limit to how many tracks you can put on a CD and still have it play on a car CD player?

 

[EagleCowboy]

The CD player has to be able to read CD/CD-R/CD-RW.
How many songs will fit on the disc depends entirely on the length and information of the song.

 

[prince_will]

hmmm...in my experience, the most i ever got onto a typical blank CD is 15 songs. but there are CD's out there which can carry more. with the format of CD, it depends on your car. if you burn it as an MP3 CD, some cars will play it, and some will not. if you burn it as a regular CD, it should work. geez, i hope that makes sense and is correct. i haven't used/burned a CD in ages. when i go in my car, i usually hook up my iPod to the car, or listen to the radio.

 

[transformer_99]

Yep, these guys have given the straight info, some radios recognize different formats and the latest are iPod compatible too. I would suspect there are dvd players that are capable as well and that would allow for even more music storage. Eventually the dvd players in todays vehicles that aren't blue-ray will be an issue too ?

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

hmmm...in my experience, the most i ever got onto a typical blank CD is 15 songs. but there are CD's out there which can carry more. with the format of CD, it depends on your car. if you burn it as an MP3 CD, some cars will play it, and some will not. if you burn it as a regular CD, it should work. geez, i hope that makes sense and is correct. i haven't used/burned a CD in ages. when i go in my car, i usually hook up my iPod to the car, or listen to the radio.

What he said. I've got my Nano hooked up to the tape deck.
It'll typically say on it if it's an MP3 CD player. If so, depending on the compression level, you could fit 300-something songs on a standard blank CD. (I recall fitting 27 full-length albums on one). Just gotta burn it as a data cd instead of audio to keep the files in mp3 format.

 

[Dorian_Gray]

If it's a typical CD-R then you can fit 70 minutes of audio on it. But yea your receiver has to be able to read CD-R/RW. If it's a newer receiver then it can probably play MP3 cd's in which case you can fit 700-710mb worth of MP3's on there.

 

[ManlyBanisters]

As they ^ all say, it depends entirely on what the little book says the car stereo can handle in terms of copied CDs.

I have a recommendation though, on the roads I drive (bumpy country roads) CDs are not worth a shit because even with good skip avoidance technology (anti-jolt buffering, whatever the fuck it is called) they jump from time to time. Plus you have to either have a big fuck off CD changer in the trunk or you have to fiddle with taking CDs in and out of the machine itself. Fuck that. My car stereo has a USB slot. It is priceless to me. I have a significant chunk of my music collection on a USB key (that also functions as a solo MP3 player). Cheaper than an ipod, more flexible than an ipod, smaller than an ipod, less 'apple' than an ipod :wink:

But of course if you have a CD player then you're probably stuck with it - so do what they all said :biggrin:

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

As they ^ all say, it depends entirely on what the little book says the car stereo can handle in terms of copied CDs.

I have a recommendation though, on the roads I drive (bumpy country roads) CDs are not worth a shit because even with good skip avoidance technology (anti-jolt buffering, whatever the fuck it is called) they jump from time to time. Plus you have to either have a big fuck off CD changer in the trunk or you have to fiddle with taking CDs in and out of the machine itself. Fuck that. My car sterio has a USB slot. It is priceless to me. I have a significant chunk of my music collection on a USB key (that also functions as a solo MP3 player). Cheaper than an ipod, more flexible than an ipod, smaller than an ipod, less 'apple' than an ipod :wink:

But of course if you have a CD player then you're probably stuck with it - so do what they all said :biggrin:

USB port on the CD player. That's fucking awesome!
And yeh, my iPod fucks up all the time, despite being a member of the oh-so-flawless Apple line of products.

 

[Smartalk]

One main point to remember when you are burning CD's for use on any other type of player, is that you remember to select the "Close Session" command, before burning. This means you will not be able to burn any more tracks on the CD, but it will allow you to play the CD on other CD playes. Failing to close the session, will mean you will only be able to play the CD on the machine that created it in the first place and no other.

Hope this helps

Smartalk

 

[classyron]

And, for the record, a standard CD is 700MB or 80mins of audio (it is usually printed right on the CD-R) if put in "WAV" format, which is essentially what CDs are recorded in. On a store bought CD they will be listed as CDA format, which is just WAV. You can drag a bunch of WAVs to a disk and the vast majority of CD players will play them. The only car stereo issue I have ever had was with one of the first car CD players, but anything made in the last 10 years will likely be able to handle burned CDs, provided that they are closed (as stated above). My factory stereo in my truck acknowledges that I have an MP3 disk in the stereo but will not play it. I did not get a manual when I bought the truck second-hand, so I was not sure if the stereo could do MP3s. I tried, and it says CD-ROM but cannot play anything.

 

[Mem]

Thanks everyone, for the advice.