[Robert_D]

Ive been unsuccessful at playing on my car CD player CDs which Ive burned using iTunes on my iMac (G4, 800 MHz iLamp). These CDs will play on home stereo and portable CD players just fine. My car is a 98 Honda Civic & I assume CD player same vintage. Id be inclined to believe the auto CD player needed replacing were it not for fact that commercial CDs work as do CDs burned by friends.
So what am I doing wrong? iTunes Burn Preferences are set to Audio CD with 2 second gaps between songs, and use sound check is checked. Media which Im burning to is Memorex CD-R 700 MB Suggestions anyone?

[jcraig]

You're not doing anything wrong. I've read about this problem somewhere else, exactly where escapes me right now, but it seems to be an issue with iTunes-burned CDs and certain CD players. CDs burned using Toast, however, will play flawlessly in these same players. Something to do with the way Toast burns as opposed to iTunes. You CAN try a different brand of media, but I'm guessing it's a iTunes issue.

[pablodius]

I know your post is old, and you may not even be a memeber on Macworld at this time, but I tried your method recently of using toast rather than itunes. It still doesnt work! I think that it is the player that the disc is being used in, because my old panasonic stereo plays everything. on the other hand, my car stereo wont even play purchased cds half the time (yeah i know who buys ,music right?).

[sandbag1]

What format are your tunes in. If they are in MP3 format, you need a player that can play MP3's. A lot don't. If that's the case convert the tunes you want to burn to the CD into ACC format first.

[Jon Seff]

sandbag1 said:

What format are your tunes in. If they are in MP3 format, you need a player that can play MP3's. A lot don't. If that's the case convert the tunes you want to burn to the CD into ACC format first.

If you're burning an audio CD, it doesn't matter what format your files are in. iTunes will convert them on the fly.

[pablodius]

What Jon Seff said... plus the first track always plays like halfway through and then it wont read the rest of the disc (for the toasted cd). But for the itunes one, it never plays any of the tracks. I originally thought that my disc drive was shotty, but now I'm just not sure what the hell's going on. I am going to try and burn them from my PC (dont kill me for trying on my pc as well!) and if it doesnt work after that, I need a new head unit for my truck.

[sandbag1]

Because iTunes is not clairvoyant, you still need to tell iTunes whether you want an MP3 CD which will play in some players that allow MP3 playback, or an Audio CD which will play in players just like purchased CD's.

You can store more than 12 hours of music, or about 150 songs using the MP3 format on a 650 MB CD-R disc where as when burning an Audio CD, you're limited to about an hours worth of music.

[pablodius]

I understand that iTunes isn't clairvoyant (smart-ass). I'm not new with computers. I understand the difference between an Audio CD and an MP3 CD, I burn my friends music DVDs with hundreds of songs on them all the time. I am just trying to make sure it isn't my only 1 year old iMac which is the problem.

[sandbag1]

What I posted was not meant to piss you off, but to help you. Not knowing your level of expertise, what I posted seemed appropriate, and didn't think my description would hurt you so deeply. My apologies.

Message was edited by: sandbag1

What software are you using to burn music to DVD? iTunes or Toast? I'm asking because I've never done this, all I've ever done are audio CD's.

[pablodius]

I hate these forums. People's emotions are never interpreted correctly. I wasn't pissed off at your response. I meant smart ass as kind of a chuckle. And I use toast to burn those music DVDs. The DVD-DL are actually pretty sweet to use too. My external hard drive is Mac formatted, so I can't just hook it up to my PC friends' computers and dump music for them... this works just as well. No one ever takes more than a 5 or 6 gigs worth from me at a time.

I also hate these forum because I can't tell how old anyone is... I'm not creepy, just can't tell if I am talking to an adult or a teenager sometimes. Sounds lame, but I reply differently to adults (more professionally?).

[sandbag1]

I understand what you're saying. I've used that term more often in jest than being serious. I probably would have used an emoticon after. ;)

OK, now you can help me. When you burn an audio DVD, how much can you get on one and will it normally play in a CD deck or do you just use it to move to another computer?

And I'm past being an adult, very ancient, but I think fairly young and love my toys and usually understand them pretty well, but I'm not beyond learning something new. ;)

[pablodius]

In terms of how much a DVD can hold, it depends on the length and quality of the songs that you put on it. I listen to a lot of music with songs that can range from 15 to 20 minutes, but the quality is regular I suppose. If the songs are of average length, I'd guess around 1,000 songs. I'm pretty sure that the disc will not work in a CD player. If you tried to use it on a DVD player that is connected to a nice stereo, that might work like a charm. Well, good luck on your burning quests! ;)