Dave, I’m using the latest release of Microsoft Window Media Player and am having a problem I thought you could help me with: the CDs that I burn in Media Player don’t work on my car’s CD player. How do I fix this problem?
There are a bunch of reasons that your CDs might not work in your car. First question, though: does the CD work on your computer? If not, then you might be burning it incorrectly or have a spate of bad media.
If the disk does work, though, then you probably have a media formatting problem that’s related to how you’re burning the disk itself.
For an exact answer in this situation, I popped over to the Microsoft support site to see what they recommend in this situation, and here’s their best advice…
Your CD player might not be able to play the CD for several reasons, including the following:
- It can’t play data CDs. This type of CD plays only in your computer and in some newer CD players. When creating data CDs, the Player does not convert your Windows Media Audio (.wma) and .mp3 files to another format. Instead, the Player burns the files to the CD in their current format. Consequently, the CD player that you use to play a data CD must be able to play .wma or .mp3 files.
- It can play data CDs, but can’t play the type of files that are burned on your CD (for example, it can play .wma files but not .mp3 files).
- It can play data CDs, but can’t play protected files (for example, you burned a licensed .wma file that you purchased from an online store to your CD).
- It can play data CDs, but can’t play the particular brand or type (for example, CD-RW) of disc that you used.
- It can’t play data CDs that haven’t been finalized. For more information about this issue, see the Windows Media Player FAQ.
Review the documentation that came with your CD player to determine its playback capabilities, and then do one of the following:
- If your CD player can’t play a data CD that contains either WMA or MP3 files, or it can’t play protected content, then burn the tracks to an audio CD (not a data CD) on CD-R (not CD-RW) media. An audio CD plays in most CD players (in your home stereo, your portable CD player, your car stereo, your computer, and so forth). When creating audio CDs, the Player converts your .wma and .mp3 files to the pulse code modulation (PCM) format that standard CD players can play, before burning them to disc.
- Follow the instructions in the next question for burning a CD in your version of the Player. However, make sure you click the Audio CD option to burn an audio CD.
- If your CD player can play data CDs, but the files in your library are in the wrong format (for example, your CD player supports WMA playback, but the files in your library are in MP3 format), you can use Plus! Audio Converter, a feature in Microsoft Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP, to convert your .mp3 files to .wma files (this also works in reverse from .wma to .mp3). Then follow the instructions in the next question to burn the converted files to a data CD in your version of the Player.
- If you are using Windows Media Player 9 Series, in addition to purchasing the Plus! SuperPack, you must purchase and install an MP3 Creation plug-in that’s compatible with the Player.
- If you are using Windows Media Player 10, in addition to purchasing the Plus! SuperPack, you must install a free Plus! Audio Converter Update. Purchase and installation of an MP3 Creation plug-in is not required.
If your CD player can’t play data CDs that haven’t been finalized, you must use another CD burning or authoring software program to burn a finalized data CD.
You can learn more about this complex subject at the Windows Media Knowledge Center.
My ROXIO audio digitizer and burner program has three steps: Digitize, Edit, and Convert for the burn. Step #1 and #2 work OK, but step #3 will not convert the MP3 files (that I have digitized) to WAV or WMA. In step #3 of the ROXIO program, It says it is converting, but only MP3 files appear in the recorded track sub directory, even if I tell it to SAVE.. The CD disk I burn in MP3 format plays on my computer drive, but ejects immediately in several car CD players. This program worked OK with Windows XP, but doesn’t in my new Windows 7 computer. Can’t go back to XP because the system crashed. The ROXIO package says my system requirements are OK. Contacted some ROXIO guy in India. He wants a picture of the error. There are no errors
The following is the method that has worked for me.
To burn a CD that can be played by Toyota Corolla’s CD player, we can use Window Media Player:
1) Insert a blank disc (any type)
2) Open Window Media Player, click on the tab Burn
3) Make sure that the line “CD Audio” is there. If not, click on that link that choose “CD audio”
4) Click on the button on the top right, which then shows a menu. Then click on More Burn Options
5) In the tab Burn, under General, choose Slow, then OK
6) Drag the files to be burnt into the corresponding part of Window Media Player’s window
Note that the maximum allowed length of the CD is 80 minutes
7) Click Start Burning
Thank you so much for this advice; it was undeniably helpful.
Hi…I have similar problem as many.. 9 years with P.C., just fairly new at converting to disc… I am converting my 35 year old cassettes, Wolfman Jack…, that no-one has… That I recorded 35 years ago…. I’ve recorded in WAV, works, plays and can hear sound. Recorded in MP3, plays but hear nothing? Both play on my P.C., but one, WAV, plays/sound in my ’56 Chevy Sedan Delivery, or my newer Sony Boom Box, but the MP3 format Plays, but W/Out sound, in car or Boom Box??? Fairly new Sony disc player… Just that some say MP3 is best, others no. So, I know, “record in WAV then, right.”
Like when ya go to the doctor..”it hurts when I do this…Then don’t do that!”
The other question.., “why does the homemade CD play straight thru…, no track response, except to start over at beginning?” It’s like, once you start, it just goes to the end, no song change/track change/fast forward/reverse/et cetera??? All commercial CD’s work fine as ya change tracks, et cetera??? Thanks, Doctor Dave Bengard.
Hi Dave,
Seems like others are experiencing the same problem as me with burning CDs from windows media player. Previously I could burn CDs with no problem, now when I complete the burning process I can only play them on my computer, when I attempt to play the burnt CDs in my home stereo, car or anywhere else. When played in other Cd players the screen will say track 1 but will not go any further than that. Struggling with this for the past several months. Please advise. Thanks
What type of CD will play in most cd players including your car stereo and do you know of a free site that is trust worthy to download a good burner. Thank you.
Actually, “DUH”, I do pay attention to what’s going on here, even five years later. The issue is that I much prefer to pull a question into its own blog post rather than have one discussion here that wanders all over the place. Make sense? If you have a specific question, it’s always best to click on the “Ask Dave” button on the top right. 🙂
What is the matter with you people??? Dave answered exactly FOUR questions and has answered NOTHING since March 2005!! What makes you think he is suddenly going to answer your post 3, 4 , 5, or even 6 year later???? You just can’t – CAN’T – be this stupid. And about half are written with 4th grade grammar and spelling? Are you kidding me?
i just replaced my 1999 e-150 radio tape player with an oem radio cd player. when i put the cd in..it says bad disk and spits it out. Any cd i put in it. What is causing this?
Had problems getting mp3 to play in my 2011 Nissan Tekna, after googling it I used Ashampoo selecting the expert settings to create data cd, changed ISO9660 level one to No ISO9660, Joliet from No Joliet to Joliet, leave UDF alone.
Select next and continue as normal.
Works perfectly!
When I copy any of my music CD’s on my computer for use on my other CD players they will not play.
Can you advise the procedure I should follow.
Kind regards
Ian
thanks this helped me
This subject has plagued me for years & then out of the blue I found a practical answer buried on some web site. The older cd disks only held 650MB I believe. Regardless they were smaller storage wise, but that was the standard on which older cd players were designed to play back these cds. I used to get so peaved when I would burn something on a 700MB & it would play just fine in my car or home stereo(I like to keep up on tech toys)& I figured these are awesome cds so you burn a few for a buddy & they don’t work.I’ve been able to pull off burning techniques with the 700MBs on certain friends older players but not flawlessly or effortlessly by far. You can actually mess an older player up by putting the new standard disks in certain older players.A lot of the tech stuff is from what I read but makes a lot of sense.It’s not so much how you end the disk within reason,overburning isn’t the wisest technique,but it’s where the recording actually starts on the cd. If you’re burning for newer cd players,they are designed to read the 700MB standard. However, no matter what, slower is better as most people agree when it comes to the actual recording of the disk. I’ve found for someone with an older player that using the cheapie memorex or maxell brands works the best,at least from what I’ve experienced.And-burn-slow as possible.Probably not making the 1st song on the cd the choice opening tune, would be your best bet. In many cases if the disk does not get an initial read it becomes a disk read error. Most people know that lasers start from the inside & read outward & from what I’ve read it’s that extra 50MB that makes a big difference on the initial startup of the disk depending on the age of the player. I totally agree.Once I began using this mentality I realized that it was not me in many or even most cases on the way way I burned the disk or the software I was using,it was the lack of most if not all of these companies to really inform the public of the compatibility issues with 650MB as opposed to 700MB disks. In hindsight I probably didn’t make as many coasters as I once thought. Hit or miss, sometimes the newer disks will play in older players & I’ve found through trial & error when you 1st insert the cd in an older player, keep pressing the ‘select next track’ button to get to track 2.I’ve found in most cases it works even though it sucks doing it that way but it is a workaround.Hey whatever works.It really would have been nice to know how incompatible these identical looking disks really werein a lot of cases. I know for a fact that most people thought cool I can fit ‘x’ amount of more music on the cd & they are right to think so, because you can. But does your player support it? Perhaps now a person just can’t afford a new player, but you can bet that trying to find the standard media that was intended for these older players is actually harder to find than a disclaimer stating that those players are meant to be used to play the older 650MB format. These companies pray that after you make enough mistakes/coasters @ your expense, profitable to them without your knowledge of even knowing why sometimes they work or sometimes they don’t. Leaving you assuming all along it’s just got to be something you’re doing wrong, not even considering that maybe their lack of providing the consumer proper notice that the required medium is being fazed out if available at all. Assuming then that perhaps out of frustration you’ll just buy a new player eventually.And in all rationality of common sense from a marketing point of view, wouldn’t it have been much fairer to the consumer to have been made more aware in black & white of the compatibility issues in the identical looking 650MB cd vs the 700MB cd? I know once I realized the laser alignment thing as in it’s starting position to read a disk I’ve had much more success for friends w/ older units. So if you give it a whirl & it doesn’t work Don’t set a frosty mug on it just yet-Pop it in a Blu-Ray player You just might be amazed…Anyway sorry for the length of this article but it is years of pent up frustration.And Im sure Im speaking on many people’s behalf. I began to wonder if I wasn’t quite getting a grip on proper burning techniques & lack of what really was a good burning capeable/consistant cd brand.No problems now even though my players can kick out incredible FLAC audio I find that I finally mastered so many untold techniques just in time for the medium to pass the way of the 8Track.I use several 8 gig flash drives loaded with FLAC files in my car stereo,but I do help friends who still use cds as their sole music player.So Dave, out of curiosity Im sure there are other methods of getting the newer disks to play in older units as I cannot find the older 650MB disks what so ever. How would you approach this if buying a new car stereo was out of the question & you were in need of transferring your home media to the new standard of cd for playability on an older car cd player?
Dear Sir,
My problem is that i got a sony 2007 model hi-fi dhc-az33d in that i can play mp3-winmap music cd’s brought from outside,but i download mp3 files from net i can’t play on the sony system at same time if i use to write in audio mode(winmpa) through nuro express via windows media player version 10 it works,but mp3 won’t,pl.help me.
jairaj
When I insert a CDRW (that I know to be blank) into the CD drive, the oblong
box above the “Burn” list (above where it it says “Insert a blank CD”) has
started to fill out immediately in red, and display message “Filled”. This is
preventing me from burning any CDs. Anyone know what’s happening, please?
Any help appreciated.
I am running Windows XP and WMP11. Everything works fine in the player except photos that were transfered via other programs or digital camera into the library. Pics look fine on library page but when I select them to play they are distorted and appear only as colorfull lines. Some of the photos do play normal but most do not. It seems to have something to do with from were they originated. Dscf or img tags will not play. Help
I have been having a similar problem with Vista burned files and have just discovered that all I need is to resert my burn option to “Audio CD” from “Data CD or DVD” under the burn tab on Windows Media Player…
thank you, your post has solved the problem that I also was having.
Hi
I Want Know when i see photo windows media player with play song
plz sir plz answer on my mail adress
gaurav.sharma@tilinfotech.com
I am having a problem with my Car CD player .. no matter how i try to burn the CD it always ends the same…i tried lower speeds of burning, Different CD-RW Brands, Different burners,…it keeps telling me that there is an error then automatically eject the CD… although some times it reads the CD but i cant seek during the song or swich from one to another….any suggestions???
I was having a problem with my burned cd’s not playing in my factory GM stereo, but if I burn at the “slow” speed setting with Windows Media Player, they seem to work ok.
Hi Dave
Can you help please. I have just bought a new car that can play CD and MP3 files. I wanted to convert all my cds to mp3 format and burn them onto a cd. They are now in MP3 format but i can only fill just over 1 album on the cd, even though the cd has 700mb and i have a total of 1.37Gb, so i was hoping to fit all the albums on 2 cds as i thought the point of mp3 was that you can fit a lot more on 1 cd. Could you let me know what i am doing wrong please?
For those who cannot play a burnt CD in their car stereo, there is a chance that it could actually be an issue with your CD player being too cold. Most CD players, computer CD-drives included, have to spin the disk until it’s above a certain temperature. Sometimes, when a car is cold enough, and both the player and CD are cold, the CD player will not be able to warm the disk, and will tell you to eject the CD. This is because when you burnt the CD, the disk was already room temperature, and when the burner spun the disk, it’s temperature rose immensely, causing the disk to expand on a molecular level. When the disk is cold again, it contracts and cannot be played until it reaches a certain temperature.
This has happened to me many times before, and I managed to solve this problem by freezing my CDs before I burn them. I keep them in a DRY freezer at -10 degrees Fahrenheit, and I use a High Quality CD burner that will read and burn the disk at any temperature.
By burning the disk at a lower temperature, the information is stored to the CD at a denser consistency than it would be if warmer, causing the information to be more accessible at lower temperatures.
Also, this process actually gives me a higher quality sound because it relaxes the lattice structure of a material that has been previously distorted by heat or pressure, both of which are present during CD injection molding.
So before you go out and start freezing your CDs, look it up on google and take take some time to look at some of the articles that explain why this process doesn’t ruin your disks.
Also, make sure to keep your CDs dry by placing them in a dry freezer or by placing them in an airtight bag.
I noticed that my home made CDs which played on a hot day would then not play on a cold day. This suggested that the problem was one of temperature and the consequent expansion and contraction of the CD itself.
The case was proven when I heated a rejected ERROR CD which then played without further problem. The no-play ERROR problem frequently arises with car stereos subject to low outdoors temperatures.
I have burned Cd’s using window media player in highmat format(Win XP). All of a sudden my Cd’s that I burn will not play, only on my pc. Did something happen with my setting? When I put the burned Cd in my car than only 6 songs play about an 89 songs.and also my sony hi-fi system can`t read … I need help.
if i were to us a DVD-RW instead of a CD-R and just leave my window media player settings the same is there a chance that the disk could work in most cd players