I have 42 Mp3's for a total of 141mb, how come I can't burn all of it on cd

[jbitakis]

OK here is my problem. I have about 42 MP3 songs on my hard drive in my laptop that I want to burn onto a 700mb CDR and play it in my car stereo. Now, I am assuming that my car stereo plays MP3's. Using CDBURNERXP and also Audio DVD creator, every time I try to burn these 42 MP3's, I get an error message saying that it is too big (i.e. too many minutes~its around 147 minutes and about 141mb. I don't understand why it won't burn all these MP3's since the size (141mb) is not too much for the CDR (700mb). I mean so what if the minutes are 147 minutes, isn't it the size (141mb) that matters?
What do I need to do to get it to get it to work.
James

[Ai Haibara]

Make more than one audio CD. You're trying to make an audio CD, and audio CDs are usually limited to around 80 minutes. That isn't a limitation you can easily work around.

The standard 700MB disc = 80 minutes as an audio CD. Higher-capacity discs may provide more minutes, but there's no guarantee that hardware (especially regular CD players) will be able to read them properly.

Edit: Oops. I did see that you're trying to make an MP3 CD, but since you were trying to get it to work on your car player... Use a program capable of creating data CDs (one should have been included with your burner, like Roxio, Nero, etc., at the very least). Don't choose to make the disc an Audio CD.

[MaDmiZe]

Ai Haibara is right...program you are using is making your mp3's into audio cd and limit is 74-80 minutes.
Burn as a data cd with and program that will let you (Nero will) I put 170 to 190 songs as mp3 on a single cd (as data) then minutes don't matter it is size only.

[TJohns]

...Now, I am assuming that my car stereo plays MP3's...

If that's the case (it'd mention it in the manual, and the player probably has an MP3 logo on the front somewhere), you need to use the DATA CD option, not the AUDIO CD. An audio CD effectively contains uncompressed wave files, so your MP3's get expanded and that's why they won't fit!

Trevor

[jbitakis]

I am confused. Isn't a CD with loads of MP3 songs on it an AUDIO CD??
You say, don't make an Audio CD since it only holds 80min. which = 700mb
But isn't a CD with loads of MP3 songs on it an AUDIO CD???
OR NOT
Let me know if I am wrong. Let's assume that my car stereo will play MP3 CD's. What do I need to do.
James

[minidv2dvd]

if you want them to stay as mp3 and not turn them into .wav audio cds, use a prgram that will burn them strictly as data and not try to turn them into a different format.

[Number Six]

An MP3 Disc IS NOT an Audio CD - It is a DATA Disc. MP3s are not audio files, they are data files.

[AlanHK]

I am confused. Isn't a CD with loads of MP3 songs on it an AUDIO CD??

No. It's a data CD.

An audio CD can hold 70 or 80 minutes of CD audio.
Data CDs use a different format than audio, and can store any kind of computer data, including MP3 files.

MP3 is a compressed format that computers and some CD players can decode, but not all. (Most DVD players can play MP3 too, by the way.)
MP3 compression can be 10:1 or more, so you can fit 700 or more minutes of MP3 audio on an average 700 MB CD.

In your burning program you must choose DATA CD to make an MP3 disc, otherwise it may assume you want a standard audio CD, as seems to be your problem.

[budz]

depending on what bitrate you use for the data files (mp3 files) you can fit over 100 mp3 files on one cd disc. my cd player in my car plays mp3 files so i just create audio files into mp3 files and fit over 150 songs on one cd disc.

[jbitakis]

Thanks, now I understand. MP3 songs need to be burned as a DATA disk not an Audio CD. Now I just have to make sure my 2003 Mitsubishi Galant sedan's CD player can play MP3's.
Thanks for all your help. I appreciate all the knowledge here. It is GREAT.
James

[jbitakis]

Oh well, I guess my 2003 car stereo does not play MP3 files/songs. I burned the MP3 songs to a CDR with Ashampoo and then went to my car and it just keeps saying Error and ejecting the CDR. Oh well, either I get a new stereo that plays MP3's or keep a bunch of audio cd's in my car. Anyone know of a cheap stereo cd/mp3 player for the car??
James

[neomaine]

jbitakis,

I wouldn't give up just yet. If your CD player can actually play MP3s, which you haven't confirmed yet, then it may just be the brand or type of CD-R you're using.

You should try other brands of CD-R or even try CD-RW. My first MP3 capable DVD player, around that time, read MP3 disks and VCDs much better on CD-RW then it did with CD-R. At least with the brand I was using back then. It could also be as simple as making sure that your disc has been finalized.

PS: Car CD players from 2003 were just starting to include MP3 playback. Personally, if this was something you really wanted to be able to do, you can get a half decent car stereo that plays MP3 and probably install it yourself or with the help of a friend. If not, installation prices at places like Best Buy are reasonable and don't take much time.

Actually, you can probably find one with a USB port and forego the CD-R/RW altogether and just use a thumb drive.

Point is, there lots of relatively low cost options out there to be able to enjoy hours and hours of your own music.

[Ai Haibara]

...though given that blank CDs are usually cheap, these days, and jbitakis did say there was only about 147 minutes of audio, creating two audio CDs can still be an option, too. Unless jbitakis would rather not have to worry about changing CDs.

Wouldn't the car manual say something about whether or not the stereo supports MP3 data CDs, assuming you haven't changed the stereo from the factory-installed version?

[Supreme2k]

Technically speaking, an audio CD is a data disc. :P

The problem is not that they are different types of data, but rather different formats. In order to play MP3s on a standard player, most burning programs will expand them to raw wav files, which are usually 8-10 bigger than their source. That is why 141MB won't go into 700MB: the expansion process. What originally is 141MB becomes 1.41GB, which would be ~2 discs or so.

[jbitakis]

Thanks for the info guys. My 2003 car cd player DOES NOT play MP3 files. I just confirmed this. So I guess I need to just keep 4-5 different cd's in my car for now. I will look for a newer cd/mp3 car stereo. Also, one that had a USB port would be nice too. Maybe I could just install all my music on a flash usb card if I could get a stereo that supports this.
James

[budz]

my friend has a pioneer deck for his truck that has a usb port so he uses a 8gb flash drive to store his mp3 files. the deck cost him about $150.00.

[jman98]

I'm not saying I recommend this, but a couple of years ago there was a thing called the iRock Beamit which could connect via a headphone cable to whatever playback device you have (ie. iPod, portable CD player, etc.) and send the audio output to one of 4 radio channels you could select and you could listen to your MP3s that way. The problem is that both the iRock and your playback device will need a power source - batteries or car adapter both work. I couldn't provide power to both the iRock and my portable CD player (which played MP3 files) at the same time, so it became a chore to use it. I don't think the iRock is still in production, but if you can find it cheaply for sale somewhere it might buy you some time until you replace your car CD player.