Is there a similar forum for CD problems?

[johnsees]

Does anybody know of a forum where it would be appropriate to post questions about CDs? (This doesn't seem to be it, and I can't seem to find one.) The actual question is: Why do some of the audio CDs that I create on my desktop work in the car, and some don't? They work fine in our PCs and our home stereo.
Thanks

[Kerry56]

Are you using the same type of blank cd each time? Over at MyCE, we recommend Taiyo Yuden cds as some of the best available.

And your car player may just be a poor reader, or needs to be cleaned.

[johnsees]

I made several today using Maxell CD-Rs. I've never had a problem with them. Of the ones I made today, the ones that play play and the ones that don't don't; they don't vary. The software I was using is Exact Audio Copy and I'm thinking I must have varied something I was doing but I don't know what.

[Cornucopia]

For years, Maxell has been farming out their line of CDRs. Way back when, when they made their own, they were truly high quality (I know, I had a bunch).

In farming them out, they are allowing variability of quality from different manufacturers and lines, sometimes even in the same batch.

My guess is that is what you have.

Scott

[hech54]

Slow down your burning speed.

[johnsees]

With either bad CDs or a too-fast burn speed, wouldn't you expect to have problems playing them in the PCs and other stereo? They play fine except in the car.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Maybe your car stereo is the problem, lasers wear out over time or get dirty. My car stereo sometimes refuses to play homemade CD's.

[Ethlred]

They play fine except in the car.

That does seem to show where the problem is.

The car.

Perhaps you need a new car. The engine torque may be too great for the dyes in the CD.

A new transmission or perhaps the differential could be the source of the difficulty.


Oh yes there is one more possibility. Are you using labels on the CD. If you did not do so before and/or did a better job of centering before that could be the problem.

But the car is the most likely cause. The whole thing will have to go. To avoid cross contamination( see IOMEGA CLICK OF DEATH) the source car should be removed from the premises, crushed, burned, shredded and then treated with radiation and buried deep in the Poodle PitTM. Only after that is done and the parking areas, ALL OF THEM, have been decontaminated with oil of vitriol and Fel's Naptha, should a new car be purchased. Be sure the new car uses flash media instead of CDs to be absolutely sure that any lingering contamination can be bypassed by the change in media.

Ethelred Hardrede
Hard advice for the desperate

[drjtech]

I made several today using Maxell CD-Rs. I've never had a problem with them

Does this mean that you have made previous CDs that worked in the car? Or, have CD-Rs never worked in your car?

It may help to go to a car specific forum. For instance, I have a Focus and http://www.focusfanatics.com has a General Technical Chat forum that includes discussions on the various CD players factory installed in Focuses.

[jman98]

The truth is that CD-R discs aren't all that different from each other and even the ones by bad manufacturers like Maxell are probably OK. It's completely different with DVD and BD media where manufacturers do matter. Try burning slower, like 16x or below, and see if you don't get better results. While even Maxell CD-Rs should be good enough to play, the faster you burn, the more errors you introduce into the burns and burning slower can help lower grade media have fewer errors. By the way, note that "it plays fine in my PC" usually means ONLY that - it plays fine in your PC. It only means that the disc is playable, not that other devices can play it without problems.

By the way, please tell me that you did not do a multi-session burn. This is most definitely a VERY BAD IDEA for anything you ever want to play in a car. And if your burning software asks you, ALWAYS use "disc at once" and NOT "track at once" for audio CDs. If you did a multi-session burn and/or "track at once" then these are likely the true sources of your problems.

[johnsees]

Well, I appreciate all the suggestions but let me kinda summarize what I said earlier: I made several CD-Rs today, using the same batch of CDs. Out of those, all of them work in the PCs AND in the home stereo. Some of them work in the car and those continue to work in the car; some of them don't work in the car regardless how many times I try. So they're not actually flaky, they're very consistent; it's just that some work everywhere and some work everywhere except the car.

The fact is, this is not a new problem, and it's not unique to me. I've heard other people talk about their home-made CDs not working in a car. I first had it happen over 10 years ago; when it happened again yesterday I just kinda figured I'd finally figure out why.

I never do multi-session or track-at-once but I guess, for me, it has something to do with Exact Audio Copy (somehow I'm being inconsistent with what I'm doing) because I downloaded cdrtfe and used it to remake all the ones that wouldn't play in the car, and all of the re-makes play fine.

I've never been exactly comfortable with EAC; always kinda felt like I was looking through a fog when i was using it. So I'll just stick with cdrtfe (and keep my car).
Thanks

[Steve(MS)]

If you don't like Exact audio copy, don't use it.
So you have found something that works, use that instead.

[Cornucopia]

EAC is great for ripping, but I don't use it for burning either. Lately, it's almost always ImgBurn (since it accepts CUE+BIN that is generated from EAC, etc), when I do have occasion to do burns.

Scott

[jman98]

Actually, it's not that great for ripping if your source drive is a BluRay burner. It's a got a defect that the last time I checked was still being met with a shrug where rips on BD drives were taking around 40 minutes per CD.

[johnsees]

If you don't like Exact audio copy, don't use it.
So you have found something that works, use that instead.

Hmmm... why didn't I think of that?
Oh yeah... I did!

[johnsees]

I guess it's good to see that I'm not the only one who has problems with EAC.
Thanks guys.

[aedipuss]

the cd freaks website used to be more about cd, now it's called myce and all storage devices, but most of the oldtimers are still there.

[johnsees]

the cd freaks website used to be more about cd, now it's called myce and all storage devices, but most of the oldtimers are still there.

Okay, thanks for the info.