need info on MP3

Jack Shrader Sr · Post by **Jack Shrader Sr** » 22 Sep 2003 9:29 am

I purchased some old time radio programs and they came on 3 cd's they say DVD on the cd's but the paper work says they are MP3 they play ok on my computer DVD player but I have a portable cd player that says it will play MP3 but they wont play on it it says they are not FINalized.. is there a portable unit that will play these. the Idea was to be able to set in my porch swing and hear them. this is a 3 cd. set with over 3000 programs on them. any help would be great Jack

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 22 Sep 2003 10:49 am

MP3 is the file format while DVD and CD are the physical media types. It sounds like they are in fact DVD's and will require a DVD player to play them. Maybe you can copy them from the DVD's to CDR's to play them in your CD player.

Chuck Halcomb · Post by **Chuck Halcomb** » 22 Sep 2003 11:10 am

Jim may be right, but an option you have would be to copy them to a CD if you have a CD burner. The finalizing is just the process of closing the disk and getting all of the administrative things on the disk set so it can read the table of contents, etd. Most CD burning programs give you the option to finalize, which would preclude adding additional files, but would allow them to play on a CD player that can read mp3 format. Not finalizing would be something that you would do if you were building a collection and want to add new files as you go along.

As suggested, you might try it in the DVD player and see if it works. Here again, it may depend on the age of the DVD player since some older DVD players would not read MP3 format.

Jack Shrader Sr · Post by **Jack Shrader Sr** » 22 Sep 2003 11:34 am

Do I just copy it like I do a regular cd with the computer burner or do I have to change setting somewhere .. I am not to good with this new teck.stuff. I know that there is . over 3,000 programs on the (3) disk so I know they wont fit on a regular cd. can I use a blank dvd disk to copy to on the comp. or ,,,just how can I do it.. thanks for the help jack

Doug Brumley · Post by **Doug Brumley** » 22 Sep 2003 6:01 pm

Make a folder on your desktop called "Radio Programs" or whatever. Put one of the three DVDs in your computer's drive, and double-click on the DVD's icon. You'll see all the MP3s on that disc. Press Control+A on your keyboard to select all the MP3s on the DVD, and then drag them over to the new folder you created. Repeat this with the other two discs (assuming you have enough free space on your hard drive). Next, open your CD burning software and create a CD-R filled with as many MP3 programs from your desktop folder as will fit (680-700 megabytes of data, depending on which blank CD-Rs you buy). In the disc burning options, be sure to make a "data" CD instead of a "music" CD, and click "finalize." You should then be able to play the resulting CD-R on your portable player if it truly plays MP3s.

Repeat the process of burning the MP3s from your hard drive onto "data" CD-Rs until you have all the MP3 programs on CDs. FYI, if each of those DVDs holds 4.7 gigabytes of data, you may need as many as 21 or 22 CD-Rs to hold all the data from those 3 DVDs.

Alternately, if your computer has a DVD burner, you can just have the burning software make copies of each of your 3 purchased DVDs, but be sure to click the "finalize" option before proceeding with the burn. Those newly created, finalized DVDs might play on your CD player, but then again your CD player might not like the fact that they are DVDs.

Hope that helps,
Doug[This message was edited by Doug Brumley on 22 September 2003 at 07:08 PM.]

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 25 Sep 2003 11:24 am

O.K. Folks......

Pay attention here.

MP3's will NOT play in your car CD player.
No matter what you do !! It MUST first be converted to a WAV,CDA or other form readable by the player.

In general,the only consumer devices that I know of that will play all kinds of DVD,WAV,MP3,CDA or other venues is a micro-processor controlled player. (Such as the Mentek DVD player, It will play all types of stuff. Even will read Photo CD and display it.)

Unless you have the latest and greatest devices, you will be limited to one format or the other.... Not any and all !!

And ....That's the way it is....

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 25 Sep 2003 12:43 pm

A friend of mine has a CD player in his car that plays MP3's. He bought it (the player, not the car) specifically for that purpose. He has over a hundred tunes from his CD collection on one disk, and sets it on random play.

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Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 27 Sep 2003 1:31 pm

Ah, yes.............

b0b, I think the key-word here is:

He bought it (the player, not the car) specifically for that purpose.

That means that the oem radio/CD device was replaced with a hi-dollar piece of equipment.

It's just how much is it worth to the consumer wanting to play his mp3's in his car.

joe wright · Post by **joe wright** » 28 Sep 2003 9:55 am

The .mp3 files are STORED on a DVD as data. If you have a DVD drive you should be able to play them right off the dvd with an .mp3 player. The DVD drive will not PLAY them but can read them.

Got a TV/dvd combo that also plays .mp3 format disk. Have my entire collection on a single mp3 disk.

players in cars that play .mp3s will soon be standard...joe

Mel Culbreath · Post by **Mel Culbreath** » 28 Sep 2003 1:21 pm

I use Windows XP and Windows Media Player 9.0.

I downloaded some MP3 files to my computer, then copied them to a CD. I was curious if they would play on my car stereo (1999 Suburban) and was surprised to find they did play. After reading this thread, I checked the format of the files on the CD I had made and found the files to be CDA files.

I did some checking and found that:
If I copy a CDA file to the computer using Media Player, it is stored as a WMA file. If I copy an MP3 to the computer it is stored as a MP3.

If I then copy the WMA or MP3 from the computer using Media Player it copies them to the blank CD-R as a CDA.

I don't get it, but I am able to copy MP3's to a CD-R and then play it anywhere - car, boombox, walkman, home stereo system.

Mel