Problem: You insert a CD that you have recorded on a computer using CD burning software, and it won’t play back when you try to play in a standard CD player.
There are four main reasons why you could be experiencing this problem:
1. Incompatible CD formats.
If you are burning a CD of music for playback in a standard domestic-style CD player, such as a standard Hi-Fi or a car CD player, you need to use a blank formatted CD-R or CD-RW disk.
- CD-R is the most common – It’s a disk that you can only write to once – you burn the CD, eject it from the recorder and it should play in any standard CD player. CD-R should be the same as a pressed shop-bought CD if it’s been burned correctly
- CD-RW is a re-writable CD format – meaning that you can record, erase and re-record. Some older players can’t cope with CD-RW, and with CD-RW, it’s important to “Finalise” the disk before you can play it in a standard domestic CD player (see below).
- Other formats – If you use a PC to burn a CD of music, you have to make sure that disk is created as an “Audio CD” not a Data CD (see below)
2. Un-finalised CD-RW
If using a re-writable CD, you need to ensure that the CD has been “finalised“. This process ‘locks’ the disk and makes it appear to a domestic CD player as if it were a completed CD-R type of disk. If using a PC, make sure you select ‘Finalise‘. With a stand-alone CD recorder, there should be a menu option to Finalise a disk.
If unsure, check the instructions for your CD recorder or PC CD burning software on how to finalise. Alternatively, use CD-R disks instead – which don’t need to be finalised.
3. Data not Audio Disk
If using a CD burner in your PC or Mac computer, you have to be careful to ensure that the CD you create is an “Audio CD” not a “Data CD”. This is a common mistake.
If you don’t specify “Audio CD” when you burn a CD of MP3 music files, they’ll be copied onto the disk as data files (like Word documents, JPG images, etc). Another computer won;t have a problem with this, but a domestic CD player can’t cope with a Data CD – it can only cope with an Audio CD.
Check the settings of your audio burning package to ensure that you create an “Audio CD”. The audio tracks on the CD will have the file extension .cda (standing for CD Audio), as opposed to the file extension .mp3, .aac or .wav
4. Problem with the CD Player
If the disk in question can play in different domestic CD players, but is misbehaving in one domestic CD player, it could be that the CD player in question is playing up.
A good quality CD Lens Cleaner may help: CD Lens Cleaner from Maplin