[e902cool]

I know this has probably been covered before, but i just want to know what CD you all used and what software is used to burn MP3 for the professional audio (non-idrive) player?

I have been using NERO, and doing max speed in burning. What I see is pretty strange, initially when you insert the CD, it will say CD error, but upon a few tries if it reads and stays in there, it will work.

I am also using no-name brand crappy CDs though, and using NERO data-CD burning profile.

If someone knows for sure one brand and what software to use for sure will work on the cd player that will be great!

Thanks.

[rchanou]

I use iTunes and Maxwell CDs.

[hkj]

Can't say that I burn many MP3 CDs these days.

But all the ones I burned in college using Nero and some name-brand CD off Frys works great with the car's system. Never experienced any problems.

-hkj

[visor]

Try lowering your burn speed, should be more reliable.

[Joe Bimmer]

I use Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 Suite and any crappy 80 minute CD's I can get my hands on. I burn at 48X speed, and the discs work everytime...show's the ID3 tags with the group name and song name... I can fit 8 full-length albums on a single MP3 disc... it's like having an 8-disc changer in my dash, LOVE IT !!!!!!

[xeta]

If you want high quality cds / dvd's use Verbatim branded discs. You can tell the difference in the color of the dye as well as the thickness / quality of the disc.


DVDs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817130950

CDs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817130953

[DigiSage]

My MP3CD player intermittently skips around tracks/songs when I'm driving, regardless of what quality disc I use, or if I burn at 48X or 1X, or if I burn in iTunes or Nero, or on a Mac or a PC. Pretty much sucks.

[xeta]

Could be your bruner? What type of burner do you have?

[DigiSage]

I've used the one built into my Macbook Pro, the one built into my Powermac G5, the one built into my Dell Latitude D610, and the one in my desktop PC (Benq). Also my wife's ibook and imac. And my coworker's Dell Latitude D600.

[e902cool]

Hmmm seems like everybody has different exp... I will try lowering the speed and more 'quality' name brand though, any thoughts on uni-codes ID tags? I sometimes have my filename in unicode chars(chinese/japanese), they seem to blank out on the display, but i never thought that would impact the CD player readability...

any thoughts on Unicode ID tags?

[Caster]

Originally Posted by DigiSage

My MP3CD player intermittently skips around tracks/songs when I'm driving, regardless of what quality disc I use, or if I burn at 48X or 1X, or if I burn in iTunes or Nero, or on a Mac or a PC. Pretty much sucks.

I have the same problem, from time to time, my cd will just skip or decide not to play a song. Even if I use a brand new fresh CD I still get these problems, but I just ignore it..

[icewatersoda]

I use NERO and TDK Disc... burn maximum no problems so far.

[deltron]

I just took delivery of my car (built 5/25/06) and thus far I've used iTunes and the Finder to burn MP3 CD's. Both work fine. I like using the Finder since I can organize the music into Albums. iTunes will lump all the MP3's into the root directory and just number them in the order of the playlist you created.

What's weird is what when I was reading up on MP3 compatibility on earlier threads it was determined the BMW Professional Audio would only display ID3 tags v1.x (1.0-1.2). I've been burning MP3's that use v2.2 or v2.3 and they seem to work fine.

I have some other MP3 that use v2.3 and the tags don't show up. It's weird.

When I burn in either iTunes or the Finder I use the lowest burn speed which is commented as the most reliable. For my powerbook that's 4x (24x CD-R max). I use Memorex CD-R's, so far no issues with skipping songs, even songs at the very end of the CD-R.

[330i]

What about WMA? I don't know a lot about MP3/WMA but I did a WMA disk with tags that work fine in mine. Is MP3 better than WMA?

[BK]

Originally Posted by 330i

What about WMA? I don't know a lot about MP3/WMA but I did a WMA disk with tags that work fine in mine. Is MP3 better than WMA?

There is a lot of info on the net about this comparison (Google for it and you are bound to find dozens of useful pages). In short, WMA is generally considered better compression at low bitrates, and there is little or no difference at high bitrates. And all audio compression encoders are much better today than they were just a few years ago.

I didn't realize the stereo could play WMA CDs. That's good news!

[London320d]

I believe the situation is:

Non iDrive cars:
Dash Slot - MP3/WMA
CD Changer - MP3/WMA from March 05

iDrive Cars with Professional Nav:
Dash Slot - MP3 Only (with appropriate Car s/w level Oct 05 or upgraded)
CD Changer - MP3/WMA from March 05

iDrive Cars with Business Nav:
Dash Slot - MP3 (not sure about WMA) (with appropriate Car s/w level Mar 05 or upgraded)
CD Changer - MP3/WMA from March 05

I Use WMA (128k) files as my weapon of choice, and fit anout 11 albums on a CD. I have pro-nav so these have to go in the CD changer. That's over 60 albums on line . WMA is the default file type that Windows Media player rips to.

[Jackdaw]

I find that it helps if I burn in Disc At Once (DAO) mode - this can be selected in Nero. I find that Track At Once is hopeless and I do not bother with Session At Once. I have had no luck with with multisession CD recordings.
I've had no problem with ID3 tags providing that V.1 and V.2 tags are synchronised. I use MP3 Tag Studio for this: http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/

[Kuma]

I use iTunes to rip my CD's to mp3 format, then i use Roxio Toast 7 to burn them to a CD. Usually i use TDK media.

For some reason though the ID3 tags that iTunes is creating never show up on the radio, i cant figure out why either Some tags from music that iTunes never ripped to MP3 shows the title and artist, but none of the MP3's that iTunes ripped seem to show artist and title, any suggestions?

Ed

[BeeEmDubU]

im having a few problems with fuji cd-r. im burning at 4x and sometimes the track will just skip to the next song randomly. i go back to the same song and it plays through the entire song. its kind of frustrating. i heard that music cd-r's are higher quality. can anyone confirm this?

[London320d]

"Audio" CD-R disks are of a higher quality, as the Audio CD format is not error checked as the data format is. It should not really be neccessary to use them, but as a test it would be a useful one.

The problem is one (or more) of:
incompatiblilty between writer & CD (this is mitigared by reducing burn speed)
incompatiblilty between car & CD (Silver media helps here)
fault on Writer
fault on Car

To trace the problem, my tips are:
Try a different writer (copy one of your burned CDs on a frends PC and try the copy)
Try different Media brands/types (stick to silver media)
Reduce burn speed (OK you've done this!)

I the above does not indicate the problem, then get the car checked.

[BeeEmDubU]

im sure its not the problem of any incompatbility between my burner and the cd because i've used the same exact cds on a pioneer mp3 cd player and it works fine. like someone said on another thread, a $35k car should have a built in mp3 player that is better than a $150 aftermarket mp3 player.

[KevinC]

Originally Posted by London320d

"Audio" CD-R disks are of a higher quality, as the Audio CD format is not error checked as the data format is. It should not really be neccessary to use them, but as a test it would be a useful one.

??

I thought the "audio" CDs were merely encoded with some data that indicates to a home recorder that a royalty is paid for the blank media? Other than that - NO physical difference. And completely unnecessary to make MP3 discs or even dupe "real" CD files or images.

There are only a handful of CD media mfr's in the world, the big names like Maxell, TDK, etc., don't make them, they just OEM from one of the mfr's such as Taiyo-Yuden, CMC, etc. Generally speaking, avoid the no-name stuff and you should be ok... and in many cases, the no-name stuff is fine.