Tips for the mp3 & vcd cd player

So what should I do to optimize my listening with these fabulous products? Hopefully this page will help you do just that.

1.) Burn your CDs in a SINGLE session, and in Mode-1 only, NOT Mode 2-XA.

The Player does NOT like multi-session cds, that is, a CD that you burn a little bit of, then burn some more later. This is most likely the reason that it doesn't like CD-RWs either, since most CD-RWs are written in multiple sessions (like drag and drop functions many burners have). Using Mode-1 will most likely allow the player to read all the files. Try burning cds in Mode 1 with all the files in the root directory and see what happens. It just might work.

1a.) Use Normal File Ordering (if using Adaptec EZ-CD Creator)
A good description of this was posted to the message board, which I will post here:
The problem is that EZ CD Creator by default appears to rearrange the tracks to maximize the number that will fit onto the finished disk. You change this under File/CD Layout Properties/ to Preserve normal file ordering. You do have to be careful not to "overfill" the CD since you are not able to fit as much on it in this mode. Also, remember that it reads DOS filenames (8.3) so you need to name your files accordingly (I place an 01, 02 at the beginning of the filename so that when it is truncated to 8.3 it still is in the same order.

2.) Create a physical playlist, with numbered songs
Since the player does not support ID3 tags, and displays only the number of the song it is playing, I find it very handy to have a list of all the files on the CD on hand. There are several ways to go about doing this. One way is to select your Winamp playlist and hit control-alt-g. That will create an HTML file of the songs in the list. Another way is to dowload a playlist creating program called cdrLabel. This is an excellent program that will read your CD-R mp3 discs and display the list of songs on them in a printable CD label. One downside is that it doesn't number the songs, but it still rocks. What I did before I knew about easier ways to do it, was create my list with Winamp, then stretch the playlist window down as far as it will go, then hit Tab-Printscreen at the same time. This copies the screen to the clipboard. I went into Adobe, and cut out the part of the screen containing the playlist. I then scrolled down the list on Winamp, and repeated the procedure to get the next 50 or so songs on the list. I kept doing this until I had about four columns of songs, nicely numbered. You could even include the track lengths this way!

3.) Do not burn other files besides mp3s onto the CD-R
I strongly advise against putting other non-mp3 files on your CDs. I noticed that if I had a different file in the middle of a list of mp3s on the cd-r, the player would only read the mp3s up until it hit the unrecognizable file. So you probably can do it, as long as you use a different subdirectory or the files come at the end of all the mp3s.

4.) Do not operate the player in high temperatures.
The player is susceptible to overheating if you operate it for awhile in a hot car, or just during long periods of time altogether.