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Most new DVD players play more than DVDs; they usually can play MP3 disks and video CDs, too.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
How to make MP3 CDs for hours of music at home


August 3, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   Standard audio CDs hold about an hour of music. But you can make your own CDs that will play music for four or five hours, and maybe even longer.
   How's this miracle achieved? Through MP3 audio compression, which squeezes sound files to one-fourth their size or smaller. MP3s are easy to make -- you can convert other formats to MP3 quickly -- and they can be played on pocket-size MP3 players for music on the go.
   But for those who do most of their music listening at home, a CD that can play all evening might be just what the gadget doctor ordered. If you've purchased a new home DVD player in the last year or two, chances are you're half way to this nirvana. You might not realize that most new DVD players play more than DVDs; they usually can play MP3 disks and video CDs, too.
   We looked at how you can make your own video CDs in a previous article, available online at http://technofileonline/texts/tec072102.html. (Video CDs have been losing favor to homemade DVDs in this country, but they're still popular in the Far East.)
   MP3 CDs play music, but they're not audio CDs. An audio CD is an optical disk containing one or more tracks of stereo audio recorded using a particular kind of digital process. (I'll spare the geeky details. They'd put an insomniac to sleep.)
   MP3 CDs are regular, ordinary CDs -- the kind you make yourself when you want to store some files -- that just happen to have MP3 music files on them. Making them is as easy as 1-2-3. Create a test CD first, then follow the same method for your regular MP3 CDs.
   1. Locate the MP3 files you want to have on your CD. (This might sound a littler silly to old-timers, but most modern MP3 software provides no clue to where a user's MP3s reside on the hard drive.) Choose 30 or 40 of them.
   2. Start up your CD burning software and choose those 30 or 40 mp3s as the files you want to put on the CD. Burn the CD, then pop it into your home DVD player.
   3. Burn the CD, then pop it into your home DVD player. Turn on your TV. If the player is a current model, you'll probably see a menu on your screen that shows some filenames. Select the ones you want to play or simply play all of them. (Menus vary greatly, so I can't help much with how your menu works.)
   If you were able to play the test CD, create a second test disk based on your first experiment.
   For example, if all the MP3 filenames showed up looking like they'd just had buzz cuts -- with "Yellow Submarine" looking like "YELLSUBM," that sort of thing -- your player probably can't show long filenames. You can accept your fate or rename all the MP3s you intend to put on CD so their names are both short and meaningful. (Good luck! Microsoft couldn't get this right, either.)
   Also try putting MP3s in two or three folders before you make the next test, then place the folders on the CD. Use short names for the folders, without spaces.
   Three tests are all you'll need in most cases. Once you know how your player likes to have its MP3 CDs, you'll be able to make them quickly. The only caution that I can offer is to avoid placing a lot of files in the main directory (the main level, or "root") of the CD. This delays playback, because the player has to sort through all those files before it can play the first one.