We've read that they last from six months to eighty years, but the shorter duration involved storage in the sun and sandpaper - not a pretty idea. We've had no trouble so far - we've had one return which was quickly remedied (and that may have been a blank disc that crept in) and another one with a glitch that we sorted out. These CD-Rs play well on all but the oldest CD player - our home player is from the mid-1990s and they play fine.

Yes. Once burned, the music you buy has the same functionality as any other pre-recorded music you may buy in traditional stores.

No. You can play the audio content using the Open MG Bundled player included on your disc; the player should automatically start once the disc is inserted in the PC. If you want to play the music on a PC without the disc, or if you want to export the tracks to a portable device, you must first install the Music Player software which is in the bin/win32 folder of your OMG disc.

Retiring a disc: I don't need that directory of MP3s backed up any more, etc. Or maybe I was using that cd-r to temporarily shuttle a bunch of OTR shows from place to place. Dent and Ding sale: maybe I closed the disc before I wanted to and re-burned that session again on a fresh disk. Maybe I put the same file on twice or something else goofy like that. These are like "cosmetic damage" - the CD will work just fine, the contents are just not what I wanted them to be for my own usage.

No, normal CDs are CD-DA format; MP3s are in (yes!) MP3 format. Some new Discman-type players will play MP3s, but most don't like low-bitrate files. That means it will play audio CD-Rs (and even then you might expect hardware/media incompatibility due to different wavelengths used on DVD and CD media). Unless your unit specifically claims to play low-bitrate MP3 files you can assume it will not be able to play them at all. Consult your manual for specifics.

A CD-R and CD-RW is basically a recordable CD. However, whether or not a DVD player capable of playing a regular CD can play a CD-R depends on the quality of the CD-R. Some CD-Rs recorded on higher quality CD burners can play perfectly. However, if you used a lower quality CD burner to make your CD-Rs and CD-RWs, then there's a chance they won't play. Also, a CD-RW (as opposed to a CD-R) have lower light reflection, so CD-RWs are even less likely to play.

I think I paid twice for the same order. What should I do? When I check my credit card account, your company (MusiConcepts) shows up two times.

The easiest is to burn your mp3s to CD and play those CDs in your stereo system. Most modern stereo systems support CDs full of MP3s, but even if your’s does not it is easy to convert your MP3s to regular files (see here). However, to truly unleash the power of your digital music collection, it is worth setting up a “Network Music Player”.

Yes, our condos have a stereo that plays CDs and cassette tapes. We've also provided several Hawaiian music CDs for our guest's enjoyment.

personal and often hidden histories of the landscape - listening at home will only give you a fraction of the experience.

When a CD player is playing a disc without any sort of anti-skip protection, it spins the disc at 1x, and attempts to correct whatever errors it gets. If it can't correct them, it does the best it can and keeps going. When an anti-skip feature (such as Sony's "ESP") is in use, the disc is played at a faster speed (perhaps 2x), and when uncorrectable errors are encountered, the failed section is re-read.

Yeah, I have both the computers I regularly use connected to stereo systems by cables - I just bought cables from Radio Shack, with a stereo 1/8" plug on one end and two RCA jacks on the other, and I plug the cable into the "line-out" of my audio card and the "aux-in" of my equalizer / mixer. It works fine.

Some non-PC players can't handle CD-R and/or CD-RW media. If the audio disc can be played on the PC that created it, then the software did it's job. Please check with your player manufactrer for compatibility with your specific brand, type and speed rating of the blank media.

Not all players get along with all brands of CD-R/RW media. You will need to find a combination of recorder, media, and player that get along. Sometimes the CD player will have no problem playing the tracks, but will have a great deal of difficulty seeking between tracks or moving fast-forward. Using a different brand of media or a different CD player may produce better results. Some media work better at 1x, 2x, or 4x speeds. You may find that slowing down or speeding up the recorder helps.

You recorded it on a CD-RW disk. Most newer computer drives read these fine. Very few audio players will read them at all. You recorded the CD as a data CD or as a multi-session CD. Audio players will only read audio CDs, and even on audio CDs, they will only recognise the first "session". Computer drives, OTOH, can cheerfully read data CDs, and can read CDs recorded in multiple sessions.

You can listen to the CDs through a stereo, a portable CD player, or through your computer's CD-ROM drive, as long as you are listening through stereo headphones. We don't recommend listening to the CD tracks as mp3 files since the potential degrading of audio quality can reduce the effectiveness of the audio technology embedded in the CDs by clipping the higher and lower ends of the frequency range.

Yes and no! If the disc has been left OPEN it can be written to again, although no existing data on the disc can be overwritten. This is known as multi-session recording. Data is written to the disc in sessions and if the session is left OPEN then another session may be added later (up to 99 sessions can be written to a single disc!). Generally, when writing to CD-Rs they are CLOSED by default, meaning that no further writing can be done.

CD-Rs have a metal reflective layer that is essential for the disc to function. The best reflective layer material is gold because it is chemically inert - meaning it will not react and degrade as other metals might. The second best layer is silver, which is more reactive chemically, but generally cheaper and currently more widely available. Mitsui, HHB, Apogee and Quantegy, among others, make discs containing gold.

Yes, we have a DJ quality double-deck CD player on our P.A. system. We can play requests, and also keep the dance party going between band sets. Index

It is very difficult to estimate the life of a CD-R or CD-RW because there are many factors such as temperature and humidity, exposure to light, dirt and contamination, and handling and scratches, which can affect the life of a disc.

All of our CD recorders work with either blank CD-Rs or CD-RWs, so you won't be locked into exclusive use of one or the other by your hardware. Choosing between the two formats really comes down to your intended uses for the discs you're burning. Although the "R" in CD-R stands for "recordable," this is a "write-once" technology. That means anything you record on a CD-R is permanent.

CD Burning is not always an exact science, especially when equipment older than 2 years is involved. Here are some hints for ensuring your audio CDs created by Replay Radio are able to play in your CD player. Ensure you have set up the Replay Radio CD Burner with the proper speed setting. Settings a speed higher than the disc is rated for may cause an unreadable CD to be created. Select Settings, Setup CD Burner in the Replay Radio software to configure your CD.

You can find all the electronic equipment in our villas on our web site at: http://www.sunvillas.com/featurecom.htm, or on each villa's web pages.

You can play the disc on a conventional CD player (if supported). You will also need to record the music as a Wave file in order to use it in your car.

WMVHD files, typically created for playback on the XBOX360, can contain a 5.1 audio stream. If you play such a file on a computer that only has two speakers then you will only hear the sound from two of the six channels. This causes for example the voices (center channel) to be almost unhearable. The solution is to downmix the 5.1 channels into 2 channels. There are two ways to do this. You can either use AC3Filter or ffdshow. In ffdshow audio decoder configuration, go to the 'Codecs' page.

To actually play on an audio CD player the music has to be recorded in standard audio CD format, which is different to the format used for data CD ROM disks. The audio data is actually stored as uncompressed PCM data at 44.1 KHz sampling rate, 16 bit stereo samples. This is similar (although not exactly the same) to the format of uncompressed WAV files on your computer.

Yes, the content on the DVDs is organized in such a way that it is easy to create your own CD-Rs from DVD. However, there are some things that must be paid attention to: Keep the path identical. For example, if the path to Windows XP Professional on a DVD is \English\WinXP\Pro\, be sure to put all of the files on the CD-R in the same path. CD-Rs can only be created and used in accordance with the MSDN Master End-User License Agreement (EULA).

The only discs that a DVD player is guaranteed to read are DVD discs. Support for CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW may be included, but is by no means guaranteed. CD-R was designed to be read by an infrared 780nm laser. DVD uses a visible red 635nm or 650nm laser, which aren't reflected sufficiently by the organic dye polymers used in CD-R media. As a result, many DVD players can't read CD-R media. Some DVD players come with two lasers so that they can read CD-R.

On an injection molded or "pressed" CD, the grooves (called "pits and lands") that represent the binary data on the disc's polycarbonate substrate are pressed into it by a "stamper" when it is manufactured. So hundreds or thousands of identical CDs can be created from the same mold. CD-Rs (the "R" stands for "recordable") are manufactured first as blank discs and then data is later recorded on them using a laser disc burner.