Playing Mp3 CD's

[Prius2009]

I hope someone can help. I made an Mp3 disk on a CD-R, by just clicking and draging the Mp3 files (and some folders) to a blank CD. I played the CD in another computer to be sure it was a good disk. But when I put it into the Prius I get an eror messagem (no music files) Does any one have any information on this?????

[bfd]

Make sure you burn/format the cd as iso 9660. Most software will allow that as an option.

[qbee42]

Not all CD-Rs are created equally. It's not uncommon to create a disk that can be read in a computer drive, but not in another player. I suspect some combination of your CD-Rs, computer drive, or software has produced a funny CD. Try another one just to make sure it's not a fluke. Make sure to put the mp3s in folders, not in the top directory. Keep it simple for a test case. If that doesn't work, have a friend make one and try that.

Tom

[a_gray_prius]

One of the common issues with supposed MP3 capable players not recognizing CDs is with the way the CD-R is formatted. Unfortunately, often times when using drag-and-drop functionality, the CD is created in a "multisession" format (also called session-at-once) which allows for new files to be added in the future. However, this comes at the very steep cost of making it incompatible with a large number of devices (basically you can't read it on anything except a computer).

To make a CD work in your prius, you will need to use CD burning software (as I'm not sure how to make whatever OS you're using burn in disc-at-once mode). If you are using Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista, you can freely download and use the open source InfraRecorder (found here). If you're using a Mac, I can't really help you.

[cwerdna]

To the OP, I believe you have an audio input jack and suggest that you get a portable MP3 player instead due to the slowness of the stereo's loading of MP3s CDs and UI limitations. See How Does the file structure work for an 07 Factory MP3 D changer? for more.

On a side note, I've been using Pandora on my iPhone 3G a lot lately since Navizon (war driving app) doesn't work anymore (crashes on launch) on iPhone 3.0 firmware. It's great to be able to listen to all sorts of music that I happen to like that I wouldn't even have known to buy.

[Spartane]

Originally Posted by Prius2009

I hope someone can help. I made an Mp3 disk on a CD-R, by just clicking and draging the Mp3 files (and some folders) to a blank CD. I played the CD in another computer to be sure it was a good disk. But when I put it into the Prius I get an eror messagem (no music files) Does any one have any information on this?????

Here's something that might help -- consider using the excellent (and free) cd/dvd burning program "ImgBurn" available at The Official ImgBurn Website.

Once you've downloaded and installed ImgBurn, here's how to use it:

1. Select "Write files/folders to disc"; this will place ImgBurn in the "Build Mode" that you'll need for writing your mp3 files to disc.
2. From the "Information" tab (located on the upper-right), select the "Auto" checkbox (located on the lower-right). Also confirm that your CD/DVD burner has been automatically selected in the "Destination" area (located near the bottom-left). It is also recommended that the "Verify" checkbox be set so that ImgBurn will read back your disc and compare it to the original after the burn process has completed.
3. Next, switch to the "Device" tab and select your "Write Speed" (located lower-right). 24x is a good choice for CD's since it's a bit slower than the maximum write speed of 40x - 48x that the program will default to, and it will generally result in a cleaner burn to most blank discs.
4. Change tabs again, this time to the "Options" tab, and in the "Image Options" area (just below the tab), locate the "File System:" label and select "ISO9660 + Joliet" from the pulldown box to the right.
5. Switch back to the "Information" tab and confirm that "Auto" is checked.
6. Make sure you have a blank CD in your drive so that ImgBurn will be able to calculate the available space (700Megs). Use a normal blank CD for this (i.e.) don't use a rewritable CD since there's a fair chance that your car may not be able to read it. Windows may present some kind of autoplay popup when you insert the blank -- just cancel it since we'll be using ImgBurn to do all the burning work.
7. Now drag and drop all of the mp3 files you want to burn into the big blank box in ImgBurn (located along the left). The graphical information bar should begin to draw as you add the files, showing you how much space you are using. Don't exceed 100%.
8. Once you have all of your mp3's dragged into the box, click the graphical icon (folder->disc) (located on the lower-left) to begin the burn process. ImgBurn will provide a few confirmation dialog boxes just prior to initiating the burn process -- just click OK to use its default suggestions.
9. The burn process will take about 4 minutes to burn and another 4 minutes to verify.
10. You're done -- try the burned disc in your car and see if it will play.