2004 CD player

It almost certainly means "no" although you might get lucky.

Ordinary Red Book audio CDs can hold up to 99 tracks. It's _possible_ that the CD you are interested in might be an audio CD with lots of tracks, and be playable in your car. Total up the track lengths (if that information is available). If it's less than 80 minutes you may be in luck; if it's more than that, then it's very probably an MP3 (or similar lossy-encoded) disc and your car player probably won't recognize it.

If it's MP3, you could buy it, use a PC to decompress the individual .MP3 files into audio format, and burn them onto a set of Red Book audio CD-R discs. Those would be playable in your car.

Is my 2004 original equipment CD player likely to be able to play Mp3 cds (in the car I just bought)?

There is one I want to buy (though I dont' have the url now) that had far more songs on it, maybe 50 or 100, than the 15 that I'm used to, and another poster made me realize that this might be a set of MP3 files.

The owners manual says nothing about mp3. That probably means no, right?

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My 1999 Ford Focus Original CD/radio would play a CD full of mp3's no problem.

Gareth.

I don't think it's a matter of age. I think that some CD players could play MP3 discs, and the rest couldn't. I know in buying used portable CD players, some specify that they can play MP3s, others don't, and I take them for their word.

And I think it's a relatively brief period. After MP3s took off, maybe some time later, but before MP3 players came along, or maybe some overlap into the era of MP3 players. An MP3 player is so much better, they took over.

There was an issue of older CD players not playing CDRW discs. I forget the details, but after a certain date, CD players didn't seem to have the problem. So something was changed there. But that's different from playing MP3s, though for many people it did matter, since they put MP3s on a CDRW disc and then played that.

Maybe DVD players are more likely to play MP3 discs. Now I can't remember, but I vaguely recall making an MP3 disc to try in my circa 2003 DVD player. But that's different circuitry, and have more of what's needed to play MP3s.

Michael

OOOO. That sounds good I'm going to have to make one up and test the player with it, and if it works, I can buy that thing above.

That would be bad for other reasons. If they try to squeeze even 50 songs into 80 minutes, they won't be the versions I want.

if it's more than that, then it's very probably an MP3

that sounds like a lot of work! But let me go track down the CD and see if it gives clues related to your post or Gareth's

Thanks all.

CD-RWs required more sensitive optics on the part of the playback device, CD-Rs however once they were written with PCM audio data (_not_ mp3 files) and finalized IIRC were essentially the material equivalent of a commercial Red Book audio CD and should work on any CD player, even ones from the 1980s.

IIRC my 2002 Ford Taurus OEM CD player would play CD-Rs of mp3 files, but not CD-RWs.

Actually CDRs are much less reflective than 'pressed' CDs and as such some older CD players don't have the laser power needed to get a good (reflected) signal. This was common knowledge back when CDRs first became affordable and people would have trouble with their older players not playing them (or not playing them reliably). Back then some players started being sold as being CDR compatible but after a while it became taken for granted and the badging vanished.

CDRW discs are even less reflective than CDRs.

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

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** CDRs use the same metallised ( Gold or Silver) reflecting layer as a normal CD.

They play perfectly in my 1982, Sony CDP101.

.... Phil

Yes. The difference is in the construction of the non-refecting areas. In a CD they're pressed into the refecting later and become 'pits' whereas with a CDR a dye layer between the reflecting area and the pickup laser is 'burned' changing it's reflectivity index. The result, done on a modern high-quality burner on a modern high quality blank and at a reasonable speed is close to a pressed CD w/r/t readability. However a lot of CDRs are burned too fast and / or are not top quality blanks resulting in a less-well defined change from reflective to non-reflective which can give some older readers problems. Especially when they were first on the market.

It's not so much of an issue these days as the quality of blanks has improved considerably and the price of good quality ones has come down. There used to be a large difference in price between the cheapest discs and the best discs and and a corresponding difference in readability. This could give some older players - especially those with lasers that were starting to weaken - issues reading CDRs.

My 1986 Philips CD 160 and my 1987 Sony CDP-17F will both read all of my newer CDRs but used to struggle with ones I burned in the early days when discs and burners weren't as good. I still have some of those CDrs and even though they've been looked after and are in good physical condition both of the older players struggle with them.

I don't have an older player any longer and will probably be getting rid of those two soon as them not having remotes and me having mobility issues makes it so I hardly use them these days anyway.

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

layer not later.

I forgot to mention that this dye layer that is burned into a non-reflective bit when a CDR is burned is not as optically clear in its unburned state as the clear coat on a pressed CD which results in a lower index of reflection. That when combined with the following results in CDRs being harder to read than pressed CDs.

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

This is a Chrysler Sebring, 2004. I don't know who actually made the radio.

Well, I made up a CD on the PC and tried to play it and I got ERR.

I guess I could have done this in the first place, but I learned things in this thread, so it was worth it.

I finally noticed that some CDs are labeled "audio CD" and I guess that's all mine can play.

I didn't mention my previous car, a 2000 Toyota Solara with an AM/FM/6-CD-changer in one box, that I still own, which used to work, then gave Err 2, then worked again after I took it out and fiddled with it a little, then gave Err 2 again, repeat previous step, and then did nothing at all when I pressed the CD button.

But I'm selling the car and it has I think 3 CDs in it.

This time fiddling did nothing, and trying to disassemble didn't accomplish much, so I ended up taking out as many screws as possible and ripping the pieces out.

By the time I was done, the laser assembly didn't slide well on its track, so maybe that's why it finally stopped working (though earlier it was the changer that was causing trouble.) Or maybe I damaged the track or laser carriage when ripping it out, though I don't think so.

But I got the CDs out and there were *four* of them.

I don't know who made that radio either.

So this accounts for my original question.