1) There IS a difference between “music” (aka “General Purpose”) and “data” CD-Rs – the CD-R header! And some decks won’t play “data” CD-Rs with music on them (Denon comes to mind, although I think they’ve fixed that) as part of the anti-piracy trend. See, there’s a performance tax (in the USA) on music CDs (in Canada, on ALL CDs … not sure about other countries) which lines the RIAA’s pockets – err, supposedly, goes into a slush fund and is paid to performers. Email for references (and the exact header info), or a quick Google can turn it up.

2) ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS burn music CDs at the lowest speed you can. Here, it’s more of making sure the distinction between a pit and a land is as sharp and square as possible – it takes a few microseconds for the laser to turn on, and at max speed, this can result in a transistion that isn’t straight up and down, but is instead sloped (think of a square tunnel vis a drainage ditch).

3) ALWAY, ALWAYS, ALWAYS burn as an Audio CD (not the same as USING an Audio CD-R!) Again, the notes on a data CD vis an audio CD are worth while.

4) Not all players will handle CD-Rs since the variance between a “1″ and a “0″ is about 1/2 to 1/3 the variance of a pressed CD. However, a 2005 Impala should have no problem (my 2000 Malibu, albeit with a 2001 radio in-dash, doesn’t, although it’s more prone to skip on a burn vis a press.)

5) When all else fails – get them an iPod and an FM transmitter for it, and screw the CDs, listen to that 60G HD instead! B)

RwP

IGNORE EVERY COMMENT HERE…except for THIS one:

Syntax / June 18th, 2007, 8:55 pm / #

This dude had his stuff together. Everyone else here appears to just want to treat you like you’re some kind of idiot. (OF COURSE YOU BURNED AN AUDIO DISC AND NOT A DATA DISC…) Seriously.

I would type out more specific answers…however the commentary left by Syntax in the entry that I’m citing is pretty much what I would be telling you.

I would first settle on the theory that your burning speeds are too high. Burn the disc at between 8-16X and you should get better results. I often have to scale down the burning speeds on discs when I make discs to install operating systems such as Windows or Linux. I get solid, consistent and PROVABLE results. Otherwise the discs tend to have a much higher chance at having read errors during the installation process. The same (once in a while) goes for music discs. (Depends on what they’re being played in. Stock car stereos or older CD players of any kind tend to reject CD-R’s. Especially high-speed burned CD-R’s.)

Also try switching your media. You’re on the right track with that. I recommend TDK or Philips media. (Used to be a fan of Memorex…until my Memorex burner proved to have issues with their own media! Particularly their DVD-R’s. Go figure on THAT…) Maxell has proven to be worthy enough in the past.

The other possibility is the software. Not sure what’s out there for Mac these days… But try different softwares for burning.

That’s about it.

make sure the disk is finalised, though ITunes should do this automaticaly, I had this happen making some CD’s with other software nero ect.