MP3 CD problem.

jamerican · 01-02-2006, 08:38 PM

I have a lot of old mp3 files and am having a problem burning mp3 cd's contining these song files. In quite a few cases, while attempting to play the mp3 cd's in my vehicle, some of these songs will not play - message No File Name appears on the players display - while some will play. The songs have names in my iTunes Library and are playable via iTunes. Does anyone know how to fix these mp3 files so that I can play them in my vehicle? Any help would be appreciated.

trevor · 01-02-2006, 08:42 PM

What car stereo do you have? What bitrates, and sample rates of MP3 does it support? Does it support VBR (variable bit rate)?

Trevor

jamerican · 01-02-2006, 08:46 PM

I have a 2005 Ford Explorer SportTrac XLT. It has a built in radio/cd player that plays mp3's. I can give no further information at this time. I'll go into the manual to see if I can identify the items that you have mentioned.

trevor · 01-02-2006, 08:53 PM

The other thing you can do is check the bitrate, sample rate, and VBR status of the songs that work and those that don't work, and see if you can find a trend. For example, if all the songs that work have a bitrate up to and including 192 kbps, but the ones that don't work are above 192 kbps, then you've found your answer--the car stereo doesn't support high bitrates, and you'll need to limit the bitrates to 192 kbps or below.

Trevor

jamerican · 01-02-2006, 09:14 PM

The first song I checked had a bitrate of 224kbps. Your tip is right on the money, Trevor. This means I would have to check every song before I burn it. Is there any way I can do a batch of songs to reduce the bit rate? Your help is greatly appreciated.

hayne · 01-02-2006, 10:07 PM

One possibility is that the filenames have some characters in them that are not allowed by your car's MP3 player. I suspect that the car's player might be based on an MSDOS filesystem. I had a problem like that with a portable CD player. I had to rename the files to avoid characters like single-quotes, colons, etc.
See other threads in these forums (or ask more questions) about allowable characters for MSDOS filesystems.

[edit]
Here's an old thread that explains which characters are illegal on MSDOS filesystems and provides a Perl script to rename the offending files:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=25080
[/edit]

jamerican · 01-02-2006, 10:10 PM

Thanks for the input, Hayne. I will certainly investigate this.

perrin · 01-03-2006, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamerican


	I have a 2005 Ford Explorer SportTrac XLT. It has a built in radio/cd player that plays mp3's. I can give no further information at this time. I'll go into the manual to see if I can identify the items that you have mentioned.

I have the Shaker 500 in my 2005 Mustang and haven't noticed anything re: bit-rate, but the tracks have to have ID3ver1 info as it doesn't read the ver2 information. I typically only store the id3v2 info so the first cd I burned and played back only had a couple working tracks. If you need to batch-add id3 info to tracks, ID3X works wonderfully (not affiliated with the program other than being a happy user).

Rob

jamerican · 01-03-2006, 08:46 AM

Thanks for the input, Perrin. So far my player accepts ID3v1 to 2.xx without any problems. The cd's that I have ripped with iTunes play fine as mp3 files. I think many of my old mp3 files either have no ID3 tags or are messed up in some other way.
I am using the Advanced tab in iTunes to fix/add ID3 tags to these old files and will test a burn to see if they work.

01-02-2006, 08:38 PM	#1
jamerican Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Georgia Posts: 31	MP3 CD problem. I have a lot of old mp3 files and am having a problem burning mp3 cd's contining these song files. In quite a few cases, while attempting to play the mp3 cd's in my vehicle, some of these songs will not play - message No File Name appears on the players display - while some will play. The songs have names in my iTunes Library and are playable via iTunes. Does anyone know how to fix these mp3 files so that I can play them in my vehicle? Any help would be appreciated.

01-02-2006, 08:42 PM	#2
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,549	What car stereo do you have? What bitrates, and sample rates of MP3 does it support? Does it support VBR (variable bit rate)? Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

01-02-2006, 08:53 PM	#4
trevor Moderator Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Boulder, CO USA Posts: 19,549	The other thing you can do is check the bitrate, sample rate, and VBR status of the songs that work and those that don't work, and see if you can find a trend. For example, if all the songs that work have a bitrate up to and including 192 kbps, but the ones that don't work are above 192 kbps, then you've found your answer--the car stereo doesn't support high bitrates, and you'll need to limit the bitrates to 192 kbps or below. Trevor __________________ How to ask questions the smart way

01-02-2006, 10:07 PM	#6
hayne Site Admin Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Montreal Posts: 31,938	One possibility is that the filenames have some characters in them that are not allowed by your car's MP3 player. I suspect that the car's player might be based on an MSDOS filesystem. I had a problem like that with a portable CD player. I had to rename the files to avoid characters like single-quotes, colons, etc. See other threads in these forums (or ask more questions) about allowable characters for MSDOS filesystems. [edit] Here's an old thread that explains which characters are illegal on MSDOS filesystems and provides a Perl script to rename the offending files: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=25080 [/edit] Last edited by hayne; 01-02-2006 at 10:12 PM.

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01-02-2006, 08:46 PM	#3
jamerican Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Georgia Posts: 31	I have a 2005 Ford Explorer SportTrac XLT. It has a built in radio/cd player that plays mp3's. I can give no further information at this time. I'll go into the manual to see if I can identify the items that you have mentioned.

01-02-2006, 09:14 PM	#5
jamerican Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Georgia Posts: 31	The first song I checked had a bitrate of 224kbps. Your tip is right on the money, Trevor. This means I would have to check every song before I burn it. Is there any way I can do a batch of songs to reduce the bit rate? Your help is greatly appreciated.

01-02-2006, 10:10 PM	#7
jamerican Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Georgia Posts: 31	Thanks for the input, Hayne. I will certainly investigate this.

01-03-2006, 08:46 AM	#9
jamerican Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Georgia Posts: 31	Thanks for the input, Perrin. So far my player accepts ID3v1 to 2.xx without any problems. The cd's that I have ripped with iTunes play fine as mp3 files. I think many of my old mp3 files either have no ID3 tags or are messed up in some other way. I am using the Advanced tab in iTunes to fix/add ID3 tags to these old files and will test a burn to see if they work.