Car CD problems

Off-topic
1

Seeing as unicyclist are the smartest people on earth, and there is nothing you guys don’t know… I’m about to ask some questions which are a bit non-unicycle related. But first, some background of my problem: The cd deck in my car does not like reading burnt cds. In fact it doesn’t like a lot of my regular cds either. I have tried many different brands of cd-r’s and some work better then others, but none work as well as I would like. For all of the cd’s I tried, my deck has a hard time reading the disk. Once it figures out how to read the disk (only happens sometimes on some disks) it will play fine… sometimes. Other times, it will start to loose sound quality as the cd progresses.

I am looking into several options.

  1. Figure out how to correct the problem <-- impossible I think

  2. find a brand of cdr’s that work. So far my old TDKs work, but I ran out of those a long time ago.
    so far, I have tried:
    TDK
    Sony
    Fuji
    Memorex
    Memorex Music <-- worst one yet.
    verbatum
    and a few others

  3. Get an fm transmitter to plug into my portable cd player

  4. Get a new deck. If I did this, it would be an MP3 deck.

As always, cost is a main concern. I have tried everything I can think of in terms of playing with my burning software modes and stuff.

note: It’s only my car that has trouble playing my cds. In fact, I have a friend that has the same car, only his is a few years older, with the same deck (looks identical) and his plays all my cds.

What do you guys suggest? Remember, every dollar spent on this is a dollar less for unis.

Thanks,
Daniel

2

is it the cd player that came with the car? And if not what brand, make and model is it? Could be your cd player… <_<

3

Oh yeah, for got to include that info.

It’s a 2000 Mazda 626. The cd player is the stock one. And I’m pretty sure it is the player thats messed.

4

If you go to buy a CD Player it will tell you what formats it reads. Eg.

CD, CD/RW, MP3

It’s probably just struggling because it’s not designed to read CD/RW. Just get a new one with MP3 playability and then you’ll be able to burn hundreds of songs onto 1 CD and play it without a problem. But that’s only if you’ve got money to spend and really want to be able to play them.

Oh yeah, and most that play MP3 should be able to play CD/RW, wouldn’t make sense why they’d give you MP3 and not CD/RW.

5

that’s another factor, too. The songs could be in MP3 form, not actual CD file blah blah, yeah… you know what I mean <_<

6

Back to the problem, it might be that the lens reading your CD’s is a bit dirty. You could try to clean it. There are these thingies you can clean it with. I’ve never used one but it might work and is usually cheap, so you won’t lose too much even if it doesn’t work. They look like CD’s.

Here’s one: Lens Cleaner
They are probably sold in some bigger shops and most of the shops that sell speakers, cd-players and other stuff like that.

7

Thanks for all the replies. I know that the cds I’m burning are in regular audio cd format. I also use only cd-r, not cdrw.

As for the lens cleaners… I was thinking about using one, but I don’t know if it will work with a car deck because it is slot loading. Anyone know if it will work?

Thanks
Daniel

8

This is just a wild guess, but I think they should work fine on every CD-player. IAnd you can always ask it in the shop or just read the back of the package. If it doesn’t tell you anything useful just try it.

9

the lense cleaner will work, its just a cd with a duster thing on it and basically a blank track to move the lense properly

10

If your deck has an Aux port, buy an IPOD.

11

It shouldn’t be a problem with the lends providing it’s only CD/R that’s not working. If it was the lens it should have trouble with all cd’s.

And CD/R is the same as CD/RW they usually just call it CD/RW. So my bet is it just doesn’t have the capability to play a burnt cd.

12

well burnt cd’s have a lower quality readable surface than an origional that was actually pressed and made properly. the process that cd producers use to make a cd does not involve a burner or any device of that sort. older cd players do not read cd’s very well, its just a fact, technology has gotten far better than in the last few years. if it was me i would get a new deck but thats just me, you can try using burning your cd’s on a slower speed, that sould get you somewhat better quality but it may not be enough

13

Yay, an opinion like mine, except he’s all smart and type and knows more than me, lol.

14

well thats not completly true, i have just watched too much tv and besides getting a new deck would open the doors for other things with the car stereo, if he so desired that is. i got one for my car a coupple years ago and i spent $200 CDN so its not an paticularly cheep option

15

have u managed to find out which formats it can/can’t read yet?
this is crucial and i believe lies at the root of your problem
if it is designed to play CDR’s, it will most probably have the CDR logo on the front
failing that, double check with mazda, they should be able to give u a definitive answer

16

I think it’s not the CD-player being too old. The car is a year 2000 Mazda 626 (Unless that’s an Y2K problem). I bought my own CD-player for my car in 2000 and it had no problems with playing CD-R and -RW. Well, I tried those only once but still.

Psst… Robbie

And Daniel, you don’t need a new CD-player anyway. That way you’ll spend less time in your car and have more time to ride your uni.