Help burning mp3 files to CD

[David40]

I need some advice from an MP3 expert. I got an audio book on 10 audio CD's. My goal was to Rip them to mp3 and condense the 10 CD's of 1.4 Gig worth of audio down to one CD. I used DB PowerAmp to do this. Because it's only the spoken word I figured I could reduce the size without much loss. I used a constant bit rate of 24 at 12,000 Hz, mono, using the Lame mp3 codec. The resulting files total about 650 MB and play just fine on my computer. When I burn the 332 files to a CD the CD will not play on any MP3 player I have. Am I limited to a set of standard settings in order to play MP3 file on standard machines?
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks for any advice. 
D

[manish07]

You can burn with Nero because its the good software for burning cds.

[Broni]

When I burn the 332 files to a CD the CD will not play on any MP3 player I have.

You burned it as data CD right?
If not, CD won't play on MP3 compatible player.

[David40]

Thanks for your replies.
Yes, I am using NERO, and I am burning as data. When I try to play the CD in a player it jumps from file to file and says "NOT MP3" over and over. The strange part is that the CD will play if I stick it in my computer drive. Windows Media Player pops right up and plays the files just fine. It's a real brain twister. I think it may have something to do with the way I am creating the files. Normally I start with wave files and convert to mp3. Never had a problem before. This time I am starting with large mp3 files and directly converting them to smaller mp3 files. I may need to convert all the large mp3 files to wave, then convert the wave's to the lower resolution mp3's. I wanted to avoid that because the intermediate wave files will total 9 Gig and I don't think I have the room on my hard drive. Guess I'll do some experiments to see if I can discover a way around this.

[Broni]

This time I am starting with large mp3 files and directly converting them to smaller mp3 files.

By lowering a bit rate? From what to what? What program?

I'm not a big fan of Nero, so I use CDBurnerXP to burn mp3 CDs, and I never had a problem with playing them in mp3 compatible players.

[David40]

I don't know what the specs are on the original files, did not make them. I used an older version of dbPowerAmp Converter and converted them to: a constant bit rate of 24 at 12,000 Hz, mono, using the Lame mp3 codec

[Broni]

To me, the minimum acceptable bit rate is 128kbps, and I never attempted to play any mp3 at 24 bit rate, so it may be your problem.
Why don't you look at original file properties, and see what bit rate it is?

[David40]

The originals are bit rate of 64, frequency 44,100, 2 channel joint Stereo (mid side), MPEG 1 Layer III, that's why they are so big almost 5 MB each. Remember this is only the spoken word, it does not need to be this high a resolution. I've done this before with spoken word  and I was able to reduced the size by 60% without any noticeable difference in the quality of the sound. I should experiment with reducing the bite rate or the frequency independently and see which effects the file size the most. Maybe I should try for a high frequency with a low bit rate and see what happens?

[Broni]

Maybe. I can't tell you, because honestly, I never played with speech files.

[Geek-9pm]

Let me help. I understand the problem very well. But when I tried to explain it to somebody else they would not believe me, unless they are more than knee deeps into recoding standards. You have to be up to your neck in it.
I have one cheap wimpy CD/AM/FN MP3 tiny boom box that will play nearly any kind of MP3 CD I put into it, Including the ones done at very low bit rates. And I have a Nice TV with a DVD player that can also play CD-MP3s, But only if they are recoding at a specific way.

Nut lets get to the point. You want to get this stuff down in size.
Three options:
1. give up using the DVD/CD MP3 players.(They only allow one sample rate)
2. Use more that one disc for the collection. Burn at the required sample rate.
3. Give up CDs, go get a MP3 player with 2GB of memory. And a patch cord to plug into you audio system.
I think the later is the sane chose. We have this problem here. I can listen to any of the MPs, but my wife can not with her equipment.
So, we are both going to buy MP3 players and patch cords.

[David40]

I want to make a bunch of copies to pass out so it really needs to be in a universal format or at least one of the popular ones. Is there any place I can find the standards so I know what they are?
I don't know much about it. I would appreciate any explanation of how the encoding works. Like what the bit rate is and when the frequency does and how they are related. I know that might be more than anyone could explain here so pointing me to a website where I can find information would be great.
Thanks for the suggestions.

[Geek-9pm]

You can go to the CD Freaks web site an many there also have been confused. A number of DVD player makers decided to you a high quality MP3 format to play back CDs. That's not a typo. DVD player that plays MP3 CDs in just one format.

Here is some info from Cool Edit.


The files are Bible readings for the book of Exodus. I go them off the site of http://jw.org where they have the same mp3s that they distribute on CDs and of course they want them to be as compatible as possible. The only two formats they use are MP3 and AAC. The photo above is from one of their MP3 files.  It is 48 bps, mono, 44100 Hz, 16bit.

That is how I found out what format works on most consumer MP3 CD players, including the DVD players that read audio and MP3 CDs.

EDIT: It appears that you can use 48 bps, 64 bps, and 128 bps
Either Mono or Stereo. But always 44100HZ for playback ib all, or most all MP3 capable CD players, including DVD players that read Audio CD and MP3 CD.
From earlier experiments I made, you can not use 32 bps

[David40]

Thank you so much for that information.
Here are the results from my own experiments using an older DVD player, a very old SONY boom Box that plays MP3, and a new DVD player I bought a month ago.
All files are 1 channel mono, and all will play on the computer

Bit Rate       Frequency         Codec            Results

32                  24,000           LAME         Plays only Boom Box and New DVD Player

24                  24,000           LAME         Plays only Boom Box and New DVD Player

24                  12,000           LAME         Plays only New DVD Player

20                  11,025         Fraunhofer  Plays only Boom Box and New DVD player

The last one has a noticeable hiss but is still good enough for speech and shrunk the file size by an amazing 85%.
My conclusion is that the newer the equipment, the more likely it will play just about any resolution, to a point. The Fraunhofer Codec is undoubtedly the best there is and the price reflects that. If you are making audio CD's for a wide variety of mp3 capable players including older ones you have no choice but use the higher standard resolutions. I'm going to use the Fraunhofer Codec and size the files so they will just fit on a single CD with the instructions that if it will not play on a stand hardware player that they play the disc on their computer or transfer the files to a digital player. I think the 24 X 24,000 will do the trick for me.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and advice. Great group of brainstormers here. 

[squall_01]

Woah wait here, I didnt read all the post but a while back I read something about a data disk.  That isnt true from what I know, here's the jist of it.  Cd players are able to see certain codes there are things like midi and mp2 I think but not all do this.  Second He would have to have it as an audio disk since it isnt programed to read disk like that in that manner.

[David40]

You should have read the whole post, we are talking about CD players that are MP3 capable like the SONY Boom Box I use and most DVD players around today. The Mp3 discs are purely data discs unlike a regular audio CD which are special encoded wave files. I love my SONY at work. I can burn 150 mp3 songs on one CD and not have to change the disk all day. 

[mroilfield]

I want to make a bunch of copies to pass out

"Hold the Phones" and "Stop the presses"

Lets examine the above statement.

Did you write this book? Do you own the "Copyright" to it?

If you answered no to both questions then I think every one needs to just step away. As per forum rules we are not allowed to help with the copying of "Copyrighted" material

[David40]

What's the matter, so much time on your hands that you find it necessary to play the Nazi gestapo?
I won't even qualify that with an answer, it's insulting. How about I come over to your house and put you under a bright light and see if I get a confession out of you about any laws you might be breaking.  As a matter of fact why don't I just torture you and get you to confess to something you didn't even do. That's about the norm these days isn't it? Guilty till proven innocent.

[mroilfield]

Touchy are we??

I just asked simple questions and pointed out that because of forum rules we can't help with copyrighted material.

If you can't handle that then sorry.

[quaxo]

It's against policy here to give assistance with duplicating copyrighted material. The fact that you intend to "make a bunch of copies to pass out" means we can't help you. Sorry.

-=EDIT=-
Dang, mroilfield beat me to the punch. 

[David40]

Yes I do get a bit touchy with little minds that troll the Net stirring up trouble and butting into things that don't concern them. God, I'd rather be dead than to be that bored with nothing better to do.

[patio]

Topic Closed.

Please review the Forum Rules.

patio.