Best program to burn music CDs?

[Parm]

I don't normally do much of this, but the other day I thought I'd burn a few music CDs using Windows Media Player and what a woeful experience it proved to be!

Two major problems:

1) If I burn audio CDs using WMP, playing them back on any other device doesn't show any track information. Each song is just "Track 1", "Track 2"... and so on. How do I get it to actually save the track names to the disc as well?

2) If I burn data CDs using WMP (so all the songs are MP3), I can't seem to find an option in WMP that allows me to create folders and organise songs how I want them.

To make matters worse, I can't even find an option to label the CD something unique.

So, I've come to the conclusion that WMP is ok for playback, and very basic burning, but that's it. I'm therefore now looking for alternatives.

What software should I be using, preferably free, that'll allow me to do the two items above?

Thanks in advance

[Funkstar]

1) If I burn audio CDs using WMP, playing them back on any other device doesn't show any track information. Each song is just "Track 1", "Track 2"... and so on. How do I get it to actually save the track names to the disc as well?

Right click the track and select Advanced Tag Editor. Despite this, if you just look at the CD in windows, it will always just display as Audio CD and Track 01.cda etc. This is just the way Windows displays the CD. Playing back in a program that supports track information will display the meta data written to the disk

2) If I burn data CDs using WMP (so all the songs are MP3), I can't seem to find an option in WMP that allows me to create folders and organise songs how I want them.

Why use WMP for this, just drag and drop in Windows no?

To make matters worse, I can't even find an option to label the CD something unique.

Again is this just in Windows? it won't show as anything other than Audio CD, that is a limitation of the Red Book standard.

[Lee H]

I use either WMP11 or Nero depending on which mp3's I'm burning back and whether they have a .cue sheet.

Nero seems to get most the use, but for some reason my mates aged DVD drive in his laptop cannot read the Nero data discs but reads the WMP created ones fine.

[HSK]

I don't normally do much of this, but the other day I thought I'd burn a few music CDs using Windows Media Player and what a woeful experience it proved to be!

Two major problems:

1) If I burn audio CDs using WMP, playing them back on any other device doesn't show any track information. Each song is just "Track 1", "Track 2"... and so on. How do I get it to actually save the track names to the disc as well?

2) If I burn data CDs using WMP (so all the songs are MP3), I can't seem to find an option in WMP that allows me to create folders and organise songs how I want them.

To make matters worse, I can't even find an option to label the CD something unique.

So, I've come to the conclusion that WMP is ok for playback, and very basic burning, but that's it. I'm therefore now looking for alternatives.

What software should I be using, preferably free, that'll allow me to do the two items above?

Thanks in advance

normally, they won't display track names on standard audio CD's, but there is a way involving some kind of .txt file, providing the device supports it.

[Parm]

An example is my brothers car, Lexus RX300. If I burn an audio CD using WMP (with all the tags filled in using advanced tag editor), the tracks will just show as Track 1, Track 2 and so on when played in the car.

When my brother burns an audio CD on his iMac, using iTunes, it'll play in the car AND display all the track names. Granted, I could try iTunes but I just don't like it.

Why use WMP for this, just drag and drop in Windows no?

The trouble here is that though I could just drag and drop, it'll be really time consuming. In WMP, I can use my auto playlists to burn CDs really quickly. So for example I could take all my recently listened to items and burn them all in one go - using Windows, I'd have to find each one of those files one by one and drag them over.

[Funkstar]

What happens when you put the CD you burned on WMP back into your PC and play it with WMP. Can you see the track information then?

There is a chance that your burner can't or isn't writing the text data properly.

It's a long shot as i think this has been standard for years now, but in the past some burners couldn't handle it.

[Parm]

Even when I put it back in the PC, it shows as Track 1 and so on. MP3 CDs are ok, they have all the track information. The trouble with those is that I can't make folders inside of WMP when burning.

The writer I'm using is a "Samsung SH S183 SATA 18x DVD±RW RAM Black", purchased less than a year ago - I hope it isn't the problem.

I think I might have to download the trial version of Nero and give that a go. Somehow, I can't see my auto-playlists working in that.

[Agent]

normally, they won't display track names on standard audio CD's, but there is a way involving some kind of .txt file, providing the device supports it.

Not at all. Audio CD's support CD text as standard. There is no need to mess about with .txt files or anything like that

[Parm]

I've had a little Google and as far as I can tell, Windows Media Player doesn't support CD Text, so that'd explain the problem. Bah.

[Funkstar]

I was actually fairly sure it did.

But i've just tested it and thats right, it doesn't support CD Text.

After a little google myself, get this:
burrrn.net - The home of Burrrn and Mr QuestionMan

Burn audio CDs the easy way!

Burrrn is a little tool for creating audio CDs with CD-Text from various audio files.
Supported formats are: wav, mp3, mpc, ogg, aac, mp4, ape, flac, ofr, wv, tta, m3u, pls and fpl playlists and cue sheets. You can also burn EAC’s noncompliant image + cue sheets! Burrrn can read all types of tags from all these formats (including ape tags in mp3). Burrrn uses cdrdao.exe for burning.

[dave87]

If iTunes works at his end, how about trying that with your burner to work out whether its the software or the drive?

EDIT- damn, shouldn't take so long to reply.

[MarcLister]

EAC is brilliant. Paired with the LAME MP3 encoder.

[Parm]

I downloaded the trial version of Nero to give that a quick go and hey presto - it works.

I find it astonishing that in 2008, Windows on its own can't burn a music CD and keep track names intact.

[Bounty_Bam]

Nero Smartstart 6-8

works fine for me!

[PsychoChimp]

As Funkstar said, try Burrrn

Great program, can burn pretty much anything you throw at it and is lightweight.

Plus keeps all CD TEXT, tags etc. intact when I use it.

Chimp

[00mike000]

nero is my choice