CompuServe Thread

#CD Audio

8 messages in this thread
#31007From: Linda BaldwinNov 15, 1992 11:49 AM
I'm going crazy. Originally, I could play audio cd's using Windows media player. The only problem was that I would get an error if I tried to start on track #1. So I got the bright idea of dnlding another audio program. I've tried CDAUDIO, WINCD, and CDPLAYER. CDAudio v 1.25 worked the same way..error from track 1. If I set it to another track before starting it, all was fine. Then I found the v 1.27 upgrade and thought that might be the fix. Well, that's when the crashes started. So like a dummy, I tried WinCD with occasional success, mostly failure. Then the same irratic behavior from CDPlayer. I've been fooling with this stuff for 6 hours straight. Can anybody help me? Could it be a problem with my CDROM? All non-audio disks run beautifully. Just got Street Atlas USA and everyone has had a blast playing with it. Thanks, Linda
#31035From: schoenadel marginot & coNov 15, 1992 9:36 PM
Some CD's I have (for my PC) have warnings on them that shout out Don't play Track 1! I have no idea why. Mark
#31086From: Linda BaldwinNov 16, 1992 5:38 PM
Schoenadel, I've tried out some shareware cd audio programs that just plain crashed on one of my cd's. It was one that the Windows cd audio would play ok as long as I didn't start it on track 1. Do your cd's really say not to play track 1 or have you just discovered that it doesn't work? I've only tested 3 cd's so far. I have some more at school that won't play on track 1 that I bet will cause the shareware programs to crash. Maybe those gurus will figure a way to fix it. Otherwise I think we should insist on some kind of standards, at least notification on the cover that they aren't computer compatible. How 'bout sending me the names of the manufacturers of the discs you have and whether or not they play track 1. I'll match that with mine and maybe we can come up with a list of makers to avoid. Try CDAUD.ZIP (I think in WINADV). It's a nice cataloging system, comes up when you start a CD giving title, author, tracks, and lets you rearrange the order in which they are played. Only problem is that I get an error when I change discs and have to abort the program. Have a message in to author about that. Linda
#31116From: Rich Bowers/OPANov 17, 1992 6:08 AM
Linda: I gues I've missed something. What is a >>shareware cd audio program<<? Are these sound effects or regular music? Can you share a title or two and their publishers? In several mixed media discs I know, the publisher puts computer data in track 1, and Red book audio in later tracks. The rule as I have understood it is never try to play track 1 of a CDROM on an audio player (because of potential damage to the audio system or speakers), but later tracks containing music were ok. Playing the CDROM through a pc shouldn't cause a problem either way. Rich Bowers
#31131From: Torsten DrosteNov 17, 1992 1:58 PM
Hi Rich, the definition for a mixed-mode disc is that it starts with data on track one and is followed by one or more audio tracks. If you play data on the speaker it's possible that the speaker will get damaged. Bye, Torsten
#31135From: Rich Bowers/OPANov 17, 1992 4:34 PM
Torsten Thanks for the clarification! That's what I thought. Rich
#31136From: Linda BaldwinNov 17, 1992 4:46 PM
Rich, I've latched onto Mark O'Brien's CDAudio (CDAUD.ZIP) because it lets me catalog the tracks, hence I have title and tracks in front of me when the cd starts, also can rearrange the order in which they are played. I have about 20 cd's of classical music and 3 of them return error messages (drive not ready) using Mark's software. These are plain ole audio cd's from a record store that all play just fine on boom box cd player. The ones that return errors are Strauss(RCA), Scott Joplin(RCA), and Great Overtures (Stemra-made in Holland). 5 out of the 6 Stemra discs work great, 2 out of 3 RCA's don't work on computer. The ones that return errors with Mark's software simply hang another shareware, WinCD. When I tried them with Windows audio app, they returned a drive not ready (or something like that) error. All this is certainly not a matter of life or death–I'm just curious as to what causes the problems and am tempted to avoid RCA labels in the future. Thanks, Linda
#31149From: Rich Bowers/OPANov 17, 1992 8:11 PM
Linda: Obviously Mark is the best source, but it does sound as if your problem is related to an anomaly on the discs. Perhaps something was damaged in the pressing, and a piece of data required by the software is missing or obscured. It might be interesting to see who pressed the disc. Usually the manufacturer presses its name around the center hub, in the shiny silver circle just inside the clear plastic. It would seem reasonable that the RCA discs would be made at the same place, what about the European one? Rich