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Thread ID: 47152 2004-07-17 12:30:00 Converting .wav files to play on a CD Steve_L (763) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
253016 2004-07-17 12:30:00 Today I converted a cassette tape that my wife recorded (of a music workshop that she gave) to .wav files on my PC, using Cool Edit Pro. I have not used Cool Edit for a couple of years and cannot get the conversion to .wma working. I am assuming that .wav files will not play on ordinary CD players (stereos), right? The .wav file must be converted to .wma files, correct?

Cool Edit does have a converter - under File / Batch Conversion. But try as I may, an error message keeps popping up - saying that another application is using the .wav file (but this is not true).

Is there a free converter around, perhaps on a PCWorld cover CD?

BTW, I tried to get into the PrF1 FAQs all day but the page will not download.
Steve_L (763)
253017 2004-07-17 13:10:00 Wave files are what will play in a standard CD player.
Therefore you can burn the files as they are, bear in mind some older CD players may have problems recognising a burnt CD, however this can be overcome by using disks with a silver data layer.
Some newer CD players will accept both CDR and CD - RW disks, also some will also accept files as .MP3 or WMA, however check the hardware specification 1st.
Exwesty (5639)
253018 2004-07-17 21:57:00 Thanks Exwesty. This is just what I need this Sunday morning: an nice easy answer! For some reason I thought that .wav files needed to be converted for ordinary use.

>>>using disks with a silver data layer.

Really? Never heard of this. I did know about older CD players/stereos not playing CDR/RW (my car CD player likes CDR but not CDRW) but not that a special type of disk / silver layer would make it OK. Where do we get these disks / what brand / cost?
Steve_L (763)
253019 2004-07-18 00:58:00 What threw me was to see .cda files on a commercial music CD, and to have .wav files on the HD. Are these two types of files equivalent in a way that allows most all stereos/CD players to read them? Steve_L (763)
253020 2004-07-18 01:10:00 > > using disks with a silver data layer.
>
> Really? Never heard of this. I did know about older
> CD players/stereos not playing CDR/RW (my car CD
> player likes CDR but not CDRW) but not that a special
> type of disk / silver layer would make it OK. Where
> do we get these disks / what brand / cost?


The problem is the refelctivity of the different dye colours used e.g. green. gold, blue etc. Have a look at this site (www.cdmediaworld.com) Steve, it will tell you the colours for different brands of CD-R. Go to the bottom of the first page for the link to dye colour information.

Cheers

Billy 8-{)
Billy T (70)
253021 2004-07-18 02:05:00 Thanks Billy . A very interesting site!

Going to a linked page
I find this info:

>>The gold-colored CD-R uses the PhthaloCyanine pigment and a gold reflection layer . As the pigment is transparent, the golden reflection layer shines through the bottom side giving the `golden' look . Compared to the other colored media, the reflection contrast of the golden medium is the highest and the durability of such CD-R's is said to be over 100 years . As the golden medium's reflective property is the highest, if your friends or customers have problems reading data from any other burnt media, try using the gold medium CD-R .

>>The green CD-R, the cheapest of the three, uses the Cyanine pigment . By itself, the pigment is blue in color, but together with the gold reflective layer, the bottom appears green . However, cyanine's ability to maintain reflectivity is poor giving it a life span of about 10 years . It also delivers the weakest reflection contrasts and thus can cause read errors when run on old CD-ROM drives . Lately cyanine formula has been altered which results in a much higher life span (20 to 50 years) . The gold reflection layer has also been replaced by a silver reflection layer this make the color of the bottom appear blue .

Well, I have waded through the info but I am not too sure if I have it right . . . . . . . by saying that here in NZ, a good bet for good quality CDs are TDKs, probably also Kodak (but have not seen any good prices on Kodak CDs) . It is not clear to me which CDs in NZ have a SILVER reflective layer and if (as was stated above) that Silver will play CD-RW better in older CD players . ?:|

Cheers, Steve
Steve_L (763)
253022 2004-07-18 02:07:00 The URL for the dye colour info given above is

www.cdmediaworld.com
Steve_L (763)
253023 2004-08-06 22:03:00 I have what used to be a top line Sony DVD player that despite the manual saying it won't support CDR or CDRW, i managed to get it to read some music disks that I compilied.
These were NEC 650Mb disks and I only ever found one packet of them, no other disks I have bought since, eg Transonic, TDK, Verbatim etc have ever worked.
The only difference is that the NEC disks were silver, my only mistake was that i used most for data backups before I discovered that my player would accept them.

Of course now you can buy a DVD player for about a 1/10 of the cost and it will support MP3 & Jpg etc and read off just about any brand.
Exwesty (5639)
253024 2004-08-06 22:06:00 I have what used to be a top line Sony DVD player that despite the manual saying it won't support CDR or CDRW, i managed to get it to read some music disks that I compilied.
These were NEC 650Mb disks and I only ever found one packet of them, no other disks I have bought since, eg Transonic, TDK, Verbatim etc have ever worked.
The only difference is that the NEC disks were silver, my only mistake was that i used most for data backups before I discovered that my player would accept them.

Of course now you can buy a DVD player for about a 1/10 of the cost and it will support MP3 & Jpg etc and read off just about any brand.
Exwesty (5639)
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