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TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play?
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Subject: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JennieG Date: 29 Jul 02 - 05:55 AM I have a CD that plays on 2 of the 3 CD players in this house but the third one won't even read it - the display comes up "no CD" while I can see it merrily spinning around. My son tells me that one of his CD's won't play on his car player but will on the others. Why is this? Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:06 AM Argh! Why do people insist on putting an apostrophe into CDs? You don't write: record's or tape's so why CD's |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: greg stephens Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:06 AM I dont understand technicalities, but I believe it is because all machines have little gremlins living in them. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: greg stephens Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:10 AM Cant beet a bit of spelling; inaccurate punctuation etc to get the old GUEST addrenalin flowing can u? |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JennieG Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:15 AM Perhaps GUEST is really Apostrophe Man in disguise? I am with you on the gremlins Greg. This is a new CD too so it hasn't had the bejeesus played out of it. Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Bullfrog Jones Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:19 AM Shouldn't there be two 'r's in Arrgh! Or is it three? BJ |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:21 AM Jennie, No offence was intended toward you. A quick google search shows that about 10% of references to CDs are spelt as CD's. Regarding your inital question, it's to do with the accuracy of the laser alignment in the player. Some are better than others. I don't have any solutions, but found that hitting one player of mine, that misbehaved in this manner, worked. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JennieG Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:37 AM GUEST, no offence taken. Did you hit the player while it was playing a CD or when it was empty? And why does it do this on only one CD not every one I play? I don't like the idea of whacking my JVC and it has been fine up till now - it's nearly 3 years old, still a toddler. Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,greg stephens Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:40 AM I regret to say I can't find any technical errors in that last posting of GUEST's, but I can't help noticing a certain awkwardness in that last parenthetical phrase ",that misbehaved in this manner,". I think there are other places in the sentence that that information could have been placed more felicitously. But, not to be carping, I have to say the spacing between paragraphs is very easy on the eye and does make for a more comprehensible read. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: kendall Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:05 AM Where I come from, spelt is a type of bread. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Bullfrog Jones Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:25 AM Actually, I think JennieG got us off to a bad start with the thread title. Surely it should be 'Why do CDs sometimes not play'. ;-} BJ |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:27 AM CD's or CDs ? Obviously you wouldn't write "compact disc's" but I would contend that historical rules of grammar do not apply to abbreviations. In earlier and simpler times people did not have a multiplicity of two-letter acronyms to deal with, and thus the question did not arise. Nowadays, in the high-tech environment, we hawe have to contend with not only with CD's, but PM's and IM's, all of which look much more natural in the plural when embellished with an apostrophe. So, for my part, while I am well aware of the arguments to the contrary, I will continue to write "CD's," while continuing to be just as pedantic as before whenever I see "it's" when it should be "its". Murray |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Brakn Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:31 AM Give the disc a wipe with a tea towel. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JennieG Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:37 AM CD or not CD - that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outraged guests....... But can I do anything about the compact disc that won't play in all players? Can I spin it around my head and say magic words that will make it play in my player, or do I just accept the fact that shit happens? Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,greg stephens Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:45 AM banjos, banjo's or banjoes? I favour the latter but they all look a bit funny. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:50 AM I would go the classical route, and make the plural be "banjoi" Murray |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JennieG Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:59 AM But why should we ban joy? There is little enough joy in the world as it is. Next thing we know they will be banning guitar players. Joy to the world etc....... Cheers (it's only coffe, I promise, but by heck it's strong) JennieG |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,forty two Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:22 AM The pick up head is dirty on the player. This happened to me the other day. I got the whole shebang cleaned for £15 (rip off?) and it works fine now. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Barbara Shaw Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:43 AM I've been told that burned CDs do not work on older CD players, but CDs produced professionally should play on both old and new players. This came up because our ShoreGrass CD was produced by myself on a CD burner. Someone returned it to the store as defective, but the next one was also "defective." They discovered that it played fine on their newer CD player. Don't know why, but know that it happens. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Justa Picker Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:37 AM Another possibility. The newer CD units, including some that are installed in cars, sometimes refuse to play burnt copies...and will only play store bought originals. The files or tracks end with the extension "cda" (for CD Audio). Some burning software creates files with extensions called "wav" files. These are the culprits that don't always play on newer units, and when you do try to play these, you get skipping and random jumping of the tracks. To get around this you need a program like Roxio's Easy CD Creator (latest verion). Easy CD Creator will create the requisite "cda" files so that just about anything copied using this program will play on almost any unit. It's also a good idea to have a program that can convert "cda" files to "wav" files, for copying to the hardrive such as CDH's Media Wizard. Then, when Roxio burns the copied wav files to CD, it will automatically convert them back to "cda" files for the finished, copied CD. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: IvanB Date: 29 Jul 02 - 12:39 PM Just to add to the pluralization thread drift - the Style Manual of The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, lists one of the uses of the apostrophe: "4. Indicates the plurals of figures. letters, or words used as such." CD doesn't appear in the dictionary, but CB (for Citizens band) does, and the plural is shown as CB's. Actually, I was taught this as the proper style for pluralizing abbreviations when I was in grade school 50 years ago. I'm a nut on improper use of commas and apostrophes as well (modern style seems to be to throw them at random at your text, and wherever they land is fine), but proper usage shouldn't be criticized. And, to make a stab at answering the query posed in the thread title, all of the above are correct. Another cause can be the color of the substrate. Some older players will work just fine with certain substrate colors but choke on others. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,Ed Date: 29 Jul 02 - 01:35 PM Ivan, Does the The American Heritage Dictionary use CBs or C.B.'s (the second of which would be correct)? This page quotes from a number of style manuals:
The Chicago Manual of Style
MLA [Modern Language Association] Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Turabian 'Manual for Writers'
The Gregg Reference Manual
European Commission Translation Service. English Style Guide Ed |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Barbara Shaw Date: 29 Jul 02 - 03:09 PM Actually, I used Easy CD Creator, and my burned CDs are in CDA format. They do not work on some older CD players but work fine on newer ones. Have not found out (yet) why this is, but it is. |
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Subject: RE: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,ET Date: 29 Jul 02 - 03:28 PM My brother used to work for Radio Shack fixing the things and he said that too much light shining into the mechanism may be the glitch. (One of those "impossible to find" faults because it isn't actually in the mechanism.) ET |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Grab Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:08 PM Jaysus! Enough on the flaming apostrophes! Reasons not to be cheerful about CDs and their players:- The lens for the laser can get dirty or scratched. A dirty lens can be cleaned. A scratched lens is dead. The lens assembly (the bit that shines the laser) moves around somewhat like the arm of a record to follow the "grooves". But the "grooves" on a CD are much finer than a record, so it has to be very accurate. Eventually something will go wrong - maybe the player will get bashed, or the motors or track will wear out and the lens will no longer follow the CD properly. End of story for the player. Some CDs seem to be easier for player to follow than others, so you'll usually find on a nearly-dead player that it'll play all except one or two, then more and more will refuse to play, until you finally give up and chuck the thing away. The CD(s) could be dirty. CDs have error-correction built in which can take care of the occasional scratch/bit of dirt/hair on the CD, but if there's just too much then it won't play, or it'll play but skip spectacularly in place. Some players have better lenses, more powerful lasers or better software which can deal with this and recover better from problems like this. The CD is a CD-R or a CD-RW. CD-Rs don't reflect light as well as a standard off-the-shelf CD, and CD-RWs even less so. Older players had weaker lasers which were designed to work with normal CDs, but no-one had thought about other types of CD, so they just don't shine enough light on the disk to get a CD-R to work. All modern players should work with CD-Rs, although I suspect the lower reflection off the disk will make any problems with dirt on the CD worse. That's the common problems I can think of anyway. Graham. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 29 Jul 02 - 06:58 PM GUEST ED, the examples you give, albeit apparently hallowed by the American Heritage Dictionary, are simply opinions. Maybe the opinions of a committee. More probably, the opinions of one person. But opinions nonetheless. I am afraid that "PhDs", without an apostrophe, "IOUs", without an apostrophe, and "SOSs", without an apostrophe, hit me in the face as being blindingly wrong. Sorry, but in matters of opinion such as this, I will continue to trust my instincts. Murray
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,greg stephens Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:04 PM I'm with you, Murray. Those committees judge what's right for their clientele.Dont know about America, but there's no National Academy or anything in Engkand to rule on these things. Words mean what we collectively decide they mean. Punctuation is as we decide.(With the exception of the meaning of "folk". It would be lot better if everyone agreed with me on that one). |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:28 PM Aah, "folk". I've been wondering about that myself recently, greg. What does it mean, exactly ? Murray |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Bullfrog Jones Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:28 PM Whatever it is, it's NOT Neil Young! BJ |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Joe_F Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:09 PM I had this trouble with a CD I bought from Margaret Macarthur. My computer would play it; my CD player would play every other CD I had, but not that one, nor the second copy of it that I bought: it would play it for a while, and then start skipping or give up altogether. At last, a hifiddledy friend of mine explained: Folkies try to jam as many songs on one CD as they can; they do that by decreasing the pitch, which is taxing to whatever magical feedback loop it is that keeps the laser beam on track, and so such CDs cannot be played reliably except on the most modern players. He gave me a new player, and that did the job. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:29 PM When this has happened to me, most times I have found that sticking on one of those CD lens cleaning discs for a minute sorts in out OK. They only cost a quid or so. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JennieG Date: 30 Jul 02 - 03:39 AM I will try McGrath of Harlow's suggestion and get one of those CD lens cleaning thingies. The CD is brand new, it arrived yesterday, and the player is 3 years old. I don't know the details of the CD's (note correct use of apostrophe) manufacture but I can ask. The player is in a sunny room near the window - could that be the source of too much light? I am getting a blind on that window soon. Thank you, one and all, for the helpful advice and the free entertainment. Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: rich-joy Date: 11 Apr 04 - 01:39 AM I've just changed over from PC to iMac and have tried burning some copies of my CDs, using both iTunes and Toast. Now while the resultant burns will play in the iMac AND the PC AND my 10 year old portable beatbox CD player, they will NOT play on my 2+ year old expensive SONY system!!! However, I have played plenty of other burnt CDs on the SONY in the past, with no problem, but it won't recognise the iMac burnt CD-Rs. Anyone have any clues about what I can do???!!! Cheers! (and Thanks in advance) R-J |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 11 Apr 04 - 01:45 AM hamster's. john |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST Date: 11 Apr 04 - 02:44 AM Extenuating circumstances coerce me to preclude all of you from such a bauble of extravagance! |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,Anne Croucher Date: 12 Apr 04 - 12:35 AM I blame all those wave thingies coming in from outer space - put your cd player near the window and you're asking for all sorts of trouble and maybe secret messages beamed directly to your brain. Keep CD players in a cool dark place where the satellites can't see them, and they last a lot longer and you don't get weird messages about apostrophies bouncing around the rooms. Mmm - I might be getting too old to stay up all night for no reason but to see the dawn, 5:30 might be pushing the limits. Anne |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Amos Date: 12 Apr 04 - 08:09 AM Rich Joy: Are you using Toast software to burn these CDs? If so you must be sure to burn them as audio CDs, not as data CDs. Otherwise it is hit or miss where they will play. commercial CD players and computer CD players read different data structres. A |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,MMario Date: 12 Apr 04 - 08:19 AM when all is said and done - it comes back to the gremlins. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Shanghaiceltic Date: 12 Apr 04 - 10:54 AM I have had this touble with both audio and video CD's. Two possible solutions. 1. It is something to do with an encoding file on the CD which tells the CD player where it comes from. We bought a very cheap CD player here in China and it plays all the knock off video and audio CD's. However the more expensive CD player in my PC is a bit more discerning and can tell which is a knock off and refuses to play them. Sometimes if you have burnt a CD then this file gets stuffed up or is missing. 2. Wipe the disc clean using soft tissue. This sometimes works as a fingure smudge or scratch can confuse the set up for the disc. Some players are more sensative to mucky discs. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: wysiwyg Date: 12 Apr 04 - 12:30 PM I have been a professional proofreader and copy-editor. The real rule is that however the author of a piece may write, the priority is to make the style choices consistent throughout the piece, and also to follow the House Style of your particular publisher--- how your boss wants things to appear. So you make a choice: CDs or CD's, and then ensure it's the same all the way throughout the piece-- CDs and PMs, or CD's and PM's, but NOT CD's and PMs. House Style varies from place to place, and may be based on a rule of grammar or a boss's preference. Bible citations are an easy example-- you would either spell out or abbreviate the books of the Bible (which set of approved abbrv's?), and either put the sentence's punctuation before or after the citation, and either italicize or bold the citation, and so forth. Also, there would be House Style conventions for capitalizing He, Him, Who (etc.) when referring to the deity, or not. Clarity and readability are the goal for good publishers, not pedantry. This is merely Mudcat, where doing as one pleases is kinda one of the main points! ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Amos Date: 12 Apr 04 - 12:37 PM That's not thread drift, it's a pole-vault! A |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Art Thieme Date: 12 Apr 04 - 01:26 PM In my experience it is the homemade CDs that won't play on certain players. My cheap boombox plays anything I have but my component Admiral CD player won't. That was a cheap player too. Maybe it's still the old situation--- 'you get what you pay for'. As for the apostraphe----: It could be the posessive 's that we're talkin' 'bout.-------- It was the CD's faults we were considering---the faults of the CD---the faults the CD had inherent in it's being. As far a banjo's go: If Banjo Patterson actually was the author of "Waltzing Matilda", well, then it would be "HIS" song--to own and/or keep and posess. Therefore it would be Banjo's song. If we are talking about a banjo head, then the head would belong on that banjo and it would be "that banjo's head". The same goes the banjo's gears, the banjo's frets, the banjo's brackets or the banjo's sound. That last one would be there even though you can't see it. Yo could hear it though. Arthur Thieme |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GUEST,MMario Date: 12 Apr 04 - 01:47 PM I've run across the odd commercial CD that won't play on my computer - and the occasional one that won't play in my car. Have on that will only play on the DVD player of my b-i-l's computer. we've tried it on eight or nine other CD players and a couple DVD players - it doesn't work on any of them. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: PennyBlack Date: 12 Apr 04 - 01:55 PM Sometimes the problem is caused by a build up of lubricant on the "arm" the laser head runs on, this stops the laser reading the table of contents which is held at the centre of the CD - cleaning this arm can often solve the problem (I've had an 80% success rate) If it only happens with CDRs try changing the brands you use or recording at a slower speed (1 to 1 is always best for Audio and Video) Handle with care! |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 12 Apr 04 - 02:04 PM When I got my PC from Dell, I got all the sound-cd-speaker bells and whistles. At the same time, I was getting the BBC magazine, which includes a cd with both music and cd-rom information with each issue. They would not play on my PC. The Dell technicians couldn't help. I still don't know what is in the cd-rom portions of the recordings, but the music tracks play on any old cd-player. My daughter bought a Mac, and can't use my PC burnings of family pictures because I used write-protect. She is going to re-copy mine, but also said that a technician told her to use only Verbatim discs if recordings from a PC are to be used on a Mac. |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GLoux Date: 12 Apr 04 - 03:43 PM Does anal retentive have a hyphen? (my favorite t-shirt phrase) Could the CD that doesn't play have more than 72 minutes of music on it? "Newer" CDs can hold up to 80 minutes, but many players can't handle them. I once burned a CD with 75 minutes of material on it and most of the CD players I have access to wouldn't work with it. -Greg |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JohnInKansas Date: 12 Apr 04 - 03:59 PM Not too long ago (ca. 2 - 3 years?) there was much discussion in the PC magazines and on various tech sites about the difficulty of matching CD blanks to the various brands and styles of burners. While not much was accomplshed in the way of sorting out why it made a difference, it was generally agreed that once you found a particular brand of blanks that worked in your burner you should stick with it. At that time, there were some "proprietary" variations between several of the major makers' burners, and lots of problems were reported. People did seem to have more trouble with the cheap bulk disks than with the "major" brands like Verbatim and Maxell. (Names that come to mind, not to slight others.) People also tried to relate "best brands" to particular burner programs. I can't say whether burners and/or blanks have been improved so that matching them up is less of a problem now, but there is much less discussion in those sources. Labels are another source of occasional problems. Some players are very sensitive to an "unbalanced" disk, and even a label screen printed on a commercial disk will sometimes make it "unplayable" in those particular devices. Needless to say, an off-center paper disk isn't going to perform well in such machines. Some portable and mobile (vehicle) players use a "damper pad" that usually consists of a small felt button (or two) that rides the outer edge of the disk to keep it from bouncing around. A rough screen print label can prevent the disk from rotating at uniform speed if it "snags" on the damper button. An off-center paper label, or one that simply extends too close to the edge of the disk, can cause problems in such players. While the paper labels that run right out to the edge of the disk may be "prettier," a clear rim of at least 5/32" or so would likely give more reliable play in such machines. Unfortunately, "customer demand" has driven the useful ones off the market and only the "pretty ones" seem to be readily available in my area. John |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: GLoux Date: 12 Apr 04 - 04:17 PM Does anal retentive have a hyphen? (my favorite t-shirt phrase) Could the CD that doesn't play have more than 72 minutes of music on it? "Newer" CDs can hold up to 80 minutes, but many players can't handle them. I once burned a CD with 75 minutes of material on it and most of the CD players I have access to wouldn't work with it. -Greg |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: JohnInKansas Date: 12 Apr 04 - 05:02 PM GLoux - SWMBO advises: "He is anal retentive." No hyphen "He is an anal-retentive jerk." Hypen Is your shirt hand made too? John |
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Subject: RE: TECH: Why don't CD's sometimes play? From: wysiwyg Date: 12 Apr 04 - 05:13 PM The hyphen is used when a phrase is being turned into an adjective. :~) ~S~ |
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