Canadian CD - Benzworld.org

04-26-2002, 06:28 AM

I bought a CD in Montreal over the weekend and it played fine in my friends Lexus on the way home, I put it in my 98 SLK 230 and it won't play, I tried every slot and it just won't play. Presumably because it's foreign. My question is if I have someone burn it onto a blank CD, will it then work? Any suggestions? Doug

04-26-2002, 07:47 AM

I have a burner that works fine in my SLK, Miata, and VW, however it does not work in my friends Ford Contour. He has even returned a couple of burners, because they won't work in his car. There is apparently not one standard for burners that will work in all players. Unless you want to get into the technical specs of the burner and then the player, trial and error is the best and quickest way.

04-26-2002, 07:49 AM

The record industry is trying to put the kybosh on MP3 copying by creating copy proof CDs. The response in Europe (where these CDs were test marketed) was overwhelming bad! The unfortunate byproduct is that these new CDs will work in some CD players and not in others. This is true of car players, home players, portables and computers. My CD changer plays 'burnt' CDRs, so you might want to try to copy this CD...if you can copy it, we can assume that it is not copy proof and that there is another problem with the original playing in your stereo. What CD is it? Is it a new release? Khobalt. Here is an article from the AP: WASHINGTON (AP) -- If you're looking for a CD called ``More Music from 'The Fast and the Furious''' on any of the post-Napster Internet sharing services, you're out of luck. This is the album the music industry has decided to make sure is copy-proof. Music publishers are taking away the ability to make personal copies of a CD for car stereos or portable MP3 music players, because they're tired of seeing their titles shared for free on the Internet. But the road thus far has been pocked with problems. Far from the latest Britney Spears release, the obscurity of the ``Fast and the Furious'' soundtrack shows how careful music publishers are in introducing technology that may eventually be on all major-label music CDs. Krista Gariano, a spokeswoman for Universal Music Group, which published the soundtrack, wouldn't say how the copy protection works. Specifically, she refused to divulge whether the CD can be played on a computer's CD-ROM drive -- some copy protection technologies work by making CD-ROM play impossible -- or would just deter copying. Gariano said the CD case would carry a copy protection sticker and an insert explaining the technology. Record stores will accept returns, even if the CD case is opened, if buyers are unhappy with it. The major labels' first protected music CD will be on the market in December. Many consumers who have tried copy-protected CDs, usually unwittingly, have been angered by the results. Bertlesmann Music Group set up a hot line in Britain two weeks ago because Natalie Imbruglia's new release, ``White Lilies Island,'' wouldn't play on many computer CD-ROM and DVD players. ``These devices were never designed for copy protection, and retrofitting it is causing all sorts of problems,'' said Julian Midgley of the U.K. Campaign for Digital Rights, which opposes the technology. The major music labels have been testing the technology in Europe, where the sale of pirated CDs is rampant. Most releases have been secret, with no disclosure to buyers. In the United States, representatives of Warner Music Group, Sony and Bertlesmann said they have released a handful of copy-protected CDs in Europe and used the technology on promotional CDs sent to radio stations and record stores. An independent label this year released the first copy-protected CD in the United States, from country artist Charley Pride. Several companies make competing copy-protection technologies, which are being tested by the recording companies. Marjie Hadad of Midbar Tech, an Israeli firm, said her company has signed deals with three of the five major recording labels and has had discussions with the other two. Midbar's Noam Zur called copy-protection critics a fringe group that probably are pirates themselves. ``Mainly those people have a large number of compilations on their PCs,'' Zur said. Midbar's technology protected the Imbruglia CD. Zur dismissed customer complaints and said the CD works on most players. The labels are also trying out SafeAudio, from TTR Technologies, also of Israel. A CD with SafeAudio can be played on a computer, but if a user tries to copy them, popping and clicking sounds occur on the copy. TTR executive Emanuel Kronitz defended the technology to protect copyrighted music. ``When the labels and musicians are losing so much money, they have to do something,'' he said. Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Internet civil liberties group Electronic Freedom Foundation, disagreed. ``This is not about piracy; this is about controlling consumer behavior,'' Von Lohmann said. No one knows whether consumers will care when they see a newly bought CD can't be copied. Digital music market analyst Lee Black of the research firm Webnoize said most people who listen to music on their computers, usually as MP3 files, aren't buying CDs anyway. ``The majority of people who buy CDs aren't these highly technical people,'' Black said. ``If you want to get MP3s, you'd probably just download them somewhere else.'' Black suggested that the record labels hope the technology will force digital music lovers to buy tracks online. The companies are prepared to launch two competing online music Web sites, MusicNet and pressplay. Music from those services can't be copied on a computer or to a portable music player. Von Lohmann, who said he makes copies of CDs for his own use, said he hopes customers will vote with their pocketbooks. ``I own upwards of 800 CDs, but it seems like they're on a crusade against me,'' he said. ``It's a strange development when you seem to be hellbent on alienating your best customers.''

04-26-2002, 08:28 AM

I think it's called millenium 2002, its a bunch of club hits, DJ Marale sp. So if I burn that canadian CD onto a regular blank CD that I bought at lets say Circuit City, it should work?

04-26-2002, 09:03 AM

04-26-2002, 09:16 AM

It's not the burner. It's the CD-R media, as well as the player playing them. Some players does not have the proper laser wavelength to get a reflection off a CD-R, therefore it won't play. It all depends on the CD player, some will play everything, some will play certain media, some won't play anything but silver CD's. 
 
Now, for the copy protection crap... several CD's I've purchased have this copy protection thing where it's designed so you can not rip it to MP3 on a computer by messing with the table of contents. A 'pure' CD player (only designed to play CD's) will ignore it and play the audio tracks fine. On a PC, a windows app pops up to play the tracks off the CD. To the mp3 ripper programs, it sees the CD as a data CD, therefore it can't read any tracks. These CD's can't be played on some DVD players, and some car CD players (especially car CD players that can use MP3's, Navigational discs etc). The problem is these players treat audio CD's like a computer disc, reading the TOC like a conventional PC drive to play audio. It sees the data track and can't do anything with it. 
 
With these copy protected CD's, to play them in our SLK (which obviously reads the CD's like a data CD), you have to rip them in a DVD-Rom (it's a flaw in the protection, DVD's can read the native audio tracks just fine!), then burn the audio tracks onto a CD-R as a properly formatted Audio CD. 
 
The copy protection sucks, my wife was really upset about it, we pay, we get punished... we have 4 CD's in our collection that's not used, and we use the CD-R copies instead. We haven't bought a CD for 2 months now. She uses Kaaza and makes her own CD's on her laptop. 
 
Also note that these copy protected CD's do not follow the proper CD format, so there's no Compact Disc logo on the cases (I think Dave from here pointed that out to me). Phillips, who created the CD standard, is quite pissed at manufacturers of these discs.

04-26-2002, 09:50 AM

04-26-2002, 09:51 AM

04-26-2002, 09:52 AM

I haven't seen a CD with the copy protection, but sounds like you can't even see the file list in a file manager program like Explorer (not Internet Explorer). If you can see the files in Explorer (usually in a .dat format), you should be able to copy it to the hard disk and modify it to a .wav format, then use some wav->mp3 conversion tool to convert to mp3.

04-26-2002, 10:05 AM

i think there is still a logo on the copy prot cds, but is slightly different. logo on a regular cd says 'compact disk' whereas the protected ones say 'compact disk digital audio'. Cheap trick IMO. I, for one, will not buy a protected cd. they don't get to tell me how I'm allowed to listen to something. Personally, I don't think it'll be long lived...