MP3 playback problem (cd is destroyed?)

[eagle_systems]

Help please! I bought a new AM/FM/CD/MP3 player for my car. Actually, I have put in 3 units so far with repeated problems. The problems have to do with playback. I started with the AIWA deck. I burned a CD on my PC with about 170 mp3 files. Initially, the cd played fine - for about 20 minutes. Then it started "skipping" and "cracking" on tracks; even tracks it had already played just fine. So, I blamed the unit and exchanged it at Best Buy for another of the same model. This one too had the same problem. Of course, by this time, I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the CD I burned so I burned a 2nd one. This one played for about 10 minutes before skipping started but once it started there was no way around it. This 2nd CD I burned was also done on a different PC/cd-writer. And I used different CD media this time too - TDK audio CD. So, I went back to Best Buy and *****ed and moaned and returned the AIWA deck in favor of a the new Sony MP3 car unit. This unit did not play either of the CD's I originally burned (which was weird and made me wonder about the cd media), so I burned another. It played this 3rd CD fine; for about 2 days. Then, it too started to have skipping and cracking problems. Now I'm really perplexed. Is the MP3 playback technology so new that I should avoid it at this time? Or am I doing something wrong? Finally, I tried to playback the CD's (all three that developed skips in the car unit) on my PC. They would not play. This made me wonder if that was the case all along. So I burned a 4th CD on the cd-writer my son uses successfully all the time (believe me, if it wasn't working, he'd have let me know immediately). I was then able to play back this 4th CD which contained 180 MP3's on each of several office PC's so the burn was GOOD. When I put it in my car unit it played fine; for about 30 minutes. Then the same **** started. When I put this 4th CD back in the PC (any PC), it doesn't play correctly. Either skips or doesn't play at all. Summary: the car units (3 different units) seem to be destroying CD-R's burned with MP3's. Further testing proved that this is not a problem with CD-R's that I burn in traditional audio format (no MP3). Final note: the songs with the most problems are the low numbered tracks (1-65). These are consistently the "damaged" or problem tracks (but not at first). The higher numbered tracks (66-180) don't have this problem (or it is minimal). Maybe they will but it might take longer to do damage. I am an my wits end and ready to forget MP3 in my car for now. Does anyone have any idea where the blame is here??

[muno]

Just out of curiosity; does the deck play normal audio cds? Does it play cdrw's that have mp3 in them. And did you burn the mp3s in root or in folders?
-M

[DanU]

My RioVolt, a portable MP3/WMA/CD player, has no such problems. I've had it for a few weeks now.

I doubt it's the players themselves that are damaging the CDs, since they use the same mechanisms as CDROM drives. Perhaps the automotive envorinment is detrimental to CD-R media. Is it sunny where you live? Do you leave the CDs in the car? Does the player get hot due being near any hot car parts? My guess is that maybe the heat is somehow degrading the CDs. You won't notice it with audio CDs since they tend to be more robust.

[eagle_systems]

Yes, the player plays normal audio cd's regardless of whether they are commercial or if I burn them myself. It matters not whether the media id CD-R or CD-RW. Problem is related to MP3 files, not regular audio and as I mentioned, the earlier tracks get the most damaged. This is just too spooky since I can play them fine in several PC's. I'm in Maryland, so it's not really hot here or anything. Also, the cd's do come out of the player "warm" but I believe that is normal. I had a different Sony car cd player for 6 years and it always gets warm (not hot) so I think that is very normal.