CD Burning Tips

There are many issues that can cause a burn to go wrong, but there are also many things you can do to avoid some of the most common problems. Below are suggestions for helping you create a perfect disc every time.

Use high-quality, name brand discs. These discs are usually less flawed and have a higher success rate than no-name, cheaper discs.
Ensure that media (especially re-writable media) is clean and free of any scratches before attempting a burn. Frequent handling of discs can cause scratches and dirt to accumulate on the disc surface. Scratches and dust will cause a burn to fail.
Do not attempt to run a large number of applications during a burn. Depending on the speed and memory availability of your machine, running many applications can cause data to be lost during the burning process.
If you are having trouble playing Audio CDs burned with RealOne Player in your CD player, try lowering your Write Speed (in CD Burning Preferences) to help reduce buffer underrun issues. Even drives with buffer underrun protection do not stop buffer underruns from occurring but only avoid failure during a burn by linking information across small gaps on the disc. If too many buffer underruns occur, the disc may become unreadable to a standard CD player.
Purchase the proper discs for your drive; make sure the media is rated for your drive speed. Most lower speed drives do not write well to newer, high speed media even though the high speed media states it is also rated for lower speeds (such as 4x).
Store your discs appropriately. Do not store discs in a bright or hot environment. Heat and ultra-violet light, from direct sunlight or high-intensity florescent bulbs, are detrimental to the dye used in discs.
If your MP3 player cannot play files burned to disc properly, and the original source files in My Library are MP3, try converting them to RealAudio and then burning them to an MP3 CD.
Not all MP3 players can play multi-session CD’s. Please check your player’s specifications prior to making a multi-session disc. Finalizing (by unchecking "Create Multi-session disc." in the Options dialog) your disc should allow it to work in your player.
If some tracks will not fit on the CD, try re-ordering the list of tracks. Space on the disc is determined from the top of the added files list, down. Re-order tracks by dragging them into new orders or use the Edit menu to move tracks up or down in the list.
To burn the same CD multiple times, first create a playlist in My Library of the songs, and burn the disc from the playlist by clicking Copy To... (and selecting Burn CD) in the Command bar. After the burn has completed, burn the playlist again.
If you continually get errors while burning, and you are using quality media that is appropriate for your drive (see above) try reducing your write speed in Drive Options.

CD Burning Tips

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