Ok - Does anyone know if you need to do anything special with MP3 cds for the decks to read them?

For example, do all the mp3s have to be in the root folder, do you need to have a playlist saved on the cd, do the mp3s need to have their ID3 tags filled out, etc?

I've got about 40 gigs of mp3s (Not downloaded BTW - I ripped my entire CD collection to my PC (took forever)) waiting to be cooked onto CDs for my future MP3 deck, but I want to know if I need to do anything special to them for the deck to read the cds...

I'd hate to burn them all to disc and then find out that the deck won't read them due to some dumb reason I could have avoided.

Anyone help me out?

 

This is all dependent on the deck you get. On my Kenwood MP8017 you can put all the files in the root directory or you can make folders and put them there. As for the ID3 tag, I would recommend that you have it filled out because MY deck will read them and display that instead of the filename. Some people have had problems with this and thus did not like the deck however I have not had these troubles. I would wait to burn as your MP3 deck may be different.

 

I have the Rockford Fosgate RFX9000. I like the look of the unit, it fits well in the P5's interior. However, I was one of those people who could not wait and purchased it through the internet. Big mistake... it gives me problems from time to time and the place I purchased it from is not an authorized dealer. So that means no warranty. I purchased it from audiowarehouseexpress.com. With that said I will not be purchasing another Rockford to replace the unit, it will probably be the JVC or the Pioneer Premier that was just released. The Pioneer has a nice graphical interface and is XM radio ready as well. We cannot get XM radio here in Canada yet... no idea why.

Now to your question. You should not have to do anything special what so ever with the MP3 disks. In fact most of the units will let you go 8 levels deep if you want to. I organized the folders by band, so it is easy to go through the music. The Rockford, and I think others as well have a search engine, so you can enter the first few characters that you are looking for, and find all the matching files (very cool feature). Another feature that some units have (I believe the Pioneer) is that you can have MP3 files and regular music files on the same disk. Most of the MP3 players will also read rewritable disks as well, so you do not have to burn a permanent disk.

I noticed that you are from Edmonton. You can purchase the JVC at Double Diamond for about 450.00, which is a decent price IMO. I should have went with this unit in the first place. Although the new pioneer has a very cool looking graphical face

 

In my case the deck (Kenwood Z919) does not read the tags are REQUIRES a true ISO9660 format for the filenames. It does not support the Joliet MS extensions on 9660 so the names can be up to 30 chars but can not contain spaces, etc. At least I can keep things in folders that show up as individual albums on the player... makes life a little easier. The lack of ID tags sucks, but having the player since they were first released was worth it.

The good thing for me is that the burner does some name conversion for me so it is not too painful to make discs for the car... as Azrakain said, you might want to wait and see what you individual player will and will not support.

Now for the sucky part... my 20GB collection (yes, I burned it from my own CDs) went poof two days ago when I managed to "oops" whilst logged in as admin on the server... doh! Now I am getting a DVD writer for backups!