BOSE (OEM) not playing some homemade mp3's
 

I've encountered this problem for a while and I am not sure exactly where the issue is. Is it the Bose player? The CD-R, the computer?

I typically make my own mp3 playlist for the car. For ones with the Bose OEM, you know it takes 6 disc and I usually keep them all full.

I have a particular disc with 147 songs on it but every time I burn it, the Bose says "not readable".

I burn from iTunes on a Mac computer. I just bought a new Mac but I was having this problem occasionally on my older Mac as well. So, I want to think it's not the computer.

Now, some of the mp3's I burn, using the same brand of disc, play just fine, and some don't. I can't determine why some do and some don't. The only thing different would be maybe the number of songs, and the actual songs.
All the songs are mp3's. The computer reads the disc before burning it and notifies you if there are different formats, so that's not it.

Is anyone aware of an issue with the Bose systems and their reluctance to read some mp3's?
PS: The same disc that won't play in the car, ARE still playable on the computer.
Thanks in advance.

Have you try playing the same disc in another car or a regular CD/DVD player capable of playing CD-R?

Actually, I have not, only on my computer and in my car. I am going to try it in a friends car shortly when he gets home from work. I will update.

I had this same problem. I burned what I thought were MP3 CD's through windows media player. I found out that the default is set to burn WPL. You go to Burn, More Options... , click the Burn tab, and under the Data Discs section there is a small drop down menu with WPL and M3U (you want to select M3U) and burn your selection. This is what worked for me, if you're using some other program than I'm sorry to waste your time ... but I hope this helps man. Good luck.

Try using windows to burn the CD. Open a window by double clicking your D: drive or whatever drive you use to burn. Drag all the MP3s in that window, click FILE and "Write these files to CD." This always works for me.

I wasn't aware that the stock Bose played MP3's... Was it a 05+ thing?

I believe so. I know that 03-04 doesn't.

possible that you got a unit that doesnt read mp3?
I know you have an 05 but they may have used some left over parts for the construction of the 05? :dunno:

It may be the cd quality as well as i've found sometimes my Bose takes a few mins to read a burned CD and begin playing.

I haven't tried to play MP3 cd's yet. I bought the OEM Ipod kit and will use that instead

I've not had any problems with my car playing my MP3 discs and they are discs from many different manufacturers. I remember looking in the owners manual when I made mine and it has a section laying out what the stereo will read and what it won't dealing with bit rates and folders and such. I would take a look at it and make sure you don't have an incompatible number of folders or maybe file names that can't be read. You mentioned that you are using the same brand discs with different results so I would just naturally assume that the problem would be in the way the files are being written. Also make sure the disc doesn't have any other files on them that aren't mp3's. Hope this helps and maybe I'll see you some day at a stoplight (I live just outside Charlotte).

blazeplacid, it does play mp3's, just not all the ones I burn. It picks & chooses it seems. I burned a 25 song mp3 today as a test and it worked fine. And mustang5L5, you are right, it does take them a while to read the CD's, but some of the ones will say "unreadable" and others will simply start playing. They are all burned the same way. Still a mystery for now but I plan to test the "unreadable" CD's in other cars soon to see if it's actually the CD or the player.

t600, you may be on to something there. When I throw 150 songs into a file to be burned, it's possible one of them isn't compatible with the Bose player somehow and iTunes doesn't know that. When you click the "burn" button in iTunes, a window comes up and lets you select the type of disc to be burned whether it be mp3 or audio. So, I click mp3 and then iTunes scans the folder of songs and usually it will convert any "non" mp3's but still, maybe the problem is in the conversion process.
Hey, that's cool you live in my area. I've wondered if I was the only G driver around here on these boards.....

make sure that the files are ALL mp3s, itunes doesn't use mp3s, also make sure that itunes is finalizing the disc, the car won't read data discs. also if you're using illegitimate means to get the files, RHIAA is now sharing junk files which will cause errors on discs, so if you haven't previewed everything, you may have a junk file in there.

Thats not right. Itunes rips and burns to MP3 format. You just have to set it in your preferences.

I wasn't talking about the itunes program, I was talking about music purchased from the itunes music store. Those aren't mp3s, unless you convert them manually.

You are correct about that snotf, and I have had DRM songs from itunes in my mp3 CD burn file but iTunes scans the playlist before it burns it and tells you which song can not be burned. So, it's not that. I have since burned several smaller (30-50 songs) mp3 discs and they play in the Bose just fine. There is something with the 150 song CD's that make it "non-readable" and I haven't figured out what it is.