Hey everyone,

Unfortunately my 04 Scion doesn't have the iPod capability, and I am so sick of trying to find anything worth listening to on the radio anymore and too broke to shell out for an iPod hook up. This is prompting me to try to figure out how to work the facotry MP3 system, but so far I can't figure out how to do it.

I tried to burn an MP3 disc in iTunes but when I hit "burn disc" I got an error message saying it won't burn MP3's (then why does it give you the option?!). I'm using a sony CD-R Audio disc, do I need to buy one specifically for MP3s? When that didn't work I tried burning it as a "data disc" but then when I put it into my stereo it wouldn't read.

Can anyone please tell me how to get this to work, my sanity during the hour and half commute home from work is at stake!!!! Can I not do this using iTunes? please please please help me get some music going in my car!

 

i think the upgrade ones can only play... since its an 04... only the new 06s can play mp3 stock... i think but im almost positive....

 

Nah man, the factory HU could play MP3's from the start. It even has the little mp3 symbol right next to the power button. Also, it's the 6 disc changer, not the single disc.

I think I found my problem going back through the old posts....all my songs are saved as .m4a and.m4p (whatever the hell those are) and not mp3s. I don't know how I can go about converting them. I suppose I could burn a playlist to a disc and then re-import it to itunes as mp3s and then burn again, but I don't want to have a billion duplicate files all over the place, how would I keep track of them.

Anybody figure this out?

 

i got windows xp and what i do is insert the disc i want to burn the songs on,
then a small window should pop up and give you the options: "burn a cd with WMP, Itunes, and then Open a Writable CD folder using windows explorer."
thats the one you want to chose.
then it will open a folder where you can copy and paste your files to.
after copy and pasting, it will say on the left hand side of the folder window "write these files to a CD" click on that and it will give you an option of "copy data cd" or something else.
click on copy data cd. you'll be able to fit like 70 songs on a 80mb cd i think.
thats how i make my mp3 CD's.

 

Awesome, I'll try that. Thanks!

 

Umm, burn cd, put in cd player. Done.

J/K

Yeah, the problem you are having is with your burning program. Go to download.com and search for cd burning software that allows you to burn cds for MP3 players. There are a few pretty good programs on there that are free. Follow the instructions and you shouldn't have a problem.

BTW, if the music you are trying to burn was purchased through i-Tunes, it is protected, and most 3rd party programs won't let you burn them. Simple solution - get a re-writeable cd, use i-Tunes to burn the tracks to the CD-RW, then using another program like Raptor or Windows Media Player, rip the songs off the cd. Now you have unprotected files that any program can then use to burn a new MP3 cd, and all you have to do is erase the CD-RW and use it again to do the same thing. Yeah it's a pain in the a$$, but thats what you get for the convienience of buying your music at home on the pc.

Good luck!

 

Odds are you ripped the songs with itunes right? by default itunes ripps to AAC not MP3 and it wont convert it. Look around for a AAC to MP3 conveter then you can burn them onto a CD. If you bought them off the iTunes music store just burn them as a audio CD and re import them as MP3's (go to your prefrences then the importing tab, change the encoder to MP3 and the quality as you wish from then on you should be ok

 

FYI, m4p files are Apple AAC. You can covert them easily in iTunes (free) using the advanced menu after changing the burning option to MP3 in preferences.

Scott

 

^^^ what he said.

you don't have to go to another program after you have burned the CD, you can use iTunes to reimport the songs and just delete the protected ones if you want.

 

ohh neato never noticed that, diddnt think it could

 

It can! Try it. One thing to remember: you're compressing your music twice, so quality will suffer. Good news is that many won't even notice.
As a rule, it's best to convert to your desired format once.

Scott

 

ya'll make it so confusing...i just use windows media player...lol

 

It's not confusing at all, but the details will help those that care about sound quality and keeping up with technology.
Sorry, no offense, but WMP sux!

Scott

 

yes it does!

 

i agree it does suck...but it puts my mp3s on cds....i dont really need it to do anything else now do i?

 

Thanks a lot for all the help everyone!

 

No, you don't.
But, iTunes is free for Mac and PC, and does a great job creating MP3s.
Just an FYI.

Scott