Cd Track Info Not Shown

PLEASE HELP? I HAVE XP ON MY SYSTEM AND EVERY TIME I WRIGHT A CD I GET NO ARTIST OR TRACK NAME JUST TRACK NUMBER AND TRACK TIME EVEN ON BROUGHT CD'S ANY IDEA'S

 

What software are you using to create your cds? XP? Nero? Roxio? MMJB?

Johanna

 

SOFTWARE

THANKS FOR REPLYING, IT DOES NOT SEEM TO MATER WHAT SOFTWARE I USE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9 WONT FIND ARTISTS NOR WILL EASYCD CREATOR 5

 

If you are writing the files to an audio cd, that's the nature of the beast. Any audio cd will only show the track number etc. If you have other Cd's that show the name of the files in whatever program you're using to play it, it's because it's downloaded the names from the cddb. They then get written to a file named cdplayer.ini and when you put one of these Cd's in this is where the program draws the names from. If you're writing the files from mp3 files you can manually query the data base. If the files are written in the same order as the original cd, it may or may not work. How you query the cddb depends on the program you're using. What is it? If you can't get the names to show up, you can manually edit the cdplayer.ini. It's just a text file and if you look at the other entries, you can figure out the proper format easy enough.

 

sorry for shouting

I have still got my problem my old system running win98 could read all info from all my cd's but since I installed xp even the old burnt cd's wont show track names nor will windows media player?

 

That's because the names of the tracks aren't contained on the cd. They're contained in a file on your hard drive and the player draws them from there if they're available. The name of the file where they are stored varys depending on the player you're using. For example, Media Player uses a file named wmplibrary_V_0_12.db and windows cd player and MusicMatch Jukebox uses the cdplayer.ini file. The names won't be available until you either enter them manually or submit them to the cddb. The cddb is a cd lookup service that automatically fills in the names of the tracks on the cd that's in the drive at the time you connect. The method used to enter them manually or automatically is dependent on what player you're using. If you use Media Player, first click tools options and on the privacy tab, make sure the line that says "retrieve media information......" is checked. Then while you're connected to the internet, put a cd in(use a store bought one first) and it should retrieve the info. If it doesn't do it by itself, click on the line in the upper right hand corner that says "find album info ". If the information is there, it'll retrieve it. If not, you'll be given the option to fill in the information manually. The cd's you burned may or may not work depending on how you burned them. If they don't, the only other option is to enter the names manually. If you burned the cd's from mp3 files and didn't have to do this in your other computer it's most likely because the burning program wrote the info to the cdplayer.ini during the burning process and the program you used to play them also used that file (lots of them do).

One more thing you could try would be to copy the relavant file(s) from your old computer to a floppy disk and replace the ones you have now. If you used Media player use find on the old computer to locate the wmplibrary_V_0_12.db file and then copy it to the folder where it's located on your new computer. Before you copy it there, rename the one that's already located there. On your new computer the file should be located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index
No guarantees, but that may work. If not, you can delete the file you copied in and rename the other one back. What program did you use before and what program are you using now?

 

no luck yet

zander thanks for your help but as yet no luck when useing wmplayer with a brought CD it works and gets the tack and artist info but not with my own burnt Cd's. I have tryed a Cd I burnt on my old system that did show the tracks, so they must have been burnt onto the cd but are not dislayed on this system I am using the same software as before easycd 5. Also i have not been able to find the file wmplirary? any more idea's please

 

Do a Google search on MP3 tags...there is a ton of software that will permantently tag (and/or) convert music files. It's a couple of extra steps, but not nearly as bad as retyping! WE will alphabetize the tracks if you tag them, so if you want to play the music back like it is presented on the cd, don't retag. You can edit the name just to keep yourself straight. (If anyone knows how to force WE to leave files in the order I choose, I will be eternally grateful!)

I often use MMJB (Gracenote is the cd lookup) and it tags them automatically from purchased cds, but it won't tag the cds I've made myself, that I want to rip. I use another program to tag, if I am not ripping from a commercial cd. Also, I've gotten into the habit of burning MP3 cds periodically, so that I don't ever have to tag twice.

Johanna

 

I don't think that will help in this case. I think uknobby is talking strictly about audio cd's that he or she has already burned and when playing the cd's they don't show the names of the songs in the player. The names just aren't going to be there. If you use EZCD to burn an audio cd from another audio cd you have to first either name the songs manually or use the cddb to get the names. After you burn the audio cd, EZCD copies the info necessary to the cdplayer.ini file. I've never had any problem with it but I've read a lot about a bug that sometimes prevents it from doing this. There is one other possibility. If you burned the audio cd and also used cd text when you burned it, I believe they would show up then. For this to work though, you have to use a player (hardware or software) that's capable of reading cd text. I don't know much about cd text as it's something I've never used. Never had the need to.

If the player you use to play the cd is designed to use it (MMJB will work) it'll check the cdplayer.ini file for the info for that particular cd. If it's there the player displays the names, if it's not it displays track1, track2 etc.. Mp3's are different because they have a tag contained within the file that contains the info. When you play or burn a mp3 file the player looks at the name of the song etc. on the tag and displays it. This works almost always because most people don't remove the tag from the file. MMJB does the same thing as EZCD when you use it to burn an audio cd from mp3 files. It takes the names of the songs and any necessary info from the cd you're burning them to and writes it to the cdplayer.ini file. Then, the next time you put that particular cd in the drive the player will display the names.

Things could be complicated here by the fact that a different player may be being used now than before. It's really necessary to know what player was being used on the win98 computer. If media player, what version. I don't remember if media player 6.4 and earlier displayed the song titles or not as I hardly ever used it for this. If it did, it's possible it used the cdplayer.ini file instead of wmplibrary_V_0_12.db. Things may have changed with the newer versions. I would find the cdplayer.ini file on the old computer and have a look at it. It'll be in the windows folder. Open it and if the names are all there, copy it to the windows folder on the new computer. The only downfall here is, the media player version that comes with xp won't use it so you'd have to find a different player. I don't know for sure but I think winamp does. I don't use it but I do have a copy of it here so maybe I'll install it and see.

 

still no joy

thanks again for the help but still no joy I dont think media player 9 that comes with xp uses a database for storing cd names,
cdplayer.ini and wmplibrary_V_0_12.db are not on my system I did copy an old cdplayer,ini into my windows folder but no luck.