Creating your own CDs

With Windows Media Player, you can create (burn) your own audio CDs or data CDs (also known as media CDs) from the tracks stored on your computer or in Media Library. Live streams, such as radio stations, cannot be copied to CDs.

You can use the player to create the following types of CDs:

• Audio CD. Create music CDs similar to those you buy. The Player converts tracks into .cda files to copy them to the compact disc. Audio CDs can play in most computers and in home and car CD players that play CD-R and CD-RW discs.
• Data CD. Create CDs that contain playlists and files that are not converted and that are in the order they are listed in the Items to Copy pane. Depending on the bit rate used to copy the files and the file types, a data CD may contain more than eight hours of music. Only certain CD players and computers can play data CDs.
• HighMAT CD . Create another type of data CD that plays in CD players that play Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. Files are converted into WMA files, which are smaller than .mp3 files. Only certain portable CD players can play Windows Media Audio files. For more information about HighMAT, see the Microsoft Web site.

To create a CD, you must have a CD recorder (burner) attached to your computer and a blank CD to which you can copy tracks.

File types that can be copied to CD

You can copy the following file types from the Player to a recordable CD:

• Windows Media Audio (WMA) files with a .wma extension
• .mp3 files
• .wav files

During the CD creation process for audio CDs, the Player automatically converts the files to .cda files before copying them to the CD.

Audio quality and compression

The compression quality that you use to copy CD tracks to your computer affects the sound quality of the track, but does not affect the length of the track when copying from your computer to a CD. The better the sound quality you use to copy a track to your computer, the better the sound quality when you copy it from your computer to a CD. If you use the best quality sound to copy a track to your computer, more disk space is used on your computer. Other variables such as the speed of your CD-ROM drive can also affect the quality of the copy.

Note

• The ability to create data and HighMAT CDs is only available on select versions of Windows. For more information, see Special features.

This section covers:

• Types of blank CDs
• Comparing audio and data CDs
• CD copy process
• To create your own CD
• To change CD recorder drive settings
• To erase a CD-RW

Related topics

• To create a playlist
• To add items to a playlist
• Understanding licensed files
• Using CDs
• Compressing copies of CD tracks to use less disk space
• To view error information about files