So I got an Alpine CDA-9884 and i can't get it to play MP3 files on a disc. It says it can, but i don't know if there is a setting i have to put it on first or what. If anyone knows any help would be appreciated.

 

Look through the settings on the menu under General Settings. (ETA: I think it is CD Playback under General, but I am too lazy to go outside to check!) The default is CDDA and you actually have to activate MP3 & WMA. It's BS but that is how they roll.

Oh yeah, if you already have a disc in the unit, make sure you take it out prior to activating MP3 and WMA, otherwise it will cause problems.

 

thanks, ill give that a shot

 

ya so i tried that and it didn't work. It still tried to play it like a normal CD. Also it plays normal CD's while in CDDA-MP3 mode. i dunno if thats supposed to work.

 

Did you burn your disk of MP3's as a data disk? If it is set for "music disk," some burning software will convert MP3 files back to CDDA and burn a CDDA disk when you drop MP3 files into the burner window.

Also put the disk into another computer and try to play the MP3 files to be sure you have a good burn.

You could try disconnecting the car battery to fully reset the unit, then go into the menu and turn MP3 on, finally insert the disk.

 

Did you eject your cd and make sure there was NOTHING in the drive prior to making that change? Failure to do so does some screwy stuff!

Also, it will play normal CDs while in CDDA-MP3 mode.

When it comes to MP3 Discs, it can be a pain in the a$$. You have to make sure you don't go too deep on the directory structure. I forget the levels, but if you have a directory (i.e. folder) within a directory (i.e. folder) you can only go to 2 or three on some decks. Plus if the directory name is too long, it scrambles some decks.

When I made my MP3 discs, I either put everything in the root of the CD (i.e. no folders) OR numbered my directories 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. instead of using artist names.

Truthfully, I don't even worry about MP3 CDs any more. An IPOD is all I need.

 

Thanks for your help everyone, i got it working. It must have been the burning software. I switched to CDburner XP and it works great now.