CD-R's in player?

[Dales90]

Is this the case with the rest of you, or is my 90 CD deck acting up?

I burn CD-R's on a home deck, not computer, and they play fine in my 95 Riv factory unit.

But, they do not in my 90 Reatta deck?

Some months ago, the board advised caution in thinking these various decks were all the same, as they look the same out front.

At that time it was a variety of rear harness connections, I think.

Do I have another difference here?

Dale

[BBurk]

My '90 CD player was always very sporadic in playing CD-R's. I recently had it rebuilt and it plays CD-R's far more consistantly but will still occasionally show "error". The place that rebuilt my CD stated that these CD players were not designed to play CD-R's and as such would not guarantee CD-R playback. I am happy with my CD player's performance now so I guess I just got lucky on the rebuild.

[Dales90]

Thanks.

I do remember the disclaimer, "may not play in all players" or some such, but this is the first time I've had a problem in 7 or so years and as may cars....

Dale

[Guest Geoff Meador]

Count yourself lucky if <span style="font-style: italic">any</span> CD player from the early 1990s will play CD-R media. These players were still in the early stages of the technology and they adhered to incredibly strict standards of what a CD should be when placed under a laser.

Later CD players (such as the 1995 model in your Riviera) were programmed to cope with more variance. This was not due to the arrival of CD-Rs (they were still a few years away from mainstream) but the arrival of other CD technologies such as EnhancedCD or CD+G that people might try to put in their CD players.

Many CD players from 1995 or later happen to work with CD-Rs in the AudioCD format. Most new players explicitly support CD-R media. But very few, if any, players from the late 1980s or early 1990s will work reliably with CD-Rs. Hope that answers your question.

[ALF1]

There indeed is a God! Last weekend my grandson stuck a rap disk in Maui Blue's CD player and it wouldn't work. I thought the unit had finally expired -- but when I put a Beach Boys disk in, it played like a champ! Sometimes life is good.

<span style="font-weight: bold">-- ALF</span>

[Dales90]

Geoff,

Thanks, and I guess I will now try to adapt the 95 or newer untit into the Reatta, but it did concern me, because of all the luck I have had in other units. Years ago, like 1999 or so, there were websites which listed users experiences with various makes of cd players and how they played or not CD-R's.

I long ago lost their addresses, and have had this bad experience.

Dale

[Dales90]

Alf,

Yes, it's great how that works out sometimes. The other side of the coin is the look I got over the noon hour as I sang along with David Allen Coe and forgot the moon roof was open........maybe she didn't like David Allen Coe???

Dale

[Rawja]

I have some older GM CD players in my other cars, and have found them to be pretty finicky when it comes to CD-Rs. Try a different brand of CD-R and you should be ok. As near as I have been able to acertain, the closer to a clear colored record side, the more likely that that CD-R will work. Give it a shot.

[Dales90]

Thanks, I'll give that a try, but my choices are limited lately, as only Maxell seems to still market the CD-R's for use in home recorders. The computer discs are more available, but don't work in my deck. But I'll keep an eye out.

Thanks again, everybody!!

Dale

[mobius]

I have a 91 with the six disc changer and cd-r's play fine in it. I even tried the black cd-r's and had my whole changer loaded with them, and it played all of them fine.