Writing ~ 630 MBs of MP3 to a Regular Audio CD

Question

I have around 630 MBs of an MP3 podcast that I want to burn to a CD so that a friend can listen to it while driving.

I understand that MP3 is very different from the normal audio CD format, but would it be possible to fit this amount onto a typical 700MB CD in the correct (non-MP3) format? I don't really care if some quality is lost.

Answer 1

No it is not possible.

Normal audio CD format can fit maximum of 79 minutes of music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_%28audio_CD_standard%29

Unless your 630 MB of MP3 music only have 79 minutes of music, you can not fit it in normal CD.

Answer 2

You can burn up to 700 MB of MP3 files as a regular data CD, you will not lose quality, the MP3s will still sound just as good (or poor) as they do when you play them on your computer.

Your friend will be able to listen to the songs either on a computer or a CD/DVD player or indeed a car stereo system that is capable to encode MP3 from data CDs, which is a fairly common feature today.

If your friend's car stereo doesn't support MP3, then there are other ways, such as using a normal MP3 player. It is possible to get the signal to the car stereo in a variety of ways (e.g. with an analog cassete tape adapter or a 12V FM transmitter which can be tuned in with the FM radio).

Answer 3

No. Aside from time, the Red Book spec only allows 99 audio tracks on a CD (you likely have more).

Answer 4

I understand you're asking about audio CD, not MP3, format, but lots and lots of car CD players (I would say most of them these days) are able to play a data CD full of MP3s. It's worth trying, or checking the specs/manual for you friend's car stereo.