CDRLabs.com

Hello,

Just bought a radio for my car that can play MP3's.
I ripped a couple CD's to MP3, but when I want to burn these MP3's, Nero automatically sorts the tracks alphabetically. Is there any way I can preserve the original track listing so I can listen to the songs in the same order as on the original CD ?

Frederic

This has come up before and the general answer is no. If you want to keep the same order you need to prepend the names of the files with a prefix that will make the alphabetical sorting work out how you want it to. For example:

Code: Select all

01_the_first_song_I_wanna_play.mp3
02_second_song_I_wanna_play.mp3


However, I wonder if there might be specific instances where this could be avoided. For example, might some car players understand and use playlist files of some format (.m3u, .bpl, etc) so that you could burn the playlist file to the CD as well as the .mp3 files themselves, and have the car player use the playlist? Check the documentation of your car's CD player, or try it and see.

cfitz

Actually, there is software out there that can preserve your original MP3 track listing/playlist without resorting to numbering each individual file.

It's called MP3 BR. What this allows you to do is create an image of your mp3 files in the order that you want it. Then, you just burn the image onto your blank media.

I've used it for a few months, and I really like it because I can create a playlist and customize the order. In addition, you can use long file names (up to 255 characters) with this software.

This software has a 30-trial period, and it's relatively inexpensive at $30 should you want to use it after the trial period. I recommend giving it a try.

That's good to know. I suppose any software that allows one to specify the details of your CD layout would do the same thing. You could even assemble your own cue/bin files if you were so inclined. Of course, we are now outside the bounds of simply dragging and dropping into Nero.

Also, this assumes that the player will play them in the same physical order that it finds them on the CD. This is probably a good assumption, but there could be a player out there that insists on playing them in alphabetical order regardless of their physical ordering. Just a thought in case anyone tries Reg's suggestion and finds that it doesn't work.

<edit>
I see that MP3BR does allow for this possibility, and includes a feature to automatically prepend numbers so that even alphabetically inclined players will play in your desired order. That saves you the trouble of doing it manually as first suggested several posts ago.
</edit>

cfitz

The freeware program Easy ISO by Dirk Paehl also allows you to create ISO image files with files physically ordered by the sequence you add them to your compilation rather than alphabetically. Thus, it also will let you create a CD-R full of MP3's that play in the order you want without renaming the files. It even includes built-in burning software so you can burn your image directly to the CD-R without invoking Nero (or your favorite burning software).

On the whole, though, the MP3BR Imager program Reg-da-Ripper recommended appears to be much easier to use and full-featured.

Take your choice: free and a little quirky, or $30 and easy to use with lots of nice features.

You can get Easy ISO at http://www.dpaehl.de/ . Click the "English Programs" button on the left, and scroll about half-way down the resulting page. (I'd rather not link directly).

cfitz