Windows 7 : Windows Media Player - Taking Your Music and Video on the Go (part 1) - Burning Customized CDs

2/11/2014 3:47:14 AM

WMP provides many ways that make it easier than ever to take your music and video files with you. WMP has built-in functions for burning CDs, synchronizing files to your portable media player, and sharing your media throughout your home network.

Media Player and Windows Compatibility Versus iTunes and iPod

One of the first questions that I am asked is, “Should I get an iPod or another type of MP3 player?” Having used a large number of portable music players in the past, I would recommend one of the excellent, more featured alternative players. If you are choosing a new portable device, the first consideration is the software you currently use for your digital media. If you currently use iTunes for your digital media management and purchasing, you should definitely choose the iPod because it would integrate with your current media system. However, if you currently use WMP or any other PC-based media software, I recommend using WMP in conjunction with a WMP-compatible device.

Of the portable devices I have used, the Creative Zen X-Fi, found at www.creative.com, is by far a superior device. The device has an incredible screen offering 16.7 million colors to view your video as well as extremely crisp audio provided by Creative’s patented audio processors. The player also includes the ability to listen or record FM radio and support for free audio and video podcasts from www.zencast.com. Other advantages over the iPod include an expansion slot for Secure Digital (SD) or SDHC memory. The Zen provides a much larger number of formats, which is its main advantage over the iPod, in my opinion. Instead of being limited to a couple of audio and one video format, the Zen offers support for the WMA, MP3, and WAV audio formats as well as MPEG1/2/4-SP, WMV9, Motion-JPEG, DivX, and XviD.

All compatible devices also support the large number of online content providers available through WMP 12 instead of being restricted to only one provider, as iTunes/iPod is, the iTunes Store. For this reason, it is my recommendation to choose WMP 12 and a compatible device over iTunes and the iPod as long as your current media software is not iTunes.

Burning Customized CDs

WMP provides the capability to create customized CDs for playing in your home or car CD player. Before you can burn a CD, you must first have a Windows 7–compatible CD burner and a blank CD-R disc. To burn a custom CD, perform the following steps:

Begin by selecting the Burn tab.

Note

If you have multiple CD burners, you can change the destination burner by clicking Next Drive in the List pane of the Burn tab, as shown in Figure 1.

Click the arrow on the Burn tab and select Audio CD (if not specified by default), as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1. Select Audio CD from the Burn Options menu on the Burn tab.

Insert a blank CD into your CD burner drive.

Create the list of songs to burn by dragging items from the Details pane to the Burn List. To remove items from the list, right-click the item and choose Remove from List. You can rearrange items by clicking and dragging the songs to match the order you desire for your CD.

Under the Burn tab, choose Start Burn, as shown in Figure 2. The current progress can be viewed in the Burn List.

Figure 2. Use the Burn tab to change the destination drive, set up the Burn List, and start the burn.

Note

As you add items to the Burn List, you will notice that the time remaining, or free space on the disc, decreases to account for the newly added songs. If you choose more files than can fit on a single CD, you can choose to remove some items or have WMP automatically split the list to burn two CDs.

Others

- Windows 7 : Windows Media Player - Getting Music and Video on Your Computer

- Windows 7 : Windows Media Player - Learning the Basics (part 3) - Playing Audio and Video in WMP 12

- Windows 7 : Windows Media Player - Learning the Basics (part 2) - Getting Around in Windows Media Player 12 - Redesigned Browsing and Searching

- Windows 7 : Windows Media Player - Learning the Basics (part 1) - Getting Around in Windows Media Player 12 - Navigating Menu Breadcrumbs

- Windows Server 2012 : Increase scalability and performance (part 7) - SMB and PowerShell

- Windows Server 2012 : Increase scalability and performance (part 6) - Virtual Fibre Channel, SMB 3

- Windows Server 2012 : Increase scalability and performance (part 5) - Viewing Dynamic Memory at work

- Windows Server 2012 : Increase scalability and performance (part 4) - Configuring Dynamic Memory,Smart Paging

- Windows Server 2012 : Increase scalability and performance (part 3) - Offloaded Data Transfer, Support for 4 KB sector disks

- Windows Server 2012 : Increase scalability and performance (part 2) - Network adapter hardware acceleration