Nero CD Text is great, but I'm having problems with one particular CD

[Muse]

I've been into CD Text for years and use it with Nero. I'm using Nero 6.3.1.25. It took me a while to get the hang of using CD Text, however I've managed to do alright with it after more or less learning the ropes. I have a 301 disk CD changer that uses it, a couple of CD walkmen that use it and a mini-stereo that uses it, so it's nice to have CD text written to my music CDR's.

I'm having trouble with one disk. It's a Burning Spear CD, just put out, that has CD Text information already on the disk. Most music CD's don't have CD Text info, so when I go to make a CDR copy of the original disk, Nero asks if I want to access an Internet database to check and see if track information, etc. is available. I go OK and if available, it's downloaded. At that point I can edit it to my satisfaction before it's written to any CDR copies I want to make of the original disk. If no info is found at the Internet site, I am given the opportunity to create an entry in the Nero CD user database that I've created on my HD. I've managed to keep that user database alive through various and sundry reinstalls of Nero - good thing to do!

Now, this Burning Spear CD has CD Text already, but it's crap. Track titles are like Track 1, Track 2, etc. If you make a copy of a CD with CD Text already on it (the original CD), Nero just goes ahead and makes the copy, original CD Text info included. It doesn't offer to look on the Internet. However, you can open your user CD database (it's on your HD) and opt to create a new entry for any music CD you put in your CD drive. I did so with this disk, and it copied the CD Text info from the CD. I edited it to my satisfaction, but when I copied the disk Nero ignored the user CD database and just used the data on the original CD. Damn! Does anyone know a workaround for this? Thanks!

 

[BlueWeasel]

For someone who doesn't know much about CD Text, what are the advantages of using it?

Is it kinda like ID3 tags for audio CD's? I know, with the latest Switchfoot CD, that my Alpine CD player in my car recognized and displayed the song titles. Is that CD Text?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel
For someone who doesn't know much about CD Text, what are the advantages of using it?

Is it kinda like ID3 tags for audio CD's? I know, with the latest Switchfoot CD, that my Alpine CD player in my car recognized and displayed the song titles. Is that CD Text?

Yeah, your Alpine player supports CD Text. It's a great feature. It's been very slow to catch on with the "music industry" for some reason. The standard just requires writing a very limited amount of data to a certain portion of the CD, and it wouldn't seem to cost them much to support it, but the great majority of new disks don't support it. I have my own perspective, as I am a college radio DJ and do a lot of disk previewing, reviewing, that sort of thing. So, the disks I see are not the most commercially successful artists, quite the contrary. Maybe if you buy the new Britney Spears CD it will have CD Text. I'd almost be surprised if it doesn't. However, we don't even get BS's disks at my station.

With Nero, you can make CDR copies of all your music CD's and if they don't already have CD Text support, you can add it to your CDR copies. It's for that reason more than any other, that I always make CDR copies of my music CD's. My iRiver SlimX, and both my CD players all support CD Text, and it makes listening to music more fun, etc. And, as I said in the OP, you can usually download Cd info semi-automatically from the Internet using Nero, so you don't even have to type in the info. Problem is, when the CD already has CD Text info on it, and it's screwey, there may not be a way to replace it with adequate CD Text. That's the issue I'm addressing in this thread.