Hey Guys! I've gotten a cd burner for xmas, and I guess you could say that I'm too stupid to use it, ha ha. I've never burned cd's so I need to know what type/speed of cds to buy, the speed of the burner is 48X24X48X, I know which speed is which, like what means what, but which speed of cds should I buy 24 or 48? Stupid question I know! Also, I want to be able to play my cds on a stero so does it matter which type of files I download/ Like winamp files, would they work in my ordinary stero? I can hear the laughter now....lol. Thanks for all the help over the past couple of years, you guys are the best and have a safe and happy new years! Mitzi

Mitzi, Good questions; No such thing as a stupid question, only thing stupid is not asking a question. You know your speeds already Read, Write, Burn so the CD's you buy will be up to 48x. See the site below which covers recording and playback. Happy Holidays and lets hope a prosperous New Year. http://www.homerecording.com/burn_cds.html

If you buy 16X CDs, you will only be able to write at 16X. There is nothing wrong with that by the way. It will just take longer to burn. My last burn at 48X took less than 2 minutes. If time is not of the essence, then economics may be a factor. After all, who likes to "BURN" money? (Slight pun there, however, I degress). Personally, I prefer to burn at the fastest speed I can. Happy New Year! HTH, Bill

Hi Mitzi, If you are burning music cd's, it's best not to use the top speed, any cd mfg will do the trick, sales all over, you should be able to pick up blanks for pennies. It is no big deal to record, music,data or the combination. There are are a lot of recording software, the most tauted are adaptec and nero. I have tried these and about 5 others and think nti is best, but anyone will work. If you have an idea to mix songs on a cd, to prevent any headaches plan what songs you want burned and DO it at one time, this will eliminate any add on problems you will have in the future. For back up of data you can use top cd/rw speed, but the experts tell you for music, not to use the top speed for burning, hth charlie ps have a happy music year

Mitzi, as long as you stay under the 48x speed CD's you'll be fine. But, I have to agree with Bill, 16x Cd's will work fine also for less $$$$. Concernning your questions about which files to download? Essentially, you can download any music file type that you want, but if your downloading from the net more than likely the files will be in mp3 format. These files are great because they average between 2mb - 6mb in size. The only problem is that if you burn them on a CD in mp3 format you will need an mp3 player to listen to them. But, fortunately the software which comes with your burner transforms them automatically into wav. (wave) files which any stereo or player can play. Happy burning!

Mitzi, Most cd burners will come w/ the software you need to burn any type of cd. If not, go with an aforementioned brand. Burning a winamp file will not play in your stereo if it is burned as an autoplay cd, which can only play on a rom drive because it loads the winamp player along w/ the music.(it would sound like a bunch of digital crap) For your orig. question, I found a 100-pack of 48x cd's at Wal-Mart for just over $20, and they work just fine. For music, I don't burn over 12x, I found it slightly static at 16x. 4 or 8x is great if you have the time... Enjoy your new toy! HNY2003! RanJ