CD burner drive that works?

[tommyk]

about drives - I got one from amazon for 20 bucks (gearhead), since I have the Matshita drive on my mac and won't burn. The gearhead works (it accesses my itunes to play the tracks), but it would be really nice to have the graphics (lyrics). Is there another drive (Pilot?) that will display the lyrics? Or is it the cd I'm using? (cd - R)
Tommy

[dave]

I got one from amazon for 20 bucks (gearhead)

did you get a drive from the "works for sure" list?

The gearhead works

by that i take it you mean it can rip and burn CD+G discs?

it accesses my itunes to play the tracks

sorry but that doesn't make any sense. your CD drive does not access your iTunes. what were you trying to say there?

it would be really nice to have the graphics (lyrics)

it sounds like you're saying that when you rip CD+G discs with that drive that you get black video? or are you talking about burning with that drive? and are you sure you know the difference between ripping and burning? You might be surprised just how many people i run into who think the words are interchangeable, or think they mean something completely unrelated

[tommyk]

I believe so - I copied & pasted from the "works for sure" list to find it. It's a Gearhead triple format DVD-RW/CD-RW.

I have not ripped (which I believe means to take media from a disc to a computer). I have burned (following the instructions on kjams program, using songs I purchased) from my mac to a CD (CD-R)

When I insert the disc, the kjam program wakes up. Not sure why, but I quit it, go to my finder and access the CD. Then, itunes wakes up and begins playing track one of my two burned songs.

One problem my be that I'm using the wrong cd. It's a CD-R. Should I be burning onto a CD-G? If so, where do I find CD-G discs?

[tommyk]

I can play the cd either thru my mac, or thru the drive. I can right click and "open with" another program - besides itunes, I can open and play it with quicktime (still no graphics though).
T

[dave]

okay

first off: you need to turn off iTunes auto-play
it's the very first instruction for either ripping or burning:
http://karaoke.kjams.com/wiki/Turn_off_AutoPlay

that will get iTunes out of the equation
So, you burned using kJams, right? using your Gearhead drive, right? then it should work.

second: you need to play back using kJams, silly!
run kjams, stick your disc in, see it pop up in kJams, select a track, press play
THAT is the only way you can see graphics. iTunes can't do it, QuickTime can't do it, Finder can't do it. In fact, if they could, i probably would never have bothered to write kjams.

[tommyk]

Got it - yes, it works. I had not previously noticed the disc icon. So, if I were to take this cd to a karaoke party, it would not work unless the jockey was using kjams, right? Or, I suppose the audio would play, but not the graphics.

OK, the twenty-dollar drive seems to work!
T

[dave]

Got it - yes, it works

if I were to take this cd to a karaoke party, it would not work unless the jockey was using kjams, right?

no, it would work just fine. you have burned a CD+G disc. any CD+G player can play it.

[tommyk]

sweet - thanks much.
T

[dave]