Mp3 faq - saving MP3 files to CD

When saving MP3 files to CD, is it better to use Direct CD with CD-RW disks or to burn CDR disks?

I got Direct CD with my drive, and you certainly can use it to copy MP3 files to a CD-RW disk. And I started out doing so. However, I have now switched to burning them to CDR disks instead. There are pros and cons both ways:

Direct CD pros & cons:

Pro -You can copy individual files easily whenever you want to. You can change or delete files after you copy them.

Con - You have to 'format' the CD-RW disk first, which takes an hour or more for a complete format. Any computer on which you want to play the disks must either have Direct CD installed, or have a driver file for reading Direct CD disks installed (there is an option in Direct CD to put the required driver file onto a floppy, so it's actually easy enough to give it to anybody who you want to read your disks). Even with the required software, many older CD ROM drives cannot read CD-RW disks (this is the biggest restriction for me). The disks are a little more expensive than CDR disks.

CDR pros & cons:

Pro - The disks can be read by any CD ROM drive without a problem. Also they hold a little more data, since the full 650 MB of the disk can be used for files, whereas Direct CD takes up quite a lot of space in overhead. The disks are cheap.

Con - You have to actually burn the disks in your burner program, and once the files are burned to disk they can't be changed in any way.

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