cd

CD cover printer

Do you burn CDs or DVDs and then scribble the contents on the jewel case label, perhaps legibly? Why not print a custom label instead? It's easy with Auto DVD Labeler from Johnny Owl. Using it, you can easily create and print custom jewel case labels for your CDs and DVDs. It can retrieve cover art and other information from Amazon.com, or you can substitute your own images and text, change the fonts and aspect ratio, and more.

As the developer states, you should have a printer installed on your system to avoid "Printer error" messages. … Read more

Poll: When will the CD die?

The CD is fast approaching its 30th anniversary, and it's looking a bit tired. Funny, the LP is more than twice as old and its resurgence is ongoing. Not just among oldsters playing records they bought decades ago; a fair percentage of young bands are releasing new vinyl pressings.

CD box sets and remastered CDs, like the Beatles catalog that came out in 2009, still sell in big numbers. I remember when the CD was introduced, the media predicted the LP would be gone in just a few years. Now it's starting to look like the LP will … Read more

Olive delivers digital tunes for technophobes

Let me say this upfront: I haven't tried them myself. But the digital media servers from San Francisco-based Olive seem aimed at a weird niche between audiophile and technophobe.

A lot of home audio devices let you stream digital music from your computer to your stereo over a home network. Olive's digital servers also connect to your stereo, but let you rip CDs to digital formats right on the device--no computer required. (Or, if you're you're lazy and rich, the company will do the dirty work for you.) Then you can play the resulting digital files … Read more

How to use mini or other nonstandard optical discs on your Mac

Most optical discs are a standard 12cm in diameter, are round, and besides some potential manufacturing incompatibilities with certain optical drives, are expected to load and be recognized in most systems. Despite this, some companies will distribute device drivers or other content on mini or oddly shaped optical discs.

While the novelty of nonstandard discs is fun, it does pose a problem for many systems that cannot read them. While there is no difference in the way the discs are read, the odd shapes will get them stuck in many slot-loading drives seen in MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac Minis, and … Read more

Burned discs not being recognized on Macs running Snow Leopard

A growing support forum is highlighting issues with Macs running the latest update to Snow Leopard (10.6.4) having issues reading previously burned discs. Users claim the discs had been operable on previous versions of Snow Leopard as well as earlier operating systems and even work on other machines.

The Apple Support Discussions forum thread, started by user c9ky6qk3, has yet to offer a concrete solution, though some suggestions that may work for other users are present. The problem, as reported by c9ky6qk3:

"So I'm not sure when this started happening exactly, but my Mac stopped being … Read more

Have problems installing? Check the media

There are numerous instances of things going wrong when installing new programs, especially if the program requires a more in-depth installation than a simple drag and drop to the Applications folder. Sometimes missing or corrupt system components will not properly check out with the installation utility, or you may be using a package that is not built for your computer's architecture (running PPC or Intel-only applications on the opposite platform). Other times, however, the problems people experience are not caused by the operating system or application software at all.

We were contacted by a new iMac owner "Allan&… Read more

Mount up

Personal computers have become mini entertainment centers, useful for listening to CDs, watching DVDs, playing games, and much more. Optical drives can get worn out with a lot of use, though, and CDs and DVDs are subject to wear and tear as well. A disc image is exactly what it sounds like: a virtual copy of a disc's contents that's stored on the computer, eliminating the need for physical media and the use of the optical drive. The average media player, however, can't handle disc images, and that's where Phantom CD comes in.

First, a word … Read more

Let 'er rip

For many people, a media player like iTunes or Windows Media Player can handle day-to-day media ripping and burning tasks. Users with slightly more demanding needs, however, may seek out a separate application for this kind of work. Astroburn Pro is a simple program that gives users a handful of features for working with digital media. It's nothing fancy, but it's a straightforward set of tools made especially to handle CDs and DVDs and their contents.

Astroburn Pro's interface is plain and fairly intuitive, although the way things are organized takes a little getting used to. A … Read more

Report: Music insider site source of leaked songs

It's an article of faith in the music industry that pre-release album leaks hurt sales. I don't have the statistics to argue the case in either direction, but it makes sense on a gut level: there's less reason for fans to run out and buy a new record, when they already have the uncompressed files on their hard drives.

As if the record industry hasn't tasted enough bitter irony lately, a bunch of album leaks over the weekend apparently came from a service used by music labels to share files with radio stations, media, and other … Read more