Just ran across this very interesting bit of information in the daily Lockergnome Windows Daily.
JimH... Is this something we should be considering for MC9?
Looks like a real Microsoft WMP killer.
Question: I heard that a car CD player can let me see the title of each song. How do you do this?
Answer: I didn't know this was possible until I did research. I rely heavily on having CD titles displayed so I know where the heck I am on the CD. Phillips's "CD-Text" is a 1996 extension to the original Compact Disc specification.
When a CD containing CD-Text information is put into a CD-Text player, the artist's name and song title is displayed on the player's front panel instead of dull old "Track Number 2." The catch is that not all pre-recorded CDs have CD-Text information. It only works when the player AND the CD are CD-Text enabled. However, you can create your own CDs with CD-Text. To find out if your CD player is CD-Text enabled, check the car owner's manual. As for which CDs come with the capability, this is harder to find out. Most major labels are starting to include it in their CDs. If anyone knows how to identify a CD as having CD-Text capabilities, please tell us about it in the Lockergnome Forums.
Now, let's roll our own CD with CD-Text using Easy CD Creator 5 or Nero. Before starting, you also need a CD recorder that supports CD-Text. To find out if yours supports it, go to
http://www.roxio.com/en/jhtml/extranet/driveid/html/A.html. Whoo! Mine made the list.
If you don't know your device's name and you're using Windows XP, go to Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager | CD-ROM and read the name. Search for that name in the list on the Roxio Web site. Make it this far? Now, you're ready to add CD-Text.
To do it in Easy CD Creator:
1. Add a new track to a Music CD Project.
2. Right-click the track.
3. Rename the track and add information, and set it to "Disc at Once."
4. Record.
In Nero:
1. Add a track.
2. Right-click the track and choose Properties.
3. Modify the information.
There are more ways to do it depending on how you supply the CD creator program with song titles (which can be from the source audio CD that already has CD-Text, from an online music database, or by manually entering the text). Feel free to expand on this or share your methods at the forums [help.lockergnome.com].