Hey all...

When picking up my TL, the sales guy told me that using a burned CD (CD-R) in the player would void the warranty on the unit if there was a problem. He then went on to say that the real problem is computers that burn below 12x or something like that, and that anything higher his tech guys have had no issues with.

Is this true? I haven't heard of this before, and didn't see anything posted on this subject elsewhere. I don't want to screw up my player, but have a TON of discs I won't be able to use. Any help would be appreciated!

 

I would guess this is total BS. Typical dealer nonsense. I do not see how what is recorded on the disc or how it is recorded matters. You should be able to stuff a Windows XP disc in there and it should just error and spit it out. Just my opinion.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much. They tried to tell me that with my Maxima (and the manual for the car said absolutely to NEVER use burned CDs in the car...the Infinitis say it also, including the g35). I had the radio replaced 3 times over 1 year under warranty. The CD player would stop playing sound out of one side of the car.

The tech tried to tell me it was related to using burned CDs in the player (I made the mistake of leaving one in there when I brought the car in so they could document the problem and order a new part). I laughed at him when he told me because I knew the issue was highly documented case that was happening to all the Bose stereos. It was a big enough problem where the radios were on national backorder and I had to typically wait 2-3 months each time I needed a new one. One of the players when they installed it in my car didn't work right from the beginning.

Either way, if for some reason you have to do some warranty work with your stereo just pull out all the burned CDs and put regular ones in. I don't see how they could ever prove that you had burned cds in there at any time. And I'm sure if you really got into a bad situation you could just complain to Honda corporate and they'll make it right. I don't believe the manual anywhere says not to play burned CDs. I figure Nissan/Infiniti might have a case because it's printed in bold letters in the manual.

 

Hows the dealer guy to know you used a cd burned at less than 12x anyway? just sounds like a lot of dealer BS. Besides, cd's burned at lower speeds have fewer bit errors anyway.

 

Burned CD's is all I use

 

I use burned CDs all the time. I intentionally burn them at low speeds (e.g. 2x) because I think the quality is better.

Sales guys have no clue. The one who sold me my MDX thought the auto-reverse on the windows was triggered just by waving your arm over the closing window (like auto-reverse on a garage door opener). He didn't realize it acutally had to come in contact with whatever is blocking it.

 

i play burned cds all the time and i have never had a problem.

 

Burned cds play fine in my car. He's/she's just blowing hot air.

 

ummm not complete bs. its not the speed at which you burn the cd's its more the media quality. cd and dvd disks reflect a laser to determine the digital signal. the percent of reflectivity determines the quality of the disk. most media that you see nowadays have light greenish tint to it (imation, fuji). these are pretty good media in that their reflectivity rating is fairly high. there are other media that come in different colors. sometimes the laser is absorbed and the signal coming back is not accurate and does not get a good read on that track. this can cause the laser head to wear out a little more quickly but most the time its the motor that drives the head back and forth that wears away due to excessive movement. generally when using cd-r's in the car try to get something that is as close to silver as possible. remember cd-rs use a film inside that is maleable(can be etched) and the cds you buy in the store are stamped. the sensitivity of the cd-r can cause the cd-player to become defective.

 

It is a bunch of BS and also just don't leave any cdrs in the car if you are worried that he'll give u that BS.

 

The only issue I can see with CRs you burn yourself is the labels that some folks apply to the outside. Commercial CDs don't have these. If the label starts to lift up and peel, it could get jammed in the changer mechanism. Ford sent a postcard to Explorer owners warning about this and recommended that external labels not be used on CDs in the changer.

 

Yes, it will also definitely void the warranty if you put drinks on the cupholders or put the key in the ignition......Actually, my salesman didn't know that the foglights turned on seperate, he just thought they went on when the headlights came on. Well technically that's right because they WON'T turn on without the headlights on (WHY?). Anywho, I have found that in my friends 03 Accord and my TL, the player doesn't take kindly to burned discs. As far as Caball and the reflective theory goes, I think that's right because Blue disc cd's seem to play horribly. One small scratch and the whole cd is almost ruined. Green and Silver are fine though. I am not sure if this is a lower quality laser reader or what, but I have found cd's (regular and burned) that played through scratches in my MB will just skip to hell in this car......

 

So I can see a crappy CD not playing well, but I have a hard time seeing any way that the player itself would become damaged due to crappy CD's. It's not like the laser is going to start misfiring and burning laser fine swaths through the dash.

So yeah, thats a "witty" comment, but if anyone truely knows how the device can be damaged I'd love to know. (Thats a "how stuff works" interest, not a "I dare you" kind of question.) With the slim understanding I have now, it's akin to saying "if you read a book in the dark you're eyes will go bad" , only replace book with "bad CD" and eyes with "cd player."

 

Some states it's illegal to drive with just fogs, so Acura has to follow the lowest common denominator of laws to be able to sell in all 50 states.

 

I think the burned CD thing is used by the service guys as a "get out of jail free" card. I'm on the 3rd headunit in my Infiniti (and it's going the same way as the others), and my Infiniti service guy said "Oh, you can't use burned CD's - it causes it to skip." Except I wasn't using burned CD's! So he claimed there were fingerprints on the CDs. On a brand new disc that played fine in all my other CD players? So his final answer was that I have to buy a special CD unit cleaner and clean it after every 10 hours of use!!! What a load!!

Crusader, what year Maxima did/do you have? I thought I was alone

Can't wait for my TL!

 

I've been using a mixture of burned CD'-Rs, DVD's and store-bought music CD's with no issues.

A friend with a new TL poped a CD-R in his 1-day old changer and it locked up. Go figure.

The dealer also told him that burned CD's can't be used..... They are fixing his changer under warranty, but they have to ship it off somewhere and he has to wait 6-8 weeks for his music to be returned to him.

 

If I recall correctly, the owner's manual specifically states CD-R's as one of the media types it WILL play.
Check it out.

 

It is also a technical issue. Some cd-r's are thinner than a factory pressed CD and the changer mechanism has had problems grasping them to move them around. Thus you get nice jams in there.

The labels are another nice cause. Hence why I'm getting the cheap-o $99 Epson printer that will print directly on CD's.. no more labels and great looking cd's now. Ya have to get the printable cd's but they are common. They have a matte paper like coating on the top for inkjet printers.

I have played a few in my 04TL, and a few burned DVD-A's.. seems OK so far but I do understand that I have been warned.

 

I would have called him on that one!! Really you just wave your arm...WOW..show me! :fingerfawk:

 

Actually, you're more likely to have problems with discs burned at higher speeds than low (if you have any trouble at all). The data stream for music is not very forgiving. The higher your burn speed, the more likely you'll introduce small errors in the image...especially with lower-quality media.

Either way, the only "damage" should be to the quality of playback...not your player itself. Will these guys ever run out of "wisdom" to pull out of their a$$es?

 

CD-R discs are fine. CD-RW (Re-Recordable) will not work.

 

That is a more correct statement.
The only problem I had in the past is when cdrs first came available is they had different dye colors. The green tinted ones seemed to skip more than the silver. Either way they should not damage the cd player. As far as thickness goes, I have already seen pressed factory cds that were different thickness.

 

I have never had it happend before, but it happened to one of my friends.

My friend's worker gave him a bunch of burned music CD's, he put all the discs in one by one. He said something like it wouldn't play and it wouldn't eject. He had to bring it back to the dealer.

 

Thanks for all the input...

I'm an audio freak, and the 12x statement made me raise an eyebrow, but I didn't put two and two together. I'd read on the G35 forums that the sticky paper on the tops of some were the cause in some cases, but I've never used 'em. Anywho....thanks again all.