How many minutes of mp3 onto a CD ?

[nammynake]

Just bought a new car with CD player, and I don't fancy carting round loads of CDs in the car. Question is how many minutes of mp3 tracks could I fit onto a single CD (700MB).

I understand you can increase the compression to reduce file size, but the sound quality will decrease. I'm not an audiophile, but would like reasnable quality.

[Original Poster]

Does your CD player defiantly play MP3 CD's? Most don't which is rather annoying.

I have put about 55 songs on one before and it could have taken a lot more.

[nammynake]

Yes it plays mp3, according to the instruction manual at least !

My longest journey is typically 2 hours max, but if I could fit more that would be great.

[-DeaDLocK-]

How high-end is your car's system?

If it's just basic or average, you can get away with VBR 128kbps MP3s, which is 14 hours on a single CD. If you want the best quality MP3s, a CD will fit 5 hours of 320kbps CBR encodes.

I suggest you try both versions of the same track(s) and see if you can tell the difference.

[Mr E]

Depends utterly on encoding. If you want to use 64kbps mono, lots.

<crocodile dundee> But it'll sound like st </dundee>

[nammynake]

-DeaDLocK- said:

How high-end is your car's system?

If it's just basic or average, you can get away with VBR 128kbps MP3s, which is 14 hours on a single CD. If you want the best quality MP3s, a CD will fit 5 hours of 320kbps CBR encodes.

I suggest you try both versions of the same track(s) and see if you can tell the difference.

I have no idea to be honest. It's the standard system fitted in my Clio 200.

[Finlandia]

At 192 kbit/s (which is perfectly fine for a car system, even 128 can be used) you can fit around 125 tracks on a CD.