Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:17 am
This quick guide will show you how to play MP3 in a car CD player.
Do you have an older Car CD Player that doesn’t come with support for MP3?
In other words, your Car CD player doesn’t come with a USB input to play MP3 audio.
Play MP3 in a Car CD Player Directly
What about burning the MP3 files to a CD? In other words, you drag and drop MP3 files to the disc and burn them as data files.
This would work on a computer. However, most car CD players don’t support the playback of MP3 files from a CD.
If so, how do you play MP3 in a car CD player?
Here are the options to play MP3 in a car CD player.
Burn MP3 as an Audio CD
You can easily burn MP3 to a CD in the audio CD format. You can easily do this with your Windows computer.
You can use programs like Windows Media Player.
You would need blank CD-Rs for this purpose. Most importantly, you would need a CD drive on your computer.
Generally, you insert a blank CD into the disc drive of your computer.
Next, launch Windows Media Player.
On the left panel, click on Music.
Then on the right panel click on Burn.
Windows Media Player should be able to detect your disc drive.
The next step would be to drag your MP3 files to the Burn list.
Once you’ve done that, click on the Start Burn button. Your MP3 tracks will be burned into an Audio CD.
Watch the video below for guidance.
Burning MP3 to Audio CD Disadvantage
Although the above method, allows you to listen to MP3 tracks on your car CD player, it has its drawbacks.
You may have a long list of MP3 tracks to play. If so, you would require more than a blank CD to fit the tracks.
The more CDs your burn the more you have to think about where to store them in your car.
Also, once burned to an Audio CD, you can’t erase the CD and burn other audio tracks.
So, if you lose interest in the audio tracks after a while, they’ll be lying around unused. That’s a waste of money of course.
So, the solution is to get your car CD player to play MP3 files without the need to burn them to an audio CD.
How can you do it?
You use an MP3 Player FM Transmitter.
MP3 Player FM Transmitter
An MP3 player FM transmitter is the easiest and cheapest way to play MP3 in a car CD player.
It saves you the trouble and cost of replacing your car CD player with one that supports MP3 playback.
The unit comes with USB ports and TF card slots through which you can play MP3 files. You power it on by plugging it into your car cigarette lighter charger socket outlet.
As its name suggests, the device transmits an FM signal. You select an FM frequency to transmit on it.
The frequency will be one that no radio station has taken up.
Then you receive the signal on your car CD player by setting the same frequency.
For example, if you set 107.5 on the FM transmitter, then you would have to set 107.5 on the car CD player.
When you do this, the audio signal received by the device will be sent to and received by your car radio player.
So, you can plug in your USB flash drive or TF card that contains your MP3 tracks.
The device reads the music and sends the audio signal to your car CD player.
Alternatively, you can also play MP3 files from a Bluetooth-supported device.
For example, the MP3 files on your smartphone. Connect your smartphone to the FM transmitter via Bluetooth.
You can now play your favourite MP3 files on your Car CD player.
Watch the video below to take a closer look at how the MP3 Player FM transmitter works.
Check out some top MP3 Player FM transmitters.
