Changing the Disc-Burning Speed in Windows Media Player 12

Solve CD-burner problems by slowing down the CD writing speed

By
Mark Harris
Mark Harris
Writer
  • University of Wolverhampton
Mark Harris is a former writer for Lifewire who wrote about the digital music scene and streaming music services in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner.
lifewire's editorial guidelines
Updated on January 27, 2021

If you are having problems creating music CDs in Windows Media Player 12, such as finding music drop-outs or ending up with a non-working CD, try slower when burning your songs. Sometimes a low-quality blank CD doesn't work well when it's written to at high speed.

By default Windows Media Player 12 writes information to CD at the fastest possible speed. So lowering this rate may help you create music CDs instead of coasters.

Follow this tutorial to lower the burn speed when burning a CD with Windows Media Player 12.

The instructions in this article pertain to Windows Media Player 12, on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7.

Windows Media Player 12 Settings Screen

First, change your settings in Windows Media Player 12:

  1. Open Windows Media Player 12 and make sure you are in Library View mode.

    Switch to this mode using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+1.

    Windows Media Player 12

  2. Select the Organize menu tab at the top of the screen, and then select Options from the list.

    If you can't see the menu bar at all, press CTRL+M.

    Options under the Organize menu in Windows Media Player 12

  3. Select the Burn tab of the Options window and access the drop-down menu next to the Burn Speed option (located in the first section, called General).

    Burn Speed in WMP 12 settings

  4. If you've experienced many errors with your CDs in the past, it's best to choose the Slow option from the list.

  5. Select Apply and then OK to save and exit the settings screen.

Write a Disc Using the New Burn Settings

To test whether this new setting has cured your audio CD-burning problems:

  1. Insert a blank recordable disc into your computer's DVD/CD drive.

  2. Select the Burn tab in the upper right (if not already displayed).

    The Burn tab in Windows Media Player

  3. Ensure the type of disc to be burned is set to Audio CD.

    If you plan to create an MP3 CD instead, change the disc type by selecting Burn Options (image of a checkmark near the top-right-hand corner of the screen).

  4. Add your songs, playlist, etc., to the burn list as usual.

  5. Select the Start Burn button to begin writing the music to audio CD.

  6. When the CD has been created, eject it (if not automatically done) and then reinsert it to test.

If you don't know how to add music from your digital music library to Window Media Player's burn list (step 4 above), read up on how to burn an audio CD with WMP to find out more.

Was this page helpful?