Lion doesn't read mp3 cds?

Of course it isn't the case; he's making up crap to spread FUD.

What happens when you try to rip the discs into iTunes?

Maybe its a bug. Report it.

Then use your Win 7 box to copy the music to your Mac

Wow... Parttimer... just wow.


I'm gonna venture a guess here.
Were the mp3-CD's burned on a Windows computer?
I'm guessing they were... and the sessions were not closed out "properly"... so the discs don't meet the CD "spec"...

Most windows software is aware of this "feature" of windows CD-burning and can work with it.
OSX has never supported this "feature" (since it's not part of the "spec") and therefore can't read it.




really, Parttimer?... really ?!?!

I missed that part about them working on earlier versions of OSX ... But I still think that's a more likely explanation than osmosis! (it's hard to even type that without laughing out loud!)

I cannot vouch for Parttimer's use of the term osmosis, but his explanation is largely correct. Commercial discs use a thin aluminum film into which the content is pressed as microscopic pits. The pits alter the reflection angle of the reading laser. Home burned CDs and DVDs use a completely different method to store content. Instead of a thin film of aluminum, these discs have a thin film of optically-sensitive material. The laser in the write head of the burner changes the phase of the material, creating little phase change spots that correspond to each bit of content. Unlike the aluminum film of commercial discs, there is no mechanical change to the medium. However, the laser of the reader has different reflectances for the phase change spots than for the spots without the phase change.

Parttimer may be overly generous in his assessment of the durability of commercial CDs. The aluminum film is fairly durable, but the plastic carrier is plastic. Plastic deteriorates over time. That is the nature of the beast. I would hope that a commercial CD lasts twenty years, but I am taking no bets.

Home burned discs, however, are a whole different game. Blank discs vary from model line to model line. Some burning heads use higher powered lasers which will result in greater phase change in the sensitive film. Some read heads on the reader/player are more sensitive than others. But the part that you cannot escape is that the data are recorded by light and can therefore be destroyed by light. My personal experience with CDs is that they are actually fairly durable. DVDs are a whole 'nother ball game. The phase change spots are substantially smaller and substantially less durable with DVDs than with CDs.

Home burned CDs should receive minimal exposure to light and DVDs, none at all. My experience with DVDs told me that the notion of archiving my data on Blu-ray was a pipe dream. Afterall, Blu-ray phase change spots are even smaller and less durable than DVD phase change spots.

Call it osmosis, call it banana. The bottom line is that data archiving on optical media is a short-term and unreliable proposition.

I think your best bet is to use a USB stick to transfer the files from the CD from your Windows computer to the Mac. It could be the drive firmware, Lion, or the Mac not "liking" the burnt CD for whatever reason. Not much point wondering what went wrong.

um... no. You're not even close.

Osmosis is the use of a semi-permeable membrane to allow certain solvents (depending on what's used as a "membrane") to pass through, while not allowing other molecules through. Solutions of different concentrations, separated by the membrane, will allow the solvent to pass through in an effort to try to equalize the concentrations...

"Good ol' red rust" is an example of oxidation, not osmosis... two VERY different things.

keep trying.

It's a shame Parttimer doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when it comes to osmosis, because it casts doubt over his credibility and makes people less likely to pay attention to the meat of his message, which is entirely true. Home-burned optical disks do not last very long!

If you want more evidence than that little PC World article, I'm sure Google and Wikipedia between them should satisfy you.