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[Dra_Gon]

This is for all you major programmers.
I'm looking for the information myself but have had no luck so far and I figure something like this could make someone some very good $$$.

My idea is to make a small program which would be read by any CD Player. Audio CD's generally allow for 15-20 songs, formatted so the player can read them. What this program would do would be to "fool" the player into playing music on the CD which is simply stored digitally {allowing approx. 150 songs to be played}.

The program {in my mind, such as it is } would be the first thing the player reads, possibly "taking over" the controls: when you press PLAY the program gets the first song and plays it, and so on with the other controls.

IF this is possible, I'm sure a lot of people would love to have it since they wouldn't have to carry around a whole bunch of CD's just to have a large variety. Sure, MP3 Players are taking over just as CD Players did to Cassette Players, but there are still many people who use CD Players.

Anyway, that was my idea {and I'm still going to look into it myself} so maybe someone here will be able to come up with something on it.

Ciao,
Dra'Gon
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[engunneer]

so you want to make some special track that reprograms a cd player to read non CD formated music files?

This is not possible. If you want me to list the reasons, I will be able to do so in a few days.
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[tic]

Oh man! You need to read about how cd players work

[Dra_Gon]

[engunneer]

the most basic one is that the CD player's microcontroller is usually (unless it is already capable of playing data discs) an OTP (One Time Programmable) chip, so the code for reading CDs is already burned into memory. You could replace the controller with one that has a different program, but you cannot load a new program via CD. The data pathways just aren't there.
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[Dra_Gon]

I wasn't thinking it to be reprogrammed, more like redirected while the CD is playing. The player would be "seeing" the format expected and all the controls would operate through the program.

The program would tell the player that it is playing a track. Just a little bit of misdirection to the player's code. I'm not a professional programmer {basically just playing around and trying things here and there} so I have no clue on how to even attempt something like this. I just figured it should be possible hypothetically. But if it's not, ah well, I'll think of some other "impossible" task . Thanks for the replies.

Ciao,
Dra'Gon
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For a good laugh {hopefully} >> megamatts.50megs.com

SciFi/Fantasy Short Stories I wrote {StohlerWorlds I} >>
http://www.mediafire.com/?2yisetu0jud

[corrupt]

If you don't plan on reprogramming and if the player is still seeing the same format then what do you expect would be running your program to misdirect the player's code?

[engunneer]

then he just needs a CD that can change it's own bits. Then you can fake anything to any player
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[Dra_Gon]

Okay, so maybe I am a little naive about programming . However, what I was thinking would be for the player to see the program as a regular track. Once the program is read it would simply act as a "cover", sort of like a traffic signal I suppose. Instead of the player going to the next track though, the program would simply tell the player it has done so and bring up another song on the disc.
Anyway, if it's not possible, no big deal. It was just a nice idea.

Ciao,
Dra'Gon
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For a good laugh {hopefully} >> megamatts.50megs.com

SciFi/Fantasy Short Stories I wrote {StohlerWorlds I} >>
http://www.mediafire.com/?2yisetu0jud

[engunneer]

I certainly don't want to keep you from coming up with ideas (It is a cool idea, just not possible). I think it's better to find out up front that an idea won't work so you don't go crazy trying to make it happen.

I understood exactly what you meant by a track being read as a program, but the basic requirement is that the CD player be looking for instructions and not music data. If you play a disc containing computer instructions to something not expecting (or capable) of reading them, it just sounds like noise.

related: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/07/16/apple-i-basic-plucke.html
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[SoggyDog]

@engunneer

Way to keep your cool and give reasonable answers to an unreasonable question. The cheese would've slid off my cracker about ten posts ago. I believe that Dra_Gon understands now why this isn't possible, yet won't be afraid bounce other ideas off us in the future.

Here's a silly one for you... I always thought it would be interesting to make a CD that works as a converter for plugging an MP3 player in to, much like the old cassettes we used to plug in to tape decks to play our CDs through (Like this)

Nice work.
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[engunneer]

Used to?

I still use one for my iPod.

how would you make the wire spin? I suppose you could make a little device that has a shutter that simulates the bits, but it would be really slow. Might be possible for a walkman without a lid, but you'd be hard pressed to shove it in a slot loading player.
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[SoggyDog]

[TheIrishThug]

FM transmitters are great unless you live in a major city where the FM spectrum is already sliced as small as it can be. I'm just hoping auxiliary inputs are standard by the time I have to get a new car because I'm going to be really sad when I have to stop using my tape adapter.

[SoggyDog]

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