ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

My sister just got a Sony CD MP3 Player for her birthday. It seems that sony has dropped the WMA Support and added their own ATRAC3 and ATRAC3Plus in it's place. The problem is that their software is very slow and cumbersome to use. Could you Add ATRAC3 Support to your program?

What seems to be the deal with Sony and their excusiveness with their technolog....anyways why would you want to have a cd at such low qualaty as ATRAC3? thats like 64kb/s! 128-192kb/s is about the best if you want to bother compressing the files much. But the highest ATRAC3 qualaty is around 132?kb/s so thats still low but i guess its "supposedly" a better comp. algorythm than the mp3 one. So i guess it would be a good idea to somhow include support fot ATRAC3 in dbpowerAMP......but i bet it would be a CLI encoder only........

ATRAC issues
 

There's an inherent problem with that, which is what Sony encoded the ATRAC music as. Although yes, their compression provides a better byte/second ratio than standard MP3 ecoding, but they also built in a layer of encrpytion that requires signing a whole bunch of (apparently) expensive paperrwork and litigations to be able to use. It's definitely not the standard run of the mill, either. Based on MagicGate (hence Sony's decision to add MG to all of their players bundled with NetMD units), the MG protocol is apparently what they use to also encode memory stick data amongst other things, so Sony will not release the ability to unlock it readily.

Albeit very cool, I wonder if it would be worth the while. There used to be an open source project called Open/NMD (Open NetMiniDisc) that would allow the same functionality as Sony's player to play the ATRAC3 format. But they seemed to have dissapeared shortly after getting someplace. I'm sure their work is now 'out there' someplace, but who is to say if it is legal in these 'mod and get sued by corporation x' days.

Just my thoughts and knowledge on the subject.

.:: epoch of entropy

im not sure if this is on the task, but you know how wave files have an ending in .wav and meny other ones have diffrent types (eg .mpg). whats the endinf for ATRAC3Plus thingy.

I really can't remember cause it's a little difficult to find, but I belive they are ATP or AT2 AT3 somthing like that.

thank for helping. But it looks like i cant find any file on the internet with .ATP, .AT2 or .AT3. I'v have tryed useing p2p (Kazaa) and a URL/FTP searchers as well as dogpile & altavista. if someone know a good place to get ATRAC3 music or a website for software to download a MP3-->ATRAC3 tell me, as i have been looking for one for weeks. thanks

I'm pretty sure the Atrac format has some kind of DRM protection which prevents it from being played on any computer except the original. :cry:

.omg and it could have DRM protection.

i searched download.com for atrac3 and found a atrac3 converter (from mp3 etc -> atrac3 and from atrac -> mp3 etc..)

i'm on the search for a atrac3 player/cracker/anything ... nobody knows anything?

I have got onto Sony and they tell me you can only get the software as a spare part. It's expensive as well. I too would like to get may hands on the Atrac3plus software but no luck so far.

I tried download.com as well, and found one CD rip/burn utility that claimed conversion support. However, upon install it displayed a "this feature not currently supported" dialog.

I'll keep searching.

I too own a cd player with this format
The format is a pain. It takes forever to encode and can only be played on my discman. I cant even play the cds i make back on the computer. The only reason i use this format is because i am running out of room to store cds and i can hold on average 24hours of music one one atrac3 plus cd.
I am looking for software to let me play atrac cds on my computer, but i doubt i will ever find one.

The same to me... I don't think that Sony will release the format specifications to privates or open source projects... but why not try?

where i can find soft to ATRAC3
 

Where I can find the software of the atrac3 or atrac3plus for extraction and audio recording

I don't think we will be seeing Atrac3 support in DBpowerAmp anytime soon. (unless it all the sudden becomes open source or somthing like that, or sony makes development tools for software creators)


-Joseph

Several of you say that atrac3plus takes a long time and is combersome to use. I recorded the bulk of my collection on one CD-R which was about 35- 40 disks. I have also used mp3 conversion programs in the past and those took 75-100% longer than the sonic stage simple burner. I cued all the tracks and burned them in about two evenings.
As far as being cumbersome, I will agree with you there. The exclusivity of this technology will be limiting as we have seen in the past. I know that if Sony makes available this technology for use in software packages on pcs and macs, this technology has a chance of being more popular than mp3. If not, it should die a quick and relatively painless death.
I like Atrac3plus for several reasons. I will run out of batteries before it completes one playing of the disk. I have the option of making better quality recordings, the software is easy to use, and I can still rip and burn mp3 files if I so desire.
Sony delivered with a product that works exactly as they said it would! How many products can you say that about? I only have one problem with their Atrac3plus technology, in that it is in fact exclusive to certain Sony products. That in itself limits their fair evaluation of their market to only those who purchase their products. They may find, inaccurately, that demand or interest in the technology they created is seriously lacking and may in fact discontinue any support whatsoever in the future, unfortunately.
I too will keep searching for the right download and if I come up with anything I will post.
I also just found out that you can take the WalkMan "Output" (phones) and patch them into the "Line-In" jack of your sound card. It sounds awesome to me! Now I need better speakers and an A/C adapter. So many things to get, so little time! LOL! Please post what you think. I like hearing different viewpoints because mine is certainly not right!
troylawson

The only beef I have with Sonic Stage Simple Burner is that one time, I was ripping a large amount of CD's to Atrac3Plus for my sister, and in the middle of burning the software said error, and all the information was lost and the cd was unusable. I wish it could've ripped the cd's to the hard disk and then burned them, but it rips them to a temp directory and if something goes wrong all that hard work that you did ends up getting thrown away.

That's why we want Atrac3 and Atrac3Plus supported in DBpowerAmp. So we can have entire music collections of Atrac encoded files on our hard drive at our disposal, to do whatever we want with them, and play them in DBpowerAmp and even convert them to another format if we wanted to.

Most sentiments expressed here are appreciated and respected by me, as a temporary ATRAC CD Walkman user.

Definately, SS Simple Burner should be binned and the appropriate support added to SonicStage proper (the full version) as this at least allows track preview post encoding - yep, any ATRAC user will agree with the sentiment that some tracks will not effectively encode well at the highest comp rate, so you kinda have to mix and match your tracks compression rates for the best results. This is always the case, as anyone doing lots of compression in any format understands.

I'm sad to say that SS Simple Burner is the only reason the D-NE1 is gonna be returned to the retailer, as i have no intention of transcoding my files twice either to MP3 or to Audio CD just to get them on a bloody ATRAC CD-ROM.

SS Simple Burner is also hated here, due to not being able to keep a localised backup of encoded files that can be easily re-organised into a new compilation without the the usual image-build from sources stupidity.

I've only ever burnt ATRAC to CD-RW, so i can't comment too much on the probs that are mentioned about trashed discs since i tend to use the re-usable aspect of CD when it comes to CDP's.

I'd definately support the call for ATRAC support in dBPowerAmp, but definately wouldnt see the need for getting caught up in Sony Corp's legal hell as a necessary evil to achieve the goal - better to not bother than endure Sony as a legal adversary.

Well, that's my moan and observations - and i still stand by my comments elsewhere that dBPowerAmp MC stands proud as a item of software for everyone, a few non-supported codecs dont change matters one bit :o)

'Tom Kat' - The Audio-world Cat Spirit much hated by audiophiles and Ogg users :oP

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

This is my first post to this forum. Just had to say something after I received the wonderful D-NE1 yesterday as a present.

Maybe I haven't lived with the product long enough yet to see its warts but.........

I was exceptionally skeptical (before I listened) as to how a track compressed to 64Kbits would sound. After burning up a CD-RW with some tracks I was amazed! When you consider the level of compression the quality is amazing...... and I'm used to listening to my music on a high end system.


[quote=Unregistered]
"I'm sad to say that SS Simple Burner is the only reason the D-NE1 is gonna be returned to the retailer, as i have no intention of transcoding my files twice either to MP3 or to Audio CD just to get them on a bloody ATRAC CD-ROM."

But WHY do you need to? That's the whole point of the D-NE1. It already plays MP3 discs and CD's. I certainly wouldn't bother re-encoding into ATRAC3plus until I can play them directly from my PC...... Which really brings me to the point of this post. From a quick look around the 'net I get the feeling that Sony are keeping the ATRAC3plus codecs to themselves. Right? Surely someone out there has (or will be soon) written a player application. That's what I'm looking for.

Rob.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

i have good news and bad news. as being one of the first to start this conversation i felt responsible for finding a solution.

I'll start with the good news i have found one is all what we've been looking for. i added some file to suport reading/writing of ATRAC3 format wich i called ".AC3"

but sit down i ran into a few problems. I'll start from the top and if anyone can help, tell me, as this might be it. i use a program to serch for ATRAC3 formats and found tones of bull and 3 real sites.

problem 1) the way i serched was for evry site that had a ftp port related too music i serched its storige (not me a lame prgram). but each site changed the ftp site locations and you cant realy ask them where too as this was a aligal way of doing things. this was the first problem and easyest.

Problem 2) i downloaded a few files that are needed for the program and then. well you know that stuff about music sharing and how big companys are prepering too sue. the people uploading and downlaoding music files. the programs alowing this and the actulal fact that you have something (music file) on your PC your computer will be serched and if you have there tag your in shit. thay took this a step further thay put out fake software for converting (its not fake but it dosent remove the tag, insted for thr people who have finaly craked it making them think thay have). and know there ARE!!! ATRAC3 music files under the name ****.AC3-2 BUT!!!!!!! dont get it. its got a tracer on them thats better the the mp3 one.

anyway to the concustion. i havent taken much notes about that tag mp3 shit, but know i have. i cant be bothered finding it and so if someone knows were to get it post it so i can try to make a REAL ATRAC3 tag remover from a mp3 one. last advice whatever you do dont try to mess it AC3-2 i almost ended up being in jail on the same night i found this out.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

AC3 I would think, is the Dolby AAC v3. Nothing to do with Sony.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

lol na its not that i know what that is; i'm not a idiot im programmer. just trust me on this one what your talking about is a format of a file or a encoder for an audio file and usualy their seen as "blabla.ATC" the code is AC3 writiing.

what im talking about it AC3-2 "blabal.AC32" the 2 for V2

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

...........and now for a followup. I was obviously a bit hasty with my post above. Now I've lived with the player for a few weeks I've got to say that the ATRAC3plus encoding is very disappointing! 80% of tracks will sounds good. 20% are just unlistenable. On these tracks it seems to totally screw up something in the rhythm section and produces a noise sounding something like two coconut shell halves being clapped together! This sound certainly isn't in the original recording! Sorry Sony, ATRAC3plus is NOT the way to go if you want good quality reproduction. (BTW this is at 64Kbit/sec)
My advice it to stick to MP3 at between 128 and 196Kbit/sec and just live with having less tunes per CD.

I also now have to agree with the comments on Sonic stage simple burner. TOTAL RUBBISH! If you have to rip MP3's to fill an ATRAC3plus disk make sure you've got the WHOLE afternoon to do it. It's SLOW!

On a postive note the D-NE1 itself is still a brilliant disc player!

Rob.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

I recently buy a Sony walkman with the SonicStage software and as said, when I rip CDs to make an ATRAC3plus CD, I get an error message which tells me to close the application. Of course, all the rips, localised in the temp directory is lost and have to do it all over again (not too good when you are ripping the 11th CD !).
I try to keep the temp file apart but it's not working.
Anyone has a solution to stop the bug from shutting down the application while in the middle of CD Rip ? Or at least "resume" the rip using the temp files ?

Thanx a lot

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

I had the same problem as you, so first I tried to update the program, and that didn't work. So I just use mp3 now. Since I never did find a solution... :(

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

Hi im a new guy to this thing, but i have this sony discman that supports that atrac3plus mp3 stuff. and i was at my cousins computer when i installed the software, and burned all the songs.i think 81. but when i get here, i install the software, and when i burn the songs, no matter wut i do, or speed, ALL the songs skip... it sucks, because ive wasted like 6 cds doing one song to test which speed to burn on. does anyone have any ideas?? im considering to sell this and get a normal mp3/cd player , so i can play it on my stereo and discman. BUT I REALLY NEED HELP!!

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

Stupid. I can't believe that Sony's making me return this player. This is just about the dumbest thing that I've ever heard of. Great product, absolutely horrific delivery.

Someone should be shot.

-Ajay

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

ooooohhhh RAGE ANGER VIOLENCE!!!!!! This program is stealing my free time and I want Sony to pay me back for it! (they can afford it surely!!!) I've just spent all evening doing half a disc (from half eight to half eleven) and got half the songs prepared and the thing bombed AGAIN!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRR..... I want my life back now, sony are a bunch of rich cretins who don't give a flying ATRAC burning program for their customers. Customer Support?!?!!?!? Where!?

An enraged recent Sony customer.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

They only do it because Sony Music Label side tells them to, BTW different departments of Sony have sued themselves in the past! talk about conflict of interest...

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

I got this cd from one of my friends because he had a cool collection of the 50 Cents and the Rap. But i have searched the hell at downloads.com, imesh kazaa and all the other search engines to find a software that actually plays the cd for me. I think the sony guys are really nuts. By not releasing any software for the pcs to play artec3plus files they are shooting on their own foot!!!

A really frustrated person!!!!

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

Atrac3...what a load of rubbish, Sony...love there products...most of em... apart from when it gets down to their mp3 players.

Iv got an nw ms7 with xp. i then had a promblem with my cmp and had 2 ditch the upgrade of ver 2.0. Now i want it back but it won't install and ver 1.1/1.2 won't work on xp...!!!


I can't even find any solutions for this to checkin/out music! Any solutions?

Btw great website about the way sony really are!!

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

How did you find the atrac converter? Can you please tell me???

C.L.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

I have been enjoying the posts on this subject...

About a year ago I bought an MP3 portable CD player, (RCA) about $60.00 and it lasted about 3 months...

I was going to pitch it in the trash can, when I realized I had bought Best Buy's 2 yr replacement warrenty...

So, I thought I would upgrade and get a Sony Minidisc, MZ-N510 as I was hoping to be able to do a little recording from my little Tascan 4 channel mixer...

Now, you read thru the advertising stuff on the Sony package and you get the impression that the minidisc will play MP3's...then I found out that I had to convert my MP3's to the ATRAC3 format which then takes up additional HD space...don't like that...:(

THEN I found out that with SonicStage I could only "move" my ATRAC3 cuts back and forth between my computer and my Sony 3 times...!!!...this is absoutly ridiculous....!!!

Those items, and the fact that SonicStage is pretty buggy, requiring multiple restarts, multiple re-connections of the Sony to the USB cable, and a SonicStage is NOT the easiest piece of software to figgure out...

I was pretty p*blooper**blooper**blooper**blooper*d at the whole deal...

BUT...I love the sound quality...the "el cheapo" head sets that came with the Sony are very well suited to the output of the little Sony player...It sounds significantly better than my JVC headsets that I paid about $80 for a couple of years ago plugged into the soundcard on my computer, Soundblaster Live....

AND, the unit itself is small enough that I can put it in my shirtpocket and continue working or whatever I'm doing...and it doesn't skip while jogging...

Yes, recording to the minidisc is annoying...It takes far too long and way too many hassels...

I also have an MP3 player with a 128mg SC card and I can drag and drop about 25 MP3 files to it in about 10 minutes or so...

So it would seem that the con's outweigh the pro's...but with the portability and sound quality, even at a lower bit rate than MP3's, I really like my little Sony and have decided NOT to get rid of it...

I got a packet of 10 minidiscs and have put a bunch of my favorite cuts on them and I'm quite happy...

Now, for those who are interested...here is a link to another forum that talks about using a Nero CD burner in RAM disk to do your ATRAC3 files and eliminate the 3 moves of your tracks on and off the minidisc...

I have not tried this yet, maybe this weekend, but it looks like a workable option to SonicStage...

http://www.t-station.net/forum/showt...&threadid=4825

Enjoy, and thanks for your time...

Steve
St Louis, MO

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

I have a question... does a Atrac3/mp3 cd player from sony also read just regular mp3 cds without the atrac coding? or does it have to be in that coding? thanx

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

This goes to people who have a Sony MDnet Player and use Sonic Stage.

If you want to transfer your MP3s to your MD player, be sure to have your MP3s encode in a quality not higher than 256kbps. I'm suggesting 224kbps because I experience some problems when converting MP3s with 256kbps quality songs to ATRAC3, they did not play on my PC nor the MD player. Strange enough, if you have your songs encode in .wma, you can go to 320kbps quality with no problems at all !

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

If you have a MDnet Player from Sony, they will only read ATRAC - ATRAC3 format.

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

i also would like to get that converter!!! got the link? i can't find it....

unless it is somewhere else?

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

Problem:

I'm a guitar player that uses the Sony MZ-N710 in combination with the Sony ECM-ZS90 Stereo zoom mircophone, to record my stuff.

The problem is that my recordings apear as ATRAC and it seems impossible to copy them to the 'musicdrive' (harddisk).
Y?

It doesn't seem to have any problems with im-/exporting ATRAC3
files. Has anyone experienced this particulair problem?
Is there a patch of some sort?

Thanx in advance,
mailto:plectrum69@hotmail.com

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support
 

Re: ATRAC3 & ATRAC3Plus Support