Sony ATRAC Technology

**91yjeeper** · 09-01-2004, 07:03 PM

Anybody here use this or heard of it. From what I have researched you can put up to 490 songs on one
cd.

I think I would do this instead of a simple mp3 player setup for only $60 you could get a decent atrac portable cd player and then either splice it into your radio antenna or fm transmit it. Just a thought.

**jpelzer** · 09-01-2004, 07:09 PM

ATrac is just another compression format. It's been around for a long time, as it is behind the scenes in all versions of minidisc, as well as Sony's current ill-fated attempts to dethrone the iPod.

It has decent sound at lower bitrates, but it's not going to blow your mind or anything. It is way too proprietary for my taste, and last I checked the Sony software had all sorts of limitations...

For instance, it will only let you transfer an MP3 onto 3 discs. Yes, you heard me right, Sony wants to put draconian "rights management" onto your own MP3's, and limit how many copies you can make of your own files.

If you're trying to save money, get a plain portable mp3 player. You can record MP3's at lower bitrate VBR and they'll sound identical in a car environment, and you'll be able to fit the same number of songs.

**bjm2020** · 09-01-2004, 07:18 PM

does anyone know how to compress cd's into ATrac3 format? A friend of mine just bought a new eclipse head unit. It has a sony memory stick slot but it says that it can only play atrac3 encoded files from the memory stick. However, it didn't come with any software to transfer files to Atrac3