JVC to Release New HQ Music File Compression

[Christopher]

A few news sites are buzzing of a software/technology called "Net K2", which seems to be compatible with ATRAC.

Victor of Japan said it developed music compression technology that retains a sound quality similar to that of a compact disc.

JVC's technology, called "Net K2," is compatible with formats like Apple Computer's AAC and Sony's ATRAC, according to the company. Victor is a unit of Matsushita Electric Industrial.

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Japanese Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that JVC is about to introduce a new high quality music file compression technology.

JVC's new music compression is supposed to allow downloaded music files to have CD quality. JVC Victor will offer CD tracks for download with the new compression starting October. JVC developed a player software for portable music players to use the new format. In the article there is no word about how well the technology compresses. Strangely enough the JVC technology is supposed to be compatible with Apple's AAC and Sony's ATRAC format.

I will update this post when more information becomes available.

[Guest NRen2k5]

Doesn't make any sense to me. You can't make formats compatible to one another. You're either using one or another.

Either this is typical press/marketing FLUFF, or somebody messed up and said "compatible" when they meant to say "comparable".

[Beethovenian]

From what I could grasp reading a report on this, Net K2 is not a compression, but a decompression technology. It in some way decode Atrac or AAC or WMA files "restoring" what was lost during encoding. I suppose they use the standards of each codec to guess what would have been eliminated during compression. It's an interesting concept. Don't know if they'll only use it with their MP3 players.

[Richard_p]

Surely as NRen2k5, said you are using one or the other, perhaps thier software will simply allow conversion of Atrac AAC into NetK2, perhaps with Beethovenian sugestion of of 'restoring' of the file to yield higher SQ.

It will be interesting to see what does bocome of this. I'd be surprised if non JVC players could use it.

[Damage]

Smells like bunches of marketingese speak to me, and immediately brings up D.Sound by Panasonic to mind... Which added nothing but harsh brightness to the audio.

Bah-humbug.