Walkman Phones

[El Smudge]

Does anybody know if the Sony Ericsson Walkman phones (W800 ideally) support ATRAC files or only MP3 files ?

Was thinking of getting one, but as I ahve a NW-A1000 all my files are ATRAC !

Thanks

[Guest Stuge]

El Smudge,

W800 doesn`t support Atrac ..ONLY MP3`s.

I know it`s shocking but it`s true .

[El Smudge]

Are Sony completely mad

They come up with a supposedly all singing all dancing format that they don't support half the time ?

pillocks

[doclloyd]

Agreed. I really, really want the w810i (quad-band version of w800) and this part really surprised me. The only hope I have that the phone could support ATRAC later is some short video interview an Engadget rep had with a SE/Sony rep @ CES talking about the w810 and online music. The guy said they were working with Sony and the Connect team to make it work together...

See here http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/15/video-h...on-sonys-w810i/

Of course it was only a sales/floor guy, who knows how much merit one can put into what he offered up. We shall find out soon enough I suppose.

[MDX-400]

Hmm interesting info. Yeah if the w810i really does support Connect [service], you'd think it would have to support ATRAC3/3plus... The only other alternative would be a SonicStage that transcoded ATRAC3/3plus to MP3 and then transferred it to the phone! Now that would be really a$$ backwards, considering most Sony devices from a few years ago were doing the exact opposite.

Of course as you said, it may just be incorrect info and the phone may not support Connect at all But if it does I'd think it would support ATRAC3/3plus.

I think it is more Ericsson than Sony, however, that has prevented the use of ATRAC on the SE phones. I think it has more to do with the fear of the word ATRAC in general scaring away most people.

Everytime I mention ATRAC or a Sony DAP device to any "layperson", they always automatically associate that with "being forced to convert/use their format". We all know this is no longer true (and for most devices hasn't been true for some time) but a lot of people out there still somehow translate "ATRAC" into "incompatibility/conversion/forced use of proprietary format"...

I think Ericsson might have feared the phones wouldn't sell well if the ability was there? Just a guess, but it does make some sense to introduce ATRAC support after MP3, from that point of view at least.

[Damage]

1. Don't bother using SonicStage and Walkman phones together, it doesn't even show up at all on the transfer area.

2. The phones have upgradeable firmware, so this leaves the door open for ATRAC support if at all in the future.

3. Oddly enough, the phone supports MP3 and AAC (MP4, that codec that iPod uses).

The Walkman media player interface is rather closer to orange skinned iPod interface than any of the Walkman interfaces (though it lacks quite a bit of organization done by the iPod and is superficially similar to the iPod). However, I think this was rather intentional on the part of Sony-Ericsson (more Ericsson here, since Sony's not made mobile phone in ages) to attract the iPod users. Take in all of those factors, and it at least becomes somewhat understandable why ATRAC didn't make it into the phones, yet (that and perhaps the carriers wanting a piece of the market, but that's another story altogether)...

However, the future is decidely open, since there are more cross branding on these excellent phones (cybershot phones and the rumored Playstation branded phones).

Bit of a sidenote, but the Walkman phone does come with a sample track by Jem, though i can't quite recall what that track is.