New Player

[keith m]

Hi All,

I'm thinking about upgrading my NW-A1000 to the NW-A808, I'm one of the lucky ones and never had any problems with Sonic Stage therefore I've quite a good library so I'd like to continue with Atrac, but would I be better of getting NWZ-A818 as I think I received an email from Sony saying they are stopping ATRAC. The NWZ-A818 doesn't support Atrac but I could convert my library to MP3 on transfer.

Your views appreciated.

keith m

[juli_]

I'd like to continue with Atrac, but would I be better of getting NWZ-A818 as I think I received an email from Sony saying they are stopping ATRAC.

Sony are definitely not stopping Atrac. They confirm this on their website. They are continuing to support and update Atrac for all existing users, and the 818 (same model) will be Atrac free. Maybe your e-mail referred to the fact they're doing away with Connect next year?

[bob123_]

It looks like for those of us outside of Japan, future walkman players will be without ATRAC support. So if you are planning to upgrade now and in the future then it is sensible to encode your music to mp3/acc (there are other forum topics with view on what is best). From what I understand and have experienced your plan to convert your atrac music to mp3 will result in a decrease in the quality of the music. You will essentially be compressing a track from an already compressed track. So, as bad as it sounds you are better to get those cds out again and rip straight to mp3/acc.

[atown8605]

From what I understand and have experienced your plan to convert your atrac music to mp3 will result in a decrease in the quality of the music. You will essentially be compressing a track from an already compressed track. e]

Even if the atrac file is in a lossless format?

[bob123_]

From what I understand and have experienced your plan to convert your atrac music to mp3 will result in a decrease in the quality of the music. You will essentially be compressing a track from an already compressed track. e]

Even if the atrac file is in a lossless format?

I'm not sure about the lossless format (i assume you mean ATRAC lossless). I'll leave that question for others on this forum with better expertise/experience. But I would have thought that if you can convert an ATRAC Lossless to mp3/acc without using the lossy ATRAC file then presumably the quality should be preserved.

[keith m]

"Sony are definitely not stopping Atrac. They confirm this on their website. They are continuing to support and update Atrac for all existing users, and the 818 (same model) will be Atrac free. Maybe your e-mail referred to the fact they're doing away with Connect next year?"

Yes I probably read the email wrong, so as they are contnuing with Atrac I'll go for the NW-A808 so I don't have to convert my existing files and as it is a good price at Play.com.

keith m

[lamewing]

One thing to consider is that even though the new Sony 6xx ande 8xx series can use WMP 11, there are still limitations. WMP 11 will NOT recognoize or transfer AAC files. No such luck. This is really annoying considering the Zune software (repackaged WMP 11) handles AAC just fine. The only way to tranfer AAC files is drag and drop, which can become a hassle when dealing with many, many folders. I may send my a818 back to Sony and import the A808 instead. I didn't mind SSCP too much, but I really do need software to keep track of my files.

Are there any other options besides WMP 11?

[ceres]

One thing to consider is that even though the new Sony 6xx ande 8xx series can use WMP 11, there are still limitations. WMP 11 will NOT recognoize or transfer AAC files. No such luck. This is really annoying considering the Zune software (repackaged WMP 11) handles AAC just fine. The only way to tranfer AAC files is drag and drop, which can become a hassle when dealing with many, many folders. I may send my a818 back to Sony and import the A808 instead. I didn't mind SSCP too much, but I really do need software to keep track of my files.

Are there any other options besides WMP 11?

The latest version of mediamonkey handles aac and yes WMP 11 is crippled in that regard. It is a particularly stupid move of MS to block AAC and promote WMA. Quality aside, AAC has been on the constant rise ever since it´s been implemented in virtually every mobile phone on the planet. I think we still have to wait for media manager to fully unlock the potential of the latest gen walman players. The same holds true for the entire competition of the ipod. The latest samsung players as well as zens also have the same problem. MS can be very stubborn so I don´t count on an update of wmp too soon. WMP 11 is a considerable upgrade over Sonic but not the end of the road.

Edited September 28, 2007 by ceres

[C3POwen]

I had a similar dilemma to yours -- I wanted to upgrade from my NW-A1200 to one of the new colour-screen video players but, having heard that the new NWZ-810s would no longer support Atrac, wasn't sure whether to wait and get one when they came out or buy one of the (slightly) older NW-A800 models. My NW-A808 arrived in the post this morning, so I guess you can see which way I decided to go.

I have a fairly decent-sized library in SonicStage and have never had any problems with it. I find Atrac3 132kbps completely suitable to my ears AND it's also gapless which, as far as I know, the Sony players can't do with any other format other than Atrac. I'm well aware that the iPod can do gapless MP3 and AAC, but I think I'll only get myself an iPod when I grow wool all over my body and start bleating.

I think the only thing that would've put me off getting the A808 (only £80 brand new from eBay! Bargain!) would have been Sony announcing an Atrac-compatible 16GB player that would definitely be making an appearance here in the UK, unlike the recently-announced Japan-only model. It'll be just my luck if Sony UK start advertising that on their site...