Should I delete my atrac files and start afresh?

[The Mule]

I have a 20Gb player which is roughly 3Gb full. All the files stored on it are atrac (i used this format because I prefer gapless). Having just read that this format is going to be rendered obsolete I was wondering whether I should go through the hassle of deleting it all and replacing them with MP3's since only a small percentage of the memory is filled. The other option is to keep on adding songs in atrac format.

Quite interested to see if other atrac users are continuing to add songs to their players in atrac format or if they have "converted" to MP3.

[Guest Stuge]

I will rather make a back up of original files i.e Mp3 files and if your songs are in cd ie Audio Cd .then you don;t have to worry much .

[The Mule]

Most of the stuff i have on the player is stored on my PC in mp3 format anyway. I had been converting it to Atrac just so I could use gapless. But this process is pretty time consuming, plus I have been using Connect Version 1.0 as the later versions don't let you convert mp3 to Atrac.

I have to admit i am very tempted just to start afresh after hearing that Atrac was going to be made redundant. I have a lot of music still to add to the player and changing to Mp3 would also mean i could upgrade to the latest software and have my music transfered over much quicker.

[Guest Stuge]

Most of the stuff i have on the player is stored on my PC in mp3 format anyway. I had been converting it to Atrac just so I could use gapless. But this process is pretty time consuming, plus I have been using Connect Version 1.0 as the later versions don't let you convert mp3 to Atrac.

I have to admit i am very tempted just to start afresh after hearing that Atrac was going to be made redundant. I have a lot of music still to add to the player and changing to Mp3 would also mean i could upgrade to the latest software and have my music transfered over much quicker.

It's upto you what you want to do and yes ,Changing from Atrac to Mp3 will be better option ,if you are planning to get NWZ-A81x series walkman.

[The Mule]

I've just formatted the walkman. Now I'm looking to upgrade the software, and am downloading SonicSTage CP

Edited January 10, 2008 by The Mule

[The Mule]

So i upgraded to SonicStage CP 4.3 and started transferring MP3's to the device. Now i find when play back tracks with a variable bit rate the clock/timer at the bottom left corner of the NW-A3000 screen goes crazy jumping back and forth rather than just going forward.

I vaguely remember someone talking about this on this forum a while back but i cant find the thread. Anyone else experienced this? It says that Firmware 3.0 supported VBR but there seems to be some sort of glitch.

[atown8605]

Why are you changing atrac to mp3?

It wont sound any different.

Edited January 12, 2008 by atown8605

[The Mule]

I'm changing because atrac has been declared obselete and it will save me converting my mp3's to atrac in the future.

[ceres]

I'm changing because atrac has been declared obselete and it will save me converting my mp3's to atrac in the future.

Atrac has reached end of life status in all non Japanese Walkman devices currently on sale. There is still compatibility in Playstation products but once

you move on to new Walkman gear, you will be left out. So yes, I would go ahead and use lame mp3 even if this includes re-ripping all your cds again.

[pata2001]

If you're going to keep using your A3000, then why delete the Atrac files? Your player will still be able to play those files.

However, if you're thinking of moving on, then start ripping newer tracks in MP3/AAC. If you need gapless, there are other DAPs that can play MP3/AAC gaplessly.

[The Mule]

The main reason for changing is that i download 90% of my music in mp3 format. I had been converting all these mp3's to atrac when i transferred them to the player so i could have gapless, and this was time consuming. When Sony announced it was abandoning Atrac i thought it would be a good time to switch to mp3 as i had only about 3.5Gb on a 20Gb machine. Since listening to mp3's on the player i notice that it's gapless aswell! I'm definitely sticking with mp3 from now on but i do have a couple of gripes about it.

When playing VBR mp3's the clock timer goes crazy while the track is playing, obviously some kind of time code problem playing bit rates which arent constant.

And trying to get SonicStage 4.3 installed on my PC is hell because i don't have an internet connection on my home PC. I tried to download the SonicStageInstaller onto a disc but when i load it on my PC requests the server.

So overall, changing from mp3 has been worthwhile but trying to upgrade the software has been troublesome.

[incenuino]

When I try to upload avatar in .JPG i see : Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imagecreatefromjpeg()

and avatar is not saved.

With avatars in .gif everythink is OK.