Support NeoGAF

[Draff]

Sony gives in to MP3
Correspondents in San Jose
SEPTEMBER 23, 2004
IN A major strategic reversal, Sony plans to add support for MP3 music files to some of its portable music players.

The shift to support the widely used MP3 music format would end Sony's long-standing insistence on its proprietary Atrac format.

It also better positions the electronics giant against rivals such as Apple Computer, whose portable players support both MP3s and other file formats.

Though some of its CD Walkmans could play MP3s, Sony had fallen behind in recent years as it stuck to its proprietary format in its newer class of audio players, forcing users to first go through an extra step to convert their digital song files - often already in the MP3 format - to the Atrac format.

Now, Sony plans to release some new flash-based players with both MP3 and Atrac playback as early as this year in Europe, said Gretchen Griswold, a spokeswoman for Sony Electronics.


The company is also working to create software upgrades so owners of current models could play their songs in the MP3 format.

Similar plans are underway for the elsewhere in the world but Ms Griswold did not know when audio players with MP3 support would be introduced.

The Associated Press

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10853766^15339^^nbv^15306-15321,00.html

Looks like there will be firmware updates to current models and I'm guessing mainly the NW-HD1.

 

[CurlySaysX]

My Sony CD Walkman is MP3 compatible and it's about 2 years old.
I hope they make that Vaio Poket mp3 compatible.

 

[G4life98]

i wonder if they will free up minidisc players to do this aswell.

 

[Winged Creature]

i wonder if they will free up minidisc players to do this aswell.

oh i really hope so, cause if this does Hi-MD will own all

 

[Error Macro]

oh i really hope so, cause if this does Hi-MD will own all

Holy shit, you ain't kiddin' brother!

 

[aoi tsuki]

i wonder if they will free up minidisc players to do this aswell.

Like practically all things Minidisc, i've got mixed feelings about this. It's great that Sony's opened up, and across the line of applicable products, true MP3 support will be a draw to casuals. But what real advantage are MD owners getting? Faster transfer speeds?

And just how would Sony go about implementing an upgrade? AFAIK Minidisc firmware can't be upgraded. There hasn't been a need to. It may be possible for the MP3 files to be wrapped in OpenMG files, then transferred to the device.

i was also reading somewhere about how only the latest Network Walkmans could play MP3s because of having the ability to actually decode it in hardware. i always thought MD players were like MP3 players - basically a computer dedicated to the task of decoding audio. Instead, they're supposedly hardwired to decode ATRAC3+, which would mean that they'd have to run a software decoder, which would decrease battery life, possibly the buffer, when MP3s are played back.

Hopefully i'm wrong and it's a flawless upgrade. i just don't see that happening with the above issues.