At 4:21 PM +0000 8/31/07, Greg Weddig wrote:
>Maybe this isn't really news but I thought I'd post it here anyway:
>
>http://www.wired.com/gadgets/portablemusic/news/2007/08/atrac
>~~or~~
>http://tinyurl.com/2cz8gm
>
>I'm not sure what this means in terms of new consumer minidisc
>recorders, probably not good. With the lineup of low cost solid state
>recorders increasing, it may cease to be a viable product in a few
>years. Except in Japan.
>
>The issue that does exist however is the difficulty in archiving
>digital only media. With the minidiscs it was easy to have yourself a
>tangible backup.
>
>--greg weddig
>http://gregweddig.net
>
Thanks Greg. The report seems to only address two new players but one
would assume future recorders as well. Many of us could definitely
use a plug-in to decode ATRAC into .wav files in real time. The
mentioned "cross-encoding" (cross re-encoding?) tool for ATRAC ->wma
& mp3 is not sufficient but its a step in the right direction.
I encourage recordists with a lot of disks that are not fully
transferred and/or backed-up to write Sony Customer Service and
reiterate the need for a ATRAC -> wav converter that will allow one
to more easily reclaim the full quality of our field recordings now
that Sony plans to phase out support for ATRAC. They included a
similar decoder feature in Vegas; we need it as a plug-in for both PC
and Mac audio apps or at least a freestanding app with bit depth and
sample rate options.
I wonder how this will affect Sony's future recorders? We still need
uncompressed recording capability. Perhaps the good news is the
dropping of their "Connect" music delivery business. With these
interests at rest, it could be Sony will permit .wav recording
directly with simple drag-copy downloading like all of the new
recorders coming out. Rob D.
--
|