PS3 supporting m4a, mp3, ATRAC

by Nick Doerr { Oct 18th 2006 at 10:00AM }

In the latest PSM podcast, a little tidbit slips out about the PS3's ability to support audio files. A lot of people have been rolling their eyes, saying Sony limits themselves to the proprietary ATRAC format (if anyone else has a Vaio that came equipped with Sonic Stage, you know exactly how annoying that format can be... especially if you want to move the files anywhere else), but this podcast (timestamped around 8 minutes in) tells us that "it does read iTunes music format, so if you have all that music you can actually load it on the hard drive. It will recognize that, as well as MP3 and ATRAC."

This is fantastic news and a great move on Sony's part -- now people like me, with their retardedly spacious 60GB iPod (music is the third most important thing next to writing and video gaming for this guy), can load their PS3 with music and (hopefully) play it in the background while surfing the web, downloading other stuff, playing Blast Factor, or heck, playing a full-fledged game (yeah right... but that'd be pretty sweet). Hmm, it's hard to distinguish between downloadable games like Blast Factor and games like Resistance. Is there a term for that? I tend to say "downloaded game" and "real game"... but it's not like downloaded games are "fake games". Anyone want to coin a term for use on PS3Fanboy?

[thanks, Jeremy!]

Tags: ATRAC, iTunes, m4u, MP3, Playstation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dubios boy wonder @ Oct 18th 2006 10:37AM

But it won't playback songs purchased on Itunes that has Itunes DRM. This is the same functionality the Xbox 360 has.

Matt @ Oct 18th 2006 10:22AM

I would call them downloaded games and blu ray games. DL and BR for short.

Andir2.0 @ Oct 18th 2006 10:26AM

Storebought or Storefront games

vs.

Digital Download Games or DDG?

alienclay @ Oct 18th 2006 11:17AM

i like DDG (digital/download distribution) try FDG FDT (full disc titles/games) for the store bought $60 games

Andrew Yoon @ Oct 18th 2006 12:20PM

The PS3 will always have at least the same functionality as the PSP. The PSP can play all those files, and WMA music files as well, and I doubt that Sony's going to remove that feature for the PS3.

ill trooper @ Oct 18th 2006 11:26AM

'iTunes format?' Like as in 'MP3s?' They can't mean the iTunes AAC DRM format, can they? This would be all over the intertubes if Apple allowed some other company to play back their DRM; it was when the Motorola Rokr phone hit, anyway.

I guess I'll have to listen to that podcast for some answers...

dudeugotnochanceinhell @ Oct 18th 2006 11:36AM

sweeeeet

Hoopster @ Oct 18th 2006 11:38AM

I just hope they build a proper audio player for this functionality; it would go a long way in getting people to use that feature on a regular basis, which in turn, would lead to more media sales off their online store.

lionzub @ Oct 18th 2006 12:08PM

Hopefully I can connect my Hi-MD player via USB and upload all those Atrac3plus files without a problem. Yeah I know, that ain't gonna happen.

SuicideNinja @ Oct 18th 2006 7:14PM

Uh, how about digital and physical? I know, it sounds so unimpressive...

=)

Tim @ Oct 18th 2006 3:31PM

Not to be a 360 fanboy or anything but the xbox 360 can actually play any song on the hard drive or a networked pc during a game, any game, dl or store bought

Allen @ Oct 18th 2006 5:00PM

I use the atrac files for because it is a smaller file size and with no quality loss. I have abot 300 songs on a 1GB stick, and couldn't fit half of those if they were mp3. So I guess now I can just hook up my PSP and have a ton of songs on the PS3 right away with minimal hard drive space, even though I'll have the 60GB so it doesn't matter.
....Hey, thanks for some good news BTW.

Jim @ Oct 18th 2006 4:48PM

ATRAC? *cough* 8-TRACK!

Caramella Bongo ... how are you today? @ Oct 18th 2006 8:33PM

There's no name for it because Sony wants you to think about it simply as PLAYSTATION3 ... whether you got the game in a store on BD or got it online ..it still PLAYSTATION3 (all caps)!

Its been in the news for a while; why its not here i dont know.

OUT FOX EM @ Oct 19th 2006 1:54AM

Downloadable Content = DLC
Downloadable Games = DLG

Go with what people know. You don't want an acronym that people will have a hard time deciphering.

Jim @ Oct 20th 2006 6:01PM

#12 Why do you think ATRAC is loss-less? It isn't! In fact it's very lossy... or do you use a special version of it?

mike maese @ Oct 20th 2006 5:54PM

do any u guys know if the ps3 will play reguler cd r with mp3s on them

Nav @ Nov 4th 2006 6:48PM

ATRAC does in fact have a lossless version as well and, given that the newest Walkmans support it, it's likely the PS3 does as well. I think the comment meant that the person couldn't tell the difference b/w lossy and the original. ATRAC does sound really good at higher bitrates, but ultimately it doesn't really offer anything that other formats do. It does, however, have a lot of drawbacks - compatibility being the main one.