Re: ATRAC3

On Thu, Jan 02, 2003 at 12:23:33PM -0800, Michael Pruett wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 31, 2002 at 07:41:20PM +0000, Pete Ryland wrote:
> > [adding in support for ATRAC3-encoded files]
> 
> Pete, adding support for ATRAC3 would be a useful feature.  While it
> might be possible to use Sony's Windows codec to accomplish this task,
> but this approach would have the disadvantage of requiring some sort of
> Windows emulation layer which would likely only run on Intel x86
> systems.  It would certainly be preferable to write an open source
> codec which could be easily integrated into the Audio File Library.

Yes, I would prefer not to be bound to a specific platform too, but I have
had a lot of trouble finding any specific documentation of the entire
algorithm - it seems to be fairly closed, unfortunately.  At
http://www.minidisc.org/ the applicable patents are conveniently listed, but
they don't really help that much either.  I have written to various Sony
divisions, but I have had little success there - they generally state that
the (NetMD device) manual is all you get.

I was under the impression that some other proprietary file formats are
supported by wrapping a Windows codec (at least for x86), which is why I
thought it might be the way to go until/if Sony releases more info.
Unfortunate as it is to go this way, a lot of people would still benefit
from it.

Pete
-- 
Pete Ryland
http://pdr.cx/