Sony NW-E5 [19/24] Glossary

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Glossary

ATRAC3

ATRAC3, which stands for Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding3, is audio compression

technology that satisfies the demand for high sound quality and high compression rates.

The ATRAC3 compression rate is approximately 10 times higher than that of the Audio CD,

resulting an increased data capacity for the media.

Bit rate

Indicates the data amount per second. The rate is reflected in bps (bit per second).

In OpenMG Jukebox, the bit rate for recording an audio CD or converting MP3 and WAV format

audio files into ATRAC3 format can be chosen from 132 kbps/105kbps/66kbps. 105 kbps means

105000 bits of information per second. If the bit rate is large, that means a large amount of

information is used to play music. Comparing music of the same format, a 105 kbps data offers

better sound quality than 66 kbps data, and 132 kbps data offers better sound quality than 105

kbps data. However, audio files in formats such as MP3 have different encoding methods, and

thus sound quality cannot be determined by simply comparing the bit rate.

“Check-in /Check-out”

Check-out is to transfer music files from a personal computer to an external device/media. (such

as Network Walkman). Returning checked-out music files to the same computer is to check in.

(You cannot move checked-out music files to another computer.)

You can check-out a music file, check it back in, and then check it out again an infinite number of

times. The SDMI rules provide that up to four copies of a music file can be checked-out at one

time. OpenMG employs a method whereby three copies of a song can be checked-out

simultaneously, while the fourth copy is maintained as a “master” on your PC. If three copies of

the same song are checked-out at a given time, one copy of the song needs to be checked-in to the

computer in order to create an additional check-out.