PSP MP3 Support Confirmed

Andrew writes "Sony has confirmed via their TGS system specs page, that the PSP will support MP3 playback. The confirmation comes only a few days after Sony did a u-turn on their Atrac only stance, announcing that all their upcoming music players will also support MP3 media files."

Thank you sony

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Welcome to the 20th Century. A few more years and you can join us in the 21st Century-- where you DON'T need to control your customers behavior.

Re:Thank you sony

[superpulpsicle]

If PSP can hold enough hard drive space to contend with iPod, then I'll jump for joy. Gaming and listening to mp3s on one device, that's too good to be true. Now if it can only be a cell phone, camera, voice recorder and camcorder...

Atrac

[Ford Prefect]

Is there anyone else (apart from me) who parses 'Atrac' as 'Eight-Track' [8trackheaven.com]?

Re:Atrac

[wheany]

No.

But can it make phone calls?

[Xaviar21]

I mean... No handheld is complete without the ability to hold it up to your face and look like a complete idiot. But, I suppose it is ok if the PSP can't make phone calls... I know -I'll- just pretend it can anyway. Or at least, that's what I'll say I'm doing. In reality, I'll just be cuddling with it. Or something.

Re:But can it make phone calls?

[tktk]

The bug-eye stares from the media photos are bad enough already. Now you want glassy-eyed stares while people hold the PSP against their head?

Did anyone else find those PSP pre-media ads disturbing? I'll probably end up buying my digital crack from Nintendo.

am I missing the point?

[bluephone]

With Sony making it known they will not be making UMD writers available to the public, what's the point of MP3 support? Is ther eanother method of getting your music onto the system?

Re:am I missing the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Memory Stick.

Quick lets all change to another format....

[tktk]

Now that Sony's going to support MP3, we should all change to Ogg Vorbis just to annoy them.

It'll be like playing keep away but with a major corporation.

Ill belive it when i see it

[cyrax777]

Sony is notorius for changing specs at the last minute.

Re:Ill belive it when i see it

[unclethursday]

True. With the PSX DVR/PS2 combo they promised MP3 playback, but dropped that support, and didn't inrom potential customers until a mere 2 weeks before the Japanese launch.

So, like you, I'll beleive it when I see it.

Didn't read the article

[S. Baldrick]

Paint Shop Pro is getting MP3 support? But why?

The Hi-MD players 'support' mp3, too...

[mrgreen4242]

But really all it is is a background conversion program for win32 (no other OS support available, not even OSX, which, with the high quality recording possible with a Hi-MD device, suprises me, as I would think that Mac types would = Hi-MD types).

The Sony website specifically says that it 'supports mp3' [sonystyle.com], so maybe the PSP will support mp3 playback the same way?

Makes me sad, as a Linux user who would have bought a Hi-MD deck. :(

Re:The Hi-MD players 'support' mp3, too...

[mrgreen4242]

going to get a crap conversion from MP3 to ATRAC compared to just playing ATRAC or MP3 natively, so what's the point of spending all the money on Hi-MD if that's what you are going to do with it?

Well, ya, that's basically what I was getting at... there's not any point to getting a MD player if your library is in mp3 already... if it were just CDs or Flac/some other lossless format, then it might be worht considering...

On the other side, the bitrates available on the HiMD Atrac3plus is 64kbps and 256kbps on

UMD Music is Doomed

[Doomstalk]

I already had my doubts about the UMD as a format to music/movies (who wants to re-buy all of their media just to use it on one device?), but now it just seems doomed. When it was the only format to be supported by the PSP, it seemed vaguely appealing for people who didn't own iPods or similar music players. But now there's just no point, since you can convert all of your CDs anyway.