PSP-Archive
[Feature Request] Unlock / Add unencrypted ATRAC (.at3) playback to the built in music player
New Feature
Greetings!
The explanation here is rather simple, but I'm assuming the implementation would not be, but it would be neat to have. The built in music player of the PSP can already play ATRAC encoded files, however only when they're added to the PSP via Sony's SonicStage music manager of yesteryear, and doing that works only if the PSP is using a proper MagicGate compatible memory stick, which the MicroSD adapters aren't.
If it were possible to make the music player on the PSP recognize .at3 files in the same way it recognizes .mp3 and similar files it would make playing back .at3 files much more convenient. For one it would be nice just for the novelty, as at3 does compress audio slightly differently than mp3 does, but it would also be useful for just ripping and playing soundtracks from PSP and PS3 games directly. Most of those are already in the at3 format but currently need to be recoded to a different format, degrading the audio quality slightly. Being able to just grab the files and play them back directly would prevent that and just be more convenient in general.
While not directly relevant to the PSP community this would also mean dumps of Minidiscs would be able to be played directly on the PSP. Which would already be pretty fun for all the obscure music, but also a much cheaper entry point as a working PSP and MicroSD are much cheaper (and easier to use) now than a properly working NetMD Minidisc player and the required discs are.
Sadly I have basically no helpful information to add here, I'm not a programmer and the only information I could find online is about the basic folder structure that SonicStage creates for the copy protected atrac files ([here}(https://hitmen.c02.at/files/yapspd/psp_doc/chap22.html), Section 22.1.3 & 22.1.4), but if anyone wants to tackle this I can at least help in providing files and testing if desired. I got a PSP 1000, PSP Go, and Vita Slim, a working XP machine with SonicStage, and a bunch of compatible MemorySticks all with MagicGate support, so if anything is needed I'd be more than happy to help.
One simple and fast solution would be to reuse the at3 support that CL already has for the CL's own music player.
It turns out that the PSP has always been able to play unencrypted ATRAC3Plus files. I just discovered this by ripping a CD as ATRAC3Plus 352kbps on my PS3, and then using the PS3 to copy the files to my PSP over USB. No MagicGate compatible memory stick (just the generic microsd card adapter), and no SonicStage required.
It seems that all you need to do is to give the audio files a .aa3 file extension, and the PSP will recognize and play them. The file type appears to be the same as .oma (it has ID3 metadata, but with a ea3 header instead of ID3).
