Hey

A while ago, I bought the PA-2 as it was the smallest player for the Gym. Hey it even had AAC on the box. Couldn't find anything that AAC support for the PA-2 at the time, and there still isn't.

Although the hardware can do AAC, (or so it says) there is NOTHING that will download AAC to the device - no RioPort, no WMP NOTHING.

But... having downloaded Nero with AAC encoding, I encoded some tracks, choosing Export to ISO/AAC file, so I now had .AAC files and .MP4 files

Musicmatch (which I normally use to download) doesn't recognise AAC files, but I renamed the .AAC to .MP3 - add them to the playlist, download and Voila! AAC files, playing on my 'so called' AAC compatible player.

In the end - it's just a pain in the ass - just nice to know - it does exactly what it says on the tin. Still takes 12mins to transfer 60Mb of data though. Doh!

--Tosh

Actually there's a much smaller device that supports AAC: the Panasonic SV-SD80.

Unfortunately it requires the use of bloated proprietary Real software, which doesn't seem to accept any AAC/MP2/MP4 file from the outside world.

Review links:
http://www.techtv.com/freshgear/products/s...3359096,00.html
http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-...html?tag=subnav

It only accepts Panasonic AAC (ACP). It's an encrypted form of AAC. And the quality is considered worse than Nero's.

rjamorim, do you have more information about Panasonic's AAC version ? I'm not interested in their encoder - only in the file format (including watermarking and encryption).

I know that SD cards are based on CPRM - thus a break can be expected within some time, and would allow to make good freeware programs for uploading music to the players

In fact, if using a genuine SD drive from a user-made program, a break should not be necessary. About that I'm not 100% sure.

I'm getting fed up with the limitations. The problem is not the copyright protection, but the restriction to use only THAT operating system, THAT software and THAT card reader. I mean, it might sound like a joke - but it's not even possible, for example, to use another SD reader than the one supplied with the player !

I suggest you take a look at audiocoding's forum.
http://www.audiocoding.com/phorum/list.php?f=1

Do a search for "panasonic" there and you'll find lots of info.

Regards;

Roberto.