Atrac Codec File v.1
Readableaudio
ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms developed by Sony. It was first commercially used in the MiniDisc in 1992. ATRAC enabled the storage of audio information on quite small devices (for the time), with limited loss is perceptible quality.
Identify it
| Extensions | .aea |
|---|---|
| Signatures | 00080000 at byte 0 (Atrac Codec File v.1) |
| PRONOM | fmt/1968 |
| Wikidata | Q125936447 |
Not sure your file is this? Identify it from its first bytes, in your browser.
Open it
- FFmpegOpen source
Convert it
| To | With | Fidelity | Command and losses |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 1.2.1 | FFmpeg | Lossless | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.flacLossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata. |
| Waveform Audio | FFmpeg | Lossless | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.wavLossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata. |
| Matroska 1-4 | FFmpeg | Lossy | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.mkvRe-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container. |
| MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3 | FFmpeg | Lossy | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.mp3Lossy re-encoding. |
| MPEG-4 Part 14 | FFmpeg | Lossy | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.mp4Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container. |
| Ogg | FFmpeg | Lossy | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.oggLossy re-encoding. |
| WebM | FFmpeg | Lossy | ffmpeg -i in.aea out.webmRe-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container. |
Sources
From Converters (FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Pandoc, LibreOffice), Just Solve the File Format Problem (File Formats Wiki), PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-24.