M3E is an encoder that was only popular in Japan. It started being developed in 1999 by Wata-Ken implementing an unique VBR method (at that time only Xing and LAME also offered VBR) and became quite popular.

In Japan, it was the "slow-high quality" choice, compared to Gogo (another japanese encoder) that was "fast-low quality".

Some time later the author started selling a commercial version of the encoder, M3SE Pro.

Distribution of M3E ceased on early 2000 due to patent issues. M3SE sales ceased some time later, probably because of commercial failure (better, free encoders available; price at ¥3000 was quite expensive). Some parts of the web page can still be seen at the Internet Archive.

Huge thanks to Shingo Harada (a.k.a harashin) for providing the encoder, translating it and enlightening me on its story.


Date: 2000-03-04
Version: 0.99a
Interface: Graphical or command line
Platform: Win32
Download: M3E_B099a.zip - 775kB

Date: 2000-01-02
Version: 0.98b
Interface: Graphical or command line
Platform: Win32
Download: M3E_B098.zip - 518kB