PSP Playin', Part II

Continued from ‘Playin’ With The PSP‘….

Where my wife proposed (and I agreed) the key value of devices like the PSP lies, though, is not in watching several-hour long movies, but instead in viewing half-hour television programs and the like (i.e. music videos….think iTunes) which aren’t yet available on DVD, and whose length isn’t such that you end up with eyeball fatigue from staring at the PSP’s diminutive screen. Yeah, you could download recorded shows from your ReplayTV or TiVo to a laptop….but then you have the system price point issue I mentioned earlier. Ironically, until the NTSC shut-off occurs (whenever it occurs), most folks will be watching recorded analog TV programs, whose ‘real’ resolution is a good match for what the PSP display offers (which is why they look so lousy blown up on an XGA-or-higher resolution laptop display). Plus the kids can also use the PSP to play games, surf the Internet (with v2 firmware, or the Wipeout Pure’s embedded browser), and do whatever else Sony’s got cookin’ in the lab for us going forward.

You could also use a Portable Media Center device for watching recorded TV shows, but it’s a much more expensive option. Devices like the PSP (and cellular phones), where the initial hardware cost is subsidized (in the case of the PSP by subsequent game purchases, in the case of a cell phone by subsequent monthly service charges) are particularly appealing from a fiscal standpoint. By the way, I also tried out audio playback courtesy of a 10-free-track coupon I got from Sony as a registered user of Acid, Sound Forge and Vegas. I installed v3.2 of Sony’s SonicStage software on my laptop and then downloaded David Crosby’s seminal album ‘If I Could Only Remember My Name’ from the Sony Connect site. SonicStage supports track transfers to the PSP, but they subsequently weren’t found by the PSP on the Memory Stick PRO Duo module. When I copied the tracks to a 32 MByte Memory Stick Duo, the PSP found them….but there was only enough room on the non-PRO Duo to store six tracks’ worth of audio goodness. The user interface was quite crude, and at the moment I can’t recommend the PSP as a portable audio player. Once again, v2 firmware will hopefully support Memory Stick PRO Duo modules and enhance the PSP’s audio playback GUI.

I actually have two PSPs, both bought refurbished for $199.99 (free shipping, no sales tax) from GameStop. The first one came bundled with a rugged Logitech PlayGear Pocket see-through polycarbonate carrying case. The initial PSP GameStop sent me had a nonfunctional on-screen pop-up keyboard, but I shipped it back at their expense and they promptly sent a fully-functional replacement. The second PSP I bought came bundled with a refurbished Nintendo Game Boy Advance; again, I’ve had bad luck with the first-pass PSP (which this time had a number of bad pixels). The replacement should be waiting for me when I get back to Sacramento. Why two PSPs? Well, I want one to tear apart for a future EDN Prying Eyes article and, if it survives the surgery, to update to whatever latest-and-greatest firmware Sony releases. The other, for now, I’m going to keep at the already-hacked v1.5 firmware level so that I can run all the great homebrew software that sites such as PSPUpdates promotes.

Before signing off, I want to plug some other hardware and software that you might find useful in your PSP adventures. Boxwave makes a handy two-in-one USB cable that both enables system sync and recharge the PSP (along with a bunch of other PSP accessories). Kroo makes form-fitting soft plastic cases for the PSP, in multiple colours. Nullriver Software’s PSPWare, for both Mac OS X and Windows, ’syncs your music, movies and photos and backs up your game saves’, in the vendor’s website words. And, if you don’t have a copy of Nero Recode lying around, you can use the freeware apps 3GP Converter and PSP Video 9 to tackle the MPEG-4 encoding task.

Stay tuned for my impressions on v2 PSP firmware, and (hopefully) the MPEG-4 AVC video codec, in a future post. Until then….comments, anyone?

p.s….I’m back home now, the replacement PSP was waiting for me, I fired it up and….all seems to be well with it. Guess the second time’s the charm….twice!