Sony PSP

[galoosh33]

great pics... got to them now that his topic has been jumped...

[~clean]

Try Import Madness they are taking preorders for the US PSP at ?149 butno customs charges> and free delivery if preorder.

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There is a chance of a customs charge so make sure you account for ?20-50 just in case

[Rahul]

nice review , dazzla's mah man

[paperless]

Oi vey. He wouldn't compare it to the GBA or N-gage since neither is a competitor, in the same bracket, to the PSP. The DS and PSP are dueling consoles and, thus, Dazzla decided to use the DS as a basis for some very simple observations regarding the size of the unit, the screen, and some OS basics. Just because the PSP comes off looking better to some of us, doesn't mean you need to get all worried.

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Wrong.. Gizmondo and PSP can compete more than DS, ds is worse than Gizmondo

[DanManIt]

Wow the psp looks amazing thanks for the early screenshots.

[Liquid]

Has anyone though of cracking the UMD casing open, and putting the disc in a CD-Rom drive? See if it reads? I have a strange feeling UMD is just a mini dvd in a case :s .

[Undefineed]

lol, Try doing it as soon as you get ur own PSP :D...

[hulibecker]

Has anyone though of cracking the UMD casing open, and putting the disc in a CD-Rom drive?  See if it reads?  I have a strange feeling UMD is just a mini dvd in a case :s .

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I thought thats exactly what it was, a 1.8gb mini DVD.

Prob is, even if comp does read it, then what?

Unfortunatley, we cant buy blank ones to write own own info to to put in the PSP.

Plus I think its a bit early for PSP Emulators! LOL :D

[brig2221]

The original reviewer wrote the following regarding encoding video to the PSP: "Full screen is the option I use all the time, it makes the movie touch the borders of all 4 sides. If you convert a 16:9 movie into 320*240 then use full screen it will stretch it back out and retain the correct ratio."

The advice the reviewer gives is in direct conflict from what I have heard througout the net and several other forums. I'm not saying he is wrong. As a matter of fact, I am ready to believe his view over others as his review was very thorough and well put together.

One of the main reasons other than gameplay on why I want the PSP so bad is because of its video playback capability. Prior to focusing in on the PSP, I was in the market for a Personal Video Player, machines that look like the PSP, but carry 20-40 Gb harddrives and work off of microsofts media center software. They are priced anywhere from $450-$1000, so you can see why I am really excited about the PSP.

Anyways, I have already ripped several of my DVD's (ALL widescreen) and have used two encoding programs (raPIZ & 3GP) to get them in the proper MPEG-4 format so the PSP will recognize them.

As everyone knows, the PSP's screen native resolution is 480X272, a 16:9 ratio widescreen format. Everyone also knows that the PSP will not accept any video playback in it's native resolution. Here is where I have questions.

The reviewer states that when encoding a widescreen movie (16:9 ratio), encode the movie at a standard screen resolution of 320X240. If you do this and then set the PSP's screen option to "FULL", the movies will be stretched to fit the screen, and the movie will retain the correct ratio. There is where I would like to expound a little.

If you encode a movie to format of less than 16:9, and then stretch it to fit a 16:9 ratio, how would you be able to retain the correct ratio? The general consensus on this subject in some other forums I visit was that you could "hack" the PSP as it were into recognizing widecreen resolutions, just not it's native resolution of 480X272. One of the encoders I use, raPIZ, has a screen resolution option of 368X208. I have been told that it would be better to encode all movies in this widescreen resolution as when it plays back on the PSP, it will be able to uilize the entire screen, and will retain its correct ratio and not look stretched.

Sorry for being so long winded. I am not saying anyone is wrong here. Not having a PSP of my own to test this out definitively, I am left to the advice of those that have imported them.

That said, if the reviewer or anyone else that has experience with movie playback on the PSP could expound a bit on getting 16:9 movies to playback on the PSP using the entire screen and retaining it's correct ratio. Thanks so much!

[hulibecker]

Firstly, I have heard that there is an updated version of a encoding prog that now converts to correct ratio, res etc. Hopefully this is true.

Secondly, I have a widescreen tv, and when the tv pic isnt widescreen it shows it with black bars down each of the left n rught side, however you can force the picture to use all of the screen, but then you may lose a bit of the picture as the tv trys to keep everythin in perspective, thats jus my tv though. reason I am tryin to use my tv as an example is i think the psp does exactly the same thing.

I encoded a episode of friends, and when on the psp, it showed it only using part of the screen, with the black borders as previously mentioned. the zoom options I had were, normal, full screen, zoom, and one other cant rem wat called.

Dunno if this helps or not, its jus my take on it. Hopefully this software update is out there and we can all encode happily utilising the fullness of the psp screen! :)

[brig2221]

Firstly, I have heard that there is an updated version of a encoding prog that now converts to correct ratio, res etc. Hopefully this is true.

Secondly, I have a widescreen tv, and when the tv pic isnt widescreen it shows it with black bars down each of the left n rught side, however you can force the picture to use all of the screen, but then you may lose a bit of the picture as the tv trys to keep everythin in perspective, thats jus my tv though. reason I am tryin to use my tv as an example is i think the psp does exactly the same thing.

I encoded a episode of friends, and when on the psp, it showed it only using part of the screen, with the black borders as previously mentioned. the zoom options I had were, normal, full screen, zoom, and one other cant rem wat called.

Dunno if this helps or not, its jus my take on it. Hopefully this software update is out there and we can all encode happily utilising the fullness of the psp screen! :)

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Hulibecker, that's my point exactly. I have an HDTV as well, and when I am watching normal 4:3 TV, it has the vertical black bars, but I can set my TV to 16:9 mode wich fills up the entire screen, but, you lose the original picture ratio, and everyones heads are fat, etc, as the picture is being stretch horizontally.

That was my question in reference to the reviewers post. He says encode and 320X240, and then stretch the movie to fit the screen, and if the movie you encoded was in widescreen, the stretched image will not be distorted. At least that is what I took him to say.

If that is true, then I was wondering why on other boards people are "hacking" different resolutions for the PSP trying to attain as close to a "widescreen 16:9" image as they can.

Am I as clear as mud on this, lol?

Anyhow, any and all comments and responses to my questions would be greatly appreciated!

[Dazzla Veteran]

The hacking thing which has recently come about isn't anything to do with ratios, it's about perceived quality. People are trying to get more vertical detail in their encodes because the full screen option stretches horizontally more than vertically. It makes sense to add as much vertical resolution into the video file as you can (to an extent).

View a 16:9 movie at 320*240 and it will be squashed up vertically (the opposite to 4:3 on a HDTV), using full screen will stretch it back up to the right ratio but stretching from 320 -> 480 is less than desirable than stretching a 368px wide movie (this being the "hack" which has recently come about). Either way every pixel of the video is stretched to fill the entire screen in "full screen" mode so what was originally a 16:9 video will still be 16:9 regardless of which "new" encoding size you choose.

From now on I will be encoding into something like 368*208, nothing to do with aspect ratio you understand but the perceived increase in quality due to 368 -> 480 being better than 320 -> 480. Both will result in the original 16:9 movie being 16:9 o the PSP screen when viewed in full screen.

As for wider than 16:9 movies, i.e. 2.35:1 I used to add black borders to the file via virtualdub so it was a 16:9 movie file with borders.

[Creamy]

Wow...great review!

A friend of mine is thinking about buying one...

I'll show him this review, thank you! :)

[brig2221]

The hacking thing which has recently come about isn't anything to do with ratios, it's about perceived quality. People are trying to get more vertical detail in their encodes because the full screen option stretches horizontally more than vertically. It makes sense to add as much vertical resolution into the video file as you can (to an extent).

View a 16:9 movie at 320*240 and it will be squashed up vertically (the opposite to 4:3 on a HDTV), using full screen will stretch it back up to the right ratio but stretching from 320 -> 480 is less than desirable than stretching a 368px wide movie (this being the "hack" which has recently come about). Either way every pixel of the video is stretched to fill the entire screen in "full screen" mode so what was originally a 16:9 video will still be 16:9 regardless of which "new" encoding size you choose.

From now on I will be encoding into something like 368*208, nothing to do with aspect ratio you understand but the perceived increase in quality due to 368 -> 480 being better than 320 -> 480. Both will result in the original 16:9 movie being 16:9 o the PSP screen when viewed in full screen.

As for wider than 16:9 movies, i.e. 2.35:1 I used to add black borders to the file via virtualdub so it was a 16:9 movie file with borders.

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Well, that is the most intelligent and articulate post I have seen on this question.

You cannot imagine how many people and how many forums I have asked this questions with no real answer.

One last question. You did say that you would in fact be encoding at the 368X208 not so much for how the movie will fit the PSP's screen, but do to the effect that you will have more vertical resolution, which I can understand.

I have encoded movies in both the 320X240 and 368X208 modes. The one difference that I can see for sure is the movie itself. By that I mean when I play the 320X240 movie in quicktime, the movie plays perfect in a 16:9 ratio. However, when I play back a movie encoded in 368X208, the movie plays back like a 2.35:1 movie would on an HDTV, that is, it is widescreen, but still has horizontal black bars above and below the movie.

My question is, when you play a movie encoded in 368X208 on the PSP, and then play it stretched under full mode, will you have those same horizontal black bars above and below the movie???

Thanks again!!!

[brig2221]

The only reason why I keep asking these questions trying to get this right is because I would like to have about 10-15 of my movies encoded and ready to go when the PSP launches.

As you know, it is very time consuming to rip and then encode these movies, so before I go through all of the trouble, I just want to make sure that I am encoding these movies properly.

I certainly want the movies to look the best they can, and I also would not like black bars on my PSP while I am watching the movies as well.

Thanks for your help!

[Dazzla Veteran]

Ok, well I gave it a try. I used 3GP Converter 0.29, it has the added options for 368*208. To be really honest, I don't see a huge difference in quality, there is an increase though, so I imagine I'll be using 360*208 in the future. One of the main reasons is that whatever the hack/patch does to enable this it automatically expands the video to fill the PSP screen. It still stretches, it's not native, but it's more convenient. As a consequence it's useless for 4:3 content but cool for 16:9. Only for ease of use you understand though.

[DanManIt]

Nice Review it makes me want to get the psp real bad. :)

[QuarterSwede]

So it's basically a mini PS2. Great read as always Dazzla. Thanks for posting the movies as well (I know that took some time).

[Liquid]

Dazzla, have you run network update recently? I hear there is something. It adds folders to ur memory stick (some include MAIL, etc)

[lsquare]

I was just wondering, so none of you have ever tried encoding to the PSP's native resolution? So the best that you can do is 368X208 and that is a 16:9 resolution? If so, then it won't look that bad despite not having a perfect 1:1 pixel placement.

[Dazzla Veteran]

480*272 simply doesn't work. For 16:9 content 368*208 is the best option simply because of minimal stretching.

And I run network update every day, there's nothing.

[lsquare]

How about for 4:3 content, what is the best resolution to use?

[Dazzla Veteran]

320*240. The reason for this is that using the hack causes the video to instantly fill up the screen, and any option you choose on the PSP (Full screen, zoom etc) doesn't effect it. With 4:3 content it would force it to stretch to the screen if you used 368*208. With 320*240 you will have the various stretching options.

[lsquare]

320*240. The reason for this is that using the hack causes the video to instantly fill up the screen, and any option you choose on the PSP (Full screen, zoom etc) doesn't effect it. With 4:3 content it would force it to stretch to the screen if you used 368*208. With 320*240 you will have the various stretching options.

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Will there be vertical black bars if I encode with 320x240?

[Rushnak]

Nice review, this is definately a toy that's on my list.