Media Manager Software for PSP...

[Aylmer]

There's no listing for this in the PSP section, so I'll put a mini review here for anyone who's insterested,

The boxed version was $30, and I had to order it from the Sony website. It's Windows-only software that converts, exchanges, and otherwise manages your PSP Memory Stick when your PSP is USB'd to your PC. It allows you to put game saves on your PC.

I had some music videos on my PC, and I was impressed by both the video and audio conversions. The output on the PSP looks as good as a UMD movie. It will also convert tracks on your music CDs for play on your PSP. You can also buy songs via Sony's music service, and it comes with a coupon for five free downloads. It manages photos too.

The interface is simple, and you can freely copy, move and delete all types of files on your PSP.

It does NOT convert your DVDs to movies. You'll need to hunt down 3rd party software for that. Once you do, and save them in a Windows compatible format, you could, in theory, watch them on your PSP.

I say "in theory" because you'll need a very big Memory Stick indeed to watch a full length film, something on the order of a 2gig, IMO.

I felt weird not doing anything with my PSP, so this is it, in lieu of game playing.

[T.Tashi]

There's no listing for this in the PSP section, so I'll put a mini review here for anyone who's insterested,

The boxed version was $30, and I had to order it from the Sony website. It's Windows-only software that converts, exchanges, and otherwise manages your PSP Memory Stick when your PSP is USB'd to your PC. It allows you to put game saves on your PC.

I had some music videos on my PC, and I was impressed by both the video and audio conversions. The output on the PSP looks as good as a UMD movie. It will also convert tracks on your music CDs for play on your PSP. You can also buy songs via Sony's music service, and it comes with a coupon for five free downloads. It manages photos too.

The interface is simple, and you can freely copy, move and delete all types of files on your PSP.

It does NOT convert your DVDs to movies. You'll need to hunt down 3rd party software for that. Once you do, and save them in a Windows compatible format, you could, in theory, watch them on your PSP.

I say "in theory" because you'll need a very big Memory Stick indeed to watch a full length film, something on the order of a 2gig, IMO.

I felt weird not doing anything with my PSP, so this is it, in lieu of game playing. Hey Aylmer, I found that it will convert DVD movies if they aren't protected. I couldn't do stuff like Bill Kill or The Matrix, but it did immediately detect and encode a lot of my movies mainly from Asia... Shaolin Soccer, Grave of the Fireflies, Hardboiled, etc. and it did detect some of my older American movies. So I'm guessing that's something to do with the encryption. And if you use the low encoding rate, you can watch a full movie on a 512 card. Hardboiled is just over 2 hours 5 minutes and it came in at 472MB on the lower setting. Obviously the quality takes a hit but it's still a decent picture. The high setting was double that. But swapping files out to make room is a pain. 2GB would be ideal. But the compression is really really good.

I was really skeptical, but I think it is a pretty solid piece of software, though I'm not getting rid of my 3GP just yet. But since it can take a file that's a 2-3 gigs and compress it down to several hundred MB and maintain that kind of quality, it's no slouch. At first I didn't think Sony should charge $20 for it (I downloaded it) but I don't know of anything that compresses like that and maintains that kind of quality. I think it's worth it.

[Aylmer]

I only tried 2, appleseed and sin city, and it wouldn't work. I am also impressed by the compression. It is, IMO, the best around. there is a war of sorts between apple and sony, and hopefully we'll benefit. I wonder if, soon, there'll be 'gray area' sites like there are for the GBA Movie player. A full length movie for that machine is about 180 megs at standard quality, which looks quite nice, considering the hardware. And there are hundreds of pirate videos for it.

I see that lik-sang has a 4gb drive for the psp, but it's a bit pricey.

[T.Tashi]

I only tried 2, appleseed and sin city, and it wouldn't work. I am also impressed by the compression. It is, IMO, the best around. there is a war of sorts between apple and sony, and hopefully we'll benefit. I wonder if, soon, there'll be 'gray area' sites like there are for the GBA Movie player. A full length movie for that machine is about 180 megs at standard quality, which looks quite nice, considering the hardware. And there are hundreds of pirate videos for it.

I see that lik-sang has a 4gb drive for the psp, but it's a bit pricey.I try an older dvd, if you can. I'm just guessing that it's the encyrption though. I checked out that 4gb drive, and the battery which they say last twice as long as a regular one, but yeah I can't see paying for it what I paid for the psp. Hopefully the memory price will keep dropping.