[1up] New PSP Multimedia Details

I'm soooo gonna take naruto on the go.

before i was wondering how that's gonna work, like I'm going to have to wait for bandai to release it in UMD or something.

god bless the internet for the ability to download :D
 
The PSP can display varieties of all of the above media stored on Sony's Memory Stick flash RAM media. Images must be in JPEG format, while the handheld supports audio in the common MP3 format or two flavors of Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 format -- ordinary ATRAC3, with a maximum bitrate of 132kbps, or ATRAC3plus, with a maximum bitrate of 256kbps.

I wonder if you can play MP3s without converting them to ATRAC? Some of Sony's music players say they support MP3, but they actually force you to convert your MP3s to ATRAC before they'll play.

Users will be able to create MPEG-4 movies for playback on the PSP, but converting them into its variety of the H.264 codec will require the latest version of Sony's Image Converter 2 program, for either the PC or Sony's Clie handhelds

So Sony is using it's own version of H.264? Just wondering because I've used Sony's Image Converter 2 with my Clie before, and it sucks ass.
 
PC Gaijin said:
I wonder if you can play MP3s without converting them to ATRAC? Some of Sony's music players say they support MP3, but they actually force you to convert your MP3s to ATRAC before they'll play.
Confirmed to support both ATRAC and MP3(without transcoding to ATRAC). Sony's latest players like the NW-HD3 now support MP3 out of the box.
 
PC Gaijin said:
So Sony is using it's own version of H.264? Just wondering because I've used Sony's Image Converter 2 with my Clie before, and it sucks ass.

Nah, that was unclear. I think I read the word order wrong at some point. H.264 is H.264. I'll clarify that, thanks.

And it supports just plain MP3, you don't have to run shit through SonicStage or whatever.

DFS.
 
acklame said:
I'm soooo gonna take naruto on the go.
This is probably come across as a troll, but where in hell are you gonna watch those movies? Listening music i can understand (and love my IRiver for that), since you can listen to music while doing pretty much everything. But movies, you've got to be focused on that movie. You have to basically sit down to watch it. Instead you could go home and watch the same movie on a proper screen.

Maybe i'm living a crazy life, but where are those oppurtunities to sit and watch a 2h movie on the go? Also if you have those oppurtunities, wouldn't you be rather playing games instead of watching a movie you've probably already seen a few times?

I think once the initial "damn i can now watch movies on the go!" coolness goes away people will see that there is not really much practical value do it. But like i said, maybe i'm just living the wrong life for PSP movie watching :)
 
mumu said:
This is probably come across as a troll, but where in hell are you gonna watch those movies?


Bus, car commute(not the driver or course), train rides, plane rides, waiting to get into a resturant, waiting in line for movie, waiting for hair cut, waiting to see your doctor, etc etc. You know, the same place you'd play handheld games outdoor.
 
Well isn't sony using a super duper ultra swank version of H.264 codec for blu ray? I would think this new "variety" would be in the same range of flavor...

You know, like "MPEG4" might be "MPEG4", but that doesn't mean XviD, DivX, 3ivX and WMV9 are cross compatible...

And then, even if it's generic H.264, wanna bet it'll be a super duper sony file format? Those peeps even found a way to record wav files in a SonicStage file format for DRM purposes... I doubt it'd just take an AVI file :lol Though if it does, that's majorly shway.
 
border said:
We can start testing video conversion speed right now, probably. Are there any encoding programs that support H.264? VirtualDub only seems to go up to H.263. I doubt that Sony's software will be the best choice, but maybe it is available for download.

http://www.mainconcept.com/index_flash.shtml (commercial)

and ffmpeg (http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php command-line only ) and by the same occasion (since they share the same source ) ffdshow (win32 gui based) let you encode in H.264

The codec is (maybe) standard but the file format could be another set of problems.


edit : and H264 support in FFmpeg and ffdshow is pretty expertimental methinks so the performance/quality should suck big time.
 
It's not totally about watching a 2 hour movie every single time you sit down.

I expect that I would not be loading any movies onto a flash card unless I was going on a plane trip or long road trip. What I do expect is to be loading up a lot of 22 minute sitcoms (Newsradio!) and 12 minute cartoon shorts (Adult Swim!).
 
jiggle said:
See!! Junk.
Time to cancel your pre-order, Defensor




















and give it to me:D
Never! Portable
popolocrois-monogatari-pietro-ouji-no-bouken-20040930064246619.jpg
is mine! :D


mumu said:
This is probably come across as a troll, but where in hell are you gonna watch those movies?
Time gap between my morning classes. I have a chunk of Kamen Rider 555 eps that I can now watch on the go :)
 
Using my Clie as a judge, i can get an hour of MPEG4 video with stereo sound at 480x320 (screen res, not video res) at around 100MB. It's been a while since i've done this, so my numbers may be off. Hopefully there'll be a new version of Image Convertor, as the current version doesn't recognize MP3 audio for video files, and has problems with XViD, DiVX, and various QT video codecs. There's a freeware program called MMPlayer that works pretty well, and is much more versatile in terms of various codecs, audio rates, etc. The extra versatility comes in handy when you want to encode various types of video - DVD rips, animated videos, tv shows, downloaded stuff, because you can tweak various settings to ensure the best watchability with the lowest framerate. i'd love to see something like this for PSP.

What would be really cool is if you could rip DVDs and music using your PS2 and a link/USB cable. i'm not really interested in the PSP, but i'm glad they're offering some options for people that want to pack their MSs with something other than save files and music.

mumu said:
This is probably come across as a troll, but where in hell are you gonna watch those movies?
This is the reason i haven't converted much for my Clie lately, or bought a hard drive-based MP3 player. i'm either at work or at home. And the few times i'm out and have time to burn, i'd rather read news than watch something.
 
I find it really hard to believe that people will use every minute they spent waiting during a day to watch snippets of movies. So you're telling me you're gonna whip out your PSP in a restaurant and watch some 5 minutes of a movie while waiting for a table? :)

If you got like 1h bus rides or so every day that's a different story.
 
i also wonder whether i'll have any real use for this. i do spend a fair amount of time sitting around in public, but i generally spend that time reading, and wouldn't want to spend it otherwise.
 
To be fair, the only time i've sat down and watched a movie on my Clie was when i was visiting my mom and grandparents and couldn't sleep that night. i watched Leon/The Professional, and it was mostly undiscernable from the DVD.

Other than that, as i said above, i mostly read in the few minutes of time when i'm waiting in line at the bank or waiting at a restaurant. It's much easier to read a couple of articles than to try and watch ten minutes of an episode. My perception of personal video devices is probably ruined by the kid who comes into my work and watches DVDs on his DVD player, casually walking around the store like someone gives a fuck. About the only time i watch video is when i bring in stupid net clips to show the guys at work. Porkchop sandiches!
 
btrboyev said:
not to mention its not pocket friendly at all.

The DS is actually less pocket friendly than PSP when closed. So pocket space isn't really the issue at this point.

mumu said:
This is probably come across as a troll, but where in hell are you gonna watch those movies? Listening music i can understand (and love my IRiver for that), since you can listen to music while doing pretty much everything. But movies, you've got to be focused on that movie. You have to basically sit down to watch it. Instead you could go home and watch the same movie on a proper screen.

Hmmm... I don't know? Where would people watch movies? I mean... there's never been a market for that before! People just don't like watching movies on the go since they never have any ti--

--oh. OH! What's that? Portable movie players have been extremely successful? People watch movies on the go all the time? On long flights? In long car rides? On long train rides? Oh goodness! What a magnificent revelation! mumu am damned!

mumu said:
Maybe i'm living a crazy life, but where are those oppurtunities to sit and watch a 2h movie on the go? Also if you have those oppurtunities, wouldn't you be rather playing games instead of watching a movie you've probably already seen a few times?

I think it's about time you realize that whether or not a feature appeals to your unique situation in life, it has absolutely no relevance at all to how much appeal it will have to the vast majority of the market. Portable DVD players are purchased all the time because people like watching movies on the go.

And while the PSP is hardly a portable DVD player, it certainly has the capability to watch movies on the go and even if this is a feature that ends up only being used by the hardcore (which I believe it will only be used for the hardcore), it's still a fantastic feature to have. Period.

mumu said:
I think once the initial "damn i can now watch movies on the go!" coolness goes away people will see that there is not really much practical value do it. But like i said, maybe i'm just living the wrong life for PSP movie watching

Hm. Portable movie players have been around for a long time. Coolness factor has not gone away. You lose.
 
mumu said:
I find it really hard to believe that people will use every minute they spent waiting during a day to watch snippets of movies. So you're telling me you're gonna whip out your PSP in a restaurant and watch some 5 minutes of a movie while waiting for a table? :)

If you got like 1h bus rides or so every day that's a different story.

Why are you so adverse to PSP having portable media functions? Seems like you're using this 'who has time to watch a movie on the go' argument as an excuse.
 
The function is there, should you choose to use it.



If you dont' feel like watching movies for 5, 10, 30 minutes, bust out the same machine and play a short game of Ridge Racer. You won't even have to remove/exchange the movie with the game.
 
Amir0x said:
Portable movie players have been extremely successful? People watch movies on the go all the time?
On this planet? I'm apparently living the wrong life. And i didn't really know portable movie players are so successful. Are they?
I think it's about time you realize that whether or not a feature appeals to your unique situation in life, it has absolutely no relevance at all to how much appeal it will have to the vast majority of the market.
I never said otherwise. However that also goes the other way, just because you do it doesn't mean everyone else will.
You lose.
That's funny cause i never wanted to win. Is GAF a boxring know or what? I think you spent too much time in fanboy battles :)
 
jiggle said:
The function is there, should you choose to use it.



If you dont' feel like watching movies for 5, 10, 30 minutes, bust out the same machine and play a short game of Ridge Racer. You won't even have to remove/exchange the movie with the game.

I'm sorry, we won't have any of that logic around here!
 
Insertia said:
Why are you so adverse to PSP having portable media functions?
I'm not, i'm just wondering where people are actually gonna use all those functions. That's all. Apparently there is plenty of oppurtunities, just not in my life (or in the lifes of most people i know).
 
mumu said:
On this planet? I'm apparently living the wrong life. And i didn't really know portable movie players are so successful. Are they?

Yes. They have been successful, and sales of portable DVD players grow consistently ever year. I don't know how successful they are in comparrison to other electronics, but I do remember reading an article that listed it among the top ten growing consumer electronic products. I'll try to dig something up for you if it's important. But you're certainly living on a different planet on me if you don't think many people watch portable movies.

mumu said:
I never said otherwise. However that also goes the other way, just because you do it doesn't mean everyone else will.

That's the thing, I don't THINK everyone else will. If you were asking my personal opinion, I think portable movie playing on the PSP will be something that appeals mostly to the hardcore because of the format (UMD) or the method you must go to watch it on the memory stick.

The fact is, there's nothing at all NEGATIVE to having this feature. The hilarious thing about this argument is you're literally trying to find a way that it's BAD to have an extra thing like this.

It's a cool extra thing to have. That's all there is to it. You're wasting time hopelessly grasping at straws, wishing for this ever to become something that's a negative. It's not.

mumu said:
That's funny cause i never wanted to win. Is GAF a boxring know or what? I think you spent too much time in fanboy battles :)

Heh, I do often feel like I'm fighting off lions at GAF.
 
I find this type of functionality rather convenient.

Surely nobody is going to buy a psp for the sole purpose of watching movies.
 
Amir0x said:
The fact is, there's nothing at all NEGATIVE to having this feature. The hilarious thing about this argument is you're literally trying to find a way that it's BAD to have an extra thing like this.
It's a cool extra thing to have. That's all there is to it. You're wasting time hopelessly grasping at straws, wishing for this ever to become something that's a negative. It's not.
Slow down there, i never said anything like that. I just don't see it being a system seller. It's a nice extra that's for sure. Although actually it's probably gonna be a system seller! People will be wondering if it's really worth to spent 200$ on a gaming handheld, just to remind themselves that they actually could also watch movies on it! They'll probably never gonna do that, but just knowing they could if they really wanted to will make it easier for them to spend the money.

So even it has no practical value (opinions may differ) it was a smart move by SONY either way.
 
mumu said:
Slow down there, i never said anything like that. I just don't see it being a system seller. It's a nice extra that's for sure. Although actually it's probably gonna be a system seller! People will be wondering if it's really worth to spent 200$ on a gaming handheld, just to remind themselves that they actually could also watch movies on it! They'll probably never gonna do that, but just knowing they could if they really wanted to will make it easier for them to spend the money.

So even it has no practical value (opinions may differ) it was a smart move by SONY either way.

Eh, my personal opinion is that it'll have less of an impact on sales of the PSP than we think. I think it'll come down to the quality of the PSP screen, and of course the quality of the visuals displayed on it. If consumers take a liking to that and see the 200 price tag as cheap enough, I can see it being successful.
 
Wow, people will bitch about anything. It's a free, additional feature. Sony will promote it to make the PSP more attractive. Some people will make use of it, while others will never use it. And playing them from the memory card is the only option unless someone wants to shell out the money for a UMD writer.

As for where and when to watch video on the PSP, I'd say the same place and time you'd whip out your PSP and play a game. I use my GBA SP in bed to play a game just before going to sleep, just after waking up, or when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep, and I'd imagine I'll be doing the same with the PSP's video playback feature. It's also an easy way to take some interesting clip or trailer of a movie for example, and show it to your friends.
 
mumu said:
This is probably come across as a troll, but where in hell are you gonna watch those movies? Listening music i can understand (and love my IRiver for that), since you can listen to music while doing pretty much everything. But movies, you've got to be focused on that movie. You have to basically sit down to watch it. Instead you could go home and watch the same movie on a proper screen.

but where in hell are you gonna play those games? Listening music i can understand , since you can listen to music while doing pretty much everything. But games, you've got to be focused on that game. You have to basically sit down to play it. Instead you could go home and play the same game on a proper screen.

:p

jokes aside, i look forward to using this on plane trips :D

mumu said:
I find it really hard to believe that people will use every minute they spent waiting during a day to watch snippets of movies. So you're telling me you're gonna whip out your PSP in a restaurant and watch some 5 minutes of a movie while waiting for a table? :)

If you got like 1h bus rides or so every day that's a different story.

every naruto episode is only 20 mins. long you know.
 
I've been thinking the same thing while i actually wrote that post, acklame :) I actually do spend most of my GBA time at home. Where i have a TV, so i wouldn't watch any movies on a PSP. Still you are mostly right, even though you can grab a game to play a few minutes while it's a bit inconvenient to watch a 2h movie in 10 intervals. But different people do different things :)
 
DFS - I believe MPEG4 still uses a wrapper -- h.264 is h.264 is h.264 as far as the codec, but it's still got to have the wrapper protocols and all of that junk (like how QT and WMVs can be in a number of cross-platform codecs but may not be playable cross-application.) I'm not sure how this will all end up -- I'd really like to see AVC take over (especially if they can plug it into Flash ... it's a reedy format for anything but web distribution, but I'm actually getting to like how stable FLV is), but PSP is one of the first killer apps for the format, and if they're sub-dividing the format with new formats, that's sort of a waste.

BTW, there is at least one H.264 encoder out there for test. It's hard to create AAC audio to go with it (not sure if PSP can do MP3 audio instead in Movie mode), but it's just a VirtualDub plug. Made a couple this weekend. http://www.videosoftinc.com/
 
So while other companies are peddling $20 GBA movie carts, PSP users can create their own content at will and watch them at a much higher framerate for the one-time charge for the card it's stored on. How can anyone throw a negative spin on such a feature?

I intend to store episodes of sitcoms, cartoons, car shows (Top Gear), and the occasional movie.
 
Nice. I already watch various TV shows on my PDA at times. Good to know PSP will now replace the PDA almost completely for just about anything I actually use it for.
 
mumu said:
I'm not, i'm just wondering where people are actually gonna use all those functions. That's all. Apparently there is plenty of oppurtunities, just not in my life (or in the lifes of most people i know).

Why are you so worried about everyone else? The multimedia features aren't for you...we get it. Just play the games, which is still incidentally the main focus of the PSP.

And if the games don't impress you there are 2 other handheld game systems that are nice alternatives also. And if you aren't into handheld gaming period you have no business in this topic :P
 
mumu said:
There is the ignore button you know.

I didn't say I find it ignorant and you should stop... I simply asked you how long you plan on continuing.
 
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