PSP to support MPEG-4 movie playback !

[wraggster]

According to a recent update on the official PSP Web site, the new handheld will be able to both download movie files and play them back on the fly. The site further reveals that the PSP will have the ability to play back MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) files, which the site abbreviates as MP4. [br][br][br]Users will be able to download MP4 files to the Memory Stick Duo, similarly to how MP3 audio files can be downloaded to the same piece of hardware. Of course, one issue to contend with is that the MP4 format, as much as it is a standard ISO format, isn't widely supported yet. Users will need to find a converter if they want to view their already existing movie files on the PSP. [br][br]For its part, Sony will be supplying Windows-based software, called Image Converter 2, that will facilitate the conversion, although a separate purchase of the program will be required. A trial version of the converter will be released the day after the PSP's Japanese launch on December 13. (Consumers only interested in viewing their home videos, take note: Sony's DSC-M1 Cybershot digital camera records files in MP4 format.) [br][br]The exact details on how to download music or movie data onto the PSP and its memory stick will be disclosed in the near future on a dedicated Web page. [br][br]As for the availability of commercial movies in UMD format, Sony has yet to announce a lineup, and it is currently unknown if any titles will be released at the PSP's launch.

[Alexvrb]

If they specifically said H.264, that does not mean "MPEG-4 support". It means that it supports a specific subset of MPEG-4. "MP4" is just a file container, I could put Wild Monkeys in there and nothing could play it but Wild Monkey Player 3.1, and still call it MP4. They should also support other layers of MPEG-4 like Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile, and enable playback of Divx and similar streams. But they probably won't.

Don't get me wrong, some H.264 implementations are probably superior in quality bit for bit (for the same size in other words) to Divx/Xvid/WMV/RM/QT. But H.264 is the newest and least common MPEG4 layer, and I don't even know if there are any freeware encoders for it.

Edit: On top of that, I hope Sony is hardware accelerating their playback or has a really well tuned decoder. H.264 playback at higher resolutions can get pretty CPU intensive.

[milfzor]

well, if sony is supporting playback of mp4 in that particular video compression, im SURE there's gonna be limitations on the resolution, bitrate, ect that it will be able to play back...im QUITE sure its not gonna be playing back ANYTHING at like...720x480 resolution....so i wouldnt imagine it could end up being THAT cpu intensive...since the screen isnt even that high of a resolution to begin with...and if it is what people are making it out to be...basically a portable ps2...im sure it will have enough processing power to do it at like...320x240 with REGULAR bitrates (600-800k/s) i dont see any issues with the playback......but when they say mp4 playback....like what was pointed out, it could be ANY number of things......

[Shapyi]

There are free H.264 codecs out there, I have seen them. There are also open source ones. But if Sony does release a converter program and I get PSP, I would buy if it wasn't too much money. Otherwise I would wait for someone to come up with a free solution which I'm sure someone will. They always do :)

[Alexvrb]

They're unlikely to release a really comprehensive converter program, because converting from many formats on many different PCs is not something they would want to deal with, even major media piracy aside. (Edit: as long as it supports the major file containers and codecs, most people should be happy) I know there are H.264 decoders, but I wasn't sure if there were any free, stable releases for encoding (whether VFW or otherwise).

As for playback on PSP, scaling video up or down to fit the screen isn't a problem. Also, I'm sure it could handle 720x480 Divx or other similar SP/ASP codecs better than you think. The problem is that H.264 is more complicated and slower, even the better implementations I've seen examples of required a comparatively good amount of power just to play.

That's another problem with H.264 and all other MPEG-4 layers. There are so many implementations, and performance/quality/compatibility varies greatly. Digital media is such a mess.

[Shapyi]

I wouldn't worry about it. I mean eventually someone is going to figure out how to launch homebrew software straight from the MemoryStick, once that happens then there will be homebrew emulators, homebrew media players, etc. Just like with GP32, only there will be more attention since PSP will have a bigger user base. We just have to wait until homebrew programmers get their hands on it and start reserve engineering the little guy.

[Alexvrb]

GP32 was designed to run homebrew. PSP is designed to avoid such things, because they leave room for piracy. Booting homebrew programs will probably require internal modification or some sort of UMD bootdisc.

[Shapyi]

That is doubtful, they have demos that run off the memory stick. Infact at all the conventions they had demos like Ridge Racer running off the memory stick.

[Alexvrb]

Those weren't commercial units. Do you really think they're going to open the gates to piracy like that? Do you think they're THAT STUPID?

[stiby]

Mainconcept have provided MPEG2 encoders for software like Adobe premier and Avid and are working on a H.264 encoder take a look

http://www.mainconcept.com/h264_encoder.shtml


Whilsts on the conversation of gates I think Sony have hinted on making game demos avilable via download to be ran from the memory stick but I feel sony are relying too much on the Magic GATE technology, but then again developers don't have to worry too much as long as they use over 1Gb of space on the UMD the price of the memory card alone will put people off for a while. Also if the game code makes lots of system calls to the disc directly it will render a game on the memory stick useless anyway.

[Alexvrb]

I doubt the MainConcept encoder will fall under the category of free, but if Sony provides even a relatively limited conversion package, that should be enough. It probably won't be fast though, the H.264 (MPEG-4 layer 10) stuff I've seen so far takes a pretty smokin computer to encode it quickly.

As for the memory sticks, maybe they really have lost their minds. I guess we'll see.

[Shapyi]

http://psp.ign.com/articles/572/572697p1.html

There ya go. Sony has released one in Japan for the PSP. Thats if you don't want to go through the hassle of converting your media yourself with freeware codecs. It costs 1000 yen, which means it will probably be $ 9.99 in USA. Seems fair, I wish it was free though.

[Alexvrb]

They're charging for it? That's so lame. Like the PSP isn't expensive enough.

[Shapyi]

They're charging for it? That's so lame. Like the PSP isn't expensive enough.

Just squeezing every penny out of us it seems ;)