I'd like to say Hello!

[oasismark]

Hi all,

PSP newbie here. This seams to be the best forum for all info about the PSP, so here's my short story.

My mate is currently in the USA on holiday, and before he went he asked me if i wanted anything.

I asked him to get me a PSP with a few games. (Tiger Woods & Mercury)

I told him it would cost about $250 for value pack and $50 each for games.

Total $350 = £185.

First of all is this about the correct priceings?

So while i sit patiently waiting for him to come home, i'm finding out all about the PSP.

I have played one, (a jap one) and played Ridge Racers and loved it.

Having given up on the Uk release anytime soon and the games being region free, i though i'd get myself a PSP now. Also we all know the UK is a rip off country, i'm sure the PSP will be well over £200 when it if finally released, and i think it will be for xmas aswel.

Some questions then:

1. Everyone says get a screen protector, so which is the best?

2. How about a carrying case? Isn't the one that comes with the value pach good enough.

3. I saw a screen shot of a PSP playing mp3's and it had a picture of the album cover on the screen, is that always the case.

4. Memory card. What size do you think is needed, 512 or 1G. As i'd like to watch films on it, but won't be buying any UMD films. so need a good mem card.

5. Where is best place to get one?

6. How easy is it to convert a DVD i own to the PSP.

7. How easy is it to convert an .avi file to watch on the PSP?

8. What other cool things can it do? (internet browsing?)

Sorry for all questions, but i'm quite exited about getting one.



Countdown....

2 Weeks

[Huckleberry_Fin]

Answers to some of your questions

1)Not sure which screen protector is the best as I've not got one or looked into it. I should do as I'm dreadful at keeping stuff like a PSP undamaged, took only 8 hours before I'd dropped my ipod mini on my driveway and 2 days before my V3 came shooting out of my pocket and across the road. There was a discussion about protectors a few days ago, apparently lik-sang have good ones

2)The sony carry case that comes with it is alright, it's made of a kind of neoprene material, if you're going to be carring it around in a bag and stuff then get a proper case that covers it all over, you could easily stratch the bottom left hand corner with the supplied case.

3)The PSP doesn't automatically show the album art for Mp3 albums, it does support this facility. I can't remember where I read it though. Someone elase on this forum might know.

4)As for memory sticks, anyone here will agree that bigger is better. Get a 1Gb if you've got the extra money to do so. You can easily fit a 2 hour movie with brillient qulality onto a 1 gig stick, with a 512Mb you have to mess about with the quality.

5)Not many people can find 1Gb sticks in the US because the launch of the PSP has driven demand up and the SanDisk factory was messed up in the Tsunami (not sure if that is true). Ebay has some but be careful because some sellers don't have them in stock and the next bunch is out in late May or June. My friends company says they can get the Sony ones for £90 with a 3 day lead time if you get stuck.

6)Easy, just rip the DVD to a .vob and then .vod to .avi. Encoding an .avi to Mp4 is easy once you have the software. A lot us users have 3GP converter, some use sony's own one called Image Converter 9. You need to create some folders on the root of your memory stick but you can find details of how to do this on this forum. After that it drag and drop all the way.

7)Answered this above. Just need the software

8)Yes you can browse the intenet on it but you'll need a copy of WipeOut pure and a wireless LAN (if you don't want to be stood next to you PC). Details on what to change your DNS setting to can be found on this site too. Other uses are saving XBOX game save data, GPRS hardware is supopsed to be released for it and poeple have got lunix runnig on it. I'm sure some of the more hardcore PSP guys here will add to the list.

[oasismark]

Thanks for the advice.

Can anyone confirm the US prices for PSP console and games, IN THEIR SHOPS, not online order.

I was told $250 console & $50 games?

[Huckleberry_Fin]

I know that PSP are definately $250, this is a news clipping from the US

http://playstation.about.com/gi/dyna...toryID=8125376

I've checked Targets website who are America's version of Argos and games are all $49.95

[oasismark]

Thanks for confirming.

So should be £185 for the PSP and 2 games.

Hope he brings one now, i'll be gutted if he doesn't.

[Huckleberry_Fin]

There'll be a bit of Tax on top of that too, varies depending on which state he's in, call it about £200

[psplover]

1. Everyone says get a screen protector, so which is the best?

I'd say go with a hori one or the one one on play-asia.com. They both are $10 and offer anti reflection and a thick screen sheilding.[/quote]

2. How about a carrying case? Isn't the one that comes with the value pach good enough.

The carry case wont be fine unless you get a screen protector as its so snug and can scratch your screen with little to no effort.

3. I saw a screen shot of a PSP playing mp3's and it had a picture of the album cover on the screen, is that always the case.

I've never seen it show a picture when playing a mp3 on mine. Just shows a list of the songs.

4. Memory card. What size do you think is needed, 512 or 1G. As i'd like to watch films on it, but won't be buying any UMD films. so need a good mem card.

A 512 stick and hold about 4, 30 minute episodes at very high quality.

5. Where is best place to get one?

Doesnt really matter just get a SanDisk one as there cheaper than Sony's cards by a good fraction.

6. How easy is it to convert a DVD i own to the PSP.

If you're use to video encoding it should be no problem.
Get smart ripper to rip the vob files.
Run DVD2AVI using XVID set at 4000 bit rate, and audio set as demux to wav.
Open Virtual Dub and direct stream the video and the audio together. Remove the black boarders(if widescreen) and resize your video to 416x176.
Run Rapiz and save your video at 576 bit rate with 48 sound mono.

7. How easy is it to convert an .avi file to watch on the PSP?

Very easy just run Rapiz and choose your quality settings

8. What other cool things can it do? (internet browsing?)

Nothing much really. Just webbrowsing really.

[aseddon130]

you do not need to convert DVDs to avi at all, use DVD Decrypter and set it to make the films .vob into one big vob file, then just convert that using PSPVideo9 !!! saves losing quality by ripping to avi n stuff!

[psplover]

you do not need to convert DVDs to avi at all, use DVD Decrypter and set it to make the films .vob into one big vob file, then just convert that using PSPVideo9 !!! saves losing quality by ripping to avi n stuff!

DVD decrypter is very slow still is it not?
Also i've never noticed loss in quality. I mean when your making the image about 4 times as small and 4 times lower in quality in the end I doubt its gonna matter in the end.

[Vimes220]

Welcome to the forum.


You don't have to be mad to post here, but it helps