HOW-TO: Get videos and DVDs onto your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for free
HOW-TO: Get videos and DVDs onto your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for free
This week's How-To is only going to apply to the lucky six or seven of you who've managed to already get your hands on a PlayStation Portable, the rest of you will just have keep this one in mind and come back to it when the PSP comes out here in the States in March. We're going to show you step-by-step how to get video clips on to your PSP without having to spring for any additional software.
When you format a Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo stick in your Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), you will get a new PSP folder, with sub-folders for ?game?, ?music?, ?photos?, and ?savedata?. But nothing for videos? What?s up with that? Well, it turns out that you need to put MPEG-4 video files in their own special folder, one that?s not in the PSP directory, but in the main root directory of the Memory Stick.
Just create a new folder in the root directory named MP_ROOT, and then make a folder called 100MNV01 in there. So your .MP4 files should go into E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01, where E:\ is the drive letter of your Memory Stick. You also need a PC, as the converter software does not work with Macs. This MP_ROOT directory structure is directly cribbed from Sony?s UX/VZ Clie PDA series, which also plays MPEG-4 videos. Sony does offer up Image Converter 2.1, but they charge 1000 yen (around $10) for it. We?re going to show you how to do it for free.
First, we need to download 3GP Converter, currently in version 0.22 (2.7MB).
http://www.nurs.or.jp/~calcium/3gpp/
Unzip the 3GPC .ZIP file into a directory of your choice, and run setup.exe. You may see a bunch of weird characters, but don?t worry, it?s set to Japanese by default. Scroll down to the bottom of the 3GP Converter Setup window and select the English radio button, select Customized: MP4, for PSP (Direct, renamed) the then press Apply. This is the setting for conversion of video files to MPEG-4 format that can be played by the PSP, and renamed so your PSP recognizes it (such as M4V31337.MP4). Unfortunately, the PSP currently won?t recognize file names such as TheUsualSuspects.MP4 or TheOCSeason2Episode4.MP4.
Now, the 3GP Converter program window is open (if not, you can double-click the 3GP_Converter.exe program to run it). Click the Select button to choose where you want your converted PSP MP4 video files to reside. We just chose C:\3GP_Converter.
The program may ask you to install QuickTime Authoring before being able to convert your video files. A simple click of the Do It Now button will suffice.
The drop down box is what level quality setting you want your MP4 video to have. All outputted videos will have QVGA (320x240) resolution. You can choose from 15 or 29.97 frames per second, with 29.97 fps being a lot smoother. The third item listed in the quality settings is the video bitrate, the higher the bitrate, the better quality your video will turn out, with the highest quality being 1500kbps. The QB# settings appear to be variable bit rate (VBR) settings, where the converter will use a higher bitrate when necessary. The QB4 setting is the lowest quality VBR option, and QB10 the highest quality VBR. Next is the options for audio, choose between Mono or Stereo. The last bitrate is for your audio quality, you can choose from 32kbps (lower quality) to 128kbps (highest quality). The higher quality setting you choose, the slower it will be to convert.
Now drag whatever file you want to convert into MPEG-4 format into the blank area of the program window. Here we chose a Shark Tale trailer, originally in DivX Pro HD format, to convert with the ?QVGA/29.97fps/1500kbps Stereo/128kbps? setting, the highest quality setting that 3GP supports. When the program is finished converting the video into MP4 format, the program will rename the file to something like M4V04895.MP4.
Now setup the USB connection (or take out your Memory Stick Pro Duo and stick in a
reader) on your PSP to copy the video files over. The correct folder name for videos is E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01 (where E: is the drive letter of your PSP). Copy your .
MP4 video(s) over (the .THM files that 3GP Converter creates are not necessary for
playback), and then disconnect the PSP USB connection by pressing the X button.
Scroll over to Video in your PSP menu and select it by pressing the O button. It should list
your converted MP4, with title, date, and length of video. Press O again and it will start
playing.
There are four screen display modes, which you can choose from by pressing the triangle
button. Scroll up to Screen Mode (2nd from left on the top row) and use the O button to
scroll between Normal, Zoom, Full Screen, and Original modes. Normal is fin
posted by SCOTT'S BLOGS at 4:56 PM
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