Photos:
One of the easiest things to do on the PSP is to view photos. The new 2.0 firmware now makes it possible to view photos in many formats including JPEG, TIFF, GIF and BMP.
Firstly you need to connect a USB cable between your computer and your PSP. A USB cable does not come with your PSP, however many digital cameras and mp3 players use the same sized plug, so before you rush out and buy one, check to see what you have lying around. If you don't have one just head into just about any electrical or gaming store and tell them you need a USB cable for your PSP. They'll know what to give you.
Once you've connected your PSP to your computer, your computer should automatically recognise your PSP and come up with several options. Select the "View files and folders" option. The computer will open up the root of the PSP. When you put files into your PSP they must be in the correct directory for the PSP to recognise them. At the root of the PSP there needs to be a folder called "PSP". If it is not there, create it and open it.
You now need to create a folder called "PHOTO" if there is not one already. Open this folder. You will now be at the location "PSP/PHOTO" relative to the root of the memory stick. Now all you need to do is copy pictures from your computer into this folder! It is also possible to create subfolders in this directory to catagorise images. The PSP will do the rest of the work. Once you disconnect your PSP from your computer open the Photo option on the PSP menu and you should see all your photos there. When viewing a photo press the triangle button to perform various functions such as zooming in.
Music:
Who doesn't love putting at least one or two tunes on there PSP and carrying them around with you? Music needs to go in the location "PSP/MUSIC". You'll need to create these folders if they are not there already. The PSP will only recognise mp3 files.
Once you've placed your music files in your PSP. Open the music section on the PSP menu. Pressing the triangle button while audio is playing back will display the music control panel, which has many functions, such as skipping tracks. Pressing the L or R button will skip to the next track. Press the right D-pad button will fast foward. Folders can be created in the "MUSIC" folder and will then be grouped on the PSP. Unfortunately the PSP itself can not be used to group music together.
Network:
Connecting to the web browser on the PSP is a lot easier than more people expect. By simply selecting the web browser option from the PSP menu and then trying to navigate to a website the PSP will prompt you to enter settings. You will need to have a wireless conection to do this (or possible use one of your neighbours). you will need to know the password if the connection is secured. You can ask the PSP to "SCAN" for connections and find out if they need a password. Once you scan for a connection just select all the default settings and enter the password when prompted. This should work for most connections.
You can also use the PSP browser in wireless hot spots around town. In this case the PSP will open to a login screen when you will have to enter your account details with the hot spot company.
Now you're ready to surf! Select the bottom left icon on the PSP browser. Now select the "Open Url" option and enter http://palgn.com.au. PALGN automatically detects when you view it using a PSP and will arrange its display accordingly to make browsing a lot faster. You can of course view other websites, but why would you want to?
Video:
This is the aspect of the PSP that most people have trouble with. The PSP can play video that is encoded in MPEG-4 format, but the video cannot be encoded at a rate higher than 768 kbps. Some MPEG-4 preformatted videos can be found online, but most people prefer to encode the video themselves.
Some software companies have taken advantage of the demand and created software; but it comes at a cost. Other smaller sites have developed encoders such as PSP Video 9 which, in our opinion is the easiest and clearly the best encoder around. We've done a small tutorial for those who are a little confused by how to add your own video to the PSP.
We've narrowed it down to six fairly easy steps, which should make the process a little easier. we've obliterated the stuff that would get a little confusing.
Step One:
The first step is simply to download the PSP video tool, which can be found on the website. The full install (which is the one we recommend) is a total of 4.40mb.
Step Two:
The second step is to install the PSP video 9 tool, this will take about two minutes, and is fairly simple.
Step Three:
The PSP has to be connected to the computer, which can be done via a USB cable, if you don't have a cable, then some mobile phone USB adaptors will work with the PSP. Make sure the PSP is put into "USB Mode" which is done via the settings menu.
Step Four:
It is now time to open up the PSP Video 9 application, if you have connected the PSP correctly then the directory (and thus a lot of the hard work) will be done automatically for you. when the PSP is automatically detected then just click "DONE"
Step Five:
The next step is fairly simple, and all you have to do is click on "convert new video", and select your source file. The output quality will be automatically selected, the output could take a little while, so be patient, a progress bar appears to help you keep track of how far in you are.
Step Six:
Once the conversion is complete all you need to do is click on the copy button to go to the copy page. It is as easy as selecting the video that was just converted and clicking on "click video to PSP". The video folder will be created and the video will be viewable from the "VIDEO" option on the PSP.
Output Size:
This is a rough estimate:
Television Show (20 - 30 mins) 140mb - 250mb
Short Movie (80 mins) 650mb
Full Length Movie (90 - 120 mins) 850mb
In order to view most videos you're going to need a bigger memory stick than the default 32MB one that comes with your PSP. PALGN recomends at least 512MB and preferably 1GB if you intend to use the PSP to view videos. Dont forget to check out our current competition to giving away a couple of SanDisk 1GB MS Pro Duo Memory Sticks.
Special thanks goes to the PSP Video 9 team for some of these images.
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