Apple & the PSP...
Now, this is more than likely just daydreaming that i'm sure everyone's done already, but I haven't found a discussion on it yet... With the PSP supporting Apple formats like AAC & H264 in it's PSP, i'd like to think of the possibility of an alliance with the PSP & the itunes store and isync. Now that the itunes store has video clips, and itunes does movies, it just seems too obviously rad. I know PSPware have this kind of covered, but intergrated Apple support, with Sony's blessing would be pretty sweet...
Comments
I have a PSP and for me the gaming is secondary. I like carrying around photos and movies of my son.
Originally posted by Placebo
The inclusion of AAC (.mp4 audio) support has swayed my decision to get a PSP instead of an iPod. The PSP just mounts as a Flash drive on the Mac OS X desktop, and you can drag music to the /Music directory. AND GET THIS: It detects subdirectories as albums, so if you have kept your iTunes set to "keep library organized", you can just drag and drop a "Reveal in Finder" folder from iTunes into your PSP.
Where have you seen this? The only supported formats listed in the manual is ATRAC3+ and MP3.
Originally posted by PBG4 Dude
Where have you seen this? The only supported formats listed in the manual is ATRAC3+ and MP3.
They've added H.264 and MP4 audio support in the 2.0 update, which is currently available in Japan, probably soon in the United States. Also added: a web browser.
Originally posted by Placebo
They've added H.264 and MP4 audio support in the 2.0 update, which is currently available in Japan, probably soon in the United States. Also added: a web browser.
Really?!? That's awesome!!
I hope I can use QT to encode the video since that would remove a few steps from my current workflow (import to iMovie -> export .dv -> use QT to make self-contained .mov -> PSPWare).
Originally posted by Placebo
The inclusion of AAC (.mp4 audio) support has swayed my decision to get a PSP instead of an iPod. The PSP just mounts as a Flash drive on the Mac OS X desktop, and you can drag music to the /Music directory. AND GET THIS: It detects subdirectories as albums, so if you have kept your iTunes set to "keep library organized", you can just drag and drop a "Reveal in Finder" folder from iTunes into your PSP.
the max amount of songs you can get on a psp is 2 gigs and that will set you back about $450 (250 for psp and about 200 for 2 gigs-thats what i payed counting tax). the song selection sucks, and psp is way way way to big to use as an mp3 player. i have both, psp kinda suxs. i like it better now that they have the web browser. If you havn't paid for it yet, don't get the psp. if you have, return it. as an mp3 player it sucks, and don't think the built in speakers is a plus, they sound worse than you can imagine, and they commonly have massive static. psp is for gaming and gaming only, all else is worthless. and movies is really bad. the screen is perfeclty sized for gameplay, but for movies it's way to small, and the UMD movies skip sometimes
Originally posted by i-am-an-elf
the max amount of songs you can get on a psp is 2 gigs and that will set you back about $450 (250 for psp and about 200 for 2 gigs-thats what i payed counting tax). the song selection sucks, and psp is way way way to big to use as an mp3 player. i have both, psp kinda suxs. i like it better now that they have the web browser. If you havn't paid for it yet, don't get the psp. if you have, return it. as an mp3 player it sucks, and don't think the built in speakers is a plus, they sound worse than you can imagine, and they commonly have massive static. psp is for gaming and gaming only, all else is worthless. and movies is really bad. the screen is perfeclty sized for gameplay, but for movies it's way to small, and the UMD movies skip sometimes
Actually I use my PSP mostly to carry my still videos and home movies of my family to show to people at work. Sometimes I even play a game or two on it.
It's definitely not an iPod killer though. I still use my 2G 20GB iPod for music.
Originally posted by Placebo
They've added H.264 and MP4 audio support in the 2.0 update, which is currently available in Japan, probably soon in the United States. Also added: a web browser.
Well, I'm bummed. According to PSP enthusiast sites you can't encode AVC video with QuickTime. You have to use Sony's software but that's PC only. PSPVideo9 is working on AVC endoding and claim to have made it work, but their program is PC only too.
Looks like at this point Mac users are still out in the cold with regards to AVC encoding.
The 3D hardware in the thing is a marvel of miniaturisation, but it's game library is very poor with little of interest on the way. Nintendo have beaten everything in handheld space that has ever challenged them and are doing the same again. The reasons are pretty simple:
- DS is cheap to buy
- DS games are cheap to develop
- DS has some innovative new features (and so innovative games)
- DS already has a decent library, and there is a huge list of quality stuff incoming for the rest of this year
All in one devices may work one day, but for now I'm sticking with my 4G 20gb iPod and my DS.
Well, to get back to the original subject, Sony are locked into battle with Apple with MP3 players, so I would imagine hell would freeze over (if such a place actually existed) before such a deal could happen. Same deal with Xbox 360 and it's iPod support, you can bet it won't be able to access any music bought from the iTMS.
Originally posted by PBG4 Dude
Looks like at this point Mac users are still out in the cold with regards to AVC encoding.
Sorenson Squeeze works great. I've been using it for months.
Also, the movies for PSP are selling like crazy . A lot of the work I do everyday is directly related to the UMD format - and they're heaping more and more titles (films) on us weekly to get conformed for PSP.
Originally posted by Placebo
They've added H.264 and MP4 audio support in the 2.0 update, which is currently available in Japan, probably soon in the United States. Also added: a web browser.
True, it is coming to be avaible for US owners around August 12th : ) (the update)
Originally posted by Cake
Sorenson Squeeze works great. I've been using it for months.
Also, the movies for PSP are selling like crazy . A lot of the work I do everyday is directly related to the UMD format - and they're heaping more and more titles (films) on us weekly to get conformed for PSP.
Sorenson doesn't mention PSP support as far as I can tell. PSP video requires a special header, it's a proprietary version of AVC. The makers of PSPWare are adding AVC encoding in a future update so it looks like I'm covered.
I thought it was straight AVC.
I know the guy in charge of the UMD group (they encode the video and author the discs) and when I get in to work on Monday I'll ask him for some details about the video encoding.
Please no complaints about this being a photoshop fake. That's all I intended it to be, it's not even a very good fake, I spent about 15 minutes on this.
In this supposed age of "converged" products, it's the well executed single purpose products that people want and buy. DS = simple games system that delivers... fun, what a novel concept. iPods, digital cameras, cell phones. Seems that all the streamlined, 'does just what it's supposed to' models are doing well. The converged product? Not so well. There aren't any camera phones, or PDA-phone combos that even begin to compare with plain jane phones in terms of units shipped. Only blackberry has any presence, and that because they offer good email/messaging for large mobile teams.
Even those people who think they want a portable video player product (including those in this thread) are really just more interested in the technical possibility. This is tech fetishism, and it can attract those same people described as early adopters -- but even they quickly realize the near uselessness of the certain products once they get them, and the new device then languishes in a closet. No one else buys them, no market of consequence ever grows up around it, and after a time it becomes a technological curiosity.
Sony would do better to quickly release a revised player with better battery life and to renew their focus on games if they want to do anything of consequence with the PSP.
Originally posted by Matsu
Interesting that nintendo is wiping the floor with the PSP. Goes to show what a focused product can do. All-in-one doohicky advocates take note.
In this supposed age of "converged" products, it's the well executed single purpose products that people want and buy. DS = simple games system that delivers... fun, what a novel concept. iPods, digital cameras, cell phones. Seems that all the streamlined, 'does just what it's supposed to' models are doing well. The converged product? Not so well. There aren't any camera phones, or PDA-phone combos that even begin to compare with plain jane phones in terms of units shipped. Only blackberry has any presence, and that because they offer good email/messaging for large mobile teams.
Even those people who think they want a portable video player product (including those in this thread) are really just more interested in the technical possibility. This is tech fetishism, and it can attract those same people described as early adopters -- but even they quickly realize the near uselessness of the certain products once they get them, and the new device then languishes in a closet. No one else buys them, no market of consequence ever grows up around it, and after a time it becomes a technological curiosity.
Sony would do better to quickly release a revised player with better battery life and to renew their focus on games if they want to do anything of consequence with the PSP.
I couldn't agree more with one exception. Early convergence products are almost always horrible. I think this is because people slap a camera on a phone before the technology is mature enough to make that a good product. Take for instance the first camera phones, bulky, extremely bad quality photos (most still are), and the cameras would attach rather then being built in.
But take the personal computer for instance, while not exactly a mobile device it is a relatively refined convergence product.
For a music/photo/video iPod (the long name for the iPod Video) to be truely great it'll need big screen video quality in a compact device. And the only two ways I see this being possible is for either a mini built-in projector or a light and sleek wearable display (like Oakley's Razerwire bluetooth phone headset). I think the later of the two is more likely, although not apon the first iPod video release.
Originally posted by Matsu
Even those people who think they want a portable video player product (including those in this thread) are really just more interested in the technical possibility. This is tech fetishism, and it can attract those same people described as early adopters -- but even they quickly realize the near uselessness of the certain products once they get them, and the new device then languishes in a closet. No one else buys them, no market of consequence ever grows up around it, and after a time it becomes a technological curiosity.
I disagree. I use my PSP more as an image and video repository. I have hundreds of pics of my son and multiple videos of him as well. This way I have one device carrying his life story that I can show anyone interested at any time.
It's really cool to be able to do this with my digital stuff. Once in a while I can kill some time playing Lumines or Twisted Metal: Head On as well. At some point I'll probably pick up Coded Arms if the final reviews are as good as the previews have been.