Sony Psp

[tigerbeer]

Its not extensively expensive, games are fantastic, what else can you do with it???

[sbk]

Believe it plays mp3s and can watch video on it too (with enough memory)

Heres a sony website for free psp downloads

[Simmo]

Believe it plays mp3s and can watch video on it too (with enough memory)

Heres a sony website for free psp downloads

I don't have one but apparently the media functions are a real hassle to use. Typical Sony proprietary hijinks , the videos have to be in a certain format to play , crappy PC software to access it etc.

UMD disks are expensive and a flop as the movie studios have stopped publishing on them.

Nintendo DS , while less powerful, has better games and more variety.

[Meerkat]

The PSP does multimedia well, but as been mentioned here, it can be fiddle the first time. Thankfully there is better software available free on the net to help than the Sony stuff. I use something called PSP Video 9 which effortlessly (though not quickly) transfers video from the PC to the PSP. You will, of course, need a large memory stick for video. Photos and music are both pretty easy to transfer.

I've never bothered with buying pre-recorded movies - too expensive for such a small screen. If you do, bear in mind that they are region-encoded a la DVDs. Thankfully, games are all region-free.

OK, what else? Connectivity is actually rather good via WiFi. There's a web browser, RSS reader and a rather cool function called LocationFree - Sony's answer to the Slingbox. It's a seperate piece of hardware that connects to your home AV system; telly/DVD etc. It then allows you to watch your AV system from anywhere in the world via the net on your PSP (or PC for that matter). I haven't tried it yet - still umming and ahhing about it or the Slingbox itself.

There are also a couple of "hacks" available to expand the connectivity of the PSP. There's an instant messenger, and also a clever free package called Xlink Kai. Some PSP games can be played with others using an "Ad Hoc" mode connection (ie they have to be within WiFi range of your PSP). Xlink effectively gets round this so that you can play with people anywhere (kind of like Battlenet) via the net ("Infrastructure" mode).

So all in all, not a bad piece of kit!

[Simmo]

Cool, some of that sounds really interesting.

Do you think its worth it just to buy as an mp3 / video player primarily and games secondary? .. Or is a Video IPOD better for that?

[Meerkat]

Cool, some of that sounds really interesting.

Do you think its worth it just to buy as an mp3 / video player primarily and games secondary? .. Or is a Video IPOD better for that?

I'm just a gadget freak...can't resist buying new toys! 20" Intel dual-core iMac gets picked up tomorrow

Actually, I still think the PSP should be thought of as primarily a games machine with all the other stuff as extras. Browsing on any machine without a keyboard is a pain (I've also got a WiFi iPaq something or other, but found that was tedious too).

I also think the video ipod is great for music, but simply has too small a screen for any meaningfull viewing.

My favourite "do anything" is my Dell X1 ultraportable laptop. So light (1.5kg including the power brick!) and has an excellent screen - I just rip DVDs, music and photos to that and sling it in my bag - no need for a notebook case or the external drive. Too slow for good gaming though.

The PSP is a gamer with a couple of diversions in case the Dell runs out of juice...

[tigerbeer]

Cool, some of that sounds really interesting.

Do you think its worth it just to buy as an mp3 / video player primarily and games secondary? .. Or is a Video IPOD better for that?

exactly what i was getting at. trying to use it for internet, and media primarily. video ipod too small of a screen. a PSP sure beats it flat down. imagine on the plane on a journey, watching videos or playing games. it is a multi task machine. and the price (at non licensed distributor) is about 8000 plus baht? not really bad but cant compare to a laptop for sure.

it doesnt handle web browsing well?

[Meerkat]

exactly what i was getting at. trying to use it for internet, and media primarily. video ipod too small of a screen. a PSP sure beats it flat down. imagine on the plane on a journey, watching videos or playing games. it is a multi task machine. and the price (at non licensed distributor) is about 8000 plus baht? not really bad but cant compare to a laptop for sure.

it doesnt handle web browsing well?

Oh don't get me wrong - I think it's a cracking little machine and as long as you buy a suitably big memory stick you can store a movie or two on it. I've got an episode of Top Gear on mine - the one hour version. That takes up about 680MB, but that's at the highest bit rate the PSP can handle (can't remember offhand). You could sacrifice a bit of quality to cram more in.

It handles browsing well - very flexible setup options for WiFi including WEP and WPA TKIP/AES. It even has tabbed browsing! Its only downsides are a small screen, and the lack of a keyboard which makes url entry fiddly. There was a mini-keyboard mooted, connecting to the mini-USB port, but I've heard it was cancelled as Sony refused to release the code needed to interface it to the PSP OS. No doubt Sony will release one themselves at some point.

I haven't used the RSS reader, as I haven't got round to RSS generally!

Anyway, it is a true multifunction machine. I originally bought one for my daughter, but after playing with it for a week or two ended up getting another one for myself as well...sigh...

[tigerbeer]

exactly what i was getting at. trying to use it for internet, and media primarily. video ipod too small of a screen. a PSP sure beats it flat down. imagine on the plane on a journey, watching videos or playing games. it is a multi task machine. and the price (at non licensed distributor) is about 8000 plus baht? not really bad but cant compare to a laptop for sure.

it doesnt handle web browsing well?

Oh don't get me wrong - I think it's a cracking little machine and as long as you buy a suitably big memory stick you can store a movie or two on it. I've got an episode of Top Gear on mine - the one hour version. That takes up about 680MB, but that's at the highest bit rate the PSP can handle (can't remember offhand). You could sacrifice a bit of quality to cram more in.

It handles browsing well - very flexible setup options for WiFi including WEP and WPA TKIP/AES. It even has tabbed browsing! Its only downsides are a small screen, and the lack of a keyboard which makes url entry fiddly. There was a mini-keyboard mooted, connecting to the mini-USB port, but I've heard it was cancelled as Sony refused to release the code needed to interface it to the PSP OS. No doubt Sony will release one themselves at some point.

I haven't used the RSS reader, as I haven't got round to RSS generally!

Anyway, it is a true multifunction machine. I originally bought one for my daughter, but after playing with it for a week or two ended up getting another one for myself as well...sigh...

hey meerkat, thanks for the explanation. thats what i want really a mini movie viewer (not bad screen size though), internet, gaming. now that main question, how much really is a good price for it. the sony dealerships are selling it at 11,900 but heard u can get them around 8000? anyone has an idea how much really and where to get them? the savings could buy me some good memory sticks.

[EVO]

i payed 8000 for one for the daughter at a non-licensed distributor.

games pretty expensiv ethough. Whats the chance of getting it 'chipped' like we did the PS2 so that we can play copied games?

[JJDinsay]

I found the web browser only slightly useful due to its small screen but still its enough for me to read news. If I can access a sight that's completely text free as all I'll really use it for is reading news anyway. Can anyone recommend one?

PSP Video 9 is OK but overall it takes a long long time to burn a movie - I wish SONY would just stop with this proprietary crap and just allow the darn thing to play straight MPG or AVI so I could just download my existing collection on it.

This baby is great though - I use it strictly as a gaming machine as I already have an IPod but occassionaly do use it for music. I have some games that I wanna get rid of, anyone wanna trade up?

[bangbuathong]

i payed 8000 for one for the daughter at a non-licensed distributor.

games pretty expensiv ethough. Whats the chance of getting it 'chipped' like we did the PS2 so that we can play copied games?

it does not have to be chipped, check your firmware and PSPhacks on how to