Here’s how to put videos on a PSP. It is a relatively easy process, and Sony should be commended for creating such an entertainment powerhouse. You can play videos from a memory stick, or play network videos from the Internet or a computer on your home network. If you have a VPN you can even play videos on your home PC or server when you’re anywhere in the world.

That’s a lot of audio / video power in the palm of your hand. Since the days of the first Walkman over 30 years ago, Sony has always been a trend setter when creating handheld electronic entertainment. The PSP is their best effort ever. Not only can it play videos, but you can play music in many different formats and games too. That’s the power of a truly portable entertainment system. As the name says, the name of the game is play; and that’s just what Sony hopes you do.

If you have a PSP, here’s how you can put videos on it. If you’re loading them from a Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Pro Duo (get at least a 1GB stick, they’re really cheap now), you’ll need to turn off your PSP, put the memory stick in your PSP, then plug your PSP into your PC with a USB cable.

You’ll then turn your PSP back on and press ‘X’. Go the settings menu in the PSP and select USB for the connection type. Your PC will now consider your PSP as just another drive and assign it a letter, just as it would for a memory stick or SD card. In the new drive (memory stick) set up a separate folder in the root menu called MP_ROOT. For example, if your stick is the E drive on your PC you’ll then create a file in the folder called 100MNV01, so you’ll end up with a file path that’s E:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01.

After that it’s pretty simple really. You can just drag your videos over to the stick and you’ll be ready to go. You will have to convert your videos to MPEG4 (H.264) if they’re not that way already. Make sure they’re in QVGA (320×240) resolution. This is not the native resolution of your PSP’s LCD display, which is 480×272. On many occasions, there are problems converting videos to the 480 x 272 resolution, but usually the 320 x 240 works without problems. It’s then scaled to fill the screen on the PSP.

If you want your PSP to show you real video, not some down scaled trash, you should update the firmware on your PSP to at least version 3.30 if you haven’t done so. With this software rev, Sony gave the PSP support for numerous other resolutions, with the highest being the DVD native resolution of 720 x 480.

If your converter software will support the resolution and convert to MPEG4 you’ll be good to go. You can also play videos encoded at the PSP’s native 480 x 272, which would seem to be the best choice for viewing on the unit’s own display and conserving memory space. at the Set the framerate to 29.97, the standard rate for NTSC video. 29.97fps is the actual framerate that’s used when people indicate 30fps. Select the desired audio and video bit rate for the amount of quality you’re looking for in your videos. The higher the bit rate the better the quality but the more memory your videos will need.

Once you’ve converted the videos here’s what you just drag them into the folder you created earlier on your memory stick. After you’ve done this, you’ll be able to play them straight off the stick.

By: Steve Faber