PSP Video 9: PSP Video Converter Review

One of the joys of the Sony PSP is the glorious widescreen display, and that means it’s a great device to watch movies and TV Series on. When I first bought the PSP it wasn’t for the game playing capabilites (although that did play a large part of it), it was because I wanted a portable media player for a trans-atlantic flight. After looking at all the options (including Apple’s Video iPod) I decided that Sony’s Playstation Portable was the best choice.

And I made that choice on the recommendation and strength of one third-party application - Sajeeth Cherian’s PSP Video 9. This application takes video files in a number of formats, and converts them so they are watchable on the PSP. It’s coped with pretty much every file format my PC can throw at it, and always managed to output something viewable on the PC. Now admittedly that ‘viewable’ on the PSP might not be the perfect aspect ratio, but that’s where an almost legendary number of options can be utilised to tweak the outputted vide, from the aspect ratio and pixel size, to the framerate, bitrate and audio compression levels.

These are the settings I use…

PSP Video 9 Settings:
AVC>CBR at 256kbps
Resolution 320×240 (or 416×176 if in 2.35:1 film ratio)
Framerate 29.97 fps
One pass
Audio bitrate stereo 96kbp (or 128kbp for music videos)
48khz sample rate, and 300% volume

As well as this, it also has a basic Video File Manager and browser for the PSP, with your converted media listed on the left, and your PSP contents on the right. Unfortunatly this uses the old fixed filneam MAQxxxx.mp4 format in the PSP\Video directory, making it a bit cumbersome - but it does keep all the 22gb of PSP video I’ve got in one place on my laptop, and makes it easy to get it onto the PSP.

And it’s freeware to boot. No excuse needed, you should be downloading it right now.

Tags: psp, video, converter, psp video converter, pspvideo9, freeware