PSP INFO

[Coolgreen44]

General Info

The PlayStation Portable is Sony's third installment in its successful PlayStation line of video game consoles and their first entry into handheld systems. The PSP was first announced during E³ 2003 and was unveiled on May 11, 2004 at a Sony press conference during E³ 2004. First released in Japan, its official retail release date was December 12, 2004. It was released in North America on March 24, 2005. The PSP launched in South Korea on May 2, 2005 and was followed by a joint launch in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan on May 12, 2005. It will be released in Europe and Australia on September 1, 2005 [1]. Sony had delayed the European launch (originally set for March) to meet demand from other regions.

The PSP can play video games, video content, and digital audio, as well as display digital photos. Instead of being distributed on traditional ROM cartridges with battery-backed RAM for saves, games and other content are sold on Sony's new 1.8 GB Universal Media Discs (UMDs). The Memory Stick Duo (regular or Pro, but the high-speed mode of high-speed Sticks isn't supported) is used for storing saved games and moving multimedia to the PSP from other devices. Other notable features of the PSP include WiFi wireless networking support (including a web browser in version 2.0 of the firmware), a rechargeable and removable battery, 4.3 inch (109 mm) TFT LCD 480x272 pixel flat screen, and a sliding flat panel analog stick.

According to claims made by Sony at E3 2005, the PSP may be able to connect to the PlayStation 3 using its WiFi connection to be used as a "video enabled game controller," similar to the connectivity feature of the Game Boy Advance and GameCube.

Sales
The Nintendo DS is currently seen by many analysts to be in the same market as the PlayStation Portable, although representatives from both companies have stated that each system targets a different audience. Nintendo particularly is attempting to differentiate the DS from other game machines, including the PSP, which is a somewhat more traditional gaming device. The Nintendo DS is currently the leader of the two in total worldwide unit sales, though the two devices debuted in different places at different times.

As of July 28, the PSP has shipped 2.09 million units to stores worldwide. These are only figures for the number of PSP units shipped to retailers, however; actual sales figures of the system are unavailable.

Games

The PSP's inputs are geared for gaming rather than multimedia, with two shoulder buttons (triggers), the iconic PlayStation face buttons, (△○X □: triangle, circle, cross and square buttons), start and select buttons, a digital 4-directional pad, and an analog input. There is also a row of secondary controls along the underside of the screen, for controlling volume, music settings (either switching the audio off and on in games or selecting different equalizer settings in the OS), screen brightness, accessing the system's main menu, as well as the standard Start and Select buttons. The UMD disks are small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket, and superficially similar to Sony's earlier product, the MiniDisc, but for the lack of a protective shutter and slightly different cartridge shape.

The PSP's analog input, sometimes called the "analog nub," is not a traditional stick, but a sliding flat panel; its odd placement initially led to speculation that it was a speaker. Concerns existed regarding the practicality of the input (its position requires a slightly asymmetrical grip on the unit to adequately use, with the left hand being lower than the right). While it is used in the same way as the analog thumbstick of a modern console, the resistance springs are calibrated differently: they are softer, making quick, coarse adjustments a bit easier, but fine-grained ones a bit more difficult.

Other

UMD
Because of the UMD's relatively large storage space, and the PSP's large display screen, some film studios have released feature films in the UMD format with pricing comparable to DVD videos. Companies releasing UMD movies include Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Lions Gate Entertainment, Sony Pictures, New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures.

Most releases provide alternate audio languages and content, subtitles, and special features. (Japanese releases have been somewhat more eclectic, and include UMD/DVD combination packs [2] and pornography.) On June 22nd, 2005, Sony confirmed that both House of Flying Daggers and Resident Evil: Apocalypse have both sold more than 100,000 copies each[3].

Movies on UMD were first made available in April 2005. The initial North American releases included House of Flying Daggers, xXx, Hellboy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Resident Evil: Apocalypse from Sony Pictures, along with Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Pirates of the Caribbean from the Miramax wing of Disney Pictures.

A List of PlayStation Portable movies is available.

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Multimedia & codecs
The PSP is capable of displaying still image, movie, and audio files stored on the UMD disk format or a memory stick. The system supports MP3 and Sony's ATRAC3plus formats for audio, AVC (MPEG-4 Part 10 encoding) for video on UMD discs, and JPEG images. The PSP also has the capability to decode MPEG-4 Part 2 and MPEG-4 Part 3 from the *.mp4 container, if located on the Memory Stick. The file(s) must be placed in the /MP_ROOT/100MNV01 directory on the Memory Stick, and be named in the following format: M4V#####.MP4 (where "#" is any digit). A corresponding thumbnail image file (160x120 pixel JPEG files renamed with the .THM extension) with the same file name (besides the extension) of the movie file can optionally be placed in the same directory.

Sony has announced that Image Converter 2, a piece of PC software for converting video files to AVC for playback on CLIÉ PDAs, will be available before the end of the year, and may be used with the PSP. A preview version was made available shortly after the PSP launch. It can convert *.avi, MPEG1/2/4, QuickTime and *.wmv movie files to AVC, as well as the "Giga Pocket" and "Do VAIO" files used by VAIO PCs to record television. It will also convert most common still image files into JPEG format. Sony's SonicStage software can be used to copy *.mp3 and ATRAC files to the PSP as well.

Sony's software is not the only toolset for getting music or movies onto a PSP, and a cottage industry has grown around offering useful tools for converting and copying files for use on the PSP. Some popular alternatives include PSPWare, iPSP, Mobile Media Maker, PSP Video 9 and PSP Multimedia Extender all simplify the task of converting and transferring files to and from the PSP's Memory Stick. Using these tools, nearly any digital video file (including movie files ripped from DVDs or digital video recorders like the TiVo) can be played on a PSP, after conversion to AVC.

Video file sizes largely depend on the audio sampling rates and video resolution. With reasonable settings ( a resolution of 320x240, a video bitrate of 500 Kilobits per second, and an audio sampling rate of 22050 kHz) a 22 minute movie file is roughly 55 megabytes. (This is enough for a 30 minute telivision episode with the commercials removed) This means that a 512 MB Memory Stick can hold approximately nine of these files. A hundred minutes feature film would fit a 256 MB Memory Stick.

Many movie files, both free-to-distribute and pirated, have been encoded for the PSP and are available on the internet. Game and movie trailers, in particular, are increasingly available even from the studio's official site.

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Wireless networking
Wi-Fi support allows the PSP to connect to wireless networks, other PSP units for multiplayer gaming, the Internet, and Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3. As the PS3 has only recently been unveiled, details on link-up features are slim, however Hideo Kojima has discussed the possibility of a link-up between Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Ac!d 2. Use of wireless network features increases the power consumption and lowers the battery life of the system.

A version 2.0 firmware update was released on July 27, 2005 for Japanese PSPs. The update included a web browser and Wi-Fi Protected Access encryption. The official North American firmware update is expected to release on August 12th.

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Ad-hoc networks
Ad-hoc wireless networking allows for (in theory) up to 16 PSPs within range of each other to communicate directly, typically for multiplayer gaming. The launch titles Ridge Racer and Lumines, for example, support this. One unit can act as the host for a game, which is available to other PSP units within that systems range, and appears in a list when the client PSP searches for available hosts. Hosting a game in this manner increases power consumption and reduces battery life.

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Infrastructure networks
The PSP's main menu allows the user to configure the system for use across the Internet via a wireless connection, known as infrastructure mode. The PSP's menu can recognize protected and non-protected wireless networks within its range, and attempt to request a firmware update from Sony's servers.

A handful of titles, including three U.S. launch games and an as-of-yet untitled MMORPG, have been announced which use this wireless network functionality. Packet tunneling systems are in development by third-parties which allow any Wi-fi game to operate across the Internet (see external links, below).

Use of infrastructure networks in PSP software began with a small number of titles at the US launch, supporting online play. South Korean PSPs will ship with software providing web browsing and multimedia streaming features, but only through company-owned WiFi hotspots, and with a monthly fee[4].

Design

Technical specifications
The unit measures 170 mm (6.7 in) in length, 74 mm (2.9 in) in width, and 23 mm (0.9 in) in depth, and weighs 260 grams (9.17 oz) including the battery. The most noticeable element of the PSP is its 4.3" 16:9 ratio TFT LCD screen sporting a 480 x 272 pixel resolution capable of 16.77 million colors.

The PlayStation Portable's CPU is a MIPS R4000 (32-bit) CPU, split into two cores each operating between 1 and 333 MHz. During the GDC, Sony revealed that it has currently capped the PSP's CPU at 222, apparently in an attempt to lengthen battery life. It has been speculated that this was one of the reasons for the cap, because this speed cap was listed on the 'Power Management Features' slide. Overheating concerns have also been cited as a possible reason for the cap. Sony has not yet stated whether they will release this cap. The cap is programmed into all games and is not capped through the firmware as previously believed. The primary CPU core is responsible for traditional game processor functions; the secondary core, dubbed the "Virtual Media Engine", is responsible for decoding multimedia, for example the H.264 decoder.

The system has 32 MB of main RAM and 4 MB of embedded DRAM.

The independent 166 MHz 90 nm graphics chip sports 2MB embedded memory and through its 512 bit interface it provides hardware polygon and NURBS rendering, hardware directional lighting, clipping, environment projection and texture mapping, texture compression and tessellation, fogging, alpha blending, depth and stencil tests, vertex blending for morphing effects, and dithering, all in 16 or 32 bit colour, along with handling image output. Specifications state that the PSP is capable of rendering 33 million flat-shaded polygons per second, with a 664 million pixel per second fill rate. [5]

Unlike Sony's PlayStation 2 console, the GPU (PS2 Vector Unit equivalent) is not programmable, meaning that many effects that the PS2 can resolve in hardware must be implemented in software on the PSP. Nonetheless, the implementation of a GPU in the PSP is still a significant technological advance, in that it implements robust hardware-rendering for 3D graphics in the handheld market. The PSP was preceded in this regard by Nokia's N-Gage in 2003, and the Nintendo DS in 2004.

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Power
The PSP uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power (an AC adaptor is included for charging and running from the mains). The system's manual states that the PSP is capable of 3 to 6 hours of gameplay, depending on the screen brightness or volume level selected.

Battery life is heavily dependent on the game chosen; technically simpler games such as Lumines tend to extend the battery life of the system, with graphically advanced games (or games that frequently access the UMD drive) such as Ridge Racer tending toward shorter battery life. Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, has compared the system to the Walkman, in that battery life will be improved with each product revision, and has outlined some steps (switching to a different fabrication process, for example) which will be used to improve the system's endurance. Currently the PSP's CPU is fabricated using a 90-nm process, but Sony has 65-nm and 45-nm technology available.

In practice, tests using Ridge Racer have given between three and a half and slightly less than six hours of continuous gameplay, depending on screen brightness and volume. In one test[6], this dropped to approximately two and three quarter hours when using Wi-Fi multiplayer continuously. The system is capable of approximately ten hours of MP3 playback from memory stick on a full charge and around half this for AVC playback. While full-length movie UMDs were not available for this test, a repeating loop of the demo UMD bundled in the Value Pack provided a little over 4 hours of playback on a full charge.

The PSP's battery is removable for replacement by the end-user. This may be a response to the criticism of the nonremovable batteries in other portable electronics such as the iPod. One is thus able to purchase extra batteries as an accessory; at the Japanese launch, they cost ¥5,040 including tax (around US$47, €37, £26, AU$62). Sony has also announced a high speed charger as an optional accessory for release in the near future.

The system ships with a multivoltage power supply for recharging the battery, allowing it to be charged in any country with the appropriate power lead. This multivoltage power supply is internally and externally similar to but not compatible with similar ones used with Sony's CLIÉ PDAs, and the power lead is a standard figure-of-eight cable similar to the power cable used with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. The PSU itself is about the same size as a deck of cards.

A number of companies are now offering other chargers for the device. These are typically either USB charging cables that allow the PSP to charge from any PC with a USB port or are simply a series of AA batteries with a voltage regulator. These are similar in concept to the cheap battery life extenders available for mobile telephones.

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Operating system and interface
The PSP's main menu interface is the XMB ("Cross Media Bar") used by recent Sony TVs and the PSX hardware. It consists of a horizontal sequence of icons (Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Games) which when highlighted show a vertical sequence of sub-icons (for example, selecting Games allows the memory stick or a UMD to be selected).

The main menu system allows the user to, amongst other things, adjust settings such as date, time, and the PSP's nickname for wireless networking, play video or audio files from the memory stick, load games or movie UMDs, check on estimated battery life, and set the PSP into a "link mode" which makes the inserted memory stick available to a PC via USB. The OS may be accessed at any time in a game by pressing the "Home" button on the console.

The default background colour of the menus is blue, however it changes colour depending on the current month of year, as follows:

January: Light Blue
February: Yellow
March: Green
April: Pink
May: Dark Green
June: Purple
July: Aqua
August: Sky Blue
September: Violet
October: Gold
November: Light Brown
December: Red
User skins can also be made available from game publishers within their game discs, an ability that publishers have yet to take advantage of.

The PSP's firmware is updatable via WiFi infrastructure connection to a Sony server, by downloading the update application with a PC and transferring to the the PSP via USB, or from a UMD disk (allowing games to update the firmware automatically). The current firmware version is 1.52, soon to be 2.00 on August 12. Version 2.00 firmware is now available at the Japanese website and the update is compatible with Japanese and Korean PSP's. The update is universal, but Sony recommends to not download firmware updates from other regions. This update includes WPA-PSK encryption; a built-in web browser; keyboard input mode for Web input; AVC video playback from memory stick; audio switch function and 4:3 mode for memory stick video; GIF, BMP, PNG, and TIFF image viewing; AAC and WAV playback from memory stick; wallpaper function; ATRAC3plus playback from Memory Stick PRO Duo; and an image sharing feature. Reports have shown in message boards that downloading the firmware can void your warranty or ruin your PSP. This is true because SCEA voids warranty on firmware updates that have not been authorized by SCEA since SCEA represantatives did not know anything on the 2.0 firmware when it was released, which will void your warranty. According to IGN, Sony Computer Entertaiment America will release the U.S firmware update on August 12, and American PSP users who updated their PSP's to the Japanese 2.0 firmware will be able to update to the U.S version of 2.0[7]. Sony has announced that every single firmware update is specific for that region only.

Copied from wikapedia
Sticky please
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[rsstites]

Once again. Good info on the PSP.

[empa]

my brother has 1 man its so cool to watch movies with it

[Andrew]

I wish I had one that thing looks so cool

[Hockeydude121]

I dont really think its worth buying a movie on there. My problem with the PSP is that the disks are different of course theyd have to be, but to save a movie to a UMD would cost 100-200 for a memory card to hold the movie and buying a movie just for UMD sounds a litlle supid. Plus so fat they dont have that many reallly good games for the PSP even though the GTA game is coming out fairly soon and I heard that more games are coming so even tho it has good features, it doesnt really have the game support to back it up.

[purerang3foo]

THINK YOU TYPED ENOUGH WOW ANYWAY (AN HOUR L8ER) THE PSP IS AWSOME I PLAY SOCOM ON IT AND ON THE INTERNET AND ITS AWSOME U CAN GLITCH THROUGH WALLS FLY AND U CAN GET ON TOP OF A BIG RED TOWER AND ON TOP OF A CATWALK

[purerang3foo]

HOW DO YOU PUT IN PICTURES LIKE THAT

[Coolgreen44]

In your sig?

Or in your post?

Eather way put

[img][/img] around your image.