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Getting a PSP: What Should I Know?
Riale
I'm a little slowRegistered User regular
I'm a little slowRegistered User regular
So the PSP has finally reached that critical point where there are enough games for me to justify its purchase, but there are a still things I'm not really sure on because I haven't followed it at all.
First off, I hear it can function as an mp3 player and video player. How easy is it to use for these functions? Does it require a lot of finagling and homebrew software to make it easy, and is there any way to say, just get it to play straight up .avi and .mpg files and whatnot?
Secondly, how is the web browsing capabilities? Obviously it's going to be scrunched and slow like any portable device of that size, but is it comparable to the browsing of similar PDAs and phones and such?
Thirdly, I heard there was a new model out recently, the PSP 3000 or something. I may not be able to find one of these locally if they're fairly new, so I'm wondering what the differences are. Is it a significant enough upgrade to make it worthwhile to hold out for one?
Also, anything else you PSP owners think I should know, or resources you could point me to would be great. Thanks in advance!
First off, I hear it can function as an mp3 player and video player. How easy is it to use for these functions? Does it require a lot of finagling and homebrew software to make it easy, and is there any way to say, just get it to play straight up .avi and .mpg files and whatnot?
Secondly, how is the web browsing capabilities? Obviously it's going to be scrunched and slow like any portable device of that size, but is it comparable to the browsing of similar PDAs and phones and such?
Thirdly, I heard there was a new model out recently, the PSP 3000 or something. I may not be able to find one of these locally if they're fairly new, so I'm wondering what the differences are. Is it a significant enough upgrade to make it worthwhile to hold out for one?
Also, anything else you PSP owners think I should know, or resources you could point me to would be great. Thanks in advance!
Riale on
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http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=83732
Its a fine mp3 player, but the controls are kind of shitty for it. (Esp since I keep accidentally putting my psp to sleep when I want to take it out of hold.) It does mpg and mp4 videos, but its kind of picky about what settings you use. Many popular video transcoding programs have a psp setting thankfully.
The web browser works ok in a pinch, but its not very useful since you don't have a keyboard/touch screen.
The 3000 has a better screen, built in mic and a scaler so you can play games on a SDTV. But the 2000 can do custom firmware which lets you rip and play your games off the memory stick so I'd probably rather have the 2000. (Since games load faster and use less battery off the memory stick, not to mention the convenience. Some late model 2000s can't run custom firmware though so be careful)
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Playing music is fairly easy, but I would get a remote if you're going to use it for music a lot. Pulling it out of your pocket, switching the Hold feature off, changing the track, turning the screen off, and turning the hold back on to change songs gets kind of annoying. I'm not really sure about video, but there is some software to convert DVDs to the PSP's format. It did a great job with my Firefly box set.
Web browsing is actually pretty good considering the limitations. The lack of a physical keyboard is pretty much the most annoying part of it. You can choose how the website is scaled, and it's pretty easy to navigate web pages with the analog nub.
The 3000 model doesn't seem like that much of an improvement over the 2000. (Disclaimer: I haven't seen a 3000 in person, so this is all stuff I've heard on the interwebs.) The colors look better on the new screen, but some things (games and moves, I think) are interlaced. Some people don't care, but I would check it out in person if I could. Also, the 3000 has not been hacked (yet), and homebrew is one of the best uses for a PSP.
Final thoughts? Get a screen protector. I dropped mine a couple times, and there's now a fairly nasty gouge in the plastic. Get the extended battery (the official one, not one of those cheap rip-offs). Get a fairly large memory stick, 2GB at the very least. Don't pay for "video convertor" or "media manager" software.
It converts file types, changes audio settings, has widescreen/fullscreen settings, the works.
You'll have to convert most video files for them to work, as the PSP uses MP9 or something similarly niche, I think.
Personally I would try and get an older PSP-2000 of the hack-able variety - I wouldn't use mine nearly as much if I didn't have custom firmware on it. If only for the fact that I can avoid carrying around a bunch of UMDs with me for each game I might want to play.