PS vita video compatibility

Grrr..... my greatest fear has become real. Ever since the PS Vita was announced, I was worried that it wouldn't be able to play my PSP Video 9 encoded AVC files. And it turns out it can't play them. There are other AVC files it looks like it may be able to play such as CNET AVC videos. But not my particular files... that CAN be played on my HP Touchpad and of course PSPs...

I'm regretting buying the 32GB memory card. I can still load it with games and videos recorded with my Neuros Recorder, which will probably fill up the bulk of my Vita content. But I probably could have made do with a 16GB.

The PS Vita Content Manager Assistant is crap. Since hacking is Sony's major concern with the Vita, the handheld is locked down tight-- no plugging it in to a PC & just seeing it as a drive. No, we need to use the CMA to do any file transfer between PC & Vita. What's annoying about it is, the browsing & transferring is done through the Vita, it looks through the content of your PC. But it just sorts EVERYTHING of that content into one big list. So EVERY song you have on your PC shows up on the Vita CMA in alphabetical order. I don't think I have a huge music collection, I think I have about 9GB of music. I want to transfer some songs to my PS Vita, let's say 200. When I browse through the CMA list, I have to go through EVERY song & check the box if I want to transfer it to the PS Vita. I just discovered-- the hard way-- that I have over 2000 songs. The only other option is to check a box and transfer EVERYTHING. How stupid is that?? So what would have taken me about 5 minutes if I could have drag & dropped took me over 15-20 minutes of using my PS Vita to scroll through every single music file on my PC. Sheesh. And Pictures, Video is all the same process. It's great if you simply want to transfer your entire collection of whatever in 2 button presses. But do most people actually do that, transfer everything they have on their PC to their devices? Every single little picture, etc?

One strange thing I've noticed is that when I pause a video, the PS Vita doesn't seem to turn off the screen. Ever. I can use the PS or power button to turn off the screen, but as soon as I turn it back on, the video starts playing again even if it was paused.

There's no folder support, videos seem to fall into 2 categories: "Rented" or "All".

Also, the Vita froze up on me for the first time. I was trying to copy over video content & it just went blank. So I held the power button which brought up the power off screen & I tried to power off. It froze at that screen. Not good for a device with no removable battery. But I didn't panic, I just held down the power button for a while, like over 10 seconds... and then a boot page appeared which gave me a few options, rebuild database, format, restart. It's the only time that I had to use the buttons to select a menu option.

I guess I'm glad I still have my PSPs. It's sad that they are superior media players to the console that replaces them.



later
don

Shaw digital TV network upgrade

I'm pretty depressed today.

Got this letter in the mail with big bold letters saying YOUR CABLE SERVICE IS CHANGING TO DIGITAL TV

And it goes on to say how my cable provider, Shaw, is basically taking away my analog TV service. I have no choice but to switch to digital unless I only want "basic cable".

Basically, "DIGITAL TV" is a digital box that Shaw forces people to use. This box plugs the "analog hole", making it impossible to tape TV shows with a VCR..... or in my case, my Neuros Recorder II+.

I love my Neuros Recorder II+ ever since I got it in Nov. 2007. It records in .MP4 simple profile format which is compatible with my PSP, giving it a lot of functionality for me. Not only do the files play on PSP, but also my Play-Yan Micro (Game Boy Micro, DS Lite) and my current fave handheld, my HTC Legend phone. I tape TV shows all the time for watching on my handhelds when I'm away & bored.

And it looks like that's coming to an end. Shaw sucks. I'm really pissed off about this because there's NO reason for them to remove features from "cable" TV. The truth is that the cable signal I'm getting, the channels are ALREADY broadcasting those in digital. They're just using the mandated switch from analog to digital as a cover to force people into the plans Shaw wants them to have.

Looks like I need to learn up on torrents or something.



later
don

Nintendo 3DS update fixes Ridge Racer FW glitch

I guess Nintendo wasn't kidding when they said a new 3DS system update that fixes the previous update would be available by "mid-June", as they released it June 15, 2011. I waited for the fix to update because I love Ridge Racer (though I have to admit my 3DS has been totally dominated by my playing Mario Kart DS on it for the last couple weeks)

I tried out the new browser, and it's... meh.... not that different from the Wii browser, as far as I can tell. Kinda clunky, I can't see myself using it much-- but I did check out this site on it...

The big goody is the free version of Excite Bike which is really fun. And there are a few game trailers available for download, not to mention the Green Lantern movie trailer. Haven't watched the movie trailer yet, I'm just glad that the game trailers are in 3D. Mario Kart (3D?) looks pretty good, I could see myself buying that and Luigi's Mansion 2, as well as the upcoming new Kirby DS game.

One of the things they mention about the new update is that it allows automatic firmware updates(???)..... hmmm. Sounds a bit scary, but I hope that there's at least some kind of OK button that needs to be pressed before applying it. Just look at how the last update screwed Ridge Racer 3DS... how can they credibly offer auto-updates if they messed up last time?


[Nintendo's info page on 3DS updates]


later
don

3DS 2nd hands-on

Check out this vid... GameSpot UK got a bit of a hands-on with the Nintendo 3DS in London:



Even though they weren't allowed to film it turned on *_* there's a little bit of action with the analogue nub slide pad which looks pretty cool. They keep saying that it's "better than the PSP" but I'm not sure why people think that... because it's larger, or it feels better? I wonder with its smooth top if the thumb will grip it as well as the PSPs textured one, especially during a marathon session of gaming when the hand gets sweatty....

At this point, about all I got left to say about the vid is.... why, helloooooo Ms. Jane Douglas.....


later
don

PSPgo creaky Dpad

I recorded this video because some idjits on the PlayStation forums denying that the PSPgo has a creaky/squeaky Dpad. So this is my PSPgo:




I wouldn't say it's any worse than the PSP-1000 or PSP-2000 squeakiness. And despite the noise, the buttons & Dpad do feel different on the PSPgo than those models... the PSPgo has a much shorter press & a click feel to them than the PSP-K series.

Man, it's embarrassing to be a PSP owner sometimes... I seriously have to wonder how low are the I.Q.s of many PSP owners??? Sometimes I chalk it up to them being 13-year-old boys.... American 13 year old boys....

• American
• 13 years old
• Boy
• Gamer
  

=4x the dumbness?? Sorry for being a jerk, but they just piss me off so much sometimes. (and to be fair you can also substitute "Canadian" for "American" in that equation also) The point is that even if YOUR PSP does/doesn't do something, it doesn't mean that EVERY PSP is like that.

Anyway, how bored am I that I have to make a video like that & post it to YouTube. Oh well.


later
don

PS Video Store finally comes to Canada

July 1 marked the debut of movies/tv on the Playstation Store for Canada. Right now, there is a promotion where you can get a copy of Charlie's Angels if you visit the PS Store between July 1-14, 2010 (with your account logged in)

I'm not sure if it's a rental version of Charlie's Angels or we can "own" it, and I'm not sure how we get the redemption code, it's supposed to be emailed to us after visiting. I bet it won't happen for a while.

But to access the PS Store, PSPs need to have the latest firmware update, 6.30. It only offers a very minor update to the GAME folders, apparently to seperate Neo-Geo game content from PlayStation content..... but that's not the REAL reason for the update, of course. The *real* reason is to block the Patapon 2 demo exploit that can be used to load homebrew-- even on a PSPgo.

So that's why there's been such a long period of time without any PSP firmware updates, then this one comes along. Sony forgot about the PSP until someone hacked it again. But if you're not interested in this homebrew exploit, then it's probably worth it to update especially if you intend to access the PS Store. As annoying as it is, I will be updating right after I type up this post....

I'm not sure how I feel about buying video from the PS Store. I was looking at the rental section and the prices seem to be around $4.99 (plus tax) I want to see Paranormal Activity, but when I did a search all it came up with was an option to buy it for like $19.99... I don't want to *buy* it, just watch it once. I don't get why there would be some movies that you can only buy & not rent... I dunno.

UPDATE: I was just logged into the PS Store on my PSPgo, and one of the "frames" of the page had a message saying thanks for visiting the Store! Your voucher will be emailed after July 14.... something like that.



later
don

Reviews on the Run

Man... I'm not sure what's happening with one of my favourite video game shows, EP Daily (Electric Playground)... the local CityTV station seems to have taken it off the air last week..... I only noticed when I went to transfer last weeks worth of eps to my PSP, and to my shock I found I had about 1.2 GB of Judge Joe Brown instead... *shudder*






But now I've noticed that they've posted new eps of the other video game show, Reviews on the Run. They've even got a website, www.reviewsontherun.com (handy tip: they usually have handheld game reviews at the end of the first segment, and beginning of the second segment)

So I'll be catching up on some eps of that show at least (which I actually prefer to Electric Playground)... still, I wonder when/if these will air on a local TV station sometime....



later
don

AAXA P1 Pico Projector

This is a neat device... a portable projector that has a PSP-2000/3000 cable (sold seperately)

At first I was really interested in it for the PSP connectivity, but the projector on its own sounds pretty cool: it has 1GB of internal storage, a MicroSD card slot, and it plays a variety of video/audio formats.

The cons are the battery life is really short-- 45-60 mins, and it apparently isn't super bright (PSP owners are used to that....) plus it is kinda expensive... right now it's on sale for $240.00 U.S.

AAXA P1 PICO PROJECTOR official product page

SlashGear article about AAXA P1 PICO PROJECTOR

interesting review of AAXA P1 PICO PROJECTOR













I'm thinking that video projection is going to be the next step for portable video players. I've been very interested in seeing where portable video is going since 2006, when small mp3 players like the Sandisk e200 series started featuring video playback. It would be awesome if the next PSP had a projector in it that could blast the game/video/photo images onto a wall....




later
don

EP Daily - podcast

This isn't technically a podcast per se... but it's a tv show that I tape & watch on my PSP like a podcast...

I started watching Electric Playground & its companion show Reviews on the Run back in 2005-2006... but they've been around for a lot longer than that. Basically Electric Playground was a weekly video games news show that had lots of info on upcoming games, and often used cheesy hilarious special FX skits mixed in the interviews... man I miss those fun shows...

The latest incarnation is EP Daily, a weekday show that's dropped the cheesy special FX (aww...too bad) but expanded the news to cover video games, movies, music, comics, toys.... cool stuff that I certainly want to know about!

The website, www.elecplay.com has episodes for viewing online... if only they offered them as PSP-friendly podcasts to download.... but at least they're there.

Check it out at www.elecplay.com




later
don

Tekzilla - podcast

I heard about this site from anythingbutipod.com.... Tekzilla.

It's obviously about tech stuff, but what's interesting is that the content is based on viewer questions. There's some pretty good tips & info about all sorts of computer things & gadgets... over the last week I've been catching up on their episodes about gadgets from CES.

They have daily bits, and weekly episodes-- which are about 20-30 mins long-- and offer some good sizes & formats of their podcasts, I find that their quicktime small one is perfect for PSP, even plays in the widescreen format. .MP4 file sizes are around 90-100 MB.

The only problem I have with the site is that to get to the download links, you have to go to the page where it automatically streams the episode in your browser. It may be less clunky if you're using RSS feed programs though.

http://revision3.com/tekzilla/



later
don

This or That - podcast

I stumbled across an interesting site on one of my random searches for porn ummm.... I mean.... stuff....

I'm not entirely sure what it is exactly, but basically it's a Burlesque show. What's interesting is that the video is in .mp4 format, 320 x 240, which is compatible with PSP's video playback.

It's easy to download the videos, they seem to be about 40 MB on average, around 5 minutes long.

Be warned: while there's usually no outright nudity in burlesque shows, there is a lot of "tease"... this content is NOT FOR MINORS. ADULTS ONLY. (or mature-minded people)

http://thisorthat-video.blogspot.com/


Now I'm going to be doing some more investigating...




later
don

PSP watching: Yo-Yo Girl Cop, Knocked Up

Couple more movies I watched recently on my PSP.

Yo-Yo Girl Cop... so lemme get this straight: Toho Studios made a movie... and it *didn't* have Godzilla or any other giant rubber-suited monsters in it? Hmmm....

So Yo-Yo Girl Cop... enh, it was alright. It's about this girl who infiltrates a school trying to find a bomber ring, she's working for the police & she uses a yo-yo as a weapon. Obviously it's meant to be cheesy action fun. Can't expect anything more.

Knocked Up. I have to admit, this was a really funny movie! I was surprised; I'm not sure why since I liked The 40 year Old Virgin, and this was made by the same director. It's really funny if you have young children in your life, I think.

If I have to be really honest, there's a lot of cheesy tv shows on my PSP as well... I've been taping and watching Blood Ties & Flash Gordon.... they are really throwaway series but they're entertaining in short bursts. But there's no justifying watching this stuff, really.




later
don

PSP watching: Miami Vice, United 93

I haven't been using my PSP all that much over the holidays... I did play a bit of Jeanne D'Arc, but RPGs are pretty slow paced.... I have to admit my Wii has been getting the most attention (even before I got Super Mario Galaxy)

But I have been watching some movies on my PSP, trying to clear a backlog of junk that I've collected & need to delete. I watched 2 movies, both camera copies.... which I'm going to avoid in future. That's just no way to watch a movie, the quality is such crap.

Miami Vice... was enh. Might be better had I watched a better quality version. But overall, it didn't live up to one of Michael Mann's best movies, Heat. Still, I was really taken by the final song in the film, Mogwai's Auto Rock.

Then I watched United 93. I've been putting off watching this one for awhile. The subject matter is so heavy. And it's emotionally draining to go back to the events of 9/11. It's such a sad story, but really, this is a story of pure heroism. These people are just going about their daily lives when they're confronted by such pure evil, in a way that they never really concieved. We all knew of plane hijackings, even terrorism, but nobody could have predicted this. And the passengers of this flight rise up to the challenge, knowing that they will probably die, not only to try to save themselves, but to prevent further death of others. It's too bad that this heroism seems to have been forgotten in the history of 9/11.



later
don

Jennifer Hale interview by UltraNeko

UltraNeko posted a nice 10 minute interview with actress Jennifer Hale.

I'm a fan of Jennifer Hale's sexy voice work from cartoons & video games... I first remember her doing the voice of Felicia Hardy (Black Cat) from one of the Spider-Man cartoon series. But then I started recognizing her voice from games I was playing.

The final minutes of the interview, Hale gives a couple demos of her voice acting, and if you close your eyes & imagine the characters she's doing, she's actually quite an impressive voice actress! I knew the sexy stuff, but I bet she does a lot of voices I never recognize.



later
don

Lisa Kudrow on DS

Got this weird Nintendo email recently, advertising one of their latest DS apps, Personal Trainer: Cooking. It's what it sounds like; a cooking guide for the DS. I guess there are recipes, but apparently it also tells you how to prepare the meals, it's largely hands-free (because they'll be busy cooking, 'natch) and it's also voice operated(?) Sounds pretty ambitious.

There's a site with ads for it, and a couple have Lisa Kudrow, one of them is the ad for the "game"(that's her niece with her in the ad) and this one is her talking about her history with Nintendo handhelds, specifically the Nintendo Game Boy. She said she's had one for about "15 years", then asks when they came out, implying that she's had one since around that time.

Kinda strange to hear one of the Friends talking about a DS, and the games for it. I dunno. So that's where she's been since they stopped making Friends... playing her DS.....


later
don

Canada Plays PSP ad

Sony's started a new round of PSP ads, focusing on various U.S. cities; Chicago Plays PSP, L.A. Plays PSP, etc.

I've been seeing a Canadian one for the last week or so, instead of a city, it's the whole country....




In my opinion it stays pretty true to Sony's cluelessness about how to advertise their products. Basically the commercial is nothing more than dots of Canadian cities places on a map. Very generic. And the music... not my thing. To me it sounds vaguely Chinese in that bad, shrill kind-of-way. Being Chinese-Canadian, I can say that without being a racist, hehe.

But there have been a lot of people wondering who does that song & what it's called, so.... it's called Sleepyhead by Passion Pit. Their video is also on YouTube, I came across it while looking for the PSP ad.

Sony has some of the worst ads of any entertainment/video game company I've ever seen. But *ALL* 3 companies have TERRIBLE ads.



later
don

Slacker Uprising

So, I'm a fan of Micheal Moore.... and hearing that he was posting his latest film, Slacker Uprising, on the net for free, I had to check that out.

If you go to www.slackeruprising.com they ask for your email, then they send you a link to view the film. The only thing I don't like is that you must be a resident of U.S./Canada... sure I'm in Canada, but I *hate* it when net content is restricted based on the country you're in (or not in, as is the case) I've been on the other side of that situation a bit too often.

This is the link he sends in the email: http://slackeruprising.com/download

Where you can watch the movie streaming in your browser, or download it through a few options, one being iTunes. I wanted a PSP-formatted copy (to watch on my PSP, natch) but don't use iTunes. So I chose to download it in AVI format via this link: http://slackeruprising.com/download/hypernia.php

The resolution is 640 x 360, so it's a medium size film that probably looks good (enough) on a 19" monitor. To me, the AVI is only the first step. The AVI file is big, 1.02 GB.

I often have to transcode video from a different format (such as AVI, or if it's on the web like YouTube, then FLV) to PSP compatible .MP4. I use 2 programs, PSP Video 9 (version 1.74) and Super©. I find that one or the other usually gets it done, though PSP Video 9 is my go-to app for conversion. That's what I used to transcode the Slacker Uprising AVI.

I'm using an older version, so the resolution sizes are basically 320 x 240 or 368 x 208 for 16:9 widescreen. Only after 2 years did Sony allow memory stick video to be played back at the PSP's full resolution of 480 x 272, until then we had to settle for these resolutions.... I've got a few 480 x 272 vids, they do look great. But the old resolutions are fine enough for me. Slacker Uprising is a pretty short "movie", only a bit longer than an hour. PSP Video 9 takes a long time to transcode video, because it does 2 passes so as to maximize quality yet compress the file size as much as possible. It's fairly efficient. Transcoding took about 1.5 hours, and my final file size is 244 MB. Not bad, from 1 GB. [EDIT: For some reason, I didn't get the entire movie... only about 2/3 of it. So I re-downloaded it as an .MP4 file (not compatible with PSP though)]

There are 2 .MP4 formats that the PSP uses, .MP4 simple profile (SP) and .MP4 h.264 AVC. It's confusing, because they both have the same file extension (.MP4) but they have to be put in different folders on the PSP, and given different file names. .MP4 SP files have to be named M4V*****.MP4. (*=5 digit number) and AVC .MP4 files need to be named MAQ*****.MP4. Sony has introduced a VIDEO folder for the PSP in later firmware updates, that allow for regular named videos to be put in there... it doesn't always work, so I stick with the old style.

Ripping DVDs to PSP format, using PSP Video 9, it's a slow process because the DVD file is usually about 5-6 GB. And the final PSP format movie ends up being about 400-500 MB.




later
don