PSP Video conversion on a Mac
Plenty of information & utilities are available for converting videos to view on an iPod, but those of us who prefer watching movies on the PSP’s larger screen are pretty much left out. Luckily several applications are available that can convert and upload movies to a PSP.
iPSP is the easiest all-in-one solution for PSP movies and other multimedia files. It can convert DVD video and many other movie formats to PSP-compatible MP4 or AVC format. It also copies movies to the proper location on the PSP. In addition to movies, it also copies music, photos, and bookmarks to the PSP and backs up saved games.
PSPWare is another popular media manager. Rather than manually copying files to the PSP, it syncs the PSP with iTunes & iPhoto. You can also set up drop folders to copy movies, music & photos to the PSP. Note that the sync feature may delete any music or photos not in the playlist if you don’t set it up properly.
The PSP is especially fussy about video formats, where the files need to be placed, and what the files must be named. The two supported formats are MP4, which must be no larger than 320×240, 29.97 FPS with 24kHz AAC audio, and AVC (H.264), which can be either 320×240 or 368×208 at 29.97 FPS with 48 kHz AAC audio.
Furthermore, the video files need to be named correctly (M4Vxxxxx.MP4 or MAQxxxxx.MP4) and must be placed in the proper location on the Memory Stick or they won’t be recognized. Both iPSP & PSPWare will upload videos to the proper location and with valid file names.
If you’d rather do it yourself, a few utilities can convert DVDs and other videos to a format that will play on a PSP.
The developers of HandBrake have created a dedicated version called Instant HandBrake that will convert DVDs to either iPod or PSP format MPEG-4 files.
ffmpegX also has presets for exporting movies to MP4 or AVC formats for PSP.
MP4 Conversion with ffmpegX
AVC Conversion with ffmpegX
Tags: PSP
