So, I finally figured out, with a little help from the web and a lot of trial and error, how to get all my movies exported in a format that I can put on my new PSP. First off, you need to connect the PSP to your computer via a USB cable. Second, you need a Memory Stick Duo in your PSP. I put in a 4GB card, because I figure I can have all of my shorts and a ton of other stuff on there.
When the PSP is connected, the card appears as a drive/folder on my Mac. Add a folder called VIDEO at the top level. I added some sub-folders called SHORTS, DEMOS, TRAILERS and so on. The PSP recognised them all fine.
To get my videos in the right format, I used Quicktime Pro. Exporting as MP4, either MPEG-4 Basic or MPEG-4 Improved both seemed to work. Maximum size of 4×3 videos seems to be 320×240 on the PSP. Maximum size for 16×9 videos is apparently 368×208. I used the highest data rate, 1500 kbits/sec. Sound is AAC-LC, 128 kpbs, 44.1 kHz. Below are a couple of screen grabs of my export settings.
WIDESCREEN (16:9):
STANDARD (4:3):
Make sure the filename has the extension .mp4 (case doesn’t matter) and transfer to the VIDEO folder (and sub-folder, if you made one) on the PSP’s Memory Stick Duo.
And then the bit which nearly drove me crackers (Gromit); making a thumbnail image. It’s actually really bloody simple but nowhere in Sony’s documentation or anywhere online could I find it. Simply find an image (eg. export one out of Quicktime or do a screen grab) and make it the following dimensions (I used Photoshop): 160 x 120 pixels at 72 pixels/inch. Using Photoshop’s “Save for Web…” function, make sure it’s less than 8kb (so around medium resolution) and save a JPEG.
Give your thumbnail exactly the same name as your video file. For example, video.mp4 and video.jpg. Then simply put them both in the same VIDEO folder on the PSP. Voila! The PSP will create an additional weird “Corrupted Data” file when you look under the menu after disconnecting the computer/USB link. Delete this. You will then have just your nice video with a thumbnail. And it plays just fine. In fact, it looks really very very nice. Hurrah!
Hello. I’m commenting because I have nothing to say, which is (as they say) par for the course. In fact, I am not really here, although I was at the moment I typed these letters, which happens to be NOW from my point of view, but by the time you read them, will be in the past, and therefore not current.
So, enough about me. Why are YOU wasting your time reading these ancient runes. Are you expecting them to be entertaining? Do you continue to drag your eyes from word to word because you harbor some wishful faith that perhaps there will be some reward further along? Well, perhaps there IS. There is NOT, at this moment, from my point of view, because the next paragraph does not exist yet, and I have not given one bit of thought to what it will contain. Perhaps I won’t even write one! Or maybe an unexpected meteor currently hurtling my way will smash through the roof and vaporize me before I even have a chance to write it. Gee… if THAT happens I won’t even have a chance to hit the “Submit” button and nobody will ever read THIS paragraph. How distressing to think that I might have wasted my last few minutes of life writing these bloody dull and boring sentences.
Alright. Since you have stuck with me thusfar, I shall offer you the following as recompense: Someone you find incredibly sexually attractive is thinking of you right now. Oh yes, they really are. You thought they didn’t know you existed, but you were entirely wrong. In fact, that person is feeling guilty because they are with someone else, but they cannot stop thinking about you. It’s maddening, frustrating, wild and intoxicating. Breath quickening, nearing a climax, feverish, yet miles away from the lover whose limbs intertwine. Fearing to close their eyes lest the illusion of your presence become so real that they cry out your name in a penultimate declaration of love and lust.
Wait… I think I hear a meteor coming. Better hit the submit button now, just in case…
oh thank god for that… communication from a parallel universe… just when I was beginning to doubt!
Life, Jim, is certainly not what I feared it was.
yours, signing off.. to play virtual golf on me wii
‘Tiger’
But how, oh oracle, can I import video from me Sony handheld that can be read by iMovie. Hmm?
You need Quicktime Pro.