General frequently asked questions about PSP products

As its name suggests, the PSP -- or PlayStation Portable -- is a smaller, lighter version of Sony's PlayStation. It's not as powerful as the PS2, but more powerful than the original PlayStation, and it has a built-in screen and speakers so you don't have to plug it in to anything to use it.

As with the full-size PlayStation2, which can play DVDs and audio CDs as well as PlayStation game discs, the PSP is more than just a gaming handheld. The PSP plays games in UMD (or Universal Media Disc) format, but UMD format is also used for movies and other audio-visual content, and the PSP can pay those, too. And if that isn't enough, the PSP can also play audio, video, and still image content off of Memory Sticks (Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo are the compatible formats).

Unlike the PlayStation or PlayStation2, the PSP comes equipped with Wi-Fi, so you can connect with other players wirelessly and, if your firmware is version 2.00 or higher, get online to browse the internet.

Sony has also announced an add-on camera and a GPS device for use with the PSP, expanding its capabilities even further.

Get the Most out of Your Handheld

The PSP is the hottest little handheld around right now. The PlayStation Portable Handheld system is very impressive and plays great games, music and movies. Additionally, the system does have a few tricks as well. Here are a couple of things you can try, some are fairly simple. Please note you must be careful with some of these tricks and they will be marked by a * before the “how to” area. Due to the price and the sensitive LCD screen always use caution when trying anything below.

While these tips are listed here, please do not attempt them if you are uncertain about any aspect of them.

Jam to Tunes Using Your Car Stereo System Speakers

* Use the following instructions to play your PSP games and movies with your cars audio system. You will need a FM modulator, a cable with a male stereo 1/8" headphone connector at one end and split left and right RCA connectors at the other. The red wire with the 'in' line fuse goes to your car battery or switch. The ground wire grounds to the frame. Set the car's CD or tape deck to the FM frequency that is on the modulator. The frequency is usually 88.7 or 89.1. Plug the RCA connectors from the cable into the RCA jacks on the modulator. Plug the headphone end of the cable into the PSP. Turn on the PSP with the volume set at half way.

The PSP's sound goes through your car's antenna. No extra wires are needed nor are any other adjustments. Your games, music and movies will now play through your car's stereo speakers. Please note: take care when trying this and make sure you know how to use the modulator and know the right way to hook up the wire to the fuse box and ground wire. If this is not done right, this can damage or even short out the PSP. This one is for parents!

Changing the Save File Images

* Whenever you save a game, one or two pictures are created on your memory stick: ICON#.PNG - the 144x80 icon displayed when you select your saved file. The #, normally 0, may be higher if a game places multiple saves in one folder. PIC 1. PNG - the 480x272 background that's displayed when you cursor over your save or game disk. Knowing this, you can customize your save icons and backgrounds by simply replacing them with new . PNG files. However, make sure that you keep the new file less than or equal to the original file's resolution, or the PSP will cut off sections to make it fit.

First Connect your PSP to your PC. Then locate the save file you want to change. All saves are located in the PSPSAVEDATA folder, divided into separate sub folders to keep necessary files together. Once you've found the save icon you want to change, add .ori to the end of the file name, in case you ever want to change it back to the original. Resize the image you want as you're save icon to 144x80 and save it as a .PNG named ICON#.PNG - “where # was the Number found on the file you renamed”. Then move the new picture into your save folder.

Now, whenever you see your save files on your PSP, its icon will be the picture you changed it to. Use the same method to change PIC 1.PNG files to your own custom pictures, but remember that the resolutions must be at most 480x272. *Please note this is a bit complicated and could result in losing all saves if not done correctly. This tweak is really for those who have knowledge of using these types of files. Please use caution when attempting this or have someone that knows how to work with these files help you.

Choosing a Background Color and Keeping it the Same

The PSP will change colors of the background screen every month automatically. You can pick a color that you like and have it stay that way. Simply go into the settings and select the month that has that color, when it changes, reselect the month. Note: Your date will always be wrong, but if color and style is your concern, this simple tweak does the trick.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

PSP Power

A lithium-ion battery pack offers a decent length of play time (playing graphics-intensive games or movies will drain the battery faster than playing music with the screen dark) -- just don't expect it to last as long as your Gameboy without recharging. The AC adaptor, of course, allows you to play and charge the battery at the same time.

1. Listen to Music

The first thing you notice when you remove the unit from the box is that big display.

The PSP's 4.3-inch, 480-by-272-pixel TFT LCD screen is absolutely beautiful, with bright, vibrant color on display during both game and movie play. Everyone who peeked at the PSP commented about how good the screen looked, and I have to agree, it's striking.

However, there are several drawbacks to the display's brilliantly shiny surface, chief among them fingerprints. Within minutes of opening the box, I'd covered the device with prints that were so noticeable you wouldn't need a crime scene investigation unit to lift one. I guess that's why Sony ships the special gray chamois cloth with the unit. I predict that the PSP will inspire many gamers to perform a new ritual: wiping fingerprint grease off the screen before playing a game or watching a movie.

A Bit Too Shiny?

Unfortunately, the reflective surface can also impact enjoyment of the device. During my tests with both games and movies, I quickly realized that any ambient light from behind caused distracting reflections. This made watching a movie on the very small screen an interesting experience: I had to find a way to hold the screen close enough to my face to take in all the action, while at the same time fidgeting with the angle I held the PSP at to minimize reflections, which seemed to happen even in the darkest rooms.

Down in the lab, our Test Center analysts also liked the screen, but one commented that, while watching a fast-moving movie scene on the unit, he saw some video artifacts--bits of blockiness that probably resulted from the video compression.

Watching a movie, I was surprised by the good quality audio that emerged from tiny speaker holes in the base of the device. There was great stereo separation and rich sound--though in a car, outside, or anywhere that you'll encounter ambient noise of any kind, you'll probably prefer to use headphones; even at top volume the speakers weren't loud enough to overcome city noise.

If you don't need to watch the screen, such as when you're listening to music, the speaker placement works great. Just lay the player flat on its back, and you've got a nifty personal stereo. Or you could, of course, just use headphones.

The PSP is good for viewing still photos, too, if you have some way to get JPEG images onto the Memory Stick Duo (I used a SanDisk 12-in-1 card reader). The photos looked great on the PSP, and you can look at them one at a time or turn them into a slide show.

In the Box

The $249 PSP Value Pack includes a 3.6-volt, 1800-milliamp-hour rechargeable battery (rated to last about 4 hours by Sony), a 32MB Memory Stick Duo card, white earbuds, a control device for navigating music and movie menus, a carrying case, a demo disc (with games, music, and movie clips), and the movie Spider-Man 2.

The Value Pack doesn't include any actual games; you'll pay about $50 each for those. Another thing that's missing is some sort of portable stand. At just 10 ounces, the PSP isn't exactly heavy. Still, after a while, I found that it wasn't comfortable to hold the unit while watching the film. My hands started going to sleep, and my wrist ached.

To alleviate my discomfort I began trying to figure out ways to stand the device on a table, leaning on various objects to achieve a reflection-less angle. The unit can balance on its bottom edge, but doing so blocks most of the sound from the two millimeter-sized speaker holes in the base. I leaned it back against a few books, resting the base on its padded travel case. It worked, but it wasn't optimal.

I also found that the unit's game pad-style controls, and the lack of any visual cues indicating the function of each button in movie mode, less than ideal for controlling playback of a movie. It took a few minutes to figure out the device's menu system, then another few minutes to figure out how to start the movie from the beginning a second time. Note to Sony's user-interface designers: Not everyone owns a PlayStation and therefore knows that the "X" button is the selection button, and that the "O" backs you out of the menu you're currently in.

Smooth Game Play

Sony shipped five games with our review unit: Twisted Metal Head On, Wipeout Pure, Gretsky Hockey, NBA, and World Tour Soccer. I spent most of my time with Twisted Metal, which proved quickly addictive. The game play was crisp and smooth, with no midplay pauses or other signs that the unit's processing power was being taxed. All of the games looked sharp.

The PSP has an analog stick on its face, which confused a few people at first (it looks like it might be a speaker), but it's a nice addition that will make some games much more playable than they would be with the directional pad alone.

One thing I noticed about the PSP and games: the loud spinning noises associated with the PSP's proprietary media, called the Universal Media Disc. The 2-1/4-inch optical disc offers 1.8GB of capacity and comes mounted inside a plastic cartridge. It's largely silent during game play, but between levels it's quite noisy.

Ejecting the UMD proved rather interesting, too. Hold your PSP so its face is horizontal, and the UMD slot faces downward. Slide the eject lever, and watch the spring-loaded UMD carrier pop the disc out of the device and onto a desk, the floor, or the gutter. Word of advice: If you're going to eject your UMD, don't do it next to the subway tracks.

Wireless Wonder

The PSP is the first dedicated handheld gaming device to support Wi-Fi out of the box. The wireless connection is usable only for multiplayer games and for downloading firmware updates (at the moment). You cannot browse Web sites, or perform messaging.

Setting up the PSP to work with my home network was incredibly easy; it picked up the SSIDs of the three access points in my house, locked on to the one I chose, and then received an IP address from the router. The entire setup took roughly 2 minutes, and about 1 minute, 50 seconds of that was spent naming the connection with the PSP's awful text-entry interface.

There's no keyboard on the device, so I naturally assumed that the PSP would have some sort of on-screen software keyboard, which I'd have to scroll through to enter letters and Numbers. But the PSP's text-input paradigm is that of a cell phone: 12 "numeric keypad" buttons, arrayed as on a phone's keypad, with the same style of text input that an SMS text messager would use. One tap on the 3 button gets you a d, and three taps on the 3 button gets you an f, for example. Ugh.

Clearly, nobody's going to use the PSP to type memos, so I can tolerate the nuisance of the text-input method. And while finger grease on the screen is distracting, it's also easily wiped away. For portable entertainment, the PSP looks like it's going to be the gold standard in terms of sound and video quality.

Of course, as with all new platforms, the PSP's overall success will depend on the quality of games you can buy for it. If the rest of 2005's PSP lineup is as good as this initial batch of games, the PSP looks like a serious challenge to Nintendo's handheld dominance.

Here's How:

Here's How:

• Find the "USB Connection" icon in the "Settings" menu. Press the X button. Your PSP will display the words "USB Mode" and your PC or Mac will recognize it as a USB storage device.
• Create a folder called "PSP" on the PSP Memory Stick (if there isn't one already) -- it shows up as "Portable Storage Device" or something similar -- (you can use Windows Explorer on a PC, or Finder on a Mac).
• Create a folder called "MUSIC" inside the "PSP" folder.
• Drag and drop image files into the "MUSIC" folder just as you would save files in another folder on your computer.
• Disconnect your PSP by first clicking on "Safely Remove Hardware" on the bottom menu bar of a PC, or by "ejecting" the drive on the Mac (drag the icon into the trash). Then unplug the USB cable and press the circle button to return to the home menu.

  Tips:

  1. You can listen to MP3, ATRAC3plus, MP4, WAV and WMA files on a PSP with firmware version 2.60 or higher. If your machine has an older firmware version, you can't play all formats. (To find out what version your PSP has, follow the tutorial linked below, then check the firmware profiles to see what formats your PSP can play.)
  2. Memory Stick Duo is a better type of stick than Memory Stick Pro Duo for music files. Memory Stick Pro Duos may not recognize all music files.

  What You Need:

  • a PSP
  • a computer
  • a Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo
  • a USB cable with a Mini-B connector on one end

• One of the great things about the PSP is that you can store photos on your memory card and then use your PSP to look at them later, or show them off to friends. I've even used mine to create an ultra-portable art portfolio. Once you know how to do it, transferring files is a snap, and will take you no time at all to get a portable slideshow set up on your PlayStation Portable.
  Difficulty: Easy
  Time Required: 2 minutes

  Here's How:

  1. Insert a Memory Stick into the Memory Stick slot in the left side of the PSP. Depending on how many photos you want it to hold, you may need to get a larger one than the stick that came with your system.
  2. Turn on the PSP.
  3. Plug a USB cable into the back of the PSP and into your PC or Mac. The USB cable needs to have a Mini-B connector on one end (this plugs into the PSP), and a standard USB connector on the other (this plugs into the computer).
  4. Scroll to the "Settings" icon on the home menu of your PSP.
• Find the "USB Connection" icon in the "Settings" menu. Press the X button. Your PSP will display the words "USB Mode" and your PC or Mac will recognize it as a USB storage device.
• Create a folder called "PSP" on the PSP Memory Stick (if there isn't one already) -- it shows up as "Portable Storage Device" or something similar -- (you can use Windows Explorer on a PC, or Finder on a Mac).
• Create a folder called "PHOTO" inside the "PSP" folder.
• Drag and drop image files into the "PHOTO" folder just as you would save files in another folder on your computer.
• Disconnect your PSP by first clicking on "Safely Remove Hardware" on the bottom menu bar of a PC, or by "ejecting" the drive on the Mac (drag the icon into the trash). Then unplug the USB cable and press the circle button to return to the home menu.

  Tips:

  1. You can view jpeg, tiff, gif, png and bmp files on a PSP with firmware version 2.00 or higher. If your machine has firmware version 1.5, you can only view jpeg files. (To find out what version your PSP has, follow the tutorial linked below.)

  2. What You Need:

  3. a PSP
  • a computer
  • a Memory Stick Duo or Pro Duo
  • a USB cable with a Mini-B connector on one end
            TOP

• Just like the PlayStation 2, the PSP was designed to do more than play games, though playing games is, of course, its main function. So how does the PSP hold up in comparison to other handheld game consoles like Nintendo's GBA and DS? And is it any good as an MP3 player or a portable video player? Personally, I think it's a great machine all around, and I use most of its functions on a regular basis. Here's what I think in more detail.
  
  
  The PSP Hardware

  PlayStation Portable versus GameBoy Advance

  It's probably not fair to compare on older generation handheld to the sleek new Sony PSP, but I'm going to do it anyway. The biggest advantage the the GBA has - in its SP incarnation, anyway, is its size. It folds up to a perfectly pocket-sized unit, with most of the buttons protected by the system itself. When unfolded, it's got a screen big enough that most games show up well, though the resolution is pretty awful compared to newer machines. The SP had a better screen than the original GBA, and the GameBoy micro is even smaller and brighter, but without the advantages of a folding unit.

  In comparison, the PSP is much, much bigger and heavier, and you need a case if you plan to carry it around, as all the buttons are exposed on the surface. I have to confess, though, that I've hardly touched my GBA SP since I got my PSP, and most of the games I have (save a few really old GameBoy Color cartridges) can be played on my DS anyway. I mostly keep the thing around for those old GBC games, and for nostalgia.

  To be fair, for some games there wouldn't be any point in using a handheld as powerful as the PSP. 2D side-scrolling platformers, for example, look great on the GBA. Then again, they'd look even better on a PSP.

  PlayStation Portable versus Nintendo DS

  

  PSP vs GBA and DS

  Nintendo's original DS is almost as big as two PSPs hinged together, but the two screens put together are barely as one PSP screen. The DS Lite is smaller and sleeker, and has a brighter screen than the original DS model.

  Looks and heft aside, though, the two systems are often used for very different kinds of games. One of the DS's screens is touch-sensitive, which means DS games tend to feature touch controls. Some developers for the DS have also made use of the system's built-in microphone. The appeal of the DS for me is the truly innovative games that have taken advantage of the things that make the DS unique.

  For more traditional games, though, I almost always choose the PSP (and despite the DS's innovative games, I spend way, way more time on the PSP over all). Somehow, the DS's split screen just doesn't play right unless the game is actually designed to take advantage of it. The PSP feels better in the hands, and that wide screen really can't be beat.

  Of course, these are subjective judgements; you may think exactly the opposite. The only way to find out which system is best for you is to try them both extensively and see which one you keep going back to. Or, if you can afford it, why not get both? I did.

  PlayStation Portable as an MP3 Player

  The PSP does have some drawbacks as an MP3 player. It's huge for one (the photo compares it to an older MP3 player that takes minidiscs and a newer player with onboard memory). You also won't be able to play music you buy from iTunes, unless you convert it to MP3 first.

  But there are advantages, too. When you consider how many different things this one device can do (games, music, video, photos, comics, etc) it doesn't seem so big after all. It has good audio quality and the headphones come with a remote so you can have the PSP stashed in your bag and still adjust volume, skip through songs, and so on.

  Downloading music from your PC or Mac is easy even without utility software, and you can organize your tunes in groups or however you want. The 32MB memory stick that comes with the PSP is probably not enough memory for most users, especially if you're saving games, too. You can, however, buy as many memory sticks as you want, in any size up to 4MB, and the tiny size of the media means you can carry a dozen sticks in a very small space. Buying a dozen memory sticks would be expensive, of course, but the price of memory is dropping.

  The PSP is the only portable music player I own, and I'm quite happy with it.

  Playstation Portable as a Portable Video Player

  

  PSP vs MP3 Players

  The PSP offers two ways to get video. You can buy movies on UMD, or you can save your own video on a memory stick.

  UMD movies are usually a litte cheaper that DVDs, but they rarely have any of the extra features. Usually all you get is the movie, but if that's all you want then it's not a problem. UMDs are much harder to find used than DVDs, which is a disadvantage. The quality of the video is excellent, though - orders of magnitude better than the old GBA video or those silly "Video Now" machines. Obviously a PSP doesn't have quite the quality of a portable DVD player, but then you can't fit a portable DVD player in your pocket.

  The quality of video you save on a memory stick depends on a Number of factors, such as the quality of the original and the amount of compression. File sizes are of course limited by the storage capabilities of the memory stick, but you can fit a decent amount of watchable video on a 1 GB stick. There are various ways of getting things like your favorite tv shows onto a stick for later viewing; a recent TiVo update even compresses the video in the right format so all you have to do is transfer it. I often watch video on my PSP when I have a lot of waiting to do, such as between classes.          TOP

• Whether you want to show off your own video work, or watch the latest anime video trailers on the go, being able to transfer video to your PSP is a useful thing. If you can can turn on your PSP and navigate the home menu, you can transfer video files.
  Difficulty: Easy
  Time Required: 2 minutes or more, depending on the Number of files

  Here's How:

  1. Insert a Memory Stick into the Memory Stick slot in the left side of the PSP. Depending on how many video files you want it to hold, you may need to get a larger one than the stick that came with your system.
  2. Turn on the PSP.
  3. Plug a USB cable into the back of the PSP and into your PC or Mac. The USB cable needs to have a Mini-B connector on one end (this plugs into the PSP), and a standard USB connector on the other (this plugs into the computer).
  4. Scroll to the "Settings" icon on the home menu of your PSP.
  5. Find the "USB Connection" icon in the "Settings" menu. Press the X button. Your PSP will display the words "USB Mode" and your PC or Mac will recognize it as a USB storage device.
  6. There should be a folder called "MP_ROOT" on the PSP Memory Stick if you formatted it on your PSP; if not, create one.
  7. There should be a folder called "100MNV01" inside the "MP_ROOT" folder.
  8. Drag and drop files into the folders just as you would save files in another folder on your computer. Video files go in the "100MNV01" folder.
  9. Disconnect your PSP by first clicking on "Safely Remove Hardware" on the bottom menu bar of a PC, or by "ejecting" the drive on the Mac (drag the icon into the trash). Then unplug the USB cable and press the circle button to return to the home menu.           TOP