
What can I do with a Sony PSP?Dave, I received my Sony PSP about 6 months ago and I don't know how to do anything with it besides play games that I buy. I have like a memory card thing for it but I dont know what to use it for. I've heard that u can get the Internet on your PSP and dowlonad movies and music and pictures, but how? This is a great question because it really highlights one of the challenges that Sony has marketing and positioning the Playstation Portable (aka PSP). On the one hand it's a competitor to the Nintendo Gameboy Advance so it's just a device that lets you play games. On the other hand, it's one of the most sophisticated consumer electronics gadgets on the market, allowing you to:
Having said all of this (is this officially an advert for Sony yet? :-) I have to say that it's not obvious how to do any of these tasks, which is why I've been writing how-to tutorials for quite a while now, helping people out. Here are a selection of the most popular:
There are more PSP articles on this site too, articles that can help you with even more problems. Remember, when you're having PSP problems, come here for Sony PSP Help. Hope that helps clarify some of the many splendid capabilities of the Sony PSP device!
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. Although this is a great idea, the cost of the memory sticks aren't real great for this. If you continuously reuse your memory stick to put new movies on and delete old movies, that's one thing, but to have a single movie per 512 memory will probably be at least 3 times as expensive than buying a UMD movie. Posted by: Jerid Hill at November 18, 2005 6:09 PMAgreed, Jerid. I think the lack of an external hard disk is a major liability for the Sony PSP and know that's why it's not mentioned when publications like the Wall Street Journal talk about handheld video players... Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 18, 2005 6:42 PMay i dont have a psp yet. i really want one. i jus thank you for all this good info man. peace Posted by: HENRY at December 1, 2005 6:16 PMHow far will a 1GB memory stick go? Is it worth paying the 95$ to get 2GB? Also is there going to be be a better battery available later? Posted by: Brad Salters at December 3, 2005 4:16 AMHey Ah, Ashley, that answer would be basically zero. A DVD has 8GB of data, typically, and you can compress it down quite a bit, but I have a 512MB memory stick and it barely holds one low quality movie. Please see my articles on PSP video and you'll understand. Posted by: Dave Taylor at December 7, 2005 7:33 AMi have a ? about how u put mpeg's clips that r about 20sec long each. how do u put them in the PSP? and how much room does it have to put mpeg's? and two more ? does the PSP when u buy it come with the usb cable? what kind of file formats can u put in the PSP for games. Posted by: Nick at January 26, 2006 3:34 PMDave i first want to thank you for all the great info. i am no techie by any means and your info.is very clear. my question is that i have a PSP vs. 2.0. i have downloaded some music in a mp4 format and i need to know if i can play that on my PSP? it doesnt show up in my Music file when i follow the steps you gave for downloading mp3. any advise? Posted by: waynepayne at January 27, 2006 6:05 PMAs far as I know, Wayne, no, the PSP cannot play MP4 audio files. Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 27, 2006 11:40 PMi tried to get aim on my psp but it said i needed a updated internet so i tried doing that but it didnt work recently i found a website called www.aimfiles.com and they have older aim files like the first one i was wondering if i could download one on my psp...would it work...is it safe...will anything happen that i dont want to happen to my psp...??? thanks dave AIM is PC software and your PSP is not a PC. It won't work, regardless of what version you install. Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 31, 2006 2:57 PMI was wondering if there is any way to message anyone like instant messager from your psp...i know this sounds stupid but im not a computer wiz ummmmmm do u kno where a wireless router would say what company its from or a # i can call to reach them? Posted by: joe at February 1, 2006 5:05 PMSo far, I havent' seen any sort of IM solution for the PSP, but I imagine it's just a matter of time. But why IM someone when you can be playing GTA:Liberty Cities, or Ridge Racer? :-) Posted by: Dave Taylor at February 1, 2006 11:12 PMHi Dave, I want to get a PSP for my wife, she'll be 61 next month. She only plays card and strategy games, and Mah Jong and she wears out the Palm Pilot playing games on it. She doesn't want any shootem up games, or any type of action games. So can I get games like the type that she likes for the PSP? If not, I'll have to find another birthday present for her. Posted by: Tom at February 11, 2006 4:33 PMSorry to say, Tom, that the PSP probably isn't the best option for you given what you seek. You might look into an ultralight PC laptop instead, and if you could afford a Tablet PC (about $1000) then it'd be an amazingly good gaming platform for your wife, but it's lots of $$ Posted by: Dave Taylor at February 11, 2006 11:03 PMThis is so confusing i still don't know how to put photos onto the psp, when i download it, it is on the computer psp file but not on the psp Posted by: hands at March 9, 2006 9:51 AMHey Dave, Grrrrrrrreeeeeaaaaaatttt letter, man. keep up the good work. i have a question for you though, what the heck is an emulator and how do I download it to play PSPrhythm? This is the drum machine downloan from hacks.com Posted by: Vic at April 30, 2006 9:56 AMhey dave i was wanting no how many games the psp comes with and how many movies it comes with. also is it true that u can get blue psp's Posted by: jason at May 17, 2006 2:36 PMhow do put videos on your psp? and is possiable to do that? Posted by: bryce hill at June 2, 2006 9:10 AMJason, the PSP typically doesn't come with any games or videos: you have to buy them separately. I don't know about colored PSPs, all the ones I've seen in the North American market, at least, are black. Bryce, you can definitely put videos onto your PSP, I do it all the time! http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_psp_video.html Posted by: Dave Taylor at June 2, 2006 9:17 AMmy psp will not come on the red light is on but it will not work Posted by: paul at August 29, 2006 10:19 PMDave you mentioned to ashley about one low quality movie on a 512 mb memory stick well, you can also remove things from the dvd itself such as subtitles, other languages, and even different sound qualities such as 5.1 Dolby, or whatever, so this all will help reduce the size of the DVD. DVD Shrink does this or even try VOB blanker i forget which program. Posted by: Serial at September 23, 2006 4:53 AMheyy, how can you download games on your psp? Alright, I have a 4 gig memory stick for my psp and I have 5 full movies, and 50 songs with a half of a gig left (500MB). So I recommend the 4 gig, esspically when things like gps and video cameras are coming out for them. And for aim/msn/yahoo messanger there is a site out now it is called MAKE SURE YOU KEEP YOUR PSP UP TO DATE!!! There are some really cool things that you can do, like I just figured out a way to stream music/videos to my psp without taking up any space on my memory stick, with the RSS Channel icon that comes with the new update. PSPVideo9 is what I use to change the format of the videos I download to the format that psp reads, you can change the quality of the video so you can fit more on your psp, or have dvd quality videos but just not as many (Really nice program). Anyways, if any of you have questions on any of these things feel free to post them here and I'll see if I can get you a quick answer. Cam Posted by: Cameron at November 29, 2006 9:27 PMyou can use AIM without downloading at http://www.aimonpsp.com Posted by: James at December 11, 2006 9:50 AMI would like to know how to put music videos on my psp.I down loaded a couple videos from itunes,and tried to covert them on the "psp max media".It says it cant convert(unsupported encoding)song name.m4v .can u help Posted by: andrew price at December 26, 2006 12:54 AMhow can i put yahoo messenger on PSP? please help me.... hit me in email... its xpatrickx23@yahoo.com.. i'll wait for your replies...... Posted by: patrick at February 12, 2007 8:01 AMYo u mad cool. I got a psp Posted by: Anthony Guzman at February 18, 2007 2:07 PMwhat can you do without a psp memory card Posted by: dj at February 26, 2007 8:35 PMHey Has downloaded the " universal remote" for PSP? Does it actualy work? Posted by: *> [J]ack... at March 11, 2007 5:44 PMi want to know how to put games on my psp becuase i have downloaded some but im running out of ideas lol reply to jameshalford_409@hotmail.com Posted by: jimbob at March 19, 2007 12:05 PMBy the way, the info here is great. I have a question though....the PSP browser has the ability to display Cyrillic characters, however, I am interested in know where I can obtain a cyrillic "keyboard" for the PSP that would allow me to type in it. Posted by: Aaron at April 1, 2007 12:12 PMhi im srry i just got my psp and i saw your coment about upgrading and getting a free browser how do you do that and dnes that mean im suposed to pay for the one i have now Posted by: vanessa at April 25, 2007 1:24 PMHey, just a heads up, I bought a psp a few months ago, but I work at staples, and I usally get memory sticks on sale for about 15 Dollars for a 1gb. I don't get discounts either, so I would say look for good deals people, they are out there, I usally can get a 2gb for about 25-30 dollars if you catch them just right, just a heads up if you guys are looking for a tight budget memory card..gotta keep your eye out though. Also, the internet is a great place to find cheap pro duo memory too, just gotta look guys. XD Posted by: Swampy at May 10, 2007 1:10 AMis it possible to stream music or movie from a network harddrive in your network? i would like to know this before buying one. i just upgraded my psp to a 3.50 from a 2.71 but no am confused. i dont know what extra things i can do or can download etc. plz help Posted by: eric at June 9, 2007 4:51 PMim getting a psp for my birthday in a months time and i want to no how to get interet thnx Posted by: saskia at July 31, 2007 11:39 AMpsp is doing my head in! How do you get to download on it and what are the best programs-are they free to down load and how do you use web on it? you guys have to get a usb cable. no it doesnt come with it. first you will go to the settings on your psp and format your memory card, then you will hook up your psp to your computer (note the usb cable is a mini usb to regular usb and can be found at your local electronics shop) Now go to the setting on your psp and find where it says usb connection and click on it. Your pc should make a weird sound and tell you that it has found a new removable media device. If you have gotten this far, I have good news! the hard part is over. Goto my computer and find your psp. Double click. Now you are ready to put files on psp. For photos (depending on which firmware you have) go into the folder marked psp and click on the photo folder. Once there you can just drag and drop your photos. to test to see if you have done it right just pick up your psp and scroll over to photos and they should be there. Its the same with music just make sure that it is in mp3 format (sony does not support mp4 for music).For videos it gets a little tricky. You will need to convert your video into mp4 format (this is necessary for them to work). Thats not as hard as it seems, all you will need is a program (audio encoder) that will do it for you and they are very abundant and self explanatory. I recommend typing into a major search engine the words "wma to mp4" and then just choose whichever. Usually the audio encoder will ask you where your psp is and put the video on there for you but if it does'nt, once the videos have been converted you will need to place them into the file named "100MNV01" in MP_ROOT folder on your psp. Well I hope this has helped someone. You know what they say if i can help just one person............... Posted by: phatty phat at August 29, 2007 2:16 PMOh and by the way the psp only has wifi internet (wifi means that you have to be in a hotspot like if you have a wireless router at home that you use for a laptop or your at a well known coffee joint) and it is very slow. there is a button on the left hand side of the psp,(the icons look like two little ufo's) make sure that it is switched in the up position. Now you will need to go to network and scroll down to internet. Once you click on it you will be asked to enter an address. Put in your favorite addy and click enter, at this point it will make you set up a new connection, go through the list and set up the connection (if you are at home or at a coffee shop chances are you will need the passwords to get into the router) Posted by: phatty phat at August 29, 2007 2:45 PMi do home skoolin and my works easy i always have alot of spare time do u know any sites i can get movies or games for my psp free Posted by: jeremy at September 30, 2007 7:51 AMhey dave i hope u read these emails because i'm getting a psp, well sort of, i don't know if i should get an nintendo ds or a psp. i wanna ask u if u go on the internet on the psp can u go on msn like can u talk 2 people on msn and also can u get different colours like pink or blue or green besides black? i hope u answer and if u don't then i not sure what i will be able 2 do with it so i might as well get an nintendo ds Posted by: natalie at December 18, 2007 10:36 PMNormally i just get money for christmas alot so i may get at the store Posted by: zack at December 19, 2007 5:46 PMi have a question but does the memory stick and the usb cable come with the psp? Posted by: Gary at December 25, 2007 6:21 PMwhats a PSP. and it a car or a motor cycle with big wheels Posted by: jack ass at December 31, 2007 2:25 AMI am having a problem with the original psp. The last time I turned it on the screen had a flash and then I was unable to do anything on it. When I try to restart it, the green light flashes for a second and then nothing. Is this thing broken now or is possible a bad battery? Tried charging it, but that doesn't work either. Just need to know if I need to replace it or something on it. Thanks. Posted by: Jamie at January 17, 2008 6:23 AMNow you can also do Flash like at http://www.psponme.com and soon you will be able to make free calls with Skype. Posted by: malmedia at January 27, 2008 5:19 PMhow do i download ipsp to my psp from windows internet explore.i got the new slim psp Posted by: jhon at February 15, 2008 9:54 PMhey i want to know how to watch movies on my internet if i go to youtube i can see the pics but not the movie so what do i do. Posted by: peter at March 22, 2008 7:53 PMhow cani be connected to the internet with my psp sony? Posted by: sooky at March 23, 2008 10:42 PMthat i have a psp but the problem is that it dosent want to read games why Dave how do you put game that you have on your computer on your psp? Posted by: evelyn preston at July 6, 2008 3:33 PMDave, I have a PSP and like 2 use it for internet, but I can never go on any website except google, or music-buying websites. I want to be able to go on youtube, but the videos never open when I try. It always says: "Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player." Now I have turned JavaScript on and have gotten the latest flash player several times, but youtube still won't work. What should I do???? Please help me!!! Posted by: Momna at August 12, 2008 4:01 PMHow do i get the net working on my psp if the wireless internet ip wont fit in Posted by: James at October 23, 2008 9:55 AMcan i play psp games on my ps3 or can i play me ps3 games from my psps Posted by: felicia at December 29, 2008 7:58 PMI ahve a PSP and i have a 8GB memory stick. It cost me about $20-30. Right now im trying to figure out a way to watch music videos on my psp. Just trying to do whatever i can with it. Want to watch movies, play games, go on the internet, listen to music, watch music videos. Posted by: Michael at February 26, 2009 10:42 AMDigital tuner for the psp hi dave first of thank you for your time and help. i have a psp and i have some movies that are all ready on my pc and i want to put a few on my psp. when i move them and i go to play them the psp says there not the right format but they are avi format and the psp says it will play avi. I dont know if im just missing some thing not doing it right or the psp needs something please help hey dave i got 1963 mb on memory stick and yes i want to download a game for free so any web for it ty Posted by: Dankaaial at May 29, 2009 10:03 AMI have a lot to say, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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