I recently downloaded and installed the PSP 2.5 software update and it has an application called Location Free. What is it and how do I use it?
Great question, actually, and something I haven’t dabbled with so it was a good excuse for me to do some research and learn about this very cool video streaming system from Sony that’s received surprisingly little visibility.
From the top, here’s how Sony describes this product:
“You never have to leave your home entertainment behind again. With LocationFree you can stream TV or movies from your home over broadband internet to your PSP system virtually anywhere in the world. At home, simply connect your A/V components (TV, DVD Player or DVR) and broadband internet to your LocationFree Base Station. On the road, connect your PSP system to a wireless hotspot and click on the LocationFree icon to start streaming your favorite TV programs. Change channels, pause or record on your components at home with the onscreen universal remote. With LocationFree on your PSP system, you can enjoy your home entertainment beyond the living room. And, not only is LocationFree designed to provide the ultimate in entertainment on the go, but its wireless capability makes it perfect for use around the house too.”
Sony has a Quick Start Guide to LocationFree (PDF) if you’d like to read all the technical nitty-gritty.
Unfortunately, the LocationFree base station isn’t cheap. It appears that the least expensive solution is the LocationFree Player Pak (for PC or PSP), which retails for a cool $349.99 from Sony’s store:
That’s over and above the cost of your Sony PSP device, of course, so you’d need to ask yourself: is it worth $350 so you can watch TV and DVDs streamed live from your home audio/video system? You could buy quite a few UMD movies for that same price and have perfect video fidelity and complete portability, just as one possible comparison.
So my take on this is that it’s a very cool idea, but prohibitively expensive for all but the most die-hard fans. That’s too bad, because streaming video is something that we could all enjoy and would really help us be free of the shackles of sitting in front of our “tubes”.
Of course, I haven’t tried Location Free. If you have, please leave a comment with your experiences.
how do i get to the stuff that i download from the internet
i have buy a use psp 3001 and i dont have the instruction and how is the free player work
hi Dave.recently i upgraded my computer from xp to windows7 and at first all was good. I could connect my sony psp using wif to the internet i have and browse the net etc. one time though my computer internet connection went out so i followed windows 7 prompts to recconect my pc to the net which worked..from this point on though my psp cannot join using wifi..it now reads “not supported” on the psp when i select it..can you help?
cheers
craig
Hello, Dave. I have a question I’m hoping you could help me with. Out of nowhere I can no longer connect to my Location Free Player (Model: LF-B1 wired connection) from my computer. It was working perfectly fine yesterday (and for the past 2 years or so) and now it’s not. I can see the green dot but it appears lighter now like there’s nothing there. NO changes have been made to PC at all. I’m getting error msg: “Cannot connect to Base Station. Check Domain name or static IP address and confirm that you are connected to the Internet. Alternatively, you may have an error in the Dynamic DNS setting of the Base Station”. My Network settings are fine & I am connected to the Internet OK so what do you think the issue can be?
Hello, Dave. I have a question I’m hoping you could help me with. Out of nowhere I can no longer connect to my LF Player from my computer. It was working perfectly fine yesterday (and for the past 2 years or so) and now it’s not. I can see the green dot but it appears lighter now like there’s nothing there. NO changes have been made to PC at all. I’m getting error msg: “Cannot connect to Base Station. Check Domain name or static IP address and confirm that you are connected to the Internet. Alternatively, you may have an error in the Dynamic DNS setting of the Base Station”. My Network settings are fine & I am connected to the Internet OK so what do you think the issue can be?
can a location free player work in Cameroon.if yes, then how
Location free player isn’t that good if you want music onto your psp for free… the easiest way is to go on http://www.beemp3.com search whatever song you want click one, then save it to your psp documents under music.
i HAVE A SONY vgn NR330E THAT WAS ADVERTISED THAT i COULD WATCH TV. cALLED TECH SUPPORT AND THEY SAID i DID NOT HAVE A TV TUNER SO i COULD NOT WATCH TV.
bOX SAID IT HAD LOCATIONfREE. 1. iS THAT THE SAME AS HAVING A TV? 2. dO YOU THINK A REGULAR COMPUTER TECH CAN SET THIS UP FOR ME AS i HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THIS? tHANKS
I have got PSP (received from US) and have the 4 GB scan disk memory stick. When i copy the photos and music, i can able to view and play the songs from Scan disk.
when i copy the video files (in the format mpeg and mp4), the video is not playing in the psp.(it is showing message pls copy the files from PS3 system or from a PC)
my question does PSP supports scan disk memory stick for videos….
pls give your reply…
ok dns error means u didnt type the address right (the url) and as for the music fomr itunes, copy and paste the files striaght from ur library viewer into the psp music file
When I use the rss crackle search what are ther different chanells I can search for I found a couple like youtube,myspace, I type in a couple of different words like hiphopdx and it found stuff but not pertaining to hiphop I also searched lime wire and acid planet but there were no feeds can you give me a list of names to search for Music,music videos. Also I have the flashplayer enabled but on the net some sites say I need macromedia what is that when you try to get it it sends you to another site help.
I’ve had my psp for a many months now and I know this machine is evolutionary I’m a fanatic there’s something about this machine that tells me sony broke ground. Also if you have upgraded you system to 3.7 will you still be able to fun homebrew what is homebrew and how can I get started using it please help
i am able to connect at home but when i try to connect at work, it just says that it is unable to connect to the base station. how do i remedy this?
Okay about the problem with the dns error i believe you need to go through you router settings and also make shure that it accepts wireless b products the psp is a b product. and make shire you wlan switch is on of course lol and how to get it online go to settings and go down tonetwork settings its at the very bottem and go to infrastructure mode and click on [New Connection] and that will take you to WLAN Settings from there you can ether scan for a network or do it manualy also i notice a Use Wireless Hotspot but i dont know much of this option but i will check it out and i am a cheap person. i like to do things for free lol
You can also use it to play PS2 games on your psp. ^_^ (i read it on IGN)
hey i just got a psp and i have a wireless router but i dont know how to connect to the internet it keeps on saying dns error plz help mee
hi i just enquiring about the sony base station what upload and download speed do i need on my broadband
I recently got a PSP and I was wondering how to get my PSP online.
Thanks for the info and review
Just got one on ebay for $60!
I picked up a base station on ebay for $160, now im watching crossing jordan streaming on my PSP here at work.
due to the connection i set the display properties low so the visual is pretty choppy but the sound is great. And with the limited amount of memory available for the PSP this is a great solution.
I got a brand new base station for $90 on http://www.ebay.com.
i downloaded music off of itunes and i cant figure out how to get it from my itunes library to my PSP.please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
how do you play games from the internet?
I have two LF-PK1s (the Location Free base stations) running out of my place and I’m totally satified with the performance.
Locally (near enough to access the base station’s WIFI directly) they work extremely well at the maximum quality settings (used with a PSP, I don’t have a standalone TV unit). I won’t replace my wired TVs with Location Free TVs just yet since it’s not quite perfect and the cost of the Location Free TVs are much too high, but as an additional feature to the PSP, it’s great.
Externally (e.g. at a coffee shop) I have to downgrade the quality settings (3/5 usually) but it’s still fairly clear and there’re only occasional hitches.
For setup, I didn’t get anywhere using the “Easy” mode, but the “Advanced” mode had all the controls I needed for setting up the server port, dynamic DNS, password settings, etc.
As a bonus, I didn’t realize that the software included with the base station would also give me access to the signal through a laptop – but it’s Windows only software.
My cable connection gives me enough upload bandwidth (typically > 500Kbps) to handle the signal (Sony recommends > 300Kbps) – YMMV.
Along with an IR controller and a database of remotes, the base station has an internal TV tuner, so I can just input cable directly to the unit and change the channels from the PSP easily, which is good.
I had thought that the base unit would also have some support streaming files off the network – it doesn’t. That was a minor disappointment. That can probably be worked around by connecting the PC’s TV-out to the base station and controlling the PC from a web interface. Haven’t tried it yet, though.
Sony’s description implies that a PC is required. However, it isn’t – you can do all the setup from just the PSP.
Only four clients (PSPs, PCs, etc.) can be registered to a single base unit which hasn’t been an issue, but it does seem like a unnecessary restriction. Although it is easy to delete and add clients.
However, only a single client can access the base station at once, which I can understand from a performance point of view but it does make it more difficult when you want to adjust the server settings from the PC and check the performance from the PSP at the same time.
The big features I’d like to see in the future:
1. Access to local video, image and music files
2. Some DVR capability
3. Ability to cache a stream on the memory stick to view when you’re out of WIFI range.
Overall,
+10 for working as advertised and better than expected
-2 for no local file support
-1 for cost of standalone TV units
+2 for including PC viewer software for laptops
-1 for PC viewer software being Windows-only
-1 for being too restrictive with both number of registered and simultaneous clients
= (7/10)
———–
Sony’s links to the User’s Guides on their site were broken when I looked. So here’s the direct links:
http://products.sel.sony.com/locationfreetv/owners/public/LF-PK1_U_IM.pdf
http://products.sel.sony.com/locationfreetv/owners/public/setting_usage_guide_LF_PSP.pdf