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The Internet Entertainment Games

PSPCasting 139

ChipGuy writes "Om Malik points out the launch of Sony PSP in US could actually turn Sony's fortunes around and thinks that new unqiue applications like Sajeeth Cherian's latest software, PSP Video 9, might be the real reason. Cherian created Videora bit torrent client's new hack, PSP Video 9. It takes any video and turns it into a format that PSP can read. So now you can download videos using Videora, and then convert them to PSP friendly format within a few seconds.He calls this PSP casting."
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PSPCasting

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  • cool ? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:31AM (#11997978) Journal
    Besides the geek factor, how would this be cooler than a standard portable mini tv set, especially given its price ?
    • Re:cool ? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Its better in that a mini tv set that has neither media card slot, not video decoder (e.g. for films)

      Its less good in that it has no TV tuner...

      It would let you record from TV, through to media PC, through to PSP. So record that late night show while you sleep, then watch while you commute...
      • Wasn't it already possible with <insert your palmtop brand, model name and OS here> ?
        • Possible, and cheaper(memory sticks are expensive!), with more storage I believe.
          • Re:cool ? (Score:1, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward
            But without Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Acid, of course. I'll be buying a PSP primarily for the games, but all this other stuff is a nice added incentive. If I wasn't in a reasonably well-paid job and had been forced to limit myself to buying either the DS or the PSP (rather than both, which I plan to), it'd be a simple decision.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I'd use one of these while at the fitness, I cannot use my hands but I'd like a decent device to catch my attention.
        Of course if you want me to play games on it, I could use a palm or a wince machine or an ibook...
        I guess it would not be geeky it it were not programable.
        is the psp prgramable in itself or is it just a *TOY* ?
        • That's a great idea, empowering homebrew developers by making the PSP user-progammable. I suggest an easy to use scripting language that will allow even novice programmers to get results. Can you imagine running PHP on the PSP, without needing a PHD?

      • "Easy answer: You can't play games on your "standard portable mini tv set"?"

        Right, but are you going to be doing much more than playing games on your PSP? At least on a practical level? A portable TV is "Turn on, watch". A PSP is "capture content, convert content, manage storage, transfer content."

        I'm still not sold on the idea of the PSP becoming a multi-media Walkman. (Heck, I want to get a PocketPC/Palm for this type of stuff, but I still can't work out a practical way of doing it.) Wake me when
    • Unless you've spent money on the PSP AND spent money on buying an especially big memory card for the videos, you can't really use this.
      • Let's see a 512MB Pro Duo Memory stick can be bought for $75 or less (about the cost of 1 and a half PSP games).

        I converted a 22 minute episode of The Daily Show to PSP format MP4 using ffmpegx (Mac OS X). The file size was less than 50 MB. This works out great for my 25 minute bus ride to work.
  • by mfh ( 56 )
    PSPCasting? Not sure about that. Sounds more like breaking the shackles of corporate anti-competition, to fix a product.
    • Re:PSPCasting... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by OAB_X ( 818333 )
      Its like Podcasting, but your not broadcasting anything, your just playing videos, wheres the casting part of PSPcasting?
      • Well, think about it. With podcasting, the person with the "pod" part isn't broadcasting anything, the "pod" is receiving media, or the broadcast. With PSPcasting, the PSP isn't braodcasting, it's on the receiving end of media, hence "PSPcasting". If it catches on, I'm sure we'll see actual video broadcasts for the PSP in the style of podcasts for mp3 players.
    • How about PSP2P or P2PSP or PSP2PSP, then :).
  • PSP video format (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Jarlsberg ( 643324 )
    Sony's future prospects would be even more bright if the thing had supported non proprietary MPEG-2/DivX/Xvid and WMW from the get go...
    • Sorry, non-proprietary WMV?
    • The real answer (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      As a programmer I can give you the reason we don't add support for any of this stuff and instead developed (well... bought) a proprietary video playback codec. (Actimagine makes a great codec, easy to program with, but a bit expensive)

      We hate our users, it is really that simple, we hate them and want them all to die.

      Ok, all joking aside, we used Actimagine for one simple reason. To cut down compatibility issues. DO you realize that both Xvid and Divx are based on other codecs and are constantly evolving.
      • Thanks for the answer. I suspected something like this. It's why I'm hesitant to buy DVD players that supports DivX et. al, and why I'm pretty happy with using my Xbox as a DivX/Xvid-player. The latter works as a computer and can be updated when new or improved codecs are available, while the former often can't be updated in an easy fashion, and so gets outdated.

        With regards to the PSP -- it's good that a tool to convert movies to Sony's format has come along. I don't know the details, but if it's possible

      • Can anyone tell me the details of this? Sorry I would RTFA, but I am weary of following strange links at work. What is the typical size for a video encoded in this format? For instance about how big would an hour show be (I know it depends on the quality, but work with me :P)? How much memory can the sticks hold and how much are they?

        Thanks
      • "What happens in a year or two when the codecs has become obsolete."

        Two words: programmable firmware. You store the base PSP OS on a memory stick-ish device embedded in the machine. You then issue firmware updates to users via snail mail or free from local retailers, on a standard PSP disc that's bootable. The PS2 did it, why not a portable?
        • The firmware in the PSP is, in fact, user upgradeable. There is a function in the PSP which goes out to a website and will update the firmware if it finds a firmware file posted there. Sony accidentally posted a test file a while back which some people downloaded, and then ripped apart. Found all sorts of interesting things in there, possibly portents of future functions ...

          Anyway, updating the codecs is very likely possible, but it depends on what Sony decides to support (or what someone manages to hac
          • You gotta realize, of course, that if Sony is allowing firmware upgrades, then each firmware is encoded with one of their keys somehow. It may take awhile to crack, or be completely uncrackable like the Quake3/Doom3 keys.
    • Re:PSP video format (Score:5, Informative)

      by sh00z ( 206503 ) <sh00z.yahoo@com> on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:54AM (#11998137) Journal
      I'm not sure what you mean by "proprietary" in this case, as the PSP uses MPEG-4, which is No more proprietary than MPEG-2 [m4if.org], your counter-example.
    • It wouldn't be a proper sony product if it wasn't folornly pushing its own, niche, format of doom.

      I mean, when they use the same formats as the whole rest of the world, just look what happens; __nobody__ buys Sony TVs, DVD players, CD Players etc, do they? And as for that "walkman" - see where playing standard Cassettes got them!!
    • Xvid yes, everything else IS a very proprietary format that requires paying a license per player/ device to use it.

      sony did not because they did not want to increase the cost of the device past the price point by paying for codec license fees.
  • by rubberbando ( 784342 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:35AM (#11998005)
    Do you have to burn a mini CD-R / DVD+-R?

    Or do you have to connect the PSP to your PC to upload it to it?

    Or can you just save it to a memory stick and put in the PSP which will automatically recognize it and play it?
  • Casting? (Score:5, Funny)

    by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:38AM (#11998019) Journal
    He calls this PSP casting.
    Is 'casting' the new hip catch-all phrase, after being made popular by the term 'pod-casting'?

    Next: 'Blogcasting' (reading your fave blog on your cellphone), 'bookcasting' (Ebooks on your PSP), and so on.
    • FPCasting

      read all your favorite first posts ever, from your PDA
    • Re:Casting? (Score:3, Funny)

      by akadruid ( 606405 )
      Combining existing dumb ideas with worse catchphrases and patenting the results has replaced innvotation, as shown by the 'plogging' story.

      Besides Ebooks on a PSP would be EPSPBookCasting or something. Patent that quick.

      Who wants to bet the next four stories will also feature this process? Here's my prediction:

      Gridlogging
      Nano-toasting
      WiFiSatMaxG Mobile
      FlashReceipeCasting

      I propose a name for this phenomenon:
      dotCatchphrasePatentAbuse
    • As long as it is served via RSS (or its variants) I think you can add the "casting" suffix. Blogcasting? Maybe Textcasting.
    • Re:Casting? (Score:2, Funny)

      by chman ( 746363 )
      The Internet, to many people, holds some promise of being able to make absolutely anyone a world wide celebrity - that somehow a tiny idea can spread through the tangled maze of routers and fibre optics and afford its thinker-upper immortality. It probably started when everyone noticed just how much fucking money those Google guys made, or that kid that earned a metric fuckton playing Internet stock.
      Unfortunately, this mentality means that absolutely everyone throws around bullshit ideas. Also unfortunate
    • I'm sure Sony can't wait for game-casting... sending out the roms for all the PSP games to your friends over broadband!
    • *snort* Puh-lease; I've been computer-casting for decades, you damned punks!
    • Ugh...you could be more right than you know:

      All about screencasting [infoworld.com] (ugh)
    • "Better Bad News [podcatch.com] is a blogcast. That's the same as podcast, but without the misleading brand name."

      Extremely well put. I hate the term "Podcast". It seems like people who use it are trying to hitch their stars to Apple's fortune and the popularity of the iPod, because they have doubts what they're doing can't make it on its own merits. Ok, it rhymes with "broadcast", which is worth about a half chuckle (but not as funny as Fen Lebalm's term "Broadcatch [broadcatch.com]"). But it turns off people who aren't iPod fanatics

  • Definition (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:39AM (#11998030)
    castcasting (vb.) - The act of taking a word or acronym and appending "cast" or "casting" to the end to make it sound up-to-date and cool. See also "gategating".
  • Thank God (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ken@WearableTech ( 107340 ) * <ken@kenwillia m s j r . com> on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:41AM (#11998045) Homepage Journal
    Finally a way to spread the wisdom in my home movies to the whole world.

    Now I'm off to register PSPorn.com
  • a) Do sony's fortune's need turning? Surely they are absolutely giant in quite a lot of markets thus aren't doing too badly for themselves b) From my experience, sony are a total pain with respect to formats and suchlike, the minidisc being a good example. is it really something geeks are going to embrace?
    • What didn't you like about the minidisc? The fact that the discs don't fit anywhere other than your minidisc player or that you had use ATRAC because Sony was avoiding mp3...
      • it's the format. or more accurately the DRM that they included. recommended my father to purchase a himd minidisc recorder because of the ease of copying music from the minidisc recorder to the computer using USB. he is a piano teacher and musician, and likes to record what he does using a high quality microphone and his new minidisc recorder, but when we copied the music to the computer (which only, by the way, works with sonic stage) it wouldn't lets us burn audio cds. the song and dance required to get t
        • What you describe is quite a niche problem. I have used MiniDisc for years and the *only* time it bit me was when a musician friend gave me a Audio-CD-R with a performance of his. I wanted to listen to it on my portable MiniDisc player since I didn't have a portable CD player anymore. Of course, it didn't want to copy such a Audio-CD-R to MiniDisc. (Allowing only "one digital copy") Apart from that: I only used MiniDisc to make mixes and to have a convenient format to carry my CD's around. (This was be
          • What you describe is quite a niche problem. I have used MiniDisc for years and the *only* time it bit me was when a musician friend gave me a Audio-CD-R with a performance of his.

            That's a pretty big niche, that channel by which much independent music is spread. Or rather, it may be a niche compared to consuming Brittany Spears CDs, but....
            • Re:two things... (Score:2, Interesting)

              by jawtheshark ( 198669 ) *
              Well, it is a niche. A small one: people that produce their music aren't that common. Besides, people that produce music try to get professional grade stuff and MiniDisc is consumer grade. It's that simple. MiniDisc was thought as a backup for Audio CD's or mixing stuff. More convenient format (before MP3).

              Besides, if my friend would have used a normal Data CD, like anyone would have, I could have copied it to MiniDisc without problems. Copying a MiniDisc itself has not much sense for music professi

    • Sony's got a non-japanese chief Howard Stringer now. It's probably the boldest any company of that size can make. He's bringing corporate views from the outside, which explain more and more changes to come.

      You have to understand, for a Japanese company to break culture to do this, is like Americans letting a non-white individual to be president. Sony lost the mp3 player market, and all other electronics stuff is mediocre. PSP and PS2 is about the only ammo left.

    • a) Do sony's fortune's need turning? Surely they are absolutely giant in quite a lot of markets thus aren't doing too badly for themselves

      Yes, Sony's fortunes do need turning. Go to the SEC and check out their annual filings for the past two years, you'll see they basically turned into a version of Microsoft, except not the type of Microsoft that makes billions in profit from a few divisions. Sony's Game Division is the only thing consistently making money right now; last fiscal year it was Sony Pictu

  • Mobile Cinema (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LittleGuernica ( 736577 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:49AM (#11998090) Homepage
    Mobile Cinema isn't going to work, I don't want to sound like Steve Jobs, but watching Jack Bauer say "Dammit" on a 4,5" screen is not quite as good as on a HDTV plasma(or something more modest), even though the screen is fabulous..

    Ofcourse as a PornStation Portable it will do just fine..
    • Um, have you ever thought of watching last nights / mornings news/sports on your daily commute? What about simpsons/south park/etc, etc? Or do you live in America and don't know what transport to work without a car is ;-)
      • not all of us have our mommies driving us to school during our commute, some of us have to avoid the idiots that are freely given licenses.
        • I'm surprised to see school age kids reading slashdot! Good on ya. What do you want to be when you grow up, a programmer?! Just as a warning, not all those fresh out of School programming jobs are the star studded affairs involving driving to work Jaguar's every day... you'll have to work a few years first :-)
          • And how! That's why I took my Computer Science degree (graduated last year) and went into Real Estate!
            • So you went through all those years of study and then went into a job that required none or it! Damn. Stick with IT for a while if you like it, if you're good, you make great money doing a job I imagine you would prefer?! Oh well.
    • Re:Mobile Cinema (Score:4, Insightful)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @10:03AM (#11998208) Journal
      Mobile Cinema isn't going to work
      It'll work just fine whenever you are on the move. Back when I frequently made some frequent long-distance flights, I considered purchasing one of those portable DVD units which I previously had dismissed as 'utterly pointless' because of their small screen. But a couple of 12-hour flights with sucky in-flight movies and a boring/snoring fellow passenger changed my opinion of these units real quick!

      Besides, if you want a big screen you can always get one of those LCD glasses (Sony's GlassTron).
      • Personally, I'm convinced that portable video won't catch on until I can get really cheap glasses. Ot's too damned inconvenient to drive with a PSP/porta-DVD.
    • Oh, I disagree...when we can get HDTV resolutions on the PSP (with current resolution of 480x272 on a 4.6in screen = approx. 120dpi, HDTV resolution on the same size screen would require about 480dpi), then let's talk again. I'd like to see Jack Bauer on a tiny yet really crisp screen saying "dammit" at those resolutions.
    • Mobile Cinema isn't going to work, I don't want to sound like Steve Jobs, but watching Jack Bauer say "Dammit" on a 4,5" screen is not quite as good as on a HDTV plasma(or something more modest), even though the screen is fabulous..

      Ofcourse as a PornStation Portable it will do just fine..


      See, the porn thing is a good point, though. If you're a big fan of 24, then watching it on a PSP isn't going to be enough for you. For watching crap-that-I-sort-of-like shows (porn included), it's worth it, though. I wo
  • by earthbound kid ( 859282 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @09:55AM (#11998142) Homepage
    The only time portable video is useful is when you're away from home/your computer and you're not walking, driving, or otherwise in control of your motion. Obviously, by this set of criteria it makes sense to watch portable video on a train or bus, but since the average American is either driving, walking, or biking to and from home (a place with existing video sources) to work (a place with computers), it doesn't seem like there's much of a need for portable video. Now, I will say there are some places where portable video make sense-- like on a commuter train in Japan. I saw a guy watching TV on his phone just yesterday and thought, "Wow, that's pretty cool." But when does the average American ever have an opportunity to sit around like that while someone else is steering the vehicle? You can slap portable video onto a product people are already going to buy, like a cellphone, as an optional feature, but it doesn't make sense to make portable video the centerpiece of any technology destined for the US market.

    I'm with Steve Jobs on this one-- there's no real demand for portable video in the US.
    • So is that why whenever those little Portable DVD players drop below $100 on sale at Walmart, they're usually sold out by the end of the day? There shouldn't be any question as to whether there is demand for portable video all over the place. There is. It's plainly obvious.

      The real question is whether Sony is offering it in an attractive enough package for people to buy [i]this[/i] product. I'm gonna say the will be successful, but I don't think that success will hinge on it's ability to playback video, fr
      • Somehow I do not think you're going to be really watching any videos on the 32MB memory stick, which doubles as your game memory card, that comes with the PSP $250 pack. And the larger memory stick duo pros are not cheap.
    • But when does the average American ever have an opportunity to sit around like that while someone else is steering the vehicle?
      What about the kids sitting in the back seat of that car? A portable video unit to keep them occupied during long trips would be nice. Why do you think some cars have an option to play DVDs in the navigation unit's drive on screens mounted on the back of the front headrests?
    • You can slap portable video onto a product people are already going to buy, like a cellphone, as an optional feature, but it doesn't make sense to make portable video the centerpiece of any technology destined for the US market.

      How about:

      You can slap portable video onto a product people are already going to buy, like a Portable Playstation, as an optional feature, but it doesn't make sense to make portable video the centerpiece of any technology destined for the US market.

      How is it the center
      • You're right, the PSP will succeed on the strength of its video gaming ability, but when people talking about "PSPcasting" they make it seem like they've forgotten this. In the US at least "PSPcasting" is going to be a niche fad for the foreseeable future. The PSP will probably catch on for other purposes though.
    • Maybe... although by the same logic one could also easily argue...

      The only time portable gaming is useful is when you're away from home/your computer and you're not walking, driving, or otherwise in control of your motion. Obviously, by this set of criteria it makes sense to play portable games on a train or bus, but since the average American is either driving, walking, or biking to and from home (a place with existing gaming sources) to work (a place with computers), it doesn't seem like there's much of

    • "...like on a commuter train in Japan."

      um... what's wrong with commuter trains in the US? I, like thousands of americans, take the train to work daily, and ride subways quite often. When I'm by myself, I enjoy my PSP or my DS.

      let's not forget the countless people who take busses, too. Metropolitan areas are where iPods have extreme market saturation. Walking around NYC, you see more people with white earbuds than you see talking on cell phones. These are the areas where portable video will take off.

      Righ
  • PSP Camping (Score:1, Troll)

    by stendec ( 582696 )
    Forget about PSP Casting, what about PSP Camping? [penny-arcade.com]
  • by justforaday ( 560408 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @10:00AM (#11998181)
    So, this is an app that converts video clips to mpeg4 and then copies them to whichever drive the PSP is mounted as? Gotta agree with others -- where's the "casting" part here?
  • by JaF893 ( 745419 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @10:22AM (#11998380) Journal
    Sony's console sales have actually been pretty healthy - its the other parts of their business that are shakey. They have sold 100 million PlayStations and 75 million Playsation 2s. The PS2 sales have dipped recently but thats to be expected. When the PS3 comes out it they will be the market leader again. But I don't think PSP casting will change the fortunes of Sony.
  • What about watching streaming over Wifi? Set a server up at home, compile the good format And there u go... Everywhere with open wifi ( in holland almost anywhere..No1 knows about security ) Or isnt that possible? it sounds cool do...
  • Unfortunately, Sony is also a media company and has large interests in protection of intellectual property (audio and video). The feature the PSP needs to be sucessful (the ability to view content you already own on your PSP) will probably not happen. The reason is simple, Sony wants to sell you yet another copy of your favorite movies. Until we as a society find a way allow people to buy content vs. media (which happen to have content on them) then the PSP will never be a major feather in Sony's hat. I
    • The feature the PSP needs to be sucessful (the ability to view content you already own on your PSP) will probably not happen.

      Already has happened. I'm currently trying to "catch up" with Alias (only discovered it recently) so I bought all the box sets. Now I'm watching them every day on my commute to/from work, on my PSP. It's really easy to rip & convert, I even get it in widescreen as originally intended. A 512 mb card can easily hold 2 episodes with excellent quality. I really don't see your proble
      • What software are you using for the ripping & converting?

        (feel free to email me instead of following up here, I'm really curious about this as I'm looking for excuses to buy a PSP and this would totally close the deal for me)
        • Ripping is with your ripper of choice (I use DVD decrypter to rip each episode into a seperate VOB file). There are a number of conversion tools available, personally I use Rapiz [nivasoft.com] which is kinda hacky (and potentially license violating) but it works well. There are a number of other products, some free, some not. Rapiz is mainly based on 3GP so if you google that you should get a lot of info.
  • by Gravaton ( 413066 ) <gravaton@optonlin e . net> on Monday March 21, 2005 @12:29PM (#11999945)
    Erm, you guys do know that Sony already has software available for the PSP that will convert any video file you can drag and drop onto it (Yes, DivX, XviD, etc.) into MPEG4 and put it on your PSP....and images as well....

    It's called Image Converter. It's bundled with the PSP (At least the pack that comes with the memory stick gets a CD with it, otherwise it's free from Sony with registration). What's the point of this guy reinventing the wheel?

    Info on the software is here:
    http://forum.lik-sang.com/showthread.php?t=1929 [lik-sang.com]
    • the videora app is "re-invite" the wheel, since you can use Azureus + RSSFeed plugin to do something very similiar to what they application does :P
    • Image Converter is known to have some problems with certain file types (QuickTime), and some reports from Engadget have suggested that Image Converter needlessly bloats encode size.

      I haven't tried PSP Video 9 out yet, but it's nice to have some options, and integration with Videora will probably be the selling point for the BitTorrent fiends. For me, it helps that I can use PSP Video 9 with the weird unregisterable import PSP I had to snap up for work.

    • Image Converter 2 limits your converting options a little. The converters based on ffmpeg allow you to convert at higher bitrates and use non-standard resolutions (within a limit).
  • by ProppaT ( 557551 ) on Monday March 21, 2005 @12:40PM (#12000135) Homepage
    Sure, this works for now. But Sony had the forsight to make their system flash updatable through bios updates via a wireless network or gamepack. They could go the same route that Microsoft did with the X-Box and force firmware updates when you play new games or connect to Sony's network, effectively breaking the ability to play video off a memory stick.

    Of course, there will always be "the scene" and people hacking the firmware, etc. But I would count on this ability to be broken at some point because Sony is too short sighted to use it as a marketing gimick.
    • As the post right above you states, SONY has written software that does the same thing these programs do, create MPEG4 standard video (H.263 codec) for play on the PSP. If their Image Converter software isn't a gimmick for "watch videos on the go with your PSP!" then I don't know what is!
    • That's not going to happen. How do I know? Because Sony just released versions of their PSX DVR in Japan that specifically allow you to write programs you've recorded to Memory Stick Duo for use in the PSP. Sounds like a pretty solid admission that this was planned and that they plan to support it going forward.
  • In preparation for my psp in a few days I have been converting some movies for use.

    The movies need to copied correctly to a MM DUO (DUO!!! not non DUO) memory stick - the little UMD drive doesnt have a writeable format.

    Ok so then you download dvd-decrypter (google) and there a few options for the conversion but I like Rapiz lite (google) its spansish just download and change the menu to english.

    Ok a couple of faqs that help:
    a good guide http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/file/psp_mp4_ c onvert.txt

    OK us
    • However, the maximum video resolution over Memory stick is limited compared to the maximum video resolution over UMD. Sony crippled the MS video playback just to make us buy UMD movies or find mods to remove that limit. Watched the Demo Disc Vol 1, the video quality is simply amazing, trumps on the PDAs out there including the Creative Media Center.
  • Personally I prefer using a PocketPC. I carry around an old Ipaq 3800, with a 512MB SD card. I can convert my videos to the proper dimensions/orientation using the Pocket DivX encoder, then dump then onto the card and play them with BetaPlayer. Anime, movies, TV shows... you name it, I've probably carried it in my pocket.

    No porn, though. Porn in public would just be ... weird.

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