Sony PSP - Great Handheld Gaming and Media Player

Sony PSP
My company has a fun Christmas party every year. We are all gadget lovers and our senior partner always does a great job shopping for gifts for the ‘dirty Santa’ gift exchange. Some of the staff have scored LCD TVs, new Zunes, XM Radio receivers, and GPS receivers. In years past, I have come away with a cool electronic dart board, a portable DVD player, and a Slingbox.

This year was the best score though - a PSP Slim (the PSP-2001PB Model). This is my first PSP but I understand that the new Slim is lighter and thinner than the original PSP, has a AV output for video and games, and the game load times are quicker.

I would have never bought a PSP for myself, but getting one as a gift was great. I have a 8 year old son so of course he has a Nintendo DS Lite. I am not sure, but I think that having a DS is required for all kids in our area to get into play dates. The DS is a great platform, but there is something about being in you late 30s and whipping one out on a plane that makes you feel a little childish. The PSP seem more adult and higher cool factor.

Games
The PSP came with Madden 08. I’m not much of a Madden player and I already have a few versions of Madden for the Gamecube and Xbox, so I returned it and started looking for some games that were really unique to the PSP or were well suited to the PSP controls and screen. I did some research using some of the Best Of list on Cnet and Gamespot to make some selections. Our local Game Stop has a pretty good collection of new and used games, but I’ve gotten most of the titles new from eBay since it so much easier than running around town looking for games. I have picked up a few games and some of my favorites so far are Crush, Loco Roco, The Bigs, Virtua Tennis 3, Burnout Dominator, and Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play.

Crush is a unique puzzle game that Sega designed for the PSP that has a dark, weird story line, and a really interesting interface with its use of 2D and 3D. Loco Roco is one of the most artful and entertaining games I have ever played. My son has played Loco Roco through twice in the last 4 weeks (it is hard to keep his hands off of Dad’s PSP). The Bigs has some great arcade style baseball game play and the graphics look great on the big PSP screen. Virtua Tennis 3’s main game is solid tennis action, but the real attraction to the game is the great collection of addictive mini-games that are fun to play and improve your play in the main game. Playing Burnout Dominator you can really feel the speed of the game on the PSP screen. Midway Arcade Treasure Extended Play is a solid collection of classic arcade games (from my era) and has a couple of my favorites included; Joust and Wizard of Wor.

My son is eager to get his hands on Patapon when it releases next week. Patapon is a real time strategy, rhythm game that is generating a lot of buzz in the PSP world and is priced at only $19.99.

Another good source of games and demos is the Playstation Store online. From the store, you can download directly to the PSP via the USB connection. The store has some of the PS one classics for download to the PSP along with themes, wallpapers and videos.

Accessories
I knew I would get some games with the PSP but there are always a few accessories you need to go with any game system.

Memory Stick -- I knew the first thing I would buy was a Memory Stick to store pictures, music and video for playback on the road. I hate paying the premium for Sony’s proprietary memory format, but used some Best Buy gift cards and store credit to get the biggest one I could find. I got a Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo 8 GB. That’s enough memory to store 4-5 full length movies and some TV shows along with some of my favorite current music and family pictures.

Case -- Since the PSP is not a clam shell design like the Gameboy SP or Nintendo DS, you will need a case to protect that great screen. I picked up a PSP Carrying Case that works great to hold the PSP and several games. The downside is you’ll have to haul around the AC adapter separately if you think you’ll be away for a while.

Video Cable -- Since the Slim has the AV out, I picked up the PSP 2000 Component AV Cables for $20 at Best Buy. The cables has some nice quality connectors, but only a 6’ cable so you have to stay pretty close to the set. Toggling the video output from the PSP screen to the TV is easy with the Display button on the front of the PSP. The quality of game video output is blocky and grainy but OK. You do need to know that the game output will only fill about half of the screen. The video output of UMD discs is close to 480p quality so it is passable. I would say that the cables are more of a novelty than a necessity.


Media
With that great screen, the PSP makes a really nice media player. Here’s the scoop on some of the non-gaming content for the PSP.

UMD Videos – I don’t think that UMD disc are the future of video (didn’t have to go out on a limb to make that statement) but a picked up a few just to try it out. I got the Family Guy Freakin Sweet Collection on eBay. Our local Fry’s puts select UMDs on sale each week, so I picked up 007 Casino Royale for $4.99. The video looks great on the PSP (not as great on a big screen, see above).

TV Shows from TiVo HD – On a long flight it’s nice to some TV shows with you to pass the time. Getting TV to the PSP is pretty simple with if you have a TiVo HD and the TiVo Desktop Plus software. I have the TiVo Desktop Plus 2.51 installed on my basement media server and have it set to auto transfer a few of my favorite shows. You can also set the TiVo software to auto convert the download to a portable format and PSP is one of the options. So, when I’m ready to head out on a trip, I can connect the PSP to any PC on the network via USB and transfer the shows I want to take along since they are already downloaded and converted.

Video Downloads – I love to watch concerts and live music videos on flights. Most of these are internet downloads from the artist web sites or fan sites. The formats is all over the board so you need a good converter to get video into a format the PSP likes. The easiest program I have found is Easy Video to iPod/MP4/PSP/3GP Converter. I can take in almost any format video and get it to PSP and iPod format and it is super easy to use.

Internet
The latest PSP firmware (3.90) make good use of the wi-fi connection in the device. In addition to the basic browser and RSS Reader, there is a pretty good Shoutcast internet radio player and a PSP Skype client. Not sure how much I’ll make use out of either, but it was pretty cool to place a Skype call from the PSP.

New Stuff on the Horizon
The PSP seems to have some momentum at the moment and is coming up more in the news feeds that I read (or I’m just paying attention to it now). One of the more interesting stories is the annoucement of the Bluray to PSP Movie Transfer with this article that describes how it’s going to work.

Conclusion
All in all the PSP is a really fun new toy with some quality games and excellent media and internet support. I hope that Sony continues to make enhancements to the platform and with integration with its other platforms to enhance the PSP as a portable media center device.