PSP

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Template:CVG system The PlayStation Portable (officially PSP) is a handheld game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment. The PSP was first announced during E³ 2003 and was unveiled on May 11, 2004 at a Sony press conference during E³ 2004. It was released in Japan on December 12, 2004, the United States on March 24, 2005 and the European Union and Australia on September 1, 2005.


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Multimedia and codecs

The PSP is capable of displaying still image, movie, and audio files stored on the UMD disk format or a memory stick. The system supports MP3 and Sony's ATRAC3 plus formats for audio, MPEG-4 for video on UMD discs, and JPEG images. The PSP also has the capability to decode MPEG-4 Part 2 and MPEG-4 Part 3 from the *.mp4 container, if located on the Memory Stick. The file(s) must be placed in the /MP_ROOT/100MNV01 directory on the Memory Stick, and be named in the following format: M4V#####.MP4 (where "#" is any digit). Since firmware version 2.00, users can upload movies with a Sony proprietary AVC codec encoding, by putting them in the /MP_ROOT/100ANV01 Folder, and named as MAQ#####.MP4. A corresponding thumbnail image file (160x120 pixel JPEG files renamed with the .THM extension) with the same file name (besides the extension) of the movie file can optionally be placed in the same directory. Unlike UMD movies, resolution of movies on a memory stick is limited to 76,800 pixels (320x240, 368x208, 480x160, etc.), resulting in lower quality movies than UMD movies.

Sony has announced that Image Converter 2, a piece of PC software for converting video files to AVC for playback on CLIÉ PDAs, will be available before the end of the year, and may be used with the PSP. A preview version was made available shortly after the PSP launch. It can convert *.avi, MPEG1/2/4, QuickTime and *.wmv movie files to AVC, as well as the "Giga Pocket" and "Do VAIO" files used by VAIO PCs to record television. It will also convert most common still image files into JPEG format. Sony's SonicStage software can be used to copy *.mp3 and ATRAC files to the PSP as well.

Sony's software is not the only toolset for getting music or movies onto a PSP. A cottage industry has grown around offering useful tools for converting and copying files for use on the PSP. Some popular alternatives include Media Boss, PSP Movie Creator, PSP Video Express, Xcopy9, PSPWare, iPSP, Mobile Media Maker, PSP Video 9, 3GP Converter and PSP Multimedia Extender all simplify the task of converting and transferring files to and from the PSP's Memory Stick. Additionally, some FOSS programs, such as FFmpeg can be used to convert video into a properly sized and formatted PSP video file. Using these tools, nearly any digital video file (including movie files ripped from DVDs or digital video recorders like the TiVo) can be played on a PSP, after conversion to AVC.

Video file sizes largely depend on the audio and video bit rates. With reasonable settings (a resolution of 320x240, a video bit rate of 500 Kilobits per second, and an audio sampling rate of 22050 kHz) a 22 minute movie file is roughly 55 megabytes. (This is enough for a 30 minute television episode with the commercials removed) This means that a 512 MB Memory Stick can hold approximately nine of these files. A hundred-minute feature film can fit on a 256 MB Memory Stick.

Many movie files, both free-to-distribute and pirated, have been encoded for the PSP and are available on the internet. Game and movie trailers, in particular, are increasingly available, even from the studio's official site.

Sony released firmware update version 2.0 on July 27, 2005 in Japan and on August 24, 2005 in North America. It was also packaged in the retail product for European and Australian PSPs. The firmware upgrade added the ability to play MP4 AAC audio files, ATRAC3plus audio files from a Memory Stick Pro Duo, MPEG-4 AVC video files (if encoded using a proprietary Sony encoding), as well as view GIF, Bitmap (BMP), and TIF image files. It also added the ability to send photos wirelessly to another PSP system and allowed owners to use an image as background wallpaper. It also added support for WPA-PSK wireless encryption.

On October 3, 2005, firmware version 2.01 was released. This upgrade fixed the image overload buffer problem that allowed the PSP to be "downgraded" via a homebrew hack. After the 2.01 firmware version SONY released the new 2.50. Speculation states 2.50 was launched to attract users to upgrade: blocking any possible means of homebrew. It also included the LocationFree Player. If owners own a LocationFree Base Station at home, they can play streaming movies, over the Internet, from anywhere in the world, on their PSP. Also added were the Korean character set, the ability to play copyrighted movies, form history on the web browser, and time and date synchronization via the internet. Recently the 2.60 update has been released, the main features include streaming of podcast audio directly from the web using an RSS feed; and also playback of the WMA audio format (this requires online activation). Although the update was supposed to fix all possible holes in the programming of the system, a bug, found in the game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, seems to have opened the door for homebrew once again. The Japanese release of firmware version 2.70 has been released on April 25, and includes Macromedia Flash in the Web Browser, as well as upgrading the RSS feature. It is also possible to put album art in the music folders instead of embedding them with Sonic Stage. U.S. and European versions were released the same day.

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Technical specifications

The PSP was designed by Shi Ogasawara [小笠原氏] for the Sony Computer Entertainment company. Early models were made in Japan but in order to cut costs, Sony has farmed out PSP production to non Japanese manufacturers, mainly China.

The unit measures 170 mm (6.7 in) in length, 74 mm (2.9 in) in width, and 23 mm (0.9 in) in depth, and weighs 280g / .62 lbs (including battery). The most noticeable element of the PSP is its 110 mm/4.3" (diagonal) 16:9 ratio TFT LCD screen sporting a 480 x 272 pixel resolution capable of 16.77 million colours.

The PSP's CPU is a dual-core MIPS32 R4000-based CPU (little endian), each core being globally clocked between 1 and 333 MHz. During the GDC, Sony revealed that it has currently capped the PSP's CPU clock at 222 MHz. Its reasons for doing so are unknown, but are the subject of some speculation. The cap was previously set at the level of add-on software, not through the firmware (though the crossbar runs at 222 MHz). Unofficial software hacks can unlock 333 MHz operation, but Sony is not allowing any official programmers use 333 MHz at this time. The primary CPU core is responsible for traditional game processor functions; the secondary core, dubbed the "Virtual Media Engine," is responsible for decoding multimedia, for example the H.264 decoder.

The system has 32 MB of main RAM and 4 MB of embedded DRAM. There is no memory management unit for the CPU. No evidence of a TLB has been found to date. The Coprocessor 0 that normally manages the TLB-based MMU seems to be a custom effort by Sony. It doesn't have integrated memory.

The independent 166 MHz 90 nm graphics chip has 2 MB embedded memory and through its 512 bit interface it provides hardware polygon and NURBS rendering, hardware directional lighting, clipping, environment projection and texture mapping, texture compression and tessellation, fogging, alpha blending, depth and stencil tests, vertex blending for morphing effects, and dithering, all in 16 or 32 bit colour, along with handling image output. Specifications state that the PSP is capable of rendering 33 million flat-shaded polygons per second, with a 664 million pixel per second fill rate.

Unlike Sony's PlayStation 2 console, the GPU (PS2 Vector Unit equivalent) is not programmable, meaning that many effects that the PS2 can resolve in hardware must be implemented in software on the PSP. Nonetheless, the implementation of a GPU in the PSP is still a significant technological advance, in that it implements robust hardware-rendering for 3D graphics in the handheld market. The PSP was preceded in this regard by the Nintendo DS, and the Tapwave Zodiac in 2004.

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Homebrew development

In May 2005, it was found that PSPs using the 1.00 version of the firmware (meaning original, first launch Japanese-only PSPs) could execute unsigned code. What this meant in practice was that these PSPs could run homebrew software, as the mechanism for checking to make sure that software has been approved by Sony had not yet been activated. Later exploits have allowed for PSPs using version 1.50 of the firmware to run homebrew software nearly transparently. Using a buffer overflow exploit, it is possible to install 1.50 firmware onto a 2.0 firmware PSP, thus downgrading it and allowing for the execution of unsigned code. However there are limitations with running homebrew on 2.0 being programs will be run in user mode and not kernel mode. Recently, an exploit for firmware version 2.0 - 2.60 was found in the game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. To help buyers be aware of what version they are getting, there is a letter near the bar code on the PSP merchandise box. Each letter corresponds to which version it represents. For the value pack in the U.S.:

  • A is 1.5.
  • B is 1.51.
  • C, D, and E are 1.52.
  • F is 2.00.
  • G is 2.01.
  • H is 2.5.

Depending on the country, the letter may indicate a different version. As of the release of firmware 2.7 it has been stated by Edison Carter, the creator of the LCS cheat device, that homebrew will no longer be available on PSP through the GTA save method. Wired Magazine also wrote some information about getting started on homebrew here:

To eloborate, psp hombrew applications can range from small, simple home made games, like psp tetris for example, to fully-functional, working GB, NEO, NES and even SNES emulators. Meaning that, provided you have a USB cable and internet, you can download and play most games for the systems stated above.

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Criticisms

  • In February 2005 Wired Magazine criticized the short battery life, use of expensive memory sticks and complained that loading MP3s to the device was "nightmarishly hard". In a later article, they criticized the expensive games and the controls (most notably the placement of the analog nub).
  • In March 2005 G4TV reported that several of the initial units shipped with dead pixels and defective square buttons. They also declared that several of the features of the PSP, such as mp3 playback, were weak offerings. Finally, they complained that the requirement of a larger memory stick to use the devices full capabilities was a large hidden cost.
  • In March 2005 IGN cited battery life and load times as its primary criticisms of the PSP.
  • The computer website arstechnica.com, though it gave the PSP a high grade (an 8 out of 10), the website complained that the speakers were too quiet.
  • Many critics have complained about the absence of a right analog nub, since the use of the face buttons as an analog stick is difficult, and the use of the analog nub as the look button is difficult for "righties".
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External links

Retrieved from "http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PSP"

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