Picked up a PSP

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

So I'm already on my 2nd machine and about to be on my 3rd when my store gets more in. God I love Sony hardware! Machine 1 had a few black dead pixels in the center of the screen. Machine 2 has a few black dead pixels in the center and a row of dead green pixels on the bottom right. (Side note: how can they be dead if they are green?)

The machine itself is nice, hooked up to the computer and put movies, music and pics on it. Which is real cool. The games so far are good launch games. I doubt I'll be going back to anything in 6 months besides maybe Wipeout. Can't wait to see some AAA games on the system come out.

KDR_11k · Mar 2005

Now that's quite a different point of view from all those "OMG! Look at that sexy device and screen!" reviews...

skankerzero · Mar 2005

you're not the only one. One of our programmers went through 3 psps so far. All with dead pixels or dust trapped in the screen. At his 3rd one, he decided to just live with it until Best Buy stocks more.

Cubik · Mar 2005

How about straches? Is the screen well protected?

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

No scratches thus far. Loads of smudges. But damn! 3 systems in 1 day! That seems a bit much. There's a thing called quality control. I just made sure to get the 2 year extended warranty since it is a Sony system.

tpe · Mar 2005

[ QUOTE ]
No scratches thus far. Loads of smudges. But damn! 3 systems in 1 day! That seems a bit much. There's a thing called quality control. I just made sure to get the 2 year extended warranty since it is a Sony system.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, very wise, hope you enjoy playing it, and keep us updated on good and bad points...

tpe

Ribking · Mar 2005

Yeah....It's near impossible to keep that shiny surface smudge-free. What game(s) did you pickup? First impressions?

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

Tony Hawk - Pretty fun game. Never played the console one since 1. They put in a feature to take a 128x128 of your face and put it on the player. It's like 4 pixels in the game, but neat feature none the less. The cutscenes are awesome to see modeling issues. The head will stick out from the hair, hands though objects, etc. But the gameplay is fun once you get used to the controls.

Wipeout - Awesome, just wow. It's great. Another series I haven't played in years. Really nice to see a top notch game like this at launch. Music is tops too.

Untold Legends - Rather long loads and a bit monotonous. But I like the Baldurs Gate-esq gameplay. Character creation is weak though. It's male knight or female alchemist. No picking race or gender. I think the inevitable sequel will be great. Music is awesomely bad too. I think they did it with my Casio keyboard I had in 1988.

War_Destroyer · Mar 2005

This all seems fishy to me. Sony hardware is by far the worst of all the hardware manufactures. It seems like its done on purpose to sell those damn 2 year warranties. PS2's with shitty DVD players that break, crappy memory cards that have a high failure rate, though I'll forgive the LCD dead pixels though as it happens with lcd monitors. A couple peeps at work got thier PSP's (no Games at all) and brought the warranties.

flaagan · Mar 2005

tried out Twisted Metal on my friend's PSP... damn cool.
I'm waiting for the next revision so sony can get their act together (this friend's psp had dead pixels.. he was told to go directly to sony to get it replaced by the store he bought it at (GameCrazy))

cholden · Mar 2005

Picked up my psp and ape escape this morning. Yeap, it's very cool, slick little system. Took a couple hours to charge the battery, then watched Spiderman 2. Liking everything I see so far, now I can't wait for some games I want to play. :P

hawken · Mar 2005

aparently the "square" button is fucked on every single unit made, but this is a feature don't you see!!

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/01/24/news_6116985.html

They must be making a serious loss on this rushed hardware only to shaft nintendo up the yingyang. Competiton is healthy in business but what sony and xbox are doing makes me sick, it's like paying gamers to play broken hardware just to sink their rivals.

Healthily, Nintendo have recently reported a profit that is almost double to xbox and sony entertainment put together for the past financial year, detailed in this months gamesTM. Basically; Nintendo don't make a loss on units and haven't rushed broken hardware to the market, something sony entertainment will probably never get... dominating the market with sub standard goods will only make their rivals stronger, IMHO.

(I am a supporter of my DS, and also want to own a PSP, preferably a working one)

adam · Mar 2005

"The button's location is [architectured] on purpose," Kutaragi added. "It's according to specifications. This is something that we've created, and this is our specification. There was a clear purpose to it, and it wasn't a mistake."

Translated: Fuck you and fuck off.

KDR_11k · Mar 2005

People who own the PSP a bit longer have claimed the screen scratches like butter so you better add one of those screen protector thingies.

ironbearxl · Mar 2005

I love this little system, it can do so much. I bought one today on lunch break and picked up wipeout pure (reason enough to buy the system). The screen is really wide and bright, but one thing i noticed is the feeling you get staring at the screen. It really pulls you in, and it's a diffrent experience than what you would get playing on a tv, maybe not much different from a big widescreen though. The sound is really good too and sounds sweet when connected to a stereo system. Now if only this thing could play gameboy games, j/k.

Rwolf · Mar 2005

No dead pixels on mine yet. Tho I only bought darkstalkers as thats all I could afford and lumines wasen't in stock....

Pretty snappy loading jpeg's and mp3's onto the memory card, although importing movies takes iddy bitty amount of effort. Cept the 32mb stick is way to small for anything long.

I just wish you could change that lime background....

The3DGuy · Mar 2005

me too, in all the preview pics on game sites its orange. but i didn't see anything in the settings yet.

FunkaDelicDass · Mar 2005

Picked mine up today as well. I guess I lucked out with no dead pixels. Got Wipeout Pure and I'm going to try to find Lumines tomorrow (that's the game I really wanted it for, I played the import a few weeks ago). Wipeout is very nice. The sense of speed is great, considering you're staring at a portable screen, and the music rocks. Nice little machine so far. Hope it holds up; I'm usually not an early adopter for any console.

adam · Mar 2005

Alright everyone, here's some links for those that own a PSP:

http://www.pspvideo9.com/
Essential to those of you who are going to want to convert your TV shows/movies over to watch onto your PSP. Before you do that I suggest you read the next link.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/598/598803p1.html
Instructions on how to get images *AND* video onto your PSP.

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-11721-1717-x-x-x
Accessorize! Screen protectors, upgraded earbuds, stereo speakers, back-up battery power.

I'll update this as I find more links.

KDR_11k · Mar 2005

GSI's review of Darkstalkers says the d-pad sucks, can anyone confirm or deny this?

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

Here is a few images you can put on the PSP and cycle through to test for dead pixels:

http://www.jeffparrott.com/ftp/deadpixeltest.zip

Hope it helps.

Pseudo · Mar 2005

My roomate imported a PSP from Japan (he paid WAY too much for it, but anyway,) and he hasn't had any problems with scratches so far. He does have a few dead pixels though.

So far my only concern is the analog stick (which I thought was a speaker for the longest time). Nearly every test unit we have at work has a broken analog stick.

hawken · Mar 2005

whats the battery life on this thing like? I've heard wildly ranging reports from 1hr to 12hrs.

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

Around 3-5 hours it seems for me.

War_Destroyer · Mar 2005

[ QUOTE ]
GSI's review of Darkstalkers says the d-pad sucks, can anyone confirm or deny this?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've played it, there's no analog support but the controls should have been play tested a little more. I could pull off DP and even SPD's with decent accuracy but there were moments where the controls didn't feel responsive. The controls are iffy at best.

Edit: OMFG!!! I just played Ridge Racer. I'm impressed, I played through and was throughly disappointed by the DS ver. but the PSP's version is amazing. The controls are a lot more responsive in comparison and the game looks really good.

seantree · Mar 2005

I'll wait for the second gen PSP to ship. A shabby launch title lineup along with typical sony hardware trouble doesn't thrill me. I will say that the PSP looks great. The overall look is nice, but I can't understand the analog button placement. Yuck!

RageUnleashed · Mar 2005

I haven't read up much on the PSP so this may be a bit of a n00b question: how much hard drive space does it hold? I'm assuming with headphones and uploading mp3s it can double as a portable mp3 player?

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

Looks like 3rd time is a charm. My 3rd unit is absolutely flawless (Atleast the screen is, wait a year for the loading mechanism to go). There isn't a HD it's all on a memory stick. I ended up picking up a 256mb stick off the net.

cholden · Mar 2005

Concerning load times, I've noticed there can be a lot of this. There is a balance, though, if the machine is cut off during a game/movie/etc, when the psp is turned back on, it's exactly where it left off, instantly. Also, the 'home' button is really nice for quickly getting in/out of games.

PSP (value pack) comes with a 32mb mem stick. So far, you can get up to a 1gig stick ($100-150 depending on where you look). Personally, I'm going to pick up the 1gig once I get the right usb cable and setup to use my psp as an ipod. :P

I can only imagine what sony and all the l33t haXors have planned for this.

Joshua Stubbles · Mar 2005

I haven't had any issues with mine. Two other guys bought them at work as well, and one of them had some dead pixel issues. He has to go trade it in a second time.

adam · Mar 2005

Played it for the first time tonight. Overall I was impressed. I'm going to wait to get mine.

I'm excited about the PSP's potential.

cholden · Mar 2005

I just now discovered I can plug my PSP to my PC via usb cable, create MUSIC dir in the PSP directory of the memory stick, and copy MP3s into that directory for instant music love from the PSP. Very easy, very fast. Now to upgrade my 32mb stick. :P

adam · Mar 2005

KDR_11k · Mar 2005

hikagesan · Mar 2005

did you have to buy anything extra to connect to the pc or is it all included in the "value pack", any sync issues like a PDA or simply plug and play? really wanna get one, looks like it has a lot of potential.

cholden · Mar 2005

You need the USB cable that does not come with the value pack, but I see it in some accessories packs or it's sold seperately for around $10. This kind:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/255794.asp
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx_assets/product_images/255794.jpg

BUT, you do NOT need this specific cable, it's actually a very standard type. My Canon Powershot came with one and I use that. Simply plug and play. Honestly, I was surprised it was that easy.

The PSP value pack comes with a 32mb card, which is perfect for save games, but if you want to load it up with MP3s get a bigger card. 32mb is only enough for three to one album of mp3s, depending on quality.

KDR_11k · Mar 2005

Ah, that's a standard USB A to B cable, those things usually go for 2-3 bucks.

I wonder when we'll see a ScummVM port...

Rick Stirling · Mar 2005

After seeing so many folk with problems, I'm glad I waited. I'll certainly get one in a few months, but for the minute I'm delighted with my DS.

cholden · Mar 2005

Thanks for the heads up KDR, yea miniB type USB. Also, a memory stick reader that can handle these little cards will do.

Ok, here's THE psp info site:

http://pspcrazy.com/

They have tutorials, links to all the files/encoders/converters, and a nice forum you can search for all the answers. After spending a short amount of time on it, I'm able to convert videos and play them on the PSP as well was browse images, and a few other fun things.

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

You can also select format memory stick in the system options and it will create the pictures, music, and saves directories for you cholden. It will erase you card though, so back it up. Not sure why it doesn't say that in the book.

Mishra · Mar 2005

I will maybe get one when the price drops down to something suitable, but its still way too costly with no games i want to play.

Joshua Stubbles · Mar 2005

Last night, I picked up the SanDisk 512MB Pro Duo card. Works wonders for everything, except for direct music installation. I use Sony's "connect/Sonic Stage" service to download music. When you hook up your PSP's USB connection, you're able to buy songs and download them straight to the PSP. However, Sonic Stage doesn't seem to recognize the SanDisk card, so I can only download to the 32MB Sony stick. This must be a firmware problem, which they had better resolve in a future download.

Another addon I got was the flip top cover. Really a good investment. Protects that massive PSP screen from everything.

I can't say anything about these people having problems though. I guess I'm one of the lucky few who got a flawless one. =\

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

I would just transfer the files by hand Vassago. That's what I do and I don't have any errors with it. I only ahve a 256MB duo pro now. I'm going to wait till the 1GB gets near $100 or less I think. And my 3rd unit is in tip top shape

Rwolf · Mar 2005

Vas, Have you tried dragging and dropping your Atrac files from sonic stage to your psp?

Then again, I haven't used/installed Sonic Stage for my Sony MD player in ages, so I've yet to test this.

Joshua Stubbles · Mar 2005

Yea, moving the files by hand has always worked. Using SonicStage allows it to have a lot of additional info for an album though. Things like an image icon, etc etc.

KDR_11k · Mar 2005

http://www.fumanchuu.com/pspdev/

Make your PSP browse the web. Unfortunately it requires that you can put your own DNS server up so it won't work on the go with other people's access points...

Joshua Stubbles · Mar 2005

Sony is supposedly working on a firmware update to be released soon, which includes a real web browser, among other things.

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

I just add the album art in itunes and it works fine by hand. Not sure if it needs a web browser and things like that. I doubt it'd use it that much.

Jeff Parrott · Mar 2005

Think I found the cheapest 1gb duo pro out there:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=3655594

Still loads of money. Think I'll hold off until fall for something like this.

Rwolf · Mar 2005

Well memory prices have been fall alot.

HonkyPunch · Mar 2005

two words. GET.MERCURY. (www.gamefaqs.com) under m in psp...

Picked up a PSP

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