PSP Video converters

Conclusions

We can draw some basic conclusions about each of these video conversion products from the results we've looked at today.

What would we recommend you use for your PSP video conversion? First off, we'd suggest that people don't bother with 3GP. We've read good things about it on the web, but we found it unweidly and rather inflexible - we don't see a reason to use it when there are better things out there.

PSP Video 9 is undoubtedly the best 'power user' software. It provides fantastic control over the encoding process, and allows you to tweak your encode quite a bit. It also features the built-in Memory Stick browser, which cuts down on time messing around with the file system. The automatic thumbnailer is also a plus point.

The killer app for the power user will be the PSPCasting functionality in conjunction with Videora, the Bit Torrent RSS reader. The ability to wake up and know that the latest episode of whatever show you're into is already on your PSP, ready for your commute, is a pretty sweet thing to have.

In terms of usability, there's also no doubt that the Avivo Converter is the best on test here. It's very fast, and requires just a couple of clicks to produce great output, with the aspect ratio and resolution being handled for you with the minimum of hassle.

At medium settings, we were unable to detect a difference in quality between the three Ctrl-Alt-Chicken output files, with each looking as good as the other. Neither had any audio synch problems, and we ended up with all of them looking exactly as they should.

At medium settings again, we were unable to detect a difference in quality between the three Pirates of the Carribean output files either - with the exception that the 3GP version was in utterly the wrong aspect ratio. Of course, there were differences in encode time and file size, but those are as we have mentioned already.

Annoyingly, none of the Pirates films - even when encoded on a much higher bit rate - looked as good as our UMD of the movie, due to the fact that they were simply encoded at a lower resolution. Some people will argue that, regardless of the resolution, watching the movie in the correct aspect ratio - without any detail being compromised - is a far better idea. Be that as it may, the crippling of the PSP by Sony in this way is a source of frustration.

We hope this has given you an idea of the software that's out there for free and some inspiration to go and have a play yourself. If you have the heads up on some different software, either free or commercial, feel free to stop by the forums and let us know your thoughts.