PSPSync Impressions

PSPWare Impressions

I don't know if anyone is interested...but I thought I'd do my own little mini-review of Nullriver's PSPWare for the Sony PSP on Mac OS X. I only have the 32Mb card that came with my PSP right now...so when I get my 1Gb card I'll update the review with more information.

PSPWare is an application that promises to make marrying a PSP and your Mac an enjoyable experience. It is supposed to make moving your pictures, music, and videos to your PSP easy. The software is available from Nullriver for $10 for a limited time after which they will charge $15 for it...there is no try before you buy however (which is really dissappointing IMHO).

Installation: You must have iLife installed to use the photo syncing functions. The software arrives via download as a zipped file. You simply unzip the file and drag the application to your application directory on your Mac...simple enuf. When you first start the program...it will ask you to register it...I don't believe the program will do anything unregistered.

Usage: There are several options for the program...you can have the program automatically sync your PSP upon connection and then eject your PSP for use...or you can set it up for only manual syncing. The program allows you to sync your iTunes playlists, iPhoto albums, and individual movie files. It doesn't appear to allow you to just select a folder with which to keep your movies sync'ed up with...only individual files. With the program started...after you first attach your PSP the program will ask you if you'd like to allow PSPWare to manage your PSP. If you do...the program will erase whatever information you currently have on your PSP (except it will backup yoru current gamesave data...but all photos, music and videos will be gone so be sure to back those up before you start). Photo syncing works fairly well. The PSP will even read and display the .crw files from Canon (I have no idea about raw files from Nikon or others as I only have Canon cameras). The photo concept works fairly well...the program allows you to select albums which you'd like to have sync'ed with your device...so that there's no need to do your entire library. From what I can tell there is no conversion during the syncing process...photos are copied to your device exactly as they are in your album...no resizing is done (which slightly bothers me a bit and is a suggestion for a future improvement the authors could make...this would save a significant amount of space on the PSP which is at a premium IMO). The music syncing works quite similarly. You select a playlist and/or playlists in the program that you would like to keep sync'ed to your device. When you make a change in the playlist...the PSP is updated accordingly upon sync. Once again however...there is no file conversion or modification, therefore if you only have .aac files...the program will not sync those to your PSP. (To my knowledge the PSP only plays Sony's ATRAC format and .mp3's) Movies are a different animal all together. As has been said previously...you can only sync specific movie files and not directories or folders. However...movies are converted to the mp4 file type that the PSP displays, and they are are chopped down to fit the screen of the PSP. The program allows you control over all of this...you get to choose the quality of video and audio via a slider control and you get to choose the aspect ratio 4:3 or 16:9. I've only synced a few videos that were taken on a Canon Digital Elph...but they converted and sync'ed quickly and looked great on the PSP when played. The program will supposedly convert all types of files including vob's, mpg, avi's, and even wmv's. I haven't been able to fully test this yet...but whenever I get to it...I'll update this post.

Overall impressions: The program is very simple to install and use. It is Os X native and looks right at home. The program integrates into the taskbar (forgive me if that's bad terminology...I'm a switcher ) and can be confusing when trying to actually kill it (you have to go into its advanced tab to actually exit the program). It seems to work well so far and I'd reccomend it to anyone looking to pair their PSP to their Mac.

That's a really nice review. But I think, you're talking about PSPWare. Hey, where are you going to buy the 1GB memory card? I really want a 1GB memory card, but I am looking to find the cheapest one for my PSP.

Yep...my bad...edit forthcoming

I'd love to get a 1Gb card, but I can't find em anywhere in stock except at scalper-like prices on ebay. The cheapest I've seen them is around $112 plus shipping...I've seen that price at a few places. It's 108.38 here plus shipping.

I'm excited to get a good sized memory card for my PSP. I'm stalling to use the apps out there for the mac to use with my PSP, because none of them are free. I don't want to grow to like one app, then have to use another later, if a later app should become free. So I'm kind of wanting for a great free app to port my media to the PSP. I'm also surprised that no one is making a free app, but I can't blame the developers now for wanting to make a profit.

I know what you mean. Really most of what they're products do...you can do yourself. Of course not in one little self contained package...but it's all available for free none the less. I just couldn't wait any longer...I'm gonna run by Best Buy tonight and pick up a 512 stick (they've got em for 59.99 after rebate right now plus I'm a sucker for instant gratification!). I'm about to go on the road so I'd like to get some videos on the thing for when I'm waiting for the plane. I'd rather not have to pay for software to do this stuff either...but I think $10 is a reasonable price for a piece of software like this...I do wish it did the things I mentioned in my micro-review...but yeah...what a brainfart on the name! :dummy:

I also might consider that memory card. That looks like a good deal!

Well...I grabbed the 512 stick from BB yesterday. It's great...I put Shrek 2 on it and transcoded it at the next to lowest video quality w/ the medium setting for audio. It ended up being around a 335 MB file which looks pretty good playing on the PSP...very watchable. I also stuck around 35 MP3's on it...after I'd injected some album art into them, and I setup another iPhoto album with some pictures of my son just for the PSP. All in all everything works exactly as it should. It did take a long long long time to transcode the movie however...I'd tell you exactly how long...but I went to sleep before it was finished and it was done by the time I got up (it was over 2 hours though). I'd still love to have a 1 GB stick...I might save up some money and get me one when they are readily available in more places. I'm going to try to do some TV shows later tonight...so we'll see how well it works with live action shows.

Check out the disc in Mac Addict(april). It has a program on there called iPSP whic you can try before you buy. It works really well! Although a little expensive($20.00), I believe that it is well worth it.

I was going to try it...but I heard a few people reporting that they had problems with the program crashing on them. I'll likely give it a try and see if it fits my needs better at a later time though.