Collecting PSP info

Hi guys, this Christmas I'm thinking of treating myself to a PSP, now that sony released a AVC/AAC support it sort of tipped the scales, but before I take the plunge I'd like to collect some info that I cannot find anywhere (can't search for PSP here, too short, and the ones I found by going back page by page don't unswer these): I'm primarily interested in h264 encoding, but ASP is also a possibilty, so not to crosspost same questions, I'll ask for both here, xvid and x264 (and just so we clear, only official firmware support, no mods or anything please): 1) I'm not quite sure about max bitrate, I see on some sony sites that 884kbps (video+audio) is max, but some other sites say 1500kbps for video alone is OK. What is your experience with both codecs and bitrates for each? 2) Also some sites note that only supported fps is 15 and 29.97 is that true? The only reason for that statement I can find is that the tool they first used for encoding only supported those 2, so is PSP itself limited in this way? 3) How well does it handle video that is higher resolution than PSP's native 480x270? (xvid is my interest here, since I'm wondering if I'll have to re-encode my old stuff) Thank you all :)

The following is true of firmware version 2.00, some stuff may have changed in more recent firmwares. 1) The max video bitrate for h264 is 768, although with 2-pass encoding and considering the screen size and max res (see #3) you really don't need anything above 500. Not sure about the audio or ASP. 2) This is true. 3) The PSP's official media player can only play videos with a max resolution of 368 x 208 (for 16:9 material), i heard sonly locked it to that so that you have to buy the official UMD releases if you want full res material (480 x 272). re: XviD, I wasn't aware that the PSP could play XviD without a homebrew app of some sort?

as a portable media device, its a fantastic bit of kit. it 2.80 firmware + supports 23.97, 25, 29.97 as well as some others that you may or may not want to use. as said, the max bit rate doesnt really matter for 264 as you can get really good quality at 400kbs for video :) you will need to re encode all your stuff

what's the maximum size of these memory cards at the moment for these. Also how long does a battery last playing video.

As a PSP owner... 

wow you kidding me, I can't get 480x270 on official firmware? I'd rather not go with modded firm/software, I like the native interface pat pmp looks like something from dos era... for max size of memory sticks, it's at least 4gb on consumer ones, I plan to get 2gb (planty for one season of whatever), though now I'm having doubts, if I can't get the full rez, kinda pointless.

Yep, 4GB is the maximum memory stick pro duo size released so far. However, they are planning to release an 8GB one. Last I checked the 4GB sticks were retailing for around $130 online. The 2GB ones, you can now get get for as low as $40. I think several retailers will be offering 2GB Pro Duos for that price during the after Thanksgiving sale. You will probably have to re-encode your videos in order for the PSP to play them. For widescreen content, I encode at 368x208, 512kbps AVC. Even without full resolution (480x272), all the videos I've converted and played still looked very nice on my PSP's screen.

Now that Firmware 3.0 is out, anyone actually tests it and sees if the resolution restriction (320x240 pixels) on user-made videos is now gone... or not? One thing for sure (and has been confirmed) is that you can play FULL 480x272 video if it is in Motion-JPEG format. Not sure about AVC/MPEG-4 at this point (this is what we want to know)...

perhaps higher rez means lower settings? can you try something short with minimal of main profile (or whichever it supports), like put ref and b frames to 1 and whatnot. oh and try 480x270 (since that's the 16:9 ratio, 2 is probably cope out of overscan, can't believe it still exists everywhere)

270 is not divisible by 16. Seeing that the PSP's screen res is 480x272, videos with resolutions of 480x272 are more likely to be supported. If anyone's interested, the PSP can play 480x272 video from memory stick. My brother has a Japanese PSP, therefore, he can access the P-TV website/option on his PSP. The (DRMed) trailer he downloaded had 480x272 resolution and uses AVC, I believe.