Sony PSP Media Manager [OLD VERSION]

by Sony

Product Features

• Simple drag-and-drop tools let you preview photos, videos, and music on your PC -- simply drag them to the My PSP pane
• Turn photos into thumbnails, or rotate them before transferring -- supports all popular image formats including. jpg,. bmp,. gif,. png, and. tif
• Transfer and manage all popular audio file types -. mp3,. wav,. wma,. ogg, and. m4a
• CD extraction lets you transfer your CDs to your PSP system
• Enjoy. mp4,. avi,. mpg,. mov,. wmv, and other popular video formats - or convert them to high-quality Sony AVC/AAC video for optimized viewing

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000E45MRS
• Item Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 27, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,431 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #87 in Software > Video & Music > DVD Viewing & Authoring

Product Description

The PSP Media Manager lets you take advantage of all the extra power held in your PSP. It's far more than just a game system -- the PSP is a digital photo album, movie player, and portable music device all rolled into one. PSP Media Manager is the easiest and fastest way to move content to your PSP for portable playback and sharing wherever you go. Two-paned view lets you see media on your PC and PSP system at the same time Podcast and video blog support -- download and encode feeds for PSP playback Back up game saves, copy saved games between your PC and PSP system, delete game saves that you no longer need, and move game saves across Memory Stick(R) Duo media

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, Easy, A Must Have, April 26, 2006

By 

slugbone (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony PSP Media Manager [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

If you are at all interested in other media for your PSP, this is the product to purchase. It was extremely easy to load into my computer, and in 10 minutes I was downloading songs onto my PSP. Don't be tempted by all the other products out there that may be a few bucks cheaper. This media manager is worth the extra money. It takes all the frustration out of putting music and video into your PSP.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This software would be over-priced if it were free, May 20, 2006

By 

Jason M. Schmitz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Sony PSP Media Manager [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

PSP Media Manager does a few things right. When it does manage to convert a video file it automatically resizes it, letterboxes it, and copies it to the right folder on your memory stick.

Unfortunately that's about all it gets right. Relying on the outdated video for windows api means that if you don't have the right codecs installed, PSP Media Manager can't decode your video. Sometimes even having the right codecs installed isn't a guarantee of success. If your videos are encoded with Xvid, Divx, or H264 your chances of success are better than fifty percent, but not by much.

PSP Media manager also relies on audio compression manager codecs to decode audio multiplexed into video files. If you happen to have a video file with ac3 audio (a non-standard, unofficial format for .avi files, but common nonetheless) don't even try; it seems bizarre that the program can handle the ac3 audio from an unencrypted DVD without trouble, but can't handle the same audio format in an .avi container. Even fairly common formats such as mp3 are difficult to make work. What's worse, if it can't decode the audio, PSP Media Manager doesn't bother to tell you that it failed. The program copies the video to your PSP without the audio, leaving you to find out later that you've got a silent film on your PSP.

PSP Media Manager makes copying media to your PSP reasonably easy, though if you've got a large media library, you'll find it difficult to organize with this program. Everything is converted to the appropriate format, and copied to the PSP on the fly. This isn't a big deal for audio and photo media; such things don't take long to convert and you won't really notice what's going on in the background. Unfortunately doing this with video files takes a long time on even the fastest of computers. Unless you've got a memory stick reader that you can use instead, your PSP will be tethered to your computer for the duration of the conversion process. If you've got multiple videos to convert, don't bother starting until bed time, that way you can let it run over night. Just remember to check the converted files in the morning -- In case PSP Media Manager left the audio out. It would make much more sense to convert Video to a folder on your hard drive, to be synced to the PSP later. This would also mean that you could store more videos in PSP format than one memory stick can hold. I don't generally know what I intend to watch a day in advance; wouldn't it be nice to have a library of pre-converted videos to chose from, rather than waiting 45 minutes while this program converts the video? Of course, if your willing to navigate the PSP's file structure and copy things manually, you can have such a library. This software is supposed save your from that chore though.

If all you plan to put on your PSP is audio and pictures, PSP Media Manager is the best software you'll find for that purpose. Best among a field of poor offerings isn't much to brag about though. PSP Media Manager is a failure at handling video. I've tried many of the other programs available and they aren't much better for various reasons; many of them are worse. PSP Video 9, a free program, answers many of the issues I have with Sony's software. I have yet to find a video file PSP video 9 can't convert. PSP Video 9 doesn't need a PSP connected to convert video either, it lets you store videos on your hard drive to transfer later, and it hides the PSP file system from you while providing a reasonably friendly interface to manage your video files. One thing PSP Video 9 will not do, is automatically letterbox the images in order to maintain the correct aspect ratio -- the one thing I do like about PSP Media Manager.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overall product, March 25, 2006

By 

J. Cipriani (NY/FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony PSP Media Manager [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

The PSP Media Manager is a must-have for any PSP owner, without it transferring songs, movies, etc. is confusing and difficult.

Although its price seems steep when you already just bought an expensive gaming system its feature are worth it.

Although, not as good as Itunes it automatically finds and formats different media types and transfers them over to the PSP through the included USB cable.

There are other generic media software on the market but go with Sony and get it done right the first time.