Media Manager for PSP user reviews (complete package)

Pros Automatically letterboxes video to maintain aspect ratio.

Cons Nearly everything else.

Summary 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 Relying on the outdated video for windows api means that if you don't have the right codecs installed, PSP Media Manager can't decode your video.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.