Elgato Systems announces a hardware encoder in USB Stick format that rapidly converts video files to the high quality H.264 (MP4) format for iPod, Apple TV, and Sony PSP. Turbo.264 accelerates exports by a factor of 4 on an Intel Core 2 Duo up to a factor of 10 on a Power PC G4. The rate of acceleration depends on the Mac processor type.

Furthermore, Turbo.264 offloads the computationally intensive software conversion of video files away from your Macintosh, leaving it free for other tasks – a virtual co-processor for the Mac. Turbo.264 supports all Macs with USB 2.0.

There is no need to acquire additional software to convert videos, since Turbo.264 comes with video conversion software by Elgato. Simply drag-and-drop videos into the application and chose one of four formats: iPod Standard, iPod High, Apple TV, Sony PSP).

Turbo.264 supports batch conversions and even offers exports of unprotected DVD content (VOB files). Turbo.264 also accelerates exports from the most important Macintosh video applications such as iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut Pro, and EyeTV.

Turbo.264 supports resolutions of up to 800 by 600 pixels, enabling videos and TV recordings in PAL or NTSC formats to be converted to Apple TV with no scaling. In addition, Turbo.264 supports standard resolutions for iPod and Sony PSP. When conversion is complete, Turbo.264 automatically transfers video files to iTunes, making them immediately available to Apple TV or the iPod.

Pricing & Availability

Turbo.264 is available immediately for US$99.95 in the Elgato Online Shop as well as through distribution. The package includes the USB 2.0 Hardware Encoder, the Turbo.264 software on CD-ROM, a user’s guide on CD-ROM, a quick start guide as well as a USB extension cable.

1. Get a Memory Stick for your PSP:

Before you can load any data onto your Sony PSP, you must have a memory stick to store the files onto. The PSP comes with a tiny 32MB card that is only big enough to store a relatively small amount of files. If you plan on watching video clips and installing lots of games on your PSP, you will need to purchase a larger Memory Stick Pro Duo card. These cards come in several different sizes. Exact sizes vary depending on compression rates and quality, but on average, you will need about 5MB for every 1 minute of video. Before you can use a brand new Memory Stick with your PSP, you need to reformat it. If you don’t know how to do this, here’s a quick tutorial on how to format a PSP Memory Stick.

2. Format your Memory Stick on your PSP:

Before you can use a brand new Memory Stick with your PSP, you need to reformat it. If you don’t know how to do this, here’s a quick tutorial on how to format a PSP Memory Stick.

3. Download this test video clip and thumbnail to your computer:

Right + Click (PC, Mac) or Option + Click (Mac) to save each of these two files to your Desktop. Joe Vs. Wade (ZIP file, 32MB)

4. Connect the PSP to your computer:

If you haven’t already, you need to connect the PSP to your computer with the USB cable that it came with and put the PSP into USB mode. Press the HOME button located on the bottom left of your PSP and then scroll left to the SETTINGS column. Scroll down to USB CONNECTION and press X. The Memory Stick inside your PSP will now mount on your computer.

5. Copy the video onto your PSP:

In order to playback video files on your PSP, you must copy them into the proper folder. The correct file path is MP_ROOT > 100MNV01. If you place video files anywhere else on the Memory Stick, they will not playback properly. If the MP_ROOT and 100MNV01 folders don’t already exist on your PSP’s Memory Stick, then you need to make two new folders and name them in ALL CAPS. Just a reminder, the 100MNV01 folder goes inside the MP_ROOT folder. The PSP requires video (M4V) and thumbnail (THM) files must be named starting with M4V and ending with five random numbers ie. M4V12345.

The following two diagrams should help explain where the video files need to go:

MEMSTICK.IND

MP-ROOT

MSTK_PRO.IND

PSP

100MNV01

(videos)

6. Watch the video on your PSP:

Once the video file has finished transferring onto your Memory Stick, you can disconnect the PSP from your computer. Scroll over to the VIDEO column on your Sony PSP and you should now see the video file. Press X to watch it. Enjoy!

While it is primarily a gaming console, Sony has made the Playstation Portable (PSP) powerful enough to allow not just playback of MP3s, but also to decode video files for viewing on-the-go. What’s more, the large display on the PSP is a whopping 4.3 inches, as large or larger than some current dedicated PVPs–even though the PSP has already been around for more than two years. Add to the fact that 2GB and 4GB Memory Stick Duo cards are now very affordable, and you’ve a very attractive proposition for a video player in the PSP.

Universal Media Disc

Of the two major handheld gaming devices (Sony PSP and Nintendo DS), only the PSP has video playback as one of its intended features. The media format used for games and videos is the Universal Media Disc (UMD) which, ironically, isn’t very universal. So far, the PSP is the only device to use this format, with all commercial games and movies sold on this tiny disc.

Rumors hailing the death of UMD movies have come and gone, but these continue to exist, with studios occasionally releasing current movies in this format. One of the most recent releases is Casino Royale, which many will recognize to be the latest James Bond film. It is the simplest way to watch video on your PSP, but the range of titles is dependent on release dates by studios, similar to waiting for DVD releases.

Know your PSP
The display on the PSP has a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. This is a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is ideal for widescreen movies. The video codec supported on the PSP is h.264 and the files for playback bear the .MP4 extension.

To watch your own videos on the PSP, it is necessary to store them on a Memory Stick Duo. These have to be in a certain format with a certain way of naming them. So if you have a whole bunch of videos on your PC, there will be quite a bit of work. Don’t worry about having to use complicated video-editing software to do the conversion. Free applications exist to help you convert videos into the proper format, and even rename the files so they will play on the PSP.

PSP Blender offers many applications to aid you in the process of converting your video files free as part your membership. Not only do they include the software needed but they include step by step instructions and full support if any problems arise.

Ive been seeing that alot of peole have been trying to get Pandoras battery to work but they are having trouble, so this is a little guide to help.

First I would like to thank the Noobz team and Team C+D for making this possible. All credit goes to them.

Requirements:
1. A hombrew enabled PSP (if your psp cant run homebrew it will not work)
2. The files you can get it from "HERE"
3. A memory stick Produo ( a 32mb non produo will not work)
4. A an extra battery not necessry but it is good to have one.

First you have to format your memstick with any tool. I use windows to format mines. So go to your psp drive letter and right click it and choose format. Then click start to start format. I dont know if its necessary but the readme states it so I do it.

Now it is time to run mspformat. The best way to run this is to make a .bat file. Open up a note or worpad and type in "mspformat X" ( replace X with the your psp drive letter.Then save the file as format.bat and place it where the mspformat.exe is. Now hook up your psp to your PC and double click the .bat that you just made. A dos window will pop up and ask you if you want to proceed. Type "Y" to and hit enter. It will take some time depending on the size of your memstick.

It should look like this.

After you are all done formatting, it is time to start putting files in the memstick. Extract the download that you downloaded if you have not done it already. Then go to your psp and make a folder called PSP. then inside of the PSP folder make a folder called GAME. After you are done go back to the download folder and open up the folder called "install" and take the 2 folder you see there and put it in the GAME folder you created. Then go to the folder called "battery" and take the 2 folders in there and put it in the GAME folder as well.

So your memstick should look like this.

X:\PSP\GAME\pbfirm_install pbfirm_install% and pandora_battery pandora_battery%

Now you must get the 1.5 EBOOT from "HERE". Unzip it and rename the EBOOT.PBP to UPDATE.PBP. THEN stick it in the root of your memstick. Then remove your memstick and put it back in.

After you got that done go to your xmb menu and run the Pandora installer. It should make all the files that it required including the msipl you will use to make the memstick bootable.

Ok after the installer has finish making all of the required files, it is time to run msinst.exe. Go back in to your psp and take the file msipl.bin that the installer created in your memstick and place it in the same folder as msinst.exe.. Open up notepad/word pad and type in msinst X msipl.bin(repace X with your psp driveletter). Then save it as msinst.bat and put it in the same folder as msinst.exe. Once done connect your psp to your PC and double click the .bat file you have made and a dos window will pop up and ask you to proceed. Type "Y" and hit enter.

It should look like this.

Now that you have all the files and are ready to make your battery. Go into your psp xmb and run Padora battery creator. When the screen finish loading it will give you some option like to create battery or return to normal and backup eeprom. I suggest you backup your eeprom just incase. After you have backup you eeprom, then run the creator program again and just press X on your psp and you are done!

NOTE: When starting up the battery make sure you dont have the AC charger plugged in.

If all goes well.
CONGRATS NOW YOU HAVE AN UNBRICKER BATTERY.

Given that Sony invented portable music players with the creation of the original Walkman back in the 80s, it’s not going to come as a surprise to hear that its PSP handheld console will also play music for you on the go. All you need is a Memory Stick Duo to store MP3s on and a USB cable with a Mini-B type connector, both of which can be bought at your local home electronics or PC store. Your PSP will play both MP3s, which can be created by ripping the tracks from a regular audio CD using your PC and Microsoft Windows Media Player 10, and ATRAC3 audio files. Once transferred, you’ll be able to play games and music when you’re next out and about with your PSP!

If you’ve connected your PSP to your PC before, perhaps to transfer a movie or some digital photos, skip to step 4.

With your PSP turned off, insert the Memory Stick Duo into the Memory Stick slot on the left of the PSP console. Turn your PSP back on and go to the home screen and access the Settings. Scroll down to System Settings and press X.
Within the System Settings section, scroll down to Format Memory Stick and press X. Confirm that you want to format the Memory Stick Duo and wait for a few seconds while it takes place.
Once formatted, return to the Settings section at the home screen and scroll to USB Connection. Connect one end of the USB cable to your PC and the other to your PSP and then press X.
This will enable your PSP’s USB connection and, after your PC has loaded any drivers it needs (as long as you’re using Windows ME, 2000 or XP it’ll do this automatically), open My Computer on your PC’s desktop.
Double-click on the Removable Drive icon and then on the PSP folder. You’ll now see a selection of folders, one of which is called MUSIC. Open this folder by double-clicking on it with your mouse.
You can now save or drag and drop your music files into this folder, either individually or in their own sub-folder. Once itransferred, press O on your PSP and go to the Music icon on your PSP’s home screen and press X.

Took quite a while, but finally it’s here. The Sony PSP Firmware 3.40 first appeared in Korea, and was later rolled out to Japan. Well, we already got quite a glimpse of the changelog from both Asian official sites, but here’s a more English-friendly translation What’s new in PSP FW 3.40? Thought you’d never ask…

Game

• New for 3.40: Support for PLAYSTATION Network titles has been expanded.
• New for 3.40: Saved data from PlayStation format software can now be used on both PSP and PS3 systems.
• New for 3.40: [Certificate Utility] was deleted.
  • Information that was displayed in [Certificate Utility] can be checked by the following method.
  • Select the icon of the game you want to display information for, press the button, and then select [Information] from the options menu.
• New for 3.30: Support for Playstation Network titles has been expanded.

Network

• New for 3.30: Support for thumbnail images of items has been added under [RSS Channel].

Video

• New for 3.30:Support for thumbnail images of videos that are stored in the “VIDEO” folder of Memory Stick Duo media has been added.
• New for 3.30:The following types of files can now be played in the “VIDEO” folder.
  • – MPEG-4/H.264 AVC Main Profile (AVC CABAC) video files of the following sizes: 720 X 480, 352 X 480, or 480 X 272
  • *Depending on the data type, some files cannot be played.

Settings

• New for 3.30: [Use Wireless Hotspot] has been added as a feature under [Network Settings].

As we have previously mentioned, this PSP Firmware 3.40 has already been decrypted. To reiterate what we have said in an update of the South Korean site article, “apparently, the keys haven’t changed - this means that Team C+D’s decrypter for firmware 3.30 will work on FW 3.40.” Unfortunately there have been no other specific updates regarding this, and while there hasn’t been anything yet, just sit tight and click on the download link below.

Download: Sony PSP Firmware 3.40 (US)

Yesterday Sony released a version 3.10 firmware upgrade to the Playstation Portable system with some increased security among other new features. By the end of the same day, hackers had already decrypted the 3.10 firmware to allow third party applications to run on the PSP.The party claiming responsibility for the PSP hack, “C + D”, was boastful about the day 0 hack of the new firmware stating, “$ony has lost another batle and will loose the war…”. Obviously they are better at hacking than they are spelling.

The new firmware updates for Sony’s PSP include support for an expansion of Playstation titles, support of MPEG-4 AVC format video files, a Conserve Memory feature and a dynamic sound normalizer. In addition, and more interesting in this upgrade is the ability to download demos directly to the PSP or transfer downloaded demo games from a PC. The first of these new demos that PSP owners can download is Killzone: Liberation, followed by Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 in a couple weeks.

Let’s say, for example, that your PSP’s screen is broken but you still want to play games with it. What are you going to do? Buy a new one? Maybe in the past that’s what we’re going to do but this application has the potential to change all that.

Homebrew developer DeMoN X passed by QJ.Net PSP forums today and released Remotejoy GUI v1. Just like we said, this application lets users display the PSP screen on the computer making it possible to run games even in full screen.

Basically, the program uses plugins “psplink.prx” and “remotejoy.prx” via the Recovery Menu. Then certain .bat files can be called to view games in a window or full screen, and another for both with FPS display.

DeMoN X said that this is an initial release and as such, you might encounter some problems especially when you have other .prx files running. Also, the coder mentioned that not all games are compatible with Remotejoy GUI so you might have to do some trial and error.

Remotejoy GUI v1 should be used on custom firmware 3.40 OE-A only. You will also be needing Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 with this. The developer thinks that it might run on earlier custom firmwares but they haven’t been tested as of yet.

Please take note as well that your PSP will lock up if a  game uses a certain call to load files or directories off the memory stick that is incompatible with PSPLink.

Download: Remotejoy GUI v1
Download: Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0