Mac PSP Movie Converting Tuturial

[coopermor]

Mac To PSP

This guide will walk you through the process of a making almost any movie (DVD or not) ready for your Sony PSP on a Mac with OS X 10.3.X

Contents:

Progams
* ffmpegX
* Yade X
* OpenShiiva
* AltShiivia
All downloads can found throughout the guide.

DVD Ripping
Movie Converting
Tips For Movie Converting
THM File Creating
Transferring Movies To Your PSP
Contact Me

Programs

Yade X
(if you are not attempting to put a DVD on your PSP you can skip to the next program, ffmpegX)

yade X is a simple DVD ripper that can be downloaded here [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].

I find this ripper to be superior to all others with such features as the ability to rip a single scene or entire movie and a scan bar that allows you to see the video piece you are ripping. This ripper saves any DVD into a VOB format.



[b]ffmpegX[b]

You will this program to make a movie ready for your PSP. It is called ffmpegx you can download this free program at [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

This program allows you to convert almost any movie file to a PSP ready MPEG-4 file. This program has been know to have an audio lag problem when converting straight from a VOB (Video Object – Video ripped from a DVD) however you can fix this by using one extra step and download an additional program.



OpenShiiva

This program will create a file that you can convert via ffmpegX without an occasional audio lag that comes from directly converting a VOB to MPEG-4. You can download this program here. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

If you are experiencing audio lag while converting a VOB to MPEG-4 via ffmpegX you can download this program to solve this problem (note this will add an extra converting step and can take up to two hours to complete)



Altshiivia

Altshiivia is supposedly a program that makes MPEG-4 ready movies for the PSP, however I have had trouble with this program and does not accept as many formats as ffmpegX does. However this program can be used to create THM files (this file stores a jpeg which will be shown next to your movie on a PSP. Without this file you will not have a thumbnail next to your movie on your PSP. This program can be downloaded here
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]



Creating PSP Ready DVD/Movies

DVD Ripping

To rip a DVD using yade X insert a DVD into your computer, close the DVD player (this will just slow down the ripping). Choose the track that represents how long the film is. For example it could be Track 8 and could be 1:26:11. Some DVD have both widescreen and fullscreen versions on the same side of the disc. You should opt for the widescreen version seeing as the PSP screen is in the standard widescreen format (16x9). If the film has black bars on the sides of the scan picture this is the full screen version. If you have selected a widescreen version it will take up the entirety of the picture box. To select an indivdual portion of a movie click on the arrow next to the Track and select (shift-click) the parts of the movie you wish to rip. Once you have selected the track or portion of film you wish to rip go to the menu and click Save VOB. This process can take anywhere from 2-30 minutes depending on the speed of your computer and length of film.
After it has completed ripping it into a VOB there will be a file on your desktop with the name you selected (default is T# (track number).vob (example t3.vob)

Movie Converting

After you install the necessary elements for ffmpegx you will see the main screen. Drag the VOB or other movie file you wish to convert to PSP ready MPEG-4. Where it previously said Drag Movie Here it will name the name the type of video you are converting from (example VOB) next to that in the drop down menu select “PSP” then go to your video tap and you can customize the bitrate (default is 300). I use a bitrate of 400 this compresses a 1:30:00 video into about 280-290 MB for a PSP bitrate and length to size go here - [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] this site will help you decide what bitrate is right for you and you Memory Stick. Note while converting videos the percent will go way above 100% this is not a problem continue until it dings and reads finished. NOTE: This movie will have a name like MV23601.MP4 do not change the name of the video.

Tips for ffmpegX

* Don't change the preset framerate value.
* You may increase video bitrate up to 450kbps and audio bitrate up to 128kbps if you want to improve quality a little, though preset values are already extremely good.
* You may go in the Filters tab to add cropping and/or padding if needed.
* Subtitles are not supported (unless you create a file beforehand with subtitles burned in the image, and then encode such file). In the Options tab, set the "PSP name" field with the name you want to use in the PSP to catalog your movie. You should note that ffmpegX can not open back PSP movie file to convert them again.

Solving Audio Lag

(skip to the next section if your videos do not have audio lag after they have been converted in ffmpegX)

After converting a movie in ffmpegX there is sometimes about a 5 second audio lag. Test your video to see if you have this problem. If you do experience audio lag, throw out the MPEG-4. And put the VOB you created in yade X into OpenShiivia. Go to the processing tab and click encode (this process may take time but it gives you an accurate percent meter and time remaining so be patient. After it has completed you will have fairly large MPEG-4 movie about 800-1600 MB depending on the size of movie. Take this movie and put in into ffmpegX and complete the movie-converting step.

[b]THM File Creating[b]

As noted before a THM file will allow you to view a thumbnail of the video on your PSP. To create a THM file select the movie created in ffmpegX and select an output. Go to the PSP tab and click “Make THM File” slide the bar on the bottom until you see a clip you like click the button “Make THM From Selection” (or something like that). In the processing tapb click go and stop about one second later. Wherever you choose the output there should be a THM file and a MP4 movie. Throw out the movie created by AltShiivia and rename the beginning of the THM file to the same as the movie created in ffmpegX (example: if the movie created by ffmpegX was named MV46635.MP4 rename the THM MV46635.THM.

[b]Transferring Movies To Your PSP[b]

* Connect the PSP to your Mac using the USB connection, and choose the “USB connection” option on the PSP menu.

* When the drive appears on your OSX desktop, create the following directories in the ROOT of the drive (i.e. NOT in the PSP directory):
MP_ROOT/100MNV01

* Now copy the MP4 file created by ffmpegX to the MP_ROOT/100MNV01 directory. Dismount the PSP memory stick drive.

* Go to the Movies menu on the PSP. You should now see the movie and be able to play it. Pressing the triangle button gives access to menu options. Among these you will find one for screen size. This allows letterboxed movies to use the whole screen. Scroll through the options using the circle button. When you’re happy with the format, press the triangle button again.

[x Swift x]

mac programs look so much sweeter than pc programs lol

thanks for the guide

[sKin]

Originally Posted by XI Boarder IX

mac programs look so much sweeter than pc programs lol

thanks for the guide

Haha, ya they do. Too bad not many people own a Mac, but hey, the PC works fine for me. Nice guide BTW.

[GORILLA]

Hi can anyone help me. Just got a japanese import PSP. Im in Ireland so they are not out here till september. Everything is cool with it. How do I set up the ROOT folder in the directory of the memory stick to transfer mp4 movies. Im on a mac. How do i put the folder in the directory?

thanks

[shaolin69]

thanx a bunch for the info just a quick question though, what is a .THM file and what do i do with it? are they necessary?

[shaolin69]

i just converted a 700 meg divx avi with ffmpegX to a 146 mb psp movie file. I moved it to the psp and followed all the instructions but when i select the movie file on the psp it says its a format it doesn't understand. any idea what i did wrong? i used the preset psp format in ffmpegX. also do we want xvid(.mp4) or mpeg4(.mp4) in ffmpegX
EDIT: I figuared out what i did, just incase anyone else has this problem do not change the img size when re-encoding just change the mb size to fit the number of mins. and re-encode, works great now

[RoaringHyourinmaru]

ffmpegX isnt working for me.....

[thedude14]

Thx. that review makes life easier

[Wackyhoops]

what about one for windows?

[ZhangX]

Whoa, excellent help thanks a whole bunch!