PSP settings for new firmware 3.30

[suborbit]

First, congrats to clee for getting a PSP. I'm sure it's not as popular as a video iPod and all that but it's a big honking screen, to be sure.

I haven't been able to get the right settings for encoding to PSP (although Instant Handbrake still works like a charm and so that's what I use for now), but I saw this:

http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1686583

To summarize, poster is suggesting following settings for ffmpegx:

FOR 720x480 VIDEO,
Under the VIDEO tab, choose:
Video codec - H264 [.MP4] (x264)
Video bitrate - 1213 kbit/s (I'm sure that this can be modified to a higher or lower amount, but I like the higher quality stuff)
Video size - 720x480
Autosize - unconstrained
Framerate - NTSC (29.97)
Under the AUDIO tab, choose:
Audio codec - AAC (MOV/MP4/3GP)
Audio bitrate - 128 kbit/s
Sampling - 48000 Hz
Under the OPTIONS tab, choose:
Use CABAC - ON
Constant bitrate - ON
Trellis (requires CABAC) - ON
Encoding profile - PSP
AVC level - 3.0
LEAVE ALL OTHERS AT THEIR DEFAULTS

I'm going to try it out soon but I hoped it might give some of the devs (particularly those with PSPs) an insight into what might work with HB. And, if by chance, PSP presets make it into the next release, well, that would be great.

Cheers.

[rqthrottle]

Hi guys!

I have successfully encoded clips using those exact settings, but using the 480x272 resolution (using ffmpegX r1). They look beautiful!

I haven't tried handbrake yet. Does it successfully encode with the new resolution settings for PSP? If there is one thing I have noticed during the short time I have owned my PSP, is that it is extremely picky...

Do PSP users need to wait until a new release comes out for support of the new supported resolutions w/ 3.30 firmware?

Many thanks!

[suborbit]

Well, this guy tried following settings and, audio problems notwithstanding - as they are part of a larger issue, it encoded fine.

http://handbrake.m0k.org/forum/viewtopi ... 505a77afc4

I was posting the ffmpeg stuff in case it gave any insights to what I gather is a set of prickly psp file requirements.

Presets for psp, may or may not, make it into the "next version". We'll see, I guess.

I can't even begin to understand what some of those psp issues are. For example, there's mention that psp support was lost when HB regressed to libmp4v2. Just curious about what that means, in case anybody can enlighten.

[jbrjake]

I can't even begin to understand what some of those psp issues are. For example, there's mention that psp support was lost when HB regressed to libmp4v2. Just curious about what that means, in case anybody can enlighten.

Instant HandBrake's PSP setting depended on ffmpeg for muxing. IHB'd just say "hey, ffmpeg, this is for a psp, mux an mp4 the way it likes it." Unfortunately, HB had some major memory issues with the way it utilized ffmpeg for muxing, and I was forced to regress us to libmp4v2, the mp4 muxer used in HB 0.7.1.

I've heard that maybe newer PSP firmwares will work with any mp4 file, I dunno, not something I've ever looked into.

[suborbit]

Interesting....thanks for the reply.

And, by the way, those HB settings I referenced in the post above did not work for me. PSP really makes it a pain to get stuff onto it but I'll keep trying different things and post if something sticks.

In any case, this is just for fun as I can use HB to do good high-quality encodes and then use PSPware to re-encode for psp. Not ideal since it's two steps but, it's workable.

Latest firmware for PSP does allow greater variety of resolutions for mp4 files to be used....opening up the possibility for me to use HB and create just one file and use for both PSP and watching on mac (wasted resolution on PSP, yes, but saves time to just encode once).

Still haven't found much info out there as to whether some of the old restrictions like bitrates<~700 and avc levels less than 3 or is it 2.1....Sony, please....

Since it's a small group that cares about PSP pre-sets (I'm guessing), I'm hoping that there'll be enough ability to fiddle with settings on our own to waste our own time trying to figure it out. Although the comment about libmp4v2 makes me wonder if that effectively shuts the door (i.e. was it something about ffmpeg that made PSP compatible files possible?).

[rqthrottle]

Thanks for all the replies.

Those EXACT settings (no more, no less) should work on ffmpegX RC1, don't use RC2. RC2 does not encode successfully x264 files for many people, including me. RC1 works beautifully once you get the settings right. Just send me a ping, and i'll send you the complete settings if you want.

PSP is super-picky about the mp4 files and where they are placed. This new ones HAVE to reside under /VIDEO. If you put the on the XXXAVXX dir, you will get "format not supported". Oh, and .THM icons don't seem work with these files... a nightmare until you get everything right.

AVC 3.0 works fine.

In any case, this is a development subforum, so I apologize for this totally unrelated post.

Interesting....thanks for the reply.

And, by the way, those HB settings I referenced in the post above did not work for me. PSP really makes it a pain to get stuff onto it but I'll keep trying different things and post if something sticks.

[clee]

Seems to work for me if I use:

-MP4 container
-FFmpeg encoder
-29.97FPS (though I also tried with 15 FPS, and that worked as well)
-Bitrates up to 1500 (though the file claimed that the resulting bitrate was only 942, the PSP still handled it fine)
-368x208 resolution

Have not gotten a single encode using x264 to work, nor any combination of bitrates/FPS at 480x272.

[suborbit]

Interesting, thanks Clee. I've planned to download newest HB release this evening and I'm looking forward to trying out some settings.

This thread started off as a discussion about PSP settings that might be useful for (then) upcoming presets. Any way this can be moved over to "General" forum now that 0.8.5b is out?

Also, does posting MeGUI settings for PSP (x264) that I found elsewhere help?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=101813

[suborbit]

Interesting, thanks Clee. I've planned to download newest HB release this evening and I'm looking forward to trying out some settings.

.....except that I've just discovered HB is no longer 10.3.9 compatible so that's the end for me. I've been waiting for Leopard to be released to upgrade and now that's off until October......guess I'll reappear here around then (and I suppose, I'll be downloading 0.9.5b or something).

Sigh.

[shamroot]

Hi,

I've successfully encoded a file for the PSP with the following preset:

encoder -> x264(main)
screensize -> 480x272
bitrate -> default (was 1000)
framerate: 25 (PAL content) or 29.97 (NTSC content)
advanced x264 options -> threads=1:level=21

Regarding advanced options:
You have to specify a H.264 level (2.1 or 3.0 do work with native resolution)
Multithread encoded files do not seem to decode (don't ask why...)

Additional options should work (subme, me, bframes, ...), but these are the bare minimal settings to let your PSP decode a file.

Please report your trials/errors!

Have fun...

[gargunkle]

For anyone who has gotten handbrake videos to play on your PSP, can I ask what firmware version you have on your PSP? (You can find this out from the system setting page or something similar.)

I haven't gotten it to work yet. My PSP came with firmware 2.80. A friend recently helped me update to 3.10OA, and I haven't tried since then, but had figured it would still be really picky.

I'm using the command-line version of handbrake, in case there might be any difference there. No IH for me, that seems to be mac-only.

[suborbit]

For anyone who has gotten handbrake videos to play on your PSP, can I ask what firmware version you have on your PSP? (You can find this out from the system setting page or something similar.)

I haven't gotten it to work yet. My PSP came with firmware 2.80. A friend recently helped me update to 3.10OA, and I haven't tried since then, but had figured it would still be really picky.

I'm using the command-line version of handbrake, in case there might be any difference there. No IH for me, that seems to be mac-only.

Most recent firmware available is 3.40 but starting from firmware 3.30, the PSP allowed higher resolution videos to be played (up to 720 x 480; from Sony site: "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").

Note the screen resolution of the PSP only goes up to 480 X 272.

[gargunkle]

I am not so much worried about higher resolutions, but I would like to be able to just get it working "at all" really. I guess I will try encoding a video with the new Handbrake soon and see if it works.

[dr9553]

Hi,

I've successfully encoded a file for the PSP with the following preset:

encoder -> x264(main)
screensize -> 480x272
bitrate -> default (was 1000)
framerate: 25 (PAL content) or 29.97 (NTSC content)
advanced x264 options -> threads=1:level=21

Regarding advanced options:
You have to specify a H.264 level (2.1 or 3.0 do work with native resolution)
Multithread encoded files do not seem to decode (don't ask why...)

Additional options should work (subme, me, bframes, ...), but these are the bare minimal settings to let your PSP decode a file.

Please report your trials/errors!

Have fun...

Following these instructions i got videos to work with 3.30 OE. I can also say that it works in 23.97 mode as well.

Also it seems that a width of 480 is the main requirement. I have a video where the cropped resolution is 480x240 and it worked no problem. I hope this helps some people too..

[clee]

So, doing some more testing...

Using the suggested x264 encoding options works great in HandBrake 0.8.5b1 - however, if you're willing to upgrade your copy of x264 to something more recent, you can throw away that threads=1 parameter and stick with just 'level=30' - and you'll still get files that the PSP can play back.

This makes me pretty happy, because now I can rip at 720x480 anamorphic, and the PSP can play it back (though it sadly doesn't grok the anamorphic header) and so can the PS3 (and it *does* properly read the anamorphic header).

Hooray!

[gargunkle]

Is everyone getting this to work using Handbrake on a Mac? I'm trying to do this with the command line version (Linux, running on a FreeBSD machine with Linux emulation enabled). Sample command:

handbrake -i /dev/acd0 -t 5 -e x264 -w 368 -l 208 -r 15 -E faac -R 48 -b 500 -o test.mp4

This produces an mp4 format video that I can watch in most anything else (for example, media player classic or Xbox media center). However, the PSP just won't play it. I do give it an appropriate name and put it in the appropriate folder on the PSP memory card... it lists the video, can even tell me how long it is etc. Any ideas?

[clee]

gargunkie:

You need a command-line more like this:

Code: Select all

handbrake -i /dev/acd0 -t 5 -e x264 -x level=30:threads=1 -w 368 -l 208 -E faac -R 48 -b 500 -o test.mp4

Though it's worth noting that you can use settings as aggressive as:

Code: Select all

handbrake -i /dev/acd0 -t 5 -e x264 -x level=30:threads=1 -p --crop 0:0:0:0 -E faac -R 48 -b 2048 -o test.mp4

(which will preserve the native 720x480 video frame resolution)

However, using a higher video bitrate will result in much larger files. I would probably recommend that you stick with 480x272 since that's the PSP's native resolution, and you can couple that with a video bitrate of about 640-1024 for great quality and smaller filesizes.

(The resulting files with the second command not only play back fine on the PSP, but also look pretty damn nice on the PS3.)

[shamroot]

Hi,

I've successfully encoded a file for the PSP with the following preset:

encoder -> x264(main)
screensize -> 480x272
bitrate -> default (was 1000)
framerate: 25 (PAL content) or 29.97 (NTSC content)
advanced x264 options -> threads=1:level=21

Regarding advanced options:
You have to specify a H.264 level (2.1 or 3.0 do work with native resolution)
Multithread encoded files do not seem to decode (don't ask why...)

Additional options should work (subme, me, bframes, ...), but these are the bare minimal settings to let your PSP decode a file.

Please report your trials/errors!

Have fun...

After some testing, here is the PSP profile I use, which is a slight adaptation of Sharktooth's CQ-ASP-Q2(CRF) profile (use a constant quality of 64% or more):

Code: Select all

bframes=3:bime=1:b-rdo=1:direct=auto:level=21:me=umh:mixed-refs=1:no-fast-pskip=1:partitions=all:ref=2:subme=7:threads=1:weightb=1

Note: It seems you cannot go higher than 2 reference frames (won't play otherwise). Tested or genuine 3.40 firmware.

Cheers

[suborbit]

Fantastic! Thanks clee, you've just given me the equivalent of Instant Handbrake. Downloaded CLI and tried it out.....worked great. It's a nice step up from the 320 x 240 resolution of the old Instant Handbrake.

I'm re-encoding now with the -m chapter marker option to see if the psp can still accept that.

[suborbit]

I'm re-encoding now with the -m chapter marker option to see if the psp can still accept that.

Nothing broken, still works (of course, PSP doesn't make use of chapter markers but I'm interested in one file for multiple uses).

[gargunkle]

Thanks Clee, I'll give this a shot when I can. Really looking forward to getting it working if I can

I'm not even so worried about resolution/quality, and I will only be playing these on the PSP.

[gargunkle]

I've had a chance to test this. Unfortunately it still seems to not work. I wonder if it's something else I am doing?

I hook up the PSP to a Windows machine using a USB cable. Put the PSP in USB mode, where it shows up as a removable device. Copy the file over with a thumbnail, after giving it the right name.

Weird!

[suborbit]

Did you make a "Video" folder in the root directory of your Memory Stick?

[whimpers]

Hi,

I've successfully encoded a file for the PSP with the following preset:

encoder -> x264(main)
screensize -> 480x272
bitrate -> default (was 1000)
framerate: 25 (PAL content) or 29.97 (NTSC content)
advanced x264 options -> threads=1:level=21

Regarding advanced options:
You have to specify a H.264 level (2.1 or 3.0 do work with native resolution)
Multithread encoded files do not seem to decode (don't ask why...)

Additional options should work (subme, me, bframes, ...), but these are the bare minimal settings to let your PSP decode a file.

Please report your trials/errors!

Have fun...

Works fine on PSP with 3.40 OE-A firmware, has to be put in the VIDEO folder, putting it in the ROOT folder didn't work.
Is there any way to fully fill the screen (getting rid of the black bars on the left and the right)? I used a 480x272 resolution.

[suborbit]

Works fine on PSP with 3.40 OE-A firmware, has to be put in the VIDEO folder, putting it in the ROOT folder didn't work.
Is there any way to fully fill the screen (getting rid of the black bars on the left and the right)? I used a 480x272 resolution.

For some bizarre reason, the PSP doesn't recognize it as a full screen resolution video but all you do is: click on the triangle button to bring up the menu, select screen mode, and choose "full screen".