What you need to Convert Video to PSP

The consumerist culture assumes that in order to be entertained, you need to spend bucks. And this isn't too far from the truth either. But there are other ways too, loopholes that you can pick upon to get off without having to pay, while you get equally (well, almost) entertained as any other. And do all of it within the law.

Sony's PlayStation Portable, or PSP as it is known briefly, is a wonderful gadget. Not only can it provide you with hours of entertainment with fun games, but it can also play movies! How cool an experience it is to be able to play games non-stop, and then when your fingers are tired of pressing the buttons or toggling the switches continuously, to be able to switch smoothly to watching the latest blockbuster from Hollywood!

Of course, its primary use is not for watching movies, but for playing games. However, the UMD or Universal Media Disc format invented by Sony allows movie companies to release titles for the PSP. And till now, many of the leading corporations like MGM, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Have done exactly that. However, certain financial and other considerations have recently put a brake on that trend. Nowadays, most companies aren't releasing movies for the PSP any more. Does that mean that it is the end of life for the PSP as a personal, portable movie player?

Not at all. You see, the file format used by the PSP for playing movies isn't all that different from what the other modern hand-held players use, most notable the video iPod. And movies in the iPod format are quite easily available (whether purchased from the iTunes music shop, home-encoded from a DVD or another source, or received through the internet in a different manner). Using the right tools, it is trivial to convert iPod video to PSP format. And then you are fine again, with your PSP, the dual-tasking entertainment provider that it always has been, without your having to invest a single penny on a new-fangled overpriced tinker toy!

In order to convert video to PSP, you shall need a PSP encoder that includes the proper codec. Searching any major search engines with the right keywords will soon give you more links for that than you can handle.