DSJ

Vice City is cool and arguably nicer looking than it ever was on any other console or the PC. I just cant get past "Boomshine Blowout". I dont know who would put in such a silly and pointless mission so early in the game!

I think for me the original is still the best. I am not too fussed about the size, as I never use the PSP on the move to feel the size. Also, the old PSP has better grip handles on the back, whereas the new one seems to get its thinner form from the lack of these handles. I think this is going to pose a serious problem for longer game sessions. The ceramic finish on the rear of the new PSP may result in many broken consoles - me thinks its going to slide out of people's hands. The TV out could be valuable depending on how good the graphical output is - will it be equivalent to the PS2? I'm not in any way bitter that I have an old one and a new one is coming out, but I dont think I will upgrade. I will just persevere with slow load times. How much faster could they really make it? I doubt if it would make the world of difference. The CPU is still slower than the CPU in my mobile phone!

...all we get is a thinner PSP! Arrggh! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6293200.stm

Stuge - you're right about the remark. I guess I didnt read the post properly - it was after a serious "Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory" session ;-) Wouldnt deletion of that folder result in all the tracks disappearing with it? What is wrong with the A1200...the poor thing always seems to put a foot wrong....

Thanks, Rawson - and welcome to Atraclife! I hope the NW A1200 continues to work for you. I've had countless problems with mine, but I persevere cos the sound quality is ace and its a cool device and is NOT an iPod... Enjoy the holiday, D

Actually, now that I'm giving this some serious thought, what about full-screen anti-aliasing? Some of the jaggies in PSP games can be a bit tiring at times. Ok, its only a handheld (and a mighty fine one at that), but a bit of smoothing never hurt nobody. I guess playing the PC equivalents of some games makes you a bit fussy (how sweet is Test Drive Unlimited on the PC - when it doesnt crash, that is!)... Agree - a faster processor would be a God-send! It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft copes with jaggies when they come to release their Xbox handheld. Ciao.

Jeez, guys, no need to be so pedantic. I only used the PSP2 moniker as that is what most websites were referring to it as at the time. In retrospect, and having read more material on the matter, I understand that it is to be only a light redesign with perhaps a built-in hard drive or flash memory at the most. Totally agree with comments though - games need to be cheaper and it should offer support for AA batteries out of the box. Nothing worse than being stranded without batteries during a bit of stealth action in MGS-POps. Incidentally, HMV in the UK do have an external power pack for the PSP that plugs into the mains connector and gives an extra 4 or 5 hours play via 4 x AA's. Around 8 hours combined play - or more if you carry AAs - would be good. The most important thing for me, though, has to be loading times. They are silly at the mo, especially in Midnight Club. It puts you off playing it. Indeed, I havent played my PSP for more than an hour in total since April because of this. Its just too slow!

Thanks for all the help guys, most useful. I reckon the contest will now be between the S-series and the new A800 for me... ;-)

I agree. If it took SIM cards, that would be the icing on the cake. The iPhone would be crap alongside it. However, Sony may not go down this road lest it damage its Sony Ericsson phone business. Having thought about it more today, I think the ability to connect it to a TV or PC monitor would help, as would a USB connection to connect a standard PS2 controller. So, you have the best of both worlds. Its a portable when it needs to be and can be a console and a bit more relaxing on the eyes when you are at home. It could be a PS1.5 of a sort (thats what I classify the PSP as anyway, as it is better than a PSOne, but not quite a PS2 - although the new Virtua Tennis 3 makes it look like a PS2.5!!!) PDA functionality and the ability read common file types - word, etc - would be other extras that I'd pay that bit more for. But then who needs the Vaio.....

I agree. If it took SIM cards, that would be the icing on the cake. The iPhone would be crap alongside it. However, Sony may not go down this road lest it damage its Sony Ericsson phone business. Having thought about it more today, I think the ability to connect it to a TV or PC monitor would help, as would a USB connection to connect a standard PS2 controller. So, you have the best of both worlds. Its a portable when it needs to be and can be a console and a bit more relaxing on the eyes when you are at home. It could be a PS1.5 of a sort (thats what I classify the PSP as anyway, as it is better than a PSOne, but not quite a PS2 - although the new Virtua Tennis 3 makes it look like a PS2.5!!!) PDA functionality and the ability read common file types - word, etc - would be other extras that I'd pay that bit more for. But then who needs the Vaio.....

Its been a long time in the coming, but Sony has finally confirmed that a PSP2 is on the way. See: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=74069 What would you like to see on a PSP2? Personally, I'd prefer it to be slimmer (which it is going to be), have better build quality (the buttons are a bit shaky) and have a mini hard drive of at least 8gb or an equivalent flash unit. A touchscreen for easier internet surfing and dedicated walkman buttons would be a bonus. Other than that, I think it is brilliant and a redesign can only make a brilliant product even better.

Guys, I have heard praise from countless of you on the new S700 series, particularly its SQ. Like many of you, I am obssessed with SQ, and my question is: how much better is it likely to be than my a1200? Will I notice a sizeable difference? Is the bass more powerful? I am not so interested in the noise-reduction, just the SQ with third party headphones. thanks D

By no standards am I a wealthy individual. Quite the contrary. However, to set the record straight on this, because of how much it annoyed me, I decided to go out and buy a dreaded iPod Nano second generation just to see if it could match my NW A1200 in SQ or battery life terms. What did I find when I used that piece of trash? The SQ is not that bad, but when compared to the 1200 or the PSP, it sounds as if I am listening to the music on really cheap and nasty earphones - which I'm not. I am using PX200s, which cost $100 where I come from. Also, the battery life is no where near the claimed 24 hours. I get about 10 to 15 hours at best, if that. What I will praise is the menu system. Apple have really nipped that one in the bud. However, the click wheel is really really annoying. When I get into a lift and want to turn the sound down, my cold fingers dont always hit the wheel right, and I end up turning the volume up too much rather than down. In the end, I am not an Apple convert, and the experience has only confirmed my belief in Sony as the no.1 DAP manufacturer for those who know what SQ is and enjoy their music rather than wanting to look "hip" with white ear buds sticking out of their ears. My belief is that those who traditionally had walkman will always buy Sony and so-called newbies to this market will only ever buy iPod because their friend's mother's sister's boyfriend's dog has one!

The SQ I get from my A1200 with PX200s (not hugely different to your PX100s) is really good. Do you give your PX100s sufficient warm up time? I have read and noticed myself that Sennheisers need a bit of warm up time before they become a bit more punchy sounding. Some people online left their 'phones on for 12 hours after purchase to heat them up. I notice that they take around 10 minutes to warm up, and then sound fantastic with the A1200. They eat batteries like nobody's business, but I dont care for the SQ I get. Long live Sony!

Thanks for all your help guys. I am sorry I couldnt respond sooner. Been out of the country for a bit and not had access to the Internet. Can you imagine what my life was like - a few weeks without my cell, PSP, NW A1200, PCDP or the Internet......aarggghhh! Thanks - I think I will stick to 96kbps MP3, as I think I overclocked my processor when converting all my music to ATRAC....SS seems to handle MP3 files quite quickly.

Does anyone know how I could get passed the darn "Boomshine Blowout" and "When Funday Comes" missions in GTA VCS? I find vehicles very difficult to control in all GTAs, and am particularly disappointed at this, especially since I like to think of myself as a racing game intermediate to expert ;-) Thanks in advance.

I couldnt agree more. The PSP's SQ is truly amazing - the trebles are sharp and the bass is pure and resounding. The remote helps make it a true walkman. However, concern is the price of memory cards. My local Jessops was doing a 4gb stick for £70, but it was out of stock. The normal price for one of these is over £150. Also, the size is a bit big to be a true walkman. Battery life is supposed to be good for music playback. I read a review online that said that the PSP can do around 11 hours of audio on a charge. Thats not bad by today's standards, and is better than the iPod Video, which has a smaller screen and poor SQ. Take care all. D

In order to get 5,100 songs on to my NW A1200P, I've had to compress my music to ATRAC3plus 48kbps. I recently went back to CDs again for a couple of days but went back to the 1200 when having 80 minutes of music in my pocket would simply not do. Now I have over 20,000 minutes of music in my pocket, but the quality at 48kbps is not the best, and am noticing it more now that I used CDs for a couple of days. Ah, there are compromises at both ends! What compression level do you use/recommend to get as close to CD quality as possible (without going for a straight 1411.2kbps WAV rip)? Are any particular encoders better than others? My music resides on my hard disk at MP3 96kbps, but I am prepared to re-rip all of my music to get the best quality if I need to. Any suggestions are most welcome. DSJ

Listening to Bleeding Through's, "The Truth", at ATRAC3plus 48kbps. Sorry for the low encoder settings, but there was no other way to put 5,100 songs on a NW A1200P....

CDD. CD v. MP3, ATRAC, AAC

Pizza AMD v. Intel (Pentium 4)

Hi DSP, Here's the piece from Slash Dot. I'm sorry, I cant seem to post hyperlinks on this, but if you could a Google search, you should be able to retrieve the article. it seems to be the case that the processor used wont run OS X. "iPhone Not Running OS X from the but-but-steve-said-it-was dept. posted by kdawson on 2007-01-13 20:24:00 rochlin writes "We know that Steve Jobs has said the iPhone won't accept third-party apps. The iPhone looks to be running on a Samsung provided ARM core processor. That means it's not running on an Intel (or PPC) core. That means it's not running OS X in any meaningful sense (Apple can brand toilet paper as running OS X if they like). Darwin, the BSD based operating system that underlies what Apple has previously been calling OS X, does not run on ARM processors. The Darwin / Apple Public Source licensing agreement says the source would have to be made available if it is modified and sold (paraphrased; read it yourself)" Giki - thanks for the useful info on the RH1. I will need to see if my local Sony Centre has one. If not, it'll need to be a D-NE830! The write ups on the RH1 are amazing, and it looks seriously cool. Rgds, DSJ

Fact that iPhone doesnt host third party apps just makes it even more sad. My SE P800 has hosted such apps since 2002! There was a post on slash dot today about how the iPhone doesnt even have OS X on it. Apparently, no one knows what OS it runs on! Ha Ha! Thanks Giki. I may be interested in investing in the RH-1, especially if these are the last of the kind. I really regret not having bought the DNE-20 when that was out, as it was truely the last of the thin PCDPs, and dont want the same to happen again. Just listening to my current PCDP (DNE-711). Ok, a bit bulky, but a nice reminder of how good a CD can sound (I buy all music on CDs, even if I compress them) and the wonderful days of Mega Bass! Just one question though: does the RH-1 have good bass? Thats something that I really think is lacking in the current range of Sony and other manufacturers DAPs. I guess its a compromise, given that the developers have very little space to play with compared to the larger CD wallkmans, and they cant quite get the same amp to squeeze in. However, if they cant get it right in the next gen, I may need to plump for the old DNE-711 again on a more permanent basis...

You are a lucky person! RH1 is indeed a beautiful device! As you can see from my humble set of devices, I dont own a minidisc player. One question I have been asking myself of late is whether in this age of music compression, we are depriving ourselves of the true sound that CDs are capable of today and the sounds the artist wanted us to hear. MP3 and ATRAC are convenient, but a small part of me is thinking about going back to CDs. Random issue for this post, I know, but when you mentioned the linear PCM sound, I'm not sure I can remember what that used to sound like.

Hats off to giki for the ace comments! I cant wait to see the idiots buy them! I'll sit there smug with my Sony NW A1200, knowing I made the right and sensible choice. Alright, doesnt go with the shoes, but who gives a monkeys?