Leon

For those who don't know, the browser is NetFront (again)

Those of you who speak Japanese are probably aware of this going around the web: that the new Sony players play "faster", they will finish a 4-5 minute song 2-3 seconds before other players or ones on your computer. atrain, I think the key to understanding those statements is an assumption that there are morally right and wrong ways to engineer portable audio, and that pleasant does not mean things are done the "right" way

Woah! Thanks for the charts Ishi The 48 and 64 results appear similar to the AV Watch test results when A3+ debuted in early 2003 (for the NW-MS70D). I read an opinion somewhere that the high-frequency "kinks" is something the iTunes MP3 encoder produces but many other MP3 codecs don't, and it might've contributed to some people perceiving iTunes MP3 to be lower quality. I'll have to do more listening (and wipe out my HD5 first) before I form an opinion on the new A3+ bitrates. sifun, Traditionally ATRAC has always appeared brighter, more "edgy" to my ears than MP3 or AAC, no matter what bitrate or generation. My opinion is that ATRAC/3/plus have never focused on accurately reproducing the original, but instead on making attractive reconstructions. Given the sharp tendency of the ATRAC sound, the ability to reproduce the heft/body of the CD original is limited (until the 320 became available, at least). If I have to ABX the different codecs at high bitrate, I'm not sure I can tell MP3 or AAC apart from the original, but A3+ I just might be able to. As for what each codec can perform at a given bitrate, I think AAC and A3+ are probably on par. There might be more to AAC but Apple hasn't paid much attention at all in that direction. A long time ago I saw a mention on hydrogenaudio that someday 128 AAC might be transparent... a boy can dream.

Thanks Hyena! Good to know I can do this after all Edit - file:// didn't work for me, but file:/ did

BroadBand Watch reports on the PSP browser (part 1 of 2) : -- the max. number of tabs is 3. They got this summary screen to display - I have no idea how to call it up: http://bb.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/parts/im...-10501-7-2.html -- browser identifies as Mozilla/4.0 (PSP (PlayStation Portable); 2.00) -- can't be used to access/purchase from ATRAC-based online music services (mora, etc)

Thanks for the tip, you and Mr Happy (tanoshii)! Edit - yeah all my AAC files play now, 128 and 192. Methinks it's not too hard to guess which company that is

Oh guys, one more thing! The AAC files I made with iTunes and copied to the MemoryStick don't show up on the PSP menu. [EDIT- Got it working now - thanks guys] I was perhaps too optimistic about this appearing in the feature list... sigh.

The Japanese firmware has always had the option to switch languages - I'm using the English option in the pictures here. Everything becomes English so there's no problem with gibberish really, unlike those useless PDAs. I don't know how Sony distributes PSP firmware - I always used the PSP itself to check for updates. Mine is the Japanese model so I just assume it pulls updates intended for itself. The one announced in Japan should be available to you guys one way or another, just like SonicStage 3.2 has been. I kept forgetting to update today, and kinda expected everyone to have the firmware by now

Oops! 56k warning! I haven't done anything with h.264 yet - my encoding app has the option but I haven't tried it yet, I'm not very good with video codecs With the poor Clie and Zaurus experiences still haunting me, I think the web navigation is very smooth, to an totally unexpected magnitude if you're used to the CPU speed/performance correlation of PDAs You scroll around by holding down the square key and using the "analog stick". You can use the four arrow keys to "tab" to anything that has a link, then hit the O to visit the link. The triangle toggles the interface and display - I don't think you can browse with the interface present. Left/right goes back/foward; Pressing Square + left/right toggles the tabs you have opened. The text entry screen is used for URL and whenever you want to fill out a text field. An URL subset is added on the text screen where you usually switched between Katakana, Hiragana, etc, for various domains, country domains, etc. Tedious, yes, but the PSP's buttons are tactile in a very pleasureable way, which will take the edge off of you - it's a game console after all The MDCF works just fine. The ALC isn't too bad either.

PSP owners will probably all update and get very intimate with the ins and outs faster than I can say ######, but a couple pics for you... My apologies to our Canadian friends with progressive musical tastes - I love Jann Arden to pieces The ALC on display.

What I've noticed so far (it's only been twenty minutes): The Web Browser Definitely slower and less than the PC experience, but I think SCE deserves a lot of credit. The jaws of most Clie users will definitely drop at how good the PSP browser is vis-a-vis NetFront 3.0. Apart from the lack of a touch screen, the GUI is more fluid, the rendering is better. Okay I know you didn't click this thread to hear the soapbox crumbling beneath my weight. The scrolling is very nice - I didn't know the "speaker net" I've been fiddling with is the analog stick! Multiple tabs can be opened and cycled through, but there isn't a "tabs bar" that shows you how many are open and what they are at a glance. My number one disappointment is that you can't use the browser offline. Although you can save pages and files linked from a page, there don't seem to be ways to view files from the MemoryStick. I tried an RSS feed (.xml) and the PSP said it can't display that. The ultimate GEEK way to get around this would be to set up a Blogger blog for note-taking... nevermind The font is the standard boxy PSP one, which doesn't scale very well to the smallest size. Bring on the hacks... I want my Verdana. The browser handles graphics-intensive sites just fine (I tried AV Watch), but it's probably best for "mobile" versions of sites. In any case, I think it's a lovely web browsing appliance if you're on a trip and have Wi-Fi connection. ATRAC3plus and SonicStage All of the new A3+ bitrates play on the PSP. I'm not sure if there are sound quality differences. I've yet to try AAC or WAV. Miscellany The wallpaper feature is nice. When you're viewing a pic there's now an option to set it as wallpaper, in the "view" you specify. I'm using an 1024x768 pic, the first time it popped up was the whole view, i.e. there are 2 black bands to the left/right due to the aspect ratio. It asked me if I wanted that. I went back, zoomed the pic to fill the screen, and set that as wallpaper. This might be placebo effect, but I think the GUI overall is a bit more responsive. There are no additional display modes for my video stored on MemoryStick.

Thanks for the offer... I don't need new memory sticks yet.

Oh wow! This is the kind of thing the INS should worry about - makes us want to immigrate to the US No, we're not interested in Abercrombie! Just... THIS!

My install insists that I must initialize my HD5, so I won't be using SS until I exhaust all the radio stuff currently on the player

Just making conversation : The test units AV Watch received were early samples, so the labeling on VOL buttons are different from production units. Would you have preferred the speaker icon [edit: icon! icon! not logo! my English is failing! nooooo!] over the VOL ? Discuss.

Ooh now I see that, sorry. The scholarly researchers must've split thumb drive-like players (i.e. with USB plug "growing" out the back) into its own category, for some reason. So perhaps the shuffle and those Rio Japan-specific players end up in this category; Sonys and iRivers and anything else that requires a cable are "players with flash memory built in" This is like saying minivans without the third row is no longer a minivan

headnoise, My #1 concern with the PSP is that the buttons will be damaged from bouncing around in my bag. The only way around this is a hard (aluminum or plastic) case, I searched and none of the "soft" cases offer any protection to the buttons. Otherwise it's very durable - less vulnerable than many other Sony products. I use this clear film that covers the front face. IMO the PSP isn't something you'd carry in a pants pocket - it reminds me of a 6" sub and If I see it in your pocket I'd assume you're really happy to see me I don't... I don't spend money on movies at all. I just record TV shows and whatever movies they air on cable.

The category reads "USB memory type", so flash-based players, as opposed to HDD. At the same time I've seen multiple researches done by the likes of that Yano institute and probably other org's about how quickly DAPs have overtaken MD in the second half of 2004... and Apple quoted this in one of their press events.

I'm just posting to say I saw ORICON STYLE and suddenly started laughing really hard. I'm sorry. Ishi might know what I'm feeling now... think oricon and its usual connotation, what the name is short for, etc etc, and put that next to the word style. that's like saying BILLBOARD CHIC to any american... Speaking of high bitrate downloads, wasn't there some experimental venture doing exactly that in Japan. And of course there are other ones all over the world, none of them have gotten very far yet.

kurisu already knows this, but I'm a PSP owner with no games. I use it for watching video and reading text. The XMB GUI is great, the hardware is great, the Sharp LCD is great... I think it's so much better for both tasks than any of the 4 or 5 Clies I owned. AND CHEAPER. I really like the list of features from this firmware update, and I'll have no need for whatever homebrew thingies out there. The jump feature in memory stick video right now is ... you can go to a specific time point in the video. Maybe that's being implemented for UMD video and audio...

Utada is a must simply because she's great, there's such a charisma and worldview that comes through right away... and she's very accessible from a, I guess you'd say, gaijin point of view. Having said that, I don't think her sound, style or influences is really representative of J-pop as a genre. Any album is a good starting point - maybe not Exodus (the English language, US-debut) cause I think she was going for a kind of honesty that she felt she couldn't reach for in Japan. Anyway, I wrote about Exodus on the T-board... Deep River is a great album. With Utada, remember to read the lyrics. I think all music has a barrier to entry (think economic terminology, not physical): a lot of people simply don't enjoy vocals they perceive as screechy, screaming, sounds from when you're in labor. In that case I'd say start with artists that are outside of the standard "J-pop" world. But one of the best things about Japanese music is they've got huge numbers of artists in each genre, I think there's a good variety at the major label level, which is a variety some of us can only envy. A lot of word of mouth is required, maybe a lot of $$, but it's worthwhile... Like bird, she tackles a lot of Latino-y, Jazzy dance music. Me, I've been outside the mainstream for years, I'm all over the map, so it's probably not a good idea to name artists you have no access to For middle-of-the-road, str8 J-pop, I like Mika Nakashima. (Plus there's the Hi-MD connection!) P.S. Amuro is nice... she's soldiering on without Komuro. "want me want me" had lyrics so "hot" it's almost funny.

I'm listening to the last song, "Monochrome", from this album. (edit - in Hi-SP) I fully intended to listen to the other 11, but I keep hitting the < on my HD5 when this one ends (too lazy to set 1-repeat).