| Average Rating: 76 out of 100
Owned by 101 users
On 92 wishlists
85
This media manager should have definitely been included with the PSP hardware, as $30 is a high price tag for such a simple program.
However, the program itself is great, and putting all your files on your PSP becomes a breeze. One thing though, if you can already put files in their right folders without any programs, I would advise not buying this because there are no new features here. Still, Sony PSP Media Manager is a very fine looking and feeling program. It allows you to drag and drop your files right onto your card, and comes with a six foot USB cable.
Overall, a great program. Definitely not needed for most, but easy and excellent looking.
1
I actually purchased the PSP media manager, and I have to say I am not impressed. First off it doesn't support any video files that I have found yet. The music support is lame, not even Sony's Atrac3. So far, everytime I open it to try and see if it will work, I end up closing it. I wish I wouldn't have spent the $20. I could have bought another UMD movie.
100
This is an exceptional program in every way. I've been using the program now for over 3 months and haven't encountered any problems whatsoever.
Not only can you transfer photos, music, games to your PSP, you can also downlaod Live Feeds via Internet then transfer those feeds to your PSP, also every once in a while the program will search for new firmware updates and download and transfer the update to your PSP automatically !
Also, whenever you connect your PSP to your computer via USB you have the option to Back Up all the files and folders on your PSP, to your PC with just one click.... no more looking for files, everything is here. The Sony PSP Media Manager is the way to go and blows away all those other programs out there. Trust me !
Quality - 100
The program is well made and well dressed. It looks great in blue and black and the lighting effect on the menus is phenomenal!
User friendly - 90
Any newbie won't have any problem controlling the interface of the program. It's easy to get into and you basically ONLY drag and drop files. That's it!
If your looking for a great all in one for your PSP then get Sony PSP Media Manager, you won't go wrong with this and it's worth ever penny.
92
I've been messing aroud with PSP Media Manager for the better part of the week. So far, I'm really enjoying the program. It's doing pretty muich everything that I would want from an all inclusive application for the PSP. It's clean, realativly fast, and pretty much idiot proof. It's something I'd recommend to anyone who isn't techno-savy like myself. But, with a program like this there are sure to be a few pitfalls that it has.
#1: Video name recognition. It's a bit odd that the PSP knows what the name of an MP4 video is, yet PMM doesn't. Instead of displaying the name of the video, it displays the filename. For those with massive MSDs and load of videos, I can imagine the nightmare trying to identify a certain video. Hopefully, Sont can take care of this in the next version of thier software. I mean if PSP Video 9 can do it, this should be able to as well.
#2: Image transfers. Don't get me wrong, the resampling feature for moving a image over is great if you don't wish to use a lot of space. But for those that don't want the resolution of an image mucked with, PMM will annoy you. There is no option to disable the automatic resampling. It's not too bad for most images, but it's hell for those who put comics on the PSP. The resampling has a tendancy to blur or garble the text in the speech bubbles. That means if you put comics on the PSP, you have to do it manually and negating the usefulness of the software. Again, if Sony adds the option not to resize an image, it'd make this someware better.
#3: Feed support. Ever since v2.60 of the PSP's fireware, this isn't/shouldn't be too much of an annoyance. For some reason, PMM doesn't recognize feeds that have no extension to them like the feed for "The Metal Show". Yet the RSS Channel can pick it up just fine. It'd be nice if the feed detection was a little better, but if it's not fixed it won't be a major negative against PMM.
#4: Z-Order. Z-Ordering is the method within Windows that determine layering of open windows. For some reason, PMM always wants to be on top of it all. I can't even get my taskbar up using the nouse, I've got to tap the Win key to get it. Again, not a major problem, just an annoying one.
#5: Music transfers. I love how PMM will downsample music to make more room on your MSD. Even the fact it'll rip music to that same bitrate and speed up how quickly it's moved to the PSP. But my complaint arises that there aren't enough bitrates available. They've got only the most common bitrates and not option for the user to specify thier own. That to me knock a few points off since I don't downsample to 32kbps and below 64kbps. That leaves me, and possibly others use odd bitrates to manually tranfer and again negate how useful this software is.
#6 Autorun. Oddly enough, there is no autorun feature built into the software like there is for PSPware. But since I can see why having such an option would be a bit sketchy, since some people would rather plug the PSP in and just keep it there for a while and don't want the software to load upon connection. It's a minor thing really, not enough to drag down the experience.
Other than those 6 outlined points, the software is great. If Sony was to make those changes, I would definatly put this as essential PSP software. Even though it's $20 out of the users pocket.
90
Looking at how I already transferred my content to my PSP, I thought for a few moments about buying Media Manager.
My videos are converted using PSP Video 9, a great program that does require a little bit of technical knowledge but is, on the whole, very easy to use. My audio files are stored in Windows Media Player and then transferred to my PSP using the Sync feature or by copying the folder to the device in explorer. Photos are transferred using explorer. And all of this happens either using the USB cable (only some of the time) or by putting my MS Duo in my VAIO laptop using the MS adaptor.
So why buy Media Manager?
When you transfer audio, you can choose to 'down sample' it to a particular quality. It does this on the fly without changing the original file and this is a godsend. I may want my MP3 files encoded in 256k for my stereo, but there's no need for anything to be encoded above 128k on the PSP, saving space on your MS Duo. Transferring video is a snap, and the quality is superb - much better than PSP Video 9 in 'like-for-like' AVC mode. Photos not only transfer, but you can also fix the resolution to fit the PSP and, again, save space. Quality is superb once more.
The real plus points are the Feed options and the Backup facility. The Feed option allows you to subscribe to any of the feeds in the extensive directory included in the application, or by adding any URL to Media Manager. Once you've subscribed to a feed, you click on the feed to see all the articles, which you can then transfer to the PSP with a single click of your mouse. With so many 'podcast' feeds available, it means you can keep up to date with audio casts covering any subject. And as more and more people set up MP4 feeds (such as 29 Guide), you can get regular video updates and programs to watch.
The Feed option also includes comics and magazines, including direct download of the PSPages e-mag. The Backup option is simplicity itself. Click Backup, and your MS Duo is backed up. You can then restore everything or just selected items whenever you need to. Media Manager also manages and saves your game save files. I've set it up to rip CDs to the same directory as my Windows Media Player repository, which monitors that folder for new files. This way, CDs ripped into WMP or PSP MM sit in the same place. You'll find default folders in the Settings area.
Where could it be better?
I've noticed when you transfer very large numbers of audio files, it gets the file order wrong. This only happens when, for example, you're transferring a single folder with more than 99 tracks in it; an audio book, for example, where each track is a chapter in the book. It gets it wrong because the 'track number' field is not set as a three-digit number, so track 101 follows track 10. There's also a little niggle when transferring lots of items, as the program refreshes the 'target window' too regularly, which slows down the transfer.
Otherwise, it's a great application and I'm very pleased with my purchase. I recommend it wholeheartedly and am not unhappy to pay $20 for something that makes managing my one MS Duo card a lot easier, effectively meaning I can swap items in a snap and avoid having to think about buying more MS Duo cards; something that would cost me a lot more than $20.
I'll upgrade the rating as soon as Sony add more features and fix the little niggles I've mentioned.
90
Since I want to use my PSP for music, photos, games and video, this app is a perfect fit for me. And, I have ways of contacting the company if I have questions or want to send product suggestions (Product Suggestion Page, Support Page). I will use it almost every day for RSS updates.
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