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Jun 27 2005
PSPWare for Windows Review
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| Summary: Maximize the PSP's potential
94
With Nullriver's release of a Windows version of PSPWare, Mac users no longer have all the fun. Just like the Mac version, the PC app is simple, fast, stable and makes it easy to sync music, photos, movies and save games to and from your PSP.
Graphically the program is very simple and elegant. When you start the PSPWare you are presented with a row of 7 icons (6 if you've registered already) -- Status, Music, Photos, Movies, Backup, Advanced and Registration. Status shows you the last time you've synced as well as the progress bar of your current sync (if any). Music allows you to select your iTunes playlists and folders that you want synced with an options button to select your organize and sort options for the PSP (ie, Artist, Title, etc). The Photos section is quite self explanatory, no extra options, you just select the folders you want synced in your My Pictures folder.
When selecting Movies to sync and convert, you can choose from two video resolutions -- 320x240 @ 4:3 or 368x208 @ 16:9, as well as 5 video and audio quality settings (from low to high). When you select your settings, a handy indicator tells you approximately how much space in MB an hour of video will take up. Upon adding each video, the conversion starts immediately. Then after a movie has been converted you can sync it.
Saved game syncing is simple, you just click sync and all of your saves get copied to your hard drive. Everything is conveniently stored in your PSPWare directory so that you can further backup your backups if you are so inclined.
The Advanced tab allows you to select your PSPWare folder (default is in My Documents), sync dropboxes, which are an easy way to sync media by simply dropping it into a folder. You can also setup sync profile if you have multiple Memory Sticks. Also, there are a few other advanced features that control how PSPWare operates in general.
PSPWare is incredibly easy to use. You simply select what items you want synced, press 'Sync Now' and go make yourself some tea or surf the web, play a game, whatever. Conversion is fast, we didn't experience any hiccups with the few formats that we threw it at and Nullriver says that PSPWare is capable of converting most formats. It would've been nice to have the status indicator on each tab, rather than having to click over to the Status section, but it's a minor quibble.
The $15 program is available in a trial format, allowing you to sync 10 songs, photos and 5 movies per sync. There are also occasional nag screens that popup. If you own the Mac version, an extra $10 will get you a Windows copy. And to stay competitive, if you're a registered user of iPSP or PocketMac, pay the discounted $10 rate to get a copy of PSPWare. The ease with which PSPWare takes care of all your syncing needs makes it well worth the money. You can get the job done with free software, but you'll need multiple tools and much more time to figure each program out and optimal settings for each program. Personally, we'd rather not fuss over movie conversion and audio conversion with other progs, save yourself the time and hassle by using Nullriver's functional and elegant PSPWare.
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Comments
06/27/05
10 
ScottFree
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So I downloaded the trial and tried to convert a MOV to MP4 and it kep tfailing... will it do that, or is it a limitation of the trial?
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06/28/05
8
sieger
| Australia
I think it will convert the mov file as long as you have the right codecs (i.e. you own quicktime pro). I haven't found any software that converts mov files with sound except for quicktime pro.
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06/28/05
16
mrsmiley
| California USA
It's a pretty good program, but sometimes it just doens't work for no reason. I am a very computer savy person, so I am pretty sure it's not something I am doing. I have had the video conversion fail several times out of the blue, which is kinda annoying. Also, the drop boxes don't seem to work at all. Whenever I want to put a pre-MP4 rendered movie, I have to do it manually, and it's a real pain.
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07/01/05
10
zigzag
| Ontario Canada
mrsmiley: In order to use the dropbox "Sync the following checked movies to the PSP:" must be checked, as well as "Use Dropboxes" must be enabled in Options. Note the file must be appropriately named, ie. M4V12345.MP4, where 12345 can be any 5 digit number, you can also include a thumbnail with the same file name but .THM extension.
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09/01/05
philmcneal
| British Columbia Canada
grr the program wont' let me hve full wide screen ;(
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