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Dec 22 2005
PSP Media Manager Review
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| Summary: Just a few kinks from being essential
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.
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Comments
You've rated it 92 out of a possible 100...yet a good 90% of your review focuses on the downsides?
Please highlight the good side for me?
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I second Bigstu's statement. You might want to rethink the score with that many pitfalls. You almost sound like Cheny defending the war; all these negatives but you still give it strong support.
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Your point #4: "Z-Order"... is a standard Sony software problem.
Sony's SonicStage does the same thing.
Your point #5: "Music Transfer"... I don't understand why Sony did not include ATRAC3 or ATRACPLUS support, as it has in SonicStage.
Once again... this software should be FREE from Sony to PSP owners!
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For people who think this should be free: link
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bigstu said: "You've rated it 92 out of a possible 100...yet a good 90% of your review focuses on the downsides?
Please highlight the good side for me?"
The good sides are the inherent convenience and ease of the software. All of the core functions of the PSP are supported in the software. But as I pointed out, there are a few aspects that reduce the appplication's effectiveness. I'm hoping the next patch takes a few of them in to consideration, if they did, it'd make it a true essential for the PSP. That way both the tech savvy and computer noob could better utilize thier PSPs feature set.
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