PSP Update 2.6: Podcasting (RSS) and WMA Music Support!
Russell Beattie Notebook » PSP Update 2.6: Podcasting (RSS) and WMA Music Support!: Sony does the logical thing: they build in a podcatching client into the PSP. No synching via the computer needed, the audio files go straight to your PSP.
Of course they manage to fuck it up: the audio (no video??) streams, so you have to be connected to a wireless network for streaming.
This won’t take off. It’s almost there, so close, but misses a crucial part of podcasting: the caching locally and then listening whenever you want.
Sony will conclude people don’t want podcasts on their PSP, and the opportunity will be lost. So close. I hope they’ll improve it to the point of usefulness though. Even if it means I have to buy a memory stick. Sell cheap memory sticks, add video, and you have a killer app for the PSP.
Too bad they make their money on games, not hardware. Coz if they made money selling PSP’s, they would do everything to make it a more useful platform and fix these problems.
November 29th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
[...] Peter Van Dijck’s Guide to Ease points to Russell Beattie’s story about the latest PSP update, which adds (non-DRMd) WMA support and an RSS podcast-catcher (Lucas is right, we need a new term, but I don’t have one yet). Note that the software won’t read text (as in blogs), it only does audio. There are some Sony-esque quirks: the audio only streams, no downloads, and there’s no video support. Still, these are the sort of things that Sony could easily add in the future. It seems that the updates on the PSP have been coming fairly regularly, and a huge modding community sprang up around the PSP almost immediately. Streaming video is tricky sometimes even on a desktop PC, so for Sony to not add it yet isn’t terribly surprising. Peter points out: Of course they manage to fuck it up: the audio (no video??) streams, so you have to be connected to a wireless network for streaming. Which is indeed dumb. An option to download the file would be nice. One could make the argument that Sony didn’t want to freak users out too much, but on the other hand, if someone knows what an RSS reader is, they should know the difference between downloading and streaming a file, right? From Russell’s blog, quoting from the About section of the software: Audio content will be available for streaming playback only. Depending on the Internet connection and content file size, the audio stream may pause or stop during playback. If someone can understand that, they can understand the difference between downloading and streaming, yes? Sony is a weird company (rootkit, anyone?), but they do take the time to explain what RSS is on their site, on what appears to be a PSP optimized web page, which they get points for in my book. So give ‘em a little time, people! It’s not perfect, but is there another huge mega-corporation that’s actually flirting with making a portable network-enabled device that makes it easy to consume the multitude of free content that’s out there? I think not. Related Links: PSP on Amazon.com [...]
December 21st, 2005 at 7:35 pm
Actually, I really *wanted* some sort of streaming audio support, anyway. Maybe they will add file capture as well for off line play in the next release. If they do that, then at least for audio, we get the best of both worlds. This is pretty nice for something that costs less than a WiFi capable handheld. I also like that we don’t have to pay for the added feature, too. Now we need to ask people who provide streaming content to provide PSP compatible streaming support and links.
January 21st, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Alright, I’m about to freak out if I don’t figure this out soon. I have been trying to load music onto my psp using wma format and I have been having no luck what-so-ever. I have done all the necessary items to make this possible including updating to ver. 2.6, enabled wma playback, and have formatted the memory stick. Still, I’m having no luck at all. I am using windows media player ver. 10 and I have hooked up the psp via the usb setting on the menu. Windows media player recognizes the psp, and I have actually loaded music onto it, however, I can’t find it anywhere. It’s not under the music setting on the psp. Also, I have created a music folder under psp and I can see it on windows media player on the synchronize mode but I can’t actually find it on psp. I try to look under the “music” catagory on the psp menu and still, it says “no tracks available”. I know it loads onto the psp ’cause it takes away memory space on the memory stick. PLEASE, help me. I haven’t find a website that can 100% answer as to why this is. Thanks.
March 14th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
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July 9th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Sorry for being such a noob but i just got my psp and i updated it to version 2.71. This added new things to my system information menu, My question is:
1)What is the function of the WMA Playback program?
2)What does Flash Player do?
3)What is the “LocationFree Player”?
ps:plz answer my questions… :) i want to kno what things to enable and what not
July 19th, 2006 at 10:14 am
To Dang.. Okay so you are.. Good for you
To Bgogo…
1. It allows you to play windows media audio files
2. allows macromedia flash enabled games and websites accessible
3. Locationfree player is a streaming device, google it damn you…
To Tim Stock… stop whining.. use the usb connector connect to windows xp or what ever, open the /PSP/MUSIC folder … COPY your files through the windows file manager [youknow? copy and paste?] then you’ll see your darn files…
cmon peeps, all the above are minor irritaions in ass, not problems. figuring out how to play playstation games on the psp after it was stupidly upgraded from a version 1.5 to 2.71.. now that’s a problem…
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October 19th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
how do u enable wma
November 14th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Clay,
to enable wma you need to update - latest now is ver 2.82 I think.
then go to settings, system settings, scroll down to enable wma playback and you’ll have to have a wireless internet connection.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:37 am
I used to add music to my PSP and now I can´t.
I used to add music to my PSP via USB from my PC at home, and everything was going great, until I upgraded my WMP (Windows Media Player) and now I cant add music to my PSP. And I´ve never ¨synched¨ music with WMP or with anything, I just connected the PSP (USB - PC), explored the PSP memory stick, went to the Music folder (which you know that there are 6 default folders being the Music folder one of those) and opened it and simply copied an mp3 song and then enjoyed. Now, I do the same procedure and I get a window saying that no file was found or that there´s no specific location for the files and the drive (you know, where the PSP is) suddenly closes by it´s self and cant add music anymore.
But if I go to another computer, I do the same procedure to add music and PRESTO, ENJOY!!! Odd, isn´t it, plz help me.
Plz help me guys, thanx.
December 13th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
window xp is not working on my psp.please help me.
December 27th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Is there a way to enable WMA playback without having to conenct to a wireless internet, like using hte USB somehow ?
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
You can just use free WMA to Mp3 converter software such as “Switch”.
Very quick and simple.