PSP Video 9 Movies On My W960i

PSP Video 9

The PSP Video 9 homepage is located at http://www.pspvideo9.com

PSP Video 9 is a free program which runs on a PC which is intended for converting video files to view on a Sony PSP portable games console but the good news is that converted video files will also run on other devices.

So far I have converted .wmv, avi, .mpg and mov files in sizes from 20Mb to 1.5GB and so far not one video file converted to MPEG-4 (.mp4) has failed to convert and run perfectly on my W960i.

Step By Step Guide To Using PSP Video 9

At first sight PSP Video 9 can be a little confusing to use. By default it uses a wizard screen to manage the conversion and of course it assumes that you are using a Sony PSP.

W960i phone users should bypass the wizard and go straight to the Convert tab and click Convert Video. Now find and select the video file to be converted...

PSP Video 9 conversion in progress...

Depending on the size of the movie the conversion will take several minutes but it is generally quicker to convert a video file than to watch.

Select a profile...

PSP Video 9 supports a multitude of formats and after extensive experimentation and testing the profile that I recommend for the W960i is Fw2.80+ MPEG4 320x240 768kbps Stereo/128kbps. This profile was able to convert every video file and every video file worked on my W960i.

This profile has the correct screen resolution of 240x320 pixels for the W960i so the video player does not have to use extra processing power to resize the video output.

The video bit rate is set at 768kbps which seems to be a rate that the W960i can handle. I noticed that video files with a higher bit rate would not play on the W960i.

The audio bit rate is set at 129kbps which again seems to be a rate the the W960i can handle.

Other profiles include Fw1.50+ MPEG4 320x240 768kbps Stereo/128kbps and Fw1.50+ MPEG4 320x240 768kbps Stereo/128kbps 2-Pass. Using these profiles it was not possible to convert all video files. I could not see any quality advantage of the 2-Pass conversion over the 1-Pass conversion.

Settings Galore

PSP Video 9 Profiles...

Choose your profile carefully. The correct profile will ensure that firstly your video file will convert and secondly that the converted video will play on your W960i.

Select the Encoder...

Sorry I don't know my MI from my MH and my MIMB.

Now select the Video Codec...

My investigations indicate that MPEG-4 will work with the W960i but MPEG-4 AVC will not.

PSP Video 9 provides extensive settings which you can experiment with. In particular you can select the MPEG-4 AVC Video Codec. According to Sony Ericsson the W960i should support the AVC variant but I could not get any video files converted using the MPEG-4 AVC Video Codec to play on the W960i.

It is possible that other converter application that support AVC will work with the W960i so it is very much a case of matching your video file to your converter program to your device and also take into account the video software installed on your W960i phone.

Results

Source Format	Source File Size	Converted Format	Converted File Size	Comments
.wmv	28.6 Mb	.mp4	29.5 Mb	Converted to a slightly larger file but at least it played on the W960i
.wmv	302 Mb	.mp4	158 Mb	Reduced file size on conversion
.mov	111 Mb	.mp4	26 Mb	Massively reduced
.avi	1,484 Mb	.mp4	733 Mb	Massive file which W960i took in its stride

Every video file I tried was converted by PSP Video 9 and played without problem son my W960i.

Beware The File Name...

Another issue that I noticed was that the video player provided with the W960i can be very particular about the video file name. One video would not play until all the spaces were removed from the file name while another video file with a longer name and also containing spaces would play without problems.

The information here may be helpful to owners of other Sony Ericsson Symbian UIQ 3.0 phones such as P1i, W950i, P990i and M600i.