PSP-2000: Part 3 - MUSIC

I didn't find much detail about the music player on the PSP when I was considering purchase. Here is an overview of the functions available in the music functionality of the PSP. Overall, I think it's a decent replacement for your favorite portable music player. Nothing has changed since the first official firmware of the slim so this should be valid for 3.70~3.90. I think the only change is that they added a new visualization in the last update.

1. Basic Functions: play, skip a song, go back a song, fast forward, rewind, pause - these fundamentals are also available on the remote available separately for purchase. The clicking feel on my remote* diminished for some reason but it's still functional... I should probably get that fixed.

2. Playback Options: group play function if you have stuff in different playlists, shuffle, repeat-1, repeat-all.

3. Sound Quality: microphone output sounds no different from a standard Sony MP3 Walkman, there are different sound quality options but I'm not sure if they are working because they randomly show up depending on when I push the button. Anyway, general consensus on the Internet is that its much better than the iPod, which apparently sucks. There are also decent stereo speakers.

4. Portability: this is one of the most important things I look for in a music player. I need to be able to control the device without looking at it - so this means the device has to be small and have intuitive buttons, or like if it's not exactly for all pockets it needs to have an alternate way. This seems to be pretty bad on the iPods too, but at least the PSP has the remote which I keep referring to. It's not a bad investment for $20 or so. Then once you turn on your PSP, go to the music function, select what playback mode you want (it doesn't save your preference.. :( and I usually have to put it on shuffle every time), everything can be done on the remote. You can't turn off the PSP but if you pause it will go into sleep mode which conserves battery by a lot. In any case make sure you put the main device on hold by sliding the bar for power down so there is no miscontrol, and the battery can last you all day.

5. Capacity: since the PSP doesn't have built-in memory it all depends on how big your memory stick is. These can be very expensive but there are deals out there! Check slickdeals.net or buy it off of ebay if you don't mind its shady system. I actually got a 4gb stick from CircuitCity online for $35+tax, which is a pretty good deal but you can maybe do better! I'm fine with 4gb because I was living off a 2gb Walkman before, but keep in mind you share the space with video, demos, game saves, internet settings, etc. unless you get multiple.

6. PC Software: to get music onto your PSP, for the best management, use SonicStage. There are third-party software out there but I can't imagine them being perfect. Not to say SonicStage is perfect - it's a resource hog and crashes often on a computer without good specs, or even on pretty decent ones... At least it's free and does its job. You can also either connect the PSP with the memory stick in it, or directly write onto the memory stick if you have a slot for it. I'd use it if Winamp wasn't much better. EDIT: According to the manual you can create a folder under PSP and just drag music to it. I don't think it's a good way of managing playlists and your song tags, however.

7. Searching: There is no search function :( My best solution for this is to sort your songs in an alphabetical order or whatever that pleases you before transferring in SonicStage. I play everything in shuffle usually anyway.

8. Editing: A lot of mp3 players only allow editing of music in their specific software. This is generally true for the PSP, except that you can delete songs and playlists off straight from the device.

9. Display: You can turn on and off visualizations, or look at your photo collection. Looking at photos while listening to music is the only multitask thing you can do.

*The Remote Control:

The remote comes with white standard Sony headphones - they say PSP instead of the Walkman logo. The control part is shiny silver and there's a clip on the back. I hate white headphones - they get gross so much faster I don't know why people use them. It's really as effective as an eraser. Anyway, since this comes in two parts I use another pair of standard input headphones with the remote.

NOTE: Does NOT work with PSP-1000. Also the old remote for the fat PSP-1000 does NOT work with PSP slim.