PMP my PSP reloaded!

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Due to popular demand I translated my tutorial on creating pmp files on OSX.

There are some good tutorials for windows users in the Internet for the conversion of videos to the PMP format, but so far i could find a working one for OS X users.

For the records: PMP Mod makes it possible to watch fullscreen divx/xvid encoded videos (480×272) on the PSP Divx/Xvid films (but only if one has firmware 1,0 or 1,5 installed on the PSP). PMP uses its own, proprietary media container (mpeg-4 video and mp3 audio) for the video files, which unfortunately forces a re-encoding of each already available file)

So for all OSX usesrs and PSP owners, this is my way of creating these files:
Requiered software:

For this tutorial I use an mpeg file, recorded EyeTV. Generally it is possible to encode any file supported by ffmpegX like encoded avis, mpegs or even VOBs from uncrypted DVDs(see ffmpegX website for a list of supported media files).

1. Selecting the source (Summary tab)

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Drop your movie file to ffmpegX icon or “Open” field or “From” area to open it, or click the Open.. button to locate the file from your hard disk.

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You may experience a short delay while the file is scanned for a check. ffmpegX will suggest automatically a destination folder and a target format. In this case ffmpegX suggest an Avi DivX file as target format. Conversion will be done with mencoder (you can also use click on the Target Format pulldown menu in the Summary tab and choose Avi DivX (ffmpeg) or Avi Xvid (mencoder) or Avi Xvid (ffmepg). For this tutorial we leave the suggested format.

2. Croping source file (Filter tab)

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Go to the “Filters” tab and click “Autocrop” to automatically calculate crop values in order to cut away black bars from the source. This button also sets the default image size. It is important to do this as first step! The Autocrop analysis is done at the “Start from: 00:30 min:sec” point to avoid to analyze black images at the beginning. You may need to change this checkpoint if it contains black images.

Autocrop will also launch a preview movie to show the crop area. You may also click “Preview” to preview the crop area again after changing manually the crop values. The crop area will show as a white hairline rectangle. Press the RETURN key to stop previewing.

As my source file is a recorded TV show I have to activate the option “Deinterlace” in order to avoid artifacts (this is not necessary if you use non interlaced sources like avi files)

3. Setting immage size and bitrate (Video tab)

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As “Video size” I use the full possible resolution for the psp screen: 480×272. As I use a 16:9 format I set auto size to 1,85:1. As video bitrate I use something between 700 and 800 kbit/s. My experience is that increasing video bitrate only makes PMP drop frames during playback, resulting in non synchronizing video/audio. f your source is 16:9 sources, you may also use non-standard size of 480×272 (or 416×176, 480×160 and 400×192), PMP Mod can zoom movie to fill the screen. Reducing video size and/or video bitrate results in smaller file sizes, but also means reduced video quality.

4. Turn of audio encoding! (Audio tab)

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Since PMP uses it own container format and needs two seperate files (one avi file for video and one mp3 file for audio) we first will re-encode the video file. Therefor unckeck the option “convert audio”

5. Finetuning (Options tab)

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In the Options tab I turn on the “High Quality” switch. This will slow the encoding but results in a better quality. If time is not your concern you may you want turn on two pass encoding for even better video quality. The PMP author Jonny does not recommend the use of QPEL and GMC because of performance reasons.

Now press encode and start the reencoding of the video source file.

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In the meantime we will take care of the missing audio file.

7. Encode audio (Summary tab)

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Go back to the “Summary tab” an click on the Target Format pulldown menu and choose “Movie audio to mp3″. Do not alter anything else.

8. Setting up audio options – (Audio tab)

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PMP Mod requires an audio file as mp3 encoded with constant bitrate. I notised that PMP is very dificult when muxing audio files. The only sucessfull muxing I got so far are with following settings: “Audio bitrate” between 80 and 128 kbit/s, “Sampling”: 44100 Hz and “Mode”: CBR. Press again the “encode” button.

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Now the waiting begins. Depending on your computer, its CPU, the length of the source file and your quality settings re-encoding could last from 1 hour to several hours. When re-encoding is finished you will find two files in your destination folder: one avi file and one mp3 file. I usually rename the files in the finder in “Video.avi” and “Audio.mp3″ and copy both to my desktop.

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9. Convert files into its final format

Now both files must be muxed into the PMP container. Therefor we need the Terminal, since PMP Muxer is a Perl program. Open the Terminal application (Programs/Utilities). Do you remember where you installed PMP Muxer? Good, go to that directory. In this case all necessary files are on my desktop.

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Type following command: perl pmp_muxer.pl Video.avi Audio.mp3 weltraum.pmp

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Press Enter/Return and wait for the muxer to finish its job. If everything went fine you’ll get an simple “OK” as confirmation.

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Thats it. Now plug in your PSP and copy the file into your video folder for PMP!
Remarks:

  • This tutorial only covers conversion of 16:9 format. I did not try to convert 4:3 formats, so I do not have any experience on the output you get
  • I’ll change the screenshots tomorrow, so you’ll get pictures of the english version of ffmpegX
  • For all English native speakers: This translation was done by a Spanisch living in Germany. Sorry for any incovenience or pain you could suffer during the lecture of this posting.
  • I’d like to add instructions for streaming videos to the PSP with new version of PMP, but it wont work for me. Still wondering whats wrong.