High quality video encoding for PSP with HandBrake (by reprep)
Note from Wololo: This tutorial was initially published by /Talk member reprep, as part of our monthly tutorial contest. Reprep won the best PSP tutorial prize (a $10 PSN Code) for his entry. You can find the original post here.
Do you still use your PSP for video playback? If yes, continue below to make best use of it. I generally use my PSP Go for watching anime and it is great at that.
PSP has a hardware decoder for h264/AVC video which is the same video codec used in Blurays and most digital broadcasting. It delivers high quality video at low bitrates and generally much better than competitors.
For audio it uses AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) which is again one of the best audio codecs out there and most content providers use it for high quality audio at low bitrates.
As x264 (free h264/AVC encoder and generally considered as the best) is still advancing, we now have the chance to use much better video at low bitrates for our PSPs. I will use HandBrake front-end which is available on PC/MAC/LINUX for this tutorial, but you can use any x264 front-end or even use command line interface.
- First get HandBrake here: https://handbrake.fr
- After installing, on main screen, go to Options>Import to import the psp Preset I uploaded here: https://www.sendspace.com/file/w12ju4
- Go to Tools>Options>Output Files>Default Path to choose the output directory. You can use your “PSP’s memory card drive letter”/VIDEO folder if your memory card is plugged to your PC. Or you can just copy the contents to your PSP later.
- After that, you can just drag and drop the file you want to encode into HandBrake, click Start, you are ready to go. Your encode will be at 480×272 if your source has higher resolution than that. If not, its width and height will be rounded to the nearest multiple of 16 for compatibility reasons.
- If you want to do batch encoding, choose Source>Folder to choose the directory of your source files. After that choose Add to Queue >Add All and then start the queue.
That is all, after your encoding is done, just copy the content and enjoy your videos. Continue to read if you want further info.
Explanations, Tricks, ETC.
Video
If you want to have more control over the settings, let me explain them.
I made the video settings so that you will have very high quality encodes at relatively large size and a long time. If you want, you can lower the video quality and both save space and reduce encoding time.
At the Video tab, there is Quality Section. I chose 18 which is nearly identical to the source. You can choose up to 21-22 without much lowering picture quality and have lower file sizes. I don’t recommend higher values as they will make the picture much worse.
Other than that, at the Advanced tab, you can choose Hexagon (Default) for Motion Est Method for faster encodes, also you can reduce Subpixel Motion Est from my default 11 to 7 to drastically decrease encoding time. Both will have a negative impact on quality. Also you can choose lower Maximum B Frame values especially if your source files aren’t cartoon/anime. 3-4 should be fine.
Audio
If your source file has AAC audio, you can choose “AAC Passthru” codec at Audio Tab. This will save you the hassle of converting audio and give you high quality audio. If not, you should choose a AAC codec to convert audio. AAC (CoreAudio) is your best option, but unfortunately it is only available to MAC users. If you are on PC or Linux choose AAC (FDK). If you care about high audio quality choose 160 kbps, if not you can go as low as 96 kbps.
Subtitle
Unfortunately PSP doesn’t support soft-subs. It means you have to hard-code subtitles into your video if you want them. Go to Subtitles tab, choose the subtitle in your source and tick the burn-in box to hardcode them. You can also import a .srt file if you choose Import SRT option.
Miscellaneous
PSP can decode resolutions which both height and width are divisible by 16. Also both height and width should be smaller than 480×272. You got some exceptions for that though. PSP can also play 640×480, 720×480 and 720×576 values. With Tv-Out PSP can output 720×480 video at full resolution. So if you want to have your encodes playable with your other devices too or you use Tv-Out, you can choose one of the resolutions above.
Best of the Best
There are a few more things for increasing video quality, be warned, these will most possibly only aid your OCD.
As i have already said, PSP can play 720×576 video. As the PSP screen has 480×272 resolution, you shouldn’t see any benefit from resolutions above this. But no, in fact you do see benefit, even though it is not much. PSP converts YV12 colorspace to RGB before outputting to LCD. PSP isn’t very good at that conversion and higher resolution input will help the PSP do better conversion. So you can encode at 720×576. The quality increase will not be much but file size increase will be a lot.
You can also try increasing Motion Est Method and Motion Est Range, though encode will be much slower and your gain will be minimal.
Unfortunately you can’t enable Weighted P-frames, Pyramidal B-frames and 8×8 Transform. Also you can’t use more than 3 Reference Frames. PSP won’t play the video if you do.
You can always try other settings and read about x264 encoder properties.
Do you think people are dumb and they don’t know how to convert videos to their PSP??? Well then u r dumb to post this tutorial….tutorials these days totally su ck . plz stop this sh it . icant take this anymore . visit the site daily just to watch crappy posts
Dude u should have a ps vita under firmware 3.05 or on 3.05. Even 3.12 any firmware under 3.50. u got first by the way.
told u i visit this site often. its like super often….
*** alert.
Thank to the author. The preset in the link didn’t work for me (it’s probably for a different version of Handbrake) but the screenshots helped.
Stop Visiting. 🙂
Cool. Tried making videos for my psp a bunch of time.
i dont like handbrakes.
what happened with psp video 9 ?
bubbles is back in bubbles two the popping staring cheese sauce man and mushroom car hat.
u know u r an imposter
Hi Bubbles2! How are you?
I have a soft spot in my heart for psp video. It was all I had for the hardest time in my life. Theres lots of better alternatives out there nowadays. But its hayday was before smartphones blew up and it stomped all over the ipod video player at a fraction of the cost.
The psp sure evolved like crazy during its life cycle. Nostalgia.
Where did you get all those resolutions ? The PSP is LIMITED to 368 x 208 (and lower resolutions) for MP4/MPEG and to 720×480 for h264 with no available resolutions between those. The bitrate is also limited to 768kbps as well as framerate is limited to 15, 29,97 fps which you failed to mention in your tutorial.
no, it is not. These silly restrictions are removed on latest firmwares. Just try 480×272 with 23.976 fps and your encode will be fine. PSP can also handle up to 20 mbit (yes, i am not kidding). If you want further proof, i can send you a sample video.
I remember the first time I encoded a video to play on my PSP. I ripped my Iron Man DVD, and I had a weak laptop at the time, so it took about 6 hours to convert. Then, when I tried to watch it on my PSP, the sound was way too low, even at max volume. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort at that point, but I can see the appeal of doing this.
I have used “DVD Decrypter” and “Handbrake” (plus VLC player for vital codecs) (for what, I can’t say 😉 )
Hey, can you make tutorial for vita?
Why would you need that? I mean…you can watch your pc’s videos without copying them to the vita just by using CMA/OCMA give it a try
you can go up to 1080p video on Vita. it is a great video player. It also supports the High Profile which PSP doesn’t. I can do one and put in tutorial section.
giff us bubbles
Because streaming it instantly to your HD smartphone is just too much work, am I right? MX Player and a place to download from is all you need to start streaming videos. And if you’re going to go through all that work, why not just use that PSPVC? It was made specifically for this.
not everybody has smart phone and i know there are a lot of converter applications out there. I chose handbrake because it is available on Pc/Mac/Linux, it is simple to use but also gives you advanced control over x264 settings. this way i can fine-tune it for high quality.
That’s all fine and good (well, everything up until the last sentence and a half), but with the extremely tiny demographic of people that this would be practical for, I can’t understand why this won anything. It’s only useful for people who don’t have a smartphone, and (going back to that sentence and a half) is more complicated than it needs to be. You don’t need the power that handbrake gives you. We’re talking about a 4 inch 480×272 LCD screen, not the latest 50 inch Super AMOLED 4xHD Ultra Integrated Graphical Plasma Flatscreen TV. As long as there are no compression artifacts, you wouldn’t be able to find a difference between a fine-tuned video and a regular video (one that took half an hour less to configure and process) even if you looked for it.
Just to be clear, I’m not saying that this isn’t a decent tutorial. I just can’t understand how this is the best the month had to offer. I don’t have anything against you or your tutorial.
Dude, don’t be a ***.
The tutorial is for PSP owners. Don’t have one? Get lost.
Thanks for the great tutorial, Handbrake seems to be the most up-to-date solution in regards to PSP conversion right now. The PSP screen is still very serviceable (especially the Go’s) so this will be handy!
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Hello
I used your settings, video is OK when i play it on my Macbook, but on my PSP audio is out of sync.
Any ideas to solve this problem please ?
Thx