PSP Cradle with audio out
By Barb Dybwad 
posted April 26th 2005 10:40AM
posted April 26th 2005 10:40AM
This PSP cradle handles both the charging function and audio out duties, providing a 1/4-inch jack for your
listening pleasure whilst docked. We're still looking for a docking station that provides video out that would boost
the PSP closer to the true PVP realm, but hey, we also want the world and we want it now. At least this unit gets the
thing out of our hands.
[Via Akihabara News]
You don't want it in your hands?
Why didja get one?
Anyone who uses this as an audio player is dumb or rich and dumb.
Anyone manages to get that thing avideo out (3rd party or Sony) will have an immediate purchase from yours truely. I can't see it happening (at least until the PS3 comes out and it ceases to be a rival to their main cash cow console) but I live in hope
yeah, so you can like..stick a 150$ memory stick in it and listen to 75 songs..sweet. or you could buy an airport express. those dont get fingerprints like whoa.
wait a second..is this thing powered or does it rape your batteries as well? does anyone else think that people are trying too hard to accept this thing (psp) as being way cooler than it really is?
The audio jack looks like a 1/8" to me, which makes more sense actually, since that's what most PC speakers connect to. Plus, the ever-handy 1/8" to RCA cable that you can pick up at Radio Shack lets you plug it into your home stereo.
While doing video out don't forget some sort of RCA audio...a standard headphone jack would be a pain.
"At least this unit gets the thing out of our hands..."
Ha, "customers" in Europe don't have this problem and will not have it until "1st September".
Cullen (#3) is right. People are trying REALLY HARD to make the PSP into something it isn't.
My PHONE has better MP3 playback capabilities and includes crossfading, streaming shoutcast radio and a touch-screen interface.
PSP would have been better if it was just a game machine.
Anyone make a BlueTooth controller for this thing yet?
I would like to see a cradle that also connects to the USB port. I think the biggest problem is the USB port on the top of the PSP. I really don't like holding the PSP or lying it down while it's transfering files. Plus, with a cradle, I would be able to just dock it and forget about it. Another, plus would be to go into automatic USB mode when a USB cable is connected. That way, like I said before, you could just dock it and forget about it.
Sandro
#7, Eran Hawke - I don't think the Sony execs would agree with you. Perhaps it isn't as feature rich as people would like at this point, but it *is* a fully functional mp3 player and video player.
However, comparing it to HD-based PMPs and PVPs is absurd. A better comparison would be with a flash based portable.
Personally, I think it is great that you can carry music and a few episodes of your favorite television show when you need to take a break from punching buttons. Just give Sony time to make some improvements (in order of most likely to least likely): listening to music while looking at photos, crossfading, ogg support (yeah, in my dreams, I know)
The thing I would like changed the most would be the uber-strict file system layout. Capital letters are not good...
#9, the point is people are clinging to this thing like its going to somehow change everything...in reality its really nothing special. shit like this is just filler to make it seem useful. its not an mp3 player, its just not suited for that. its not a movie player; the screen isnt even 5 iches..yet people wont let go of the whole idea. havent seen an article about incredible games or how innovative the interface is, or how great the umds are. the system does not have much going for it - the biggest feature so far is a web browser in one of its games. dont get me wrong, id like to have one. but mostly because i like expensive shit i dont really need :p the bottom line is that this is a game system with some other stuff knocked on. the games arent anything everyone hasnt seen already - the form factor is the only new thing. thus sony added features like mp3 support...and movie viewing? big fucking deal - id buy the ds over this simply for the fact that nintendo put some thought into a feature that they thought people would enjoy. not trying to make it into an all in one media center in your pocket - sony could have made this purely a game system. the price would have been lower. someone would still make movie and mp3 players, but you wouldnt need to pay an incredible premium to use these features that in reality are not indrecibly useful, especially considering the media that it uses.
im not trying to make this into a PSP VS DS DEATHMATCH thread, i just dont like the whole idea here
(i dont own a psp or a ds and dont plan on buying either anytime soon. unless you have one to sell me for <100USD)
I agree that Sony should have made this a pure game machine. They would have had a much better chance at it being successfull. As it is--an all in one media machine--it ends up doing none of those individual things well. Except for the game part, I suppose, but I tend to think those types of games are better suited for the big screen, with friends to hang out and play with. And you only need one system and one game for fun multiplayer gaming sessions. Having everyone buy a system and copy of the game just does not make sense for the casual gamer. We want to buy more titles, not multiple copies of the same title.
before someone else needlessly tags in "video and audio playback sucks," consider this: what is a video game? is it not interactive video and sound? so if the resources exist, why not allow them to be used outside of game play? the argument is comparable to buying a dvd player and being mad that it can also play cds; damn, those crazy engineers made me pay a couple hundredths of a cent more to beable to have a feature that isnt as robust as a dedicated unit. please, in the future, find a better argument against it
No one's mad that the PSP offers video and audio. They're just pointing out that--despite the hype--it doesn't do these kinds of things well. It's a call to end the hype.
I'm gunna have to go both ways on this one. My PSP is something I haven't been TOO impressed with, besides the fun of lumines. But, the fact that the video games are only working at half the cpu power and that new battery technology is being researched all the time keeps me on the lookout for better games. I have to agree that the games are more of system games than handheld games, but, for some PSP owners this is what they want. In the case of multimedia funcionality, I think #13 made an ideal point. The PSP is made for games but has the resources for other things as well. I understand it's not the best audio or video player, but, if you bought your PSP simply to watch movies or listen to music, you completely missed the point of the PSP. The audio and video is meant as an alternative to playing games, so they're not gunna stick a whole bunch of needless features that will only add confusion to those users who don't have a good grip of technology.
When you get right down to it. The PSP uses its features as it should. Perhaps some people want more out of the extra features, but that's not what the PSP was built around, it's only a small part of the PSP's capability. It's meant as an expanding system in a sense that there is more to come for it then is currently out.
How can you NOT like the PSP? The only valid reason a gamer could have is that it costs too much.
"It should just stick to games." ...why? It does play games. It has the best gaming graphics in a handheld gaming device. The gaming thus far is decent at worst, and has massive potentional.
Don't compare it to an iPod. You may as well compare it to a laptop. It just works as a flash mp3 player (which seems to be a large market, although I don't particularly like them).
It plays video too? That's AWESOME! How can you NOT like that?
Picture viewer. I for one enjoy showing off pictures that I take. I could stick a family album on that thing. That's pretty cool.
Internet browser. You can sort of use it with Wipeout, but there is expected to be a dedicated browser in a near future firmware upgrade. People are already using MSN messenger on the thing. That rocks.
What I'm trying to say is... this thing IS a game machine. It rocks as a game machine. Why the hell are you bitching that it gives you so many other things to do with it?
So the PSP does not have a straight Video Out jack on its exterior packaging. Any ideas on what it would take to hack into it and extract Video? Someone HAS to have tried this or atleast explored it. Even if I was ready to expend some cash in spinning a driver electronics board to drive 'nuff juice for the video out from the processor of the PSP, do you think this is possible?
Please let me know if anyone has opened one and has invaluvable stuff to share.
Thanks!
Kashif
I have a problem and need help. I have several gigs of music on my home computer and it is hooked up to my Pioneer receiver and fed through some really expensive Energy main speakers with surround sound. The problem is that I come out of my sony viao from the speaker feed (standard ear plug connnection) and I get a bad distortion of white noise. I can plug the same plug into my XM radio or my MP3 player and have much better sound. I know I need a new sound card, but everything I find is either 5.1 or 7.1 out and my stereo will do the decoding. I just want a sound card with 2 RCA jacks out with the sound still coded, but can't find one. My stereo reciever does not have an optical imput either (it is too old). I realize one of my problems is that I am behind the times and don't center everything around my computor but my existing stero system is set to play through out the house including the deck and basment. Where can I find a sound card to do this? Should I go with an external to prevent electrical interference from the computor?