Nyko @ E3 - Theater Experience
by Ryan Block 
posted May 19th 2005 at 9:31AM
Nyko joined the fray of PSP speaker devices with their Theater Experience, a more unusual hybrid of case, charger, stand, and speaker setup. Not a bad system for the 80 bones they're asking, but we keep trying to think of a place we could make use of this, and we're a hard time picturing it (no pun intended). So howsabout you think of it as a case + battery pack with some bonus speakers just in case (also no pun intended), yeah?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
knot_u @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
dumb idea. why don't they get a bigger screen atached
knot_u @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
oh yeh FIRST COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_[]_ you bill gates @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
you people who shoot for the first commment, are nerds that refresh engadget every 1 second so that you can be the first comment!! woo hoo my name is knot_u and im gay!!!!
Paco @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
This is a stupid idea. You couldn't use this in public places, you would disturb everybody. And if your at home, why not just watch movies on your regular TV?
Zoinks @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I actually like it, except for the speakers. I was flying to Dallas the other day and a stand like this would have come in handy..it was annoying to have to hold up the psp in the proper position to watch the movie for 2 hours. The fact it acts as a case and recharger in one sounds good to me..less wires and junk to carry around.
Zoinks @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I actually like it, except for the speakers. I was flying to Dallas the other day and a stand like this would have come in handy..it was annoying to have to hold up the psp in the proper position to watch the movie for 2 hours. The fact it acts as a case and recharger in one sounds good to me..less wires and junk to carry around.
Ledger @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Would be great for camping etc.
Tw-Naru @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I think that it is a good idea for a long car trip. Adds battery life with louder sound. A bigger screen would just be easier to break and make it bigger and heavier. Also then it would not double as a reasonably sized hard case shell. I would pay $45 ish for it though, not $80
-Naru
mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
hELOOOOO we already knew that portable video was stupid.
Bill Gates says he wants this. Sony says they want this. Why do they want it?
They don't. They're lying.
Don't believe their BS.
The portable media centres do not replicate the feeling of being in your living room, let alone a theatre, that's why comparing them to the iPod is autistic.
This is portable video people. You sit on the couch and prop up a 4 inch screen on the table.. and buy some speakers for it... what a freakin joke.
Oh .. when you're watching Spidey 2 on this thing.. try not to glance at the PS2 10 ft away..
"I could have just rented the DVD... and played it on my 42" TV...."
john do @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
what i'd like is for someone to figure out or create something so that you could hook it up to you car stereo so u could watch a movie while driving and the sound coming out of ur car speakers. that would be cool. sure i could buy those little tv's for my car but i just dont have the money for all of that. and im not some lil kid writin this.
OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
"why not just watch movies on your regular TV?"
Well...if your movie of choice is on a UMD you...uh...can't...
mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Well...if your movie of choice is on a UMD you...uh...can't...
---
yeah, cuz.. UMD has way better marketshare than... DVD!!!!!!
NUGAS ADEMOLA @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
hello sales
it's my plesure to write you this view letters to know that am intrested in your product which i will like to purchase some items in your store firtsly i wiil like to know if you ship ( worldwide)to nigeria via (dhl,ups,fedexpress)and also to know if you do payment
via(visa,mastercard)before i will forward the list of the items needed.
when you reply try to add your website
thanks
Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
And name one movie that is available on umd where there is not a higher quality alternative on dvd for cheaper? And you could just rip the dvd and put it on a memory stick and it would get the same experience as a umd, but with better battery life ... oh yea, I forgot, Sony artificially limits the resolution of movies played off the memory stick so they have to be stretched to fit the screen and give you inferior quality to the native resolution umd.
Sony, they really do care about their customers don't they.
Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
And name one movie that is available on umd where there is not a higher quality alternative on dvd for cheaper? And you could just rip the dvd and put it on a memory stick and it would get the same experience as a umd, but with better battery life ... oh yea, I forgot, Sony artificially limits the resolution of movies played off the memory stick so they have to be stretched to fit the screen and give you inferior quality to the native resolution umd.
Sony, they really do care about their customers don't they.
JTS @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
You people are taking this way to seriously.
look, its a nice product cuz you dont have to hold the psp to watch movies, and you'll get a longer movie-play life and better sound. And about that UMD vs. DVD, you just buy UMDs of low plot action movies that you put on ure PSP to waste time and be entertained. no one is saying PSP is going to replace your home entertainment system, its just nice to be able to watch movies on the go, and nyko makes is safer and better to do it with this product
Z @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Um, you kinda contradicted yourself in your comment there. So no, actually you would not get the same experience with a movie ripped to a Memory Stick that you would on a UMD. But you're right when you say a movie on an M-Stick will not play at the maximum resolution that the PSP's screen supports, but UMDs will. I'm sure Sony did this on purpose to protect UMD sales.
And no one is going to do as good of a job encoding a movie at home as the movie studios or Sony will when producing professional UMDs. Just not gonna happen. Sony and the studios have the advantage in terms of that.
Let's also not forget the time required to rip and encode DVDs in order to load onto an M-Stick. Not everyone has the same computer with the same processing power and memory, so for many, this could mean hours processing each movie. A lot of people would rather simply pop in a UMD than go through all of the above.
And is battery life really going to be affected that much? Besides, the games are UMD as well, and the battery life on the PSP is great, so what's the big deal in watching a movie on UMD instead of M-Stick? I watched a UMD movie and still had over two-thirds of the battery life left.
Some people may not like UMDs, but currently UMDs are the best way of watching movies on a PSP.
marky mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
The guys who think that portable media centres aren't gonna take off are INSANE.
Listening to music in front of a good set of speakers is preferable to walkmans and ipods, but people still use them... Why? Because you cant take speakers with you. Just like the fact that you can't take a 42" television with you. Saying that people don't want to watch video on the go is like saying that people don't want to listen to music on the go, or make phone calls on the go.
I personally use my PSP to watch videos and films more than I use it for gaming. On the tube into uni I can watch an ep of South Park, or the latest ep of 24. (encoding at highest quality take less than 1/2 the runtime of the video on my comp) Yeah being at home watching it on the big screen beats it, but im not at home.
Buying UMDs to watch movies is pointless... its just a watse of money. The time it takes to rip a DVD to PSP video is shorter than it would take me to go to a shop and buy a UMD. It takes even less time to convert divx files to PSP. The quality compromise between UMD video and PSP converted video is negligable.
I personally belive that personal media centres are going to be very popular in the coming years and the PSP is great for this as it has the best screen on the market for portable products. Bit unfortunate it doesnt have a little more storage space tho.
I dont, however, think the product above is a great product. Nyko's charging case (without speakers[$50-60]) is a much better deal.
btw, dolby will release virtual 5.1 headphones for the psp in due course, replicating the theatre experience.
Jon V @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
you seem to have fogotten one thing. you might fit 1-2 movies on your memory stick, and have fairly low quality at that.... but you can carry unlimited umd videos and have all your free memory. thus, portable
marky mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
PSPs battery only lasts about 3h30 watching films. Thats about 2 films. Id say the time taken to charge is more than enuff to exchange movies on a duo.
What the point of having free memory? Surely if uv got it, u shd use it! Soon therell be a 2gb memory stick duo, which will hold 6-7 films at medium quality.
I really don't see why you belive UMD movies are worth however much they cost. The selection of films are not great and most of them are pretty old. Might aswell buy or rent dvd and rip to PSP or just dload it.
Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Dis Haksesoree eez de gweates ting chu hapin fo psp sinse sony's arival en da portible gaming world!
Make fun of japanese people all you want because we always get everything first!!
i got this product last week from my older brother who works for nyko testing prototypes. It truely is what they say it is and more and it does everything you want it to and looks and sounds great!!!
Trust Me i garuntee you will be satisfied with this!!!!!
Get one you'll be speechless!!!!
They should probably raise their price of 80 dallers though, it truely rules out any accessory made for psp.
every aspect of it is of the highest quality and it WILL blow you away.
Don't listen to any1 that doesn't agree with me. (they are always the ones who don't even own a psp). they are what you call a fanboy/girl. they stick with the same company for everything they buy, even when its obviously not a good buy or inferior to everything else
Take it from from me save for it, buy it, then never have to spend another cent on induvidual accessories that are $$$ and unsatisfying.
Anyone who disses this review will be the ones who want it the most because everyone else has one and as soon as they see it in person, they'll want one too.
The only problem will be finding one, because all the major sellers will be sold old from the preorders and opening day in the US(Around late June).
Trust me, only a true gamer will be one to make the right decision. Because by the end of opening day, it'll sell out just as fast as the psp itself.
Some Random Person @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
That one moron who said his big-screen is better for watching movies is better is stupid; key word:PORTABLE. Duh. Can you fit your 42" bigscreen TV into your pocket? You must have reeeaaaaally big pockets. I don't think so. You can't exactly watch it on a plane or in the car, either. If you really thought about it, you would find that this product is worth a lot more than it seems; a PSP battery costs, at lowest, $40. Speakers cost around $15 (decent ones), and a good hard case that props up the PSP would cost round $15 too. This case ($15) and the speakers ($15) plus the 3x battery power you get with it ($120) makes the whole thing worth about $150; I think it's a great deal and im getting one today
OSITHAYD @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
O.K. The Recharge Idea GREAT..The Stand Idea COOL .... The Speakers IDUNNO ABOUT.
AS far as post 10 by Jon Do If your Head unit as RCA inputs on the back of the unit you can set it up in the car as I did. Go to Radio Shack buy the RCA cables and an RCA to Headphone jack converter run the cable from behind the stereo under console with enough slack to plug it in. I use mine alot the Speakers on the PSP suck and wearing Earbuds is just as bad. Hell I plug in and I am engulfed in sound. I also use the conection to hook up my MP3 player. IPOD sells a unit for around $300 and the cables and adaptor only ran me about $15.
ALL-WAYS THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
OSITHAYD @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I almosyt forgot be sure to also get a Female-Female headphone jack. Tell them what you are trying to do and they should be able to help.
Geoff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Where can one buy one of these at a good price?
Enjoy the psp.....
knot_u @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
dumb idea. why don't they get a bigger screen atached
knot_u @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
oh yeh FIRST COMMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_[]_ you bill gates @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
you people who shoot for the first commment, are nerds that refresh engadget every 1 second so that you can be the first comment!! woo hoo my name is knot_u and im gay!!!!
Paco @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
This is a stupid idea. You couldn't use this in public places, you would disturb everybody. And if your at home, why not just watch movies on your regular TV?
Zoinks @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I actually like it, except for the speakers. I was flying to Dallas the other day and a stand like this would have come in handy..it was annoying to have to hold up the psp in the proper position to watch the movie for 2 hours. The fact it acts as a case and recharger in one sounds good to me..less wires and junk to carry around.
Zoinks @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I actually like it, except for the speakers. I was flying to Dallas the other day and a stand like this would have come in handy..it was annoying to have to hold up the psp in the proper position to watch the movie for 2 hours. The fact it acts as a case and recharger in one sounds good to me..less wires and junk to carry around.
Ledger @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Would be great for camping etc.
Tw-Naru @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I think that it is a good idea for a long car trip. Adds battery life with louder sound. A bigger screen would just be easier to break and make it bigger and heavier. Also then it would not double as a reasonably sized hard case shell. I would pay $45 ish for it though, not $80
-Naru
mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
hELOOOOO we already knew that portable video was stupid.
Bill Gates says he wants this. Sony says they want this. Why do they want it?
They don't. They're lying.
Don't believe their BS.
The portable media centres do not replicate the feeling of being in your living room, let alone a theatre, that's why comparing them to the iPod is autistic.
This is portable video people. You sit on the couch and prop up a 4 inch screen on the table.. and buy some speakers for it... what a freakin joke.
Oh .. when you're watching Spidey 2 on this thing.. try not to glance at the PS2 10 ft away..
"I could have just rented the DVD... and played it on my 42" TV...."
john do @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
what i'd like is for someone to figure out or create something so that you could hook it up to you car stereo so u could watch a movie while driving and the sound coming out of ur car speakers. that would be cool. sure i could buy those little tv's for my car but i just dont have the money for all of that. and im not some lil kid writin this.
OddManOut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
"why not just watch movies on your regular TV?"
Well...if your movie of choice is on a UMD you...uh...can't...
mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Well...if your movie of choice is on a UMD you...uh...can't...
---
yeah, cuz.. UMD has way better marketshare than... DVD!!!!!!
NUGAS ADEMOLA @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
hello sales
it's my plesure to write you this view letters to know that am intrested in your product which i will like to purchase some items in your store firtsly i wiil like to know if you ship ( worldwide)to nigeria via (dhl,ups,fedexpress)and also to know if you do payment
via(visa,mastercard)before i will forward the list of the items needed.
when you reply try to add your website
thanks
Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
And name one movie that is available on umd where there is not a higher quality alternative on dvd for cheaper? And you could just rip the dvd and put it on a memory stick and it would get the same experience as a umd, but with better battery life ... oh yea, I forgot, Sony artificially limits the resolution of movies played off the memory stick so they have to be stretched to fit the screen and give you inferior quality to the native resolution umd.
Sony, they really do care about their customers don't they.
Joey Geraci @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
And name one movie that is available on umd where there is not a higher quality alternative on dvd for cheaper? And you could just rip the dvd and put it on a memory stick and it would get the same experience as a umd, but with better battery life ... oh yea, I forgot, Sony artificially limits the resolution of movies played off the memory stick so they have to be stretched to fit the screen and give you inferior quality to the native resolution umd.
Sony, they really do care about their customers don't they.
JTS @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
You people are taking this way to seriously.
look, its a nice product cuz you dont have to hold the psp to watch movies, and you'll get a longer movie-play life and better sound. And about that UMD vs. DVD, you just buy UMDs of low plot action movies that you put on ure PSP to waste time and be entertained. no one is saying PSP is going to replace your home entertainment system, its just nice to be able to watch movies on the go, and nyko makes is safer and better to do it with this product
Z @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Um, you kinda contradicted yourself in your comment there. So no, actually you would not get the same experience with a movie ripped to a Memory Stick that you would on a UMD. But you're right when you say a movie on an M-Stick will not play at the maximum resolution that the PSP's screen supports, but UMDs will. I'm sure Sony did this on purpose to protect UMD sales.
And no one is going to do as good of a job encoding a movie at home as the movie studios or Sony will when producing professional UMDs. Just not gonna happen. Sony and the studios have the advantage in terms of that.
Let's also not forget the time required to rip and encode DVDs in order to load onto an M-Stick. Not everyone has the same computer with the same processing power and memory, so for many, this could mean hours processing each movie. A lot of people would rather simply pop in a UMD than go through all of the above.
And is battery life really going to be affected that much? Besides, the games are UMD as well, and the battery life on the PSP is great, so what's the big deal in watching a movie on UMD instead of M-Stick? I watched a UMD movie and still had over two-thirds of the battery life left.
Some people may not like UMDs, but currently UMDs are the best way of watching movies on a PSP.
marky mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
The guys who think that portable media centres aren't gonna take off are INSANE.
Listening to music in front of a good set of speakers is preferable to walkmans and ipods, but people still use them... Why? Because you cant take speakers with you. Just like the fact that you can't take a 42" television with you. Saying that people don't want to watch video on the go is like saying that people don't want to listen to music on the go, or make phone calls on the go.
I personally use my PSP to watch videos and films more than I use it for gaming. On the tube into uni I can watch an ep of South Park, or the latest ep of 24. (encoding at highest quality take less than 1/2 the runtime of the video on my comp) Yeah being at home watching it on the big screen beats it, but im not at home.
Buying UMDs to watch movies is pointless... its just a watse of money. The time it takes to rip a DVD to PSP video is shorter than it would take me to go to a shop and buy a UMD. It takes even less time to convert divx files to PSP. The quality compromise between UMD video and PSP converted video is negligable.
I personally belive that personal media centres are going to be very popular in the coming years and the PSP is great for this as it has the best screen on the market for portable products. Bit unfortunate it doesnt have a little more storage space tho.
I dont, however, think the product above is a great product. Nyko's charging case (without speakers[$50-60]) is a much better deal.
btw, dolby will release virtual 5.1 headphones for the psp in due course, replicating the theatre experience.
Jon V @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
you seem to have fogotten one thing. you might fit 1-2 movies on your memory stick, and have fairly low quality at that.... but you can carry unlimited umd videos and have all your free memory. thus, portable
marky mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
PSPs battery only lasts about 3h30 watching films. Thats about 2 films. Id say the time taken to charge is more than enuff to exchange movies on a duo.
What the point of having free memory? Surely if uv got it, u shd use it! Soon therell be a 2gb memory stick duo, which will hold 6-7 films at medium quality.
I really don't see why you belive UMD movies are worth however much they cost. The selection of films are not great and most of them are pretty old. Might aswell buy or rent dvd and rip to PSP or just dload it.
Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Dis Haksesoree eez de gweates ting chu hapin fo psp sinse sony's arival en da portible gaming world!
Make fun of japanese people all you want because we always get everything first!!
i got this product last week from my older brother who works for nyko testing prototypes. It truely is what they say it is and more and it does everything you want it to and looks and sounds great!!!
Trust Me i garuntee you will be satisfied with this!!!!!
Get one you'll be speechless!!!!
They should probably raise their price of 80 dallers though, it truely rules out any accessory made for psp.
every aspect of it is of the highest quality and it WILL blow you away.
Don't listen to any1 that doesn't agree with me. (they are always the ones who don't even own a psp). they are what you call a fanboy/girl. they stick with the same company for everything they buy, even when its obviously not a good buy or inferior to everything else
Take it from from me save for it, buy it, then never have to spend another cent on induvidual accessories that are $$$ and unsatisfying.
Anyone who disses this review will be the ones who want it the most because everyone else has one and as soon as they see it in person, they'll want one too.
The only problem will be finding one, because all the major sellers will be sold old from the preorders and opening day in the US(Around late June).
Trust me, only a true gamer will be one to make the right decision. Because by the end of opening day, it'll sell out just as fast as the psp itself.
Some Random Person @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
That one moron who said his big-screen is better for watching movies is better is stupid; key word:PORTABLE. Duh. Can you fit your 42" bigscreen TV into your pocket? You must have reeeaaaaally big pockets. I don't think so. You can't exactly watch it on a plane or in the car, either. If you really thought about it, you would find that this product is worth a lot more than it seems; a PSP battery costs, at lowest, $40. Speakers cost around $15 (decent ones), and a good hard case that props up the PSP would cost round $15 too. This case ($15) and the speakers ($15) plus the 3x battery power you get with it ($120) makes the whole thing worth about $150; I think it's a great deal and im getting one today
OSITHAYD @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
O.K. The Recharge Idea GREAT..The Stand Idea COOL .... The Speakers IDUNNO ABOUT.
AS far as post 10 by Jon Do If your Head unit as RCA inputs on the back of the unit you can set it up in the car as I did. Go to Radio Shack buy the RCA cables and an RCA to Headphone jack converter run the cable from behind the stereo under console with enough slack to plug it in. I use mine alot the Speakers on the PSP suck and wearing Earbuds is just as bad. Hell I plug in and I am engulfed in sound. I also use the conection to hook up my MP3 player. IPOD sells a unit for around $300 and the cables and adaptor only ran me about $15.
ALL-WAYS THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
OSITHAYD @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
I almosyt forgot be sure to also get a Female-Female headphone jack. Tell them what you are trying to do and they should be able to help.
Geoff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:54AM
Where can one buy one of these at a good price?
Enjoy the psp.....