What Types of Movies Play on the PSP?

Movie File Formats

• The file format of a video file determines how the video and audio are encoded within the file. Specialized files known as codecs help video playing software to decode different file formats, telling the software how to handle both the audio and video streams and keep them synchronized. Due to the limited storage space available for the PSP's operating system, a limited number of codecs are included with the system. Without custom firmware or other modifications, the PSP can only play movie files in three formats.

Memory Stick Video

• Movies in Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Video format play on the PSP without problems. These files have a file extension of .aac and are a variation of the MPEG-4 video format that is used by a number of different programs. Three different types of Memory Stick Video files exist: Simple Profile, Main Profile and Baseline Profile. The differences between the file types lies in the encoding profile used to create them; the PSP can play .aac files created with any of the profiles.

MP4

• MP4 files are another variant of the MPEG-4 video format which is not proprietary to Sony. These files use the .mp4 file extension. MP4 files can be created using the same encoding profiles as Memory Stick Video files since both file types are different versions of the same video format. Some MP4 files are created using Sony technology, but the PSP can play .mp4 files created by the software of other companies as well.

AVI

• AVI files are a different file type that are unrelated to the MPEG-4 format. Though different AVI file types exist, each type uses the file extension .avi. The PSP only supports two variants of the Motion JPEG AVI, Linear PCM and μ-Law. As AVI files are not based on the file type that Sony uses as a proprietary format, AVI support on the PSP may not be as complete as the support that MP4 and AAC files receive.