Product Spotlight: Sony PSP Slim Video

Product Spotlight: Sony PSP Slim Video Transcript

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>> Looking for gaming in your pocket that's like playing a console at home. I'm Brian Tong from CNET.com and today we've got the light shining on the latest Sony Playstation portable. The PSP slim is the lighter, slimmer and slicker update of the original PSP that's packed with features galore. Let's check out the design. It's 19 percent thinner than the original and one-third lighter. Owners of the older PSP will feel the difference immediately. What's the first thing you notice? It's got a huge 4.3 screen that dominates the device and everyone familiar with the playstation control layout will feel right at home. The PSP also has the best graphics for gaming portable, hands down. It's really like having a Playstation 2 in your hands. There are plenty of killer titles like Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and the innovative [inaudible] but the PSP tends to cater to a more hardcore gamer. This is a gaming machine but what makes it unique is all the other stuff it can do. There's a ton so we'll try to get through most of it. The PSP is a solid music player. It supports DRM-free MP3s, WMA, WAV, AAC, and ATRAC3 files, and album art too. It also can display JPEG, GIFs and TIFFs for photo viewing. There's no surprise that the PSP supports video playback. You can purchase UMD video disk but that never caught on because they're only for the PSP and selection is limited. You can convert your own video unto the memory stick duo card or even use the TiVo To Go software to convert recorded shows for viewing on the PSP. You can also stream live TV using Sony's LocationFree TV device. It's like their take on a Slingbox. Now how about some internet features that take advantage of the PSP's Wi-Fi? There's the Remote Play feature that allows the PSP to turn your PS3 on or off remotely and stream its media content. There's a built-in web browser that's decent and it's at least better than most cellphone browsers. You have the ability to make Skype calls and you have access to over 22,000 internet radio stations. Now, Sony continues to release for more updates and each one is brought even more features. So I don't see that changing and it's a constantly improving device. So what do we still wanna see improved? On the hardware side, the screen is great but it's still a plastic surface and it scratches pretty easily. Mine scratched a few days after throwing it into my bag so you guys got to protect yours. There's also video output on the latest PSP to the new AV jack on the bottom here and it's a great feature and video content can support the full DVD level resolution. The games only output at the PSP's locked in native 480 by 272 res. I'm hoping a firmer update will fix that on the future. Now game load times could be better and they've improved and I know it's the nature of the UMD format, but I wish they were faster. Battery life could be better too. Sure it's a big screen but I've got about 4 hours of game play before I have to go for recharge. I probably notice it a lot more because the crazy battery life on the DS Lite. And a personal wish, I wish it had two analog controllers instead of just one. If they want us to play first person, it sure is the right way, that's the way to do it. It could also really open up to new types of game play. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com and the Sony Playstation portable is not only a great gaming portable but it's a multimedia machine with features that take it beyond gaming. ^M00:03:10 [ Music ]