Hacking the PSP Blog

MediaCoder Converts Audio and Video Between Various Formats for Free

There is a deluge of software available for transcoding audio and video files from one type to another, but many of them specialize in certain files types and many of them will cost you a large some sum of money. That's why MediaCoder stands out above the rest (via Jake Ludington's MediaBlab). The beauty of MediaCoder lies in several areas. For one, it is absolutely free. And in this case, you get much more than you pay for. Free, however, isn't everything.

It can convert to and from various sources. It can read MP3, OGG/Vorbis, ACC, MusePack, WMA, RealAudio, FLAC, WavPack, APE/APL and WAV files on the audio side. Video sources include AVI (Xvid/DivX/H.264), MPEG1/2/4, QuickTime, WMV/ASF, RealMedia, MP4 and Matroska. It can also read CUE Sheets, CDs, VCDs and DVDs. It can convert those audio sources to MP3, OGG/Vorbis, AAC, AAC+/Parametric Stereo, MusePack, WMA and Lossless codecs FLAC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio (APE), WMA Lossless, and WAV. It can put your video into H.264, Xvid, DivX 4/5, MPEG1/2/4, and H.263. Additionally, while going back and forth between formats, you can adjust compression or customize the target for use on devices like Mobile phones, PDAs or even the Sony PSP. All in all, it looks like a real winner of a product, though your mileage may vary.

Source: eHomeUpgrade

iRiver to Compete with the PSP? Whoa.

Best known for its low-cost audio players, iRiver raised a few eyebrows at CES this year when it showed off the iRiver G10. With a 4-inch, 260k color LCD, the G10 is both a gaming console and a media player, pretty much along the lines of the Sony PSP. But unlike the PSP, the G10 runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and includes WiBro networking for online game play. So far only two game titles have been announced for the G10, and it's unclear whether developers will line up to support the device. But there'll be plenty of time for that since the console won't hit the streets until August, its scheduled release timeframe for the Korean market.










Source: Wired

Sony's PlayStation brand strongest in the industry

The Sony PlayStation 3 and the PSP have the highest percentage of brand awareness amongst consumers according to Forrester's latest report on the video games industry (which we covered earlier, twice). The mail based survey (of 10,000 households in North America) found that 72% of North American consumers have heard of the PlayStation 3 and a full 6% plan to buy one, despite the fact that Sony has yet to announce a final feature set, a release date or the console's price.

The Sony PSP came second on the chart of consumer gaming device awareness - 65% of consumers have heard of the PSP and around 3% plan to buy one. It's clear that Microsoft's Xbox 360 console faces an uphill battle if it wants to wrestle the mindset of North American consumers away from Sony.

Amusingly--and probably unsurprisingly--none of the consumers that had heard of the Infinium Phantom said they were planning on buying the console.

Read full article.

Source: Joystiq

What Sony, Microsoft must do to win in North America

From the same Forrester report we've been blogging about for the past few hours comes an analysis of the next-generation console war and what Microsoft and Sony need to do to win the battle for North America. Differing from the Japanese and European markets, North America is looking like a relatively even playing field. It's here that the battle between the next-generation consoles will be the most obvious.

If Microsoft wants to topple the PlayStation's dominance in America it's got to do a couple of things. Firstly, the company has to capitalize on the early success of the Xbox Live Marketplace by allowing more Internet delivery of content. In other words, Microsoft needs to prepare to bust open its Trojan horse and enable full game downloads via Xbox Live. Downloadable movies, MP3s and similar content couldn't hurt either. Secondly, Microsoft needs to push its Media Center Edition connectivity feature to the forefront of the home entertainment niche. Vista's built in Media Center functionality should help Microsoft in this respect.

If Sony wants to hold onto its crown and deflect the Xbox 360 it needs to make its own products and departments work more effectively together (we'd say the same thing for their PR teams). With the Sony PSP, PlayStation 3 and Sony Ericsson cellphones, Sony has the opportunity to increase multi-platform sales by allowing games to persist across its platforms. The report offers the example of seamlessly transferring a customized Killzone squad from the PlayStation 3 onto your PSP. This standardized networking has great potential in strengthening game franchises. That means Sony has to kick its habit of creating pointless media formats (ie stop with the proprietary formats already!).

More from the Forrester report:
PC market healthy, shows signs of growth
Consumer attitudes to gaming are slumping
Sony's PlayStation brand strongest in the industry

Source: Joystiq

UK TV actress voicing Lara Croft in new Tomb Raider game

Keeley Hawes, star of BBC series MI-5, will be the Tomb Raider heroine's new voice; game due in April.

Last month, many sites reported that British actress Rachel Weisz would be the new voice of Lara Croft, blue-blooded heroine of the Tomb Raider series. Though publisher Eidos Interactive would only say an announcement was "coming soon," the choice seemed logical. Even before she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for the thriller The Constant Gardner, the actress had a high profile with gamers, having starred in the popular Mummy films. Also, given the fact Weisz is currently several months pregnant with the child of filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, who is directing her in the forthcoming sci-fi romance The Fountain, she'd probably be up for an undemanding-but-lucrative voice-acting gig.

However, like many premature reports, the Weisz-as-Croft rumor turned out to be dead wrong. This week, Eidos announced that another actress will be giving Croft her upper-crust diction in the forthcoming multiplatform release, Tomb Raider: Legend. And the winner is...Keeley Hawes?

If you're asking yourself who Hawes is, you're not alone. While a familiar face in the UK, most North Americans will be unfamiliar with the 29-year-old veteran of British television. Her highest-profile roles in the US were on the TV drama MI-5 (aka Spooks), which was on heavy rotation on BBC America, and the big-screen comedy Tristram Shandy: A *** and Bull Story, which was a hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

"Lara Croft is such a strong and powerful character, but she also has an edge to her, which was great to portray vocally," Keeley said in a statement sent to the European press. Matt Gorman, Eidos' head of the Tomb Raider franchise, said "she had the right balance of aristocracy and attitude" to play the blue-blooded adventuress.

Tomb Raider: Legend is set for release in the US on April 11 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and the PC. Xbox 360 and PSP versions will ship "shortly after," according to Eidos.

By Tor Thorsen -- GameSpot

Source: GameSpot

New Game: Rush races for PSP

Midway returns to streets of Los Angeles with new missions, exclusive battle, and stunt modes.

Midway is set to put the pedal to the metal again this fall, as the company has revealed the first details on Rush for the PSP, the latest in its long line of California-based cruising games and the first for Sony's handheld.

Like last year's L.A. Rush, the PSP Rush will include a story mode set in a shortcut-laden City of Angels, which will feature more than 50 rides (at least 36 of them licensed), some of them downright pimped-out rides courtesy of West Coast Customs. However, Rush will also include some extras, including 30 new cruise missions, a hip-hop and rock soundtrack with new tracks from Lil' Kim and Twista, and the ability to play any cruise mission with another player by way of the PSP's Wi-Fi capabilities.

Also featured on the PSP Rush will be stunt arena and battle race modes. The latter mode will let players go head-to-head with each other in a power-up-propelled race to the finish, while the stunt arena calls upon players to launch their cars off ramps and sail through the air performing various twists and turns before (hopefully) landing on all four wheels. As in the stunt mode in the Dreamcast version of San Francisco Rush 2049, golden tokens that unlock extra content in the game will be placed amid the mayhem.

Rush for the PSP is set for release in September and has not yet been rated or priced. For more from Midway, check out GameSpot's sneak peek at the company's upcoming press event.

By Brendan Sinclair -- GameSpot

Source: GameSpot

Homebrew Releases for Friday, February 24, 2006

It's all across the board today... from a new Grand Theft Auto Cheat Device by Edison Carter to
an Infrastructure-mode Wi-Fi software development library ... check it out:

Games
KETM PSP v0.08
SuperCobra v0.7

Applications
netlib Instant Messenger Demo

Software Development
Netlib v1.0 PSP Infrastructure Development Library (WiFi application software development)