I have been searching and searching for the best way to convert my videos to work on both my 80GB iPod (5.5G) and my PSP (3.71 M33-3) and couldn't find anything helpful so I started experimenting. Here's what I have found...
I decided to use the freeware Avidemux 2.4 (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/) - it's fast and has a decent selection of options and filters built in. Plus you can convert small clips which is great for experimenting. In order for this to work, I realized that I would have to use smaller resolutions than I am used to (640x480 for iPod and 480x272 for PSP). You'll see the restricted resolutions I have tried below - if you have any larger resolutions PLEASE let me know.
Known working resolutions are:
368x208 (widescreen)
320x240 (normal screen)
These are the steps and settings I used:
1. Open the video file - I started with an MPEG-4 movie of Snow White in 4:3aspect ratio.
Settings:
Sample Rate: 48000Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 1536 kb/s
Resolution: 512x384
Frame rate: 23,976
Duration: 1:23
File size: 569,506 KB
2. Select Auto | iPod (MPEG)
3. Select Target Type: IPOD 320x240
4. Set Video to MPEG-4 ASP (lavc)
5. Click Video Configure
6. Set Encoding Mode to Single pass - bitrate 7. Bitrate to 768
8. Click Video Filters
9. Confirm MPlayer resize is targeting 320x240
10. Set Resample fps to 29,970
11. Set Audio to AAC (FAAC)
12. Click Audio Configure
13. Set Bitrate to 64
14. Click Audio Filters
15. Set Resampling to 24000
16. Select File | Save | Save video
17. Name the file *note - you must append the file extension .mp4 manually
18. Click Save
For your purposes I would recommend starting with only a clip and avoid converting the whole movie. In Avidemux, use the green & grey slider bar on the bottom of the preview window to find the start of your clip and select the A/-> button then move the slider to the end of your clip and select the ->/B button.
For Snow White the conversion process took approximately :35 minutes on a low-end laptop.
Settings:
Sample Rate: 48000Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 768 kb/s
Resolution: 320x240
Frame rate: 29,970
Duration: 1:23
File size: 508,017 KB
The resulting file plays audio only using Quicktime, but video does work with VLC. Copy the file into iTunes and then to your iPod and it works fine. On your PSP be sure to manually copy it to the root/VIDEO folder (assuming you have a downgraded PSP).
Let me know if this works for you and if you have any suggestions for advancing these settings.
Shouldn't mp4 videos work on any psp? Or only the downgraded one? Actually, I'd been wondering about that as well, since my psp is using the official firmware 3.95 and videos don't work on it. I've tried your method with a clip, but it's corrupted on my psp.
