Video Conversion

This one wasn’t even close. QuickTime 7 Pro took around twelve hours to encode the video in an iPod-friendly format, while PSPware took under three hours to encode the PSP-formatted version our test video. Twelve hours was simply unacceptable, and not something we’d be likely to do again.

Video Size

323.6 MB — That’s the size of Kill Bill Vol.1 compressed with PSPware, compared to 498 MB for the iPod video. The settings in PSPware had the video quality on high, with resolution set at 368x208 (16:9), as compared to the 320x240 resolution set in QuickTime for the iPod’s file. Obviously, the PSP video file doesn’t take full advantage of the unit’s screen — which features a 480x272 resolution. This has been rumored to be due to a protective measure by Sony to protect sales of UMDs, which use the full screen resolution.

Video Sharpness vs. Screen Size

The video on the iPod was surprisingly crisp despite its 2.5” screen. Since Kill Bill is shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (typical widescreen formats, such as HDTV and the PSP’s screen, are 1.78:1), it actually only used about a third of the iPod’s screen, as opposed to using a majority — around 75 percent — of the PSP’s screen. Unfortunately this large size advantage did not equal a better picture. The video simply wasn’t as crisp as the iPod’s due to the fact that the movie was more or less being “blown up” to fill the PSP’s screen. All in all, the experience on both was about even - the iPod’s screen showing crisp video on an extremely small scale, while the PSP had a much more comfortable screen size but lacked the sharpness of the video being shown on the iPod.

Audio Quality

The audio quality of both videos was good, but the iPod’s seemed just a tiny bit clearer and better separated, most likely due to the fact that the audio in the iPod video file is encoded into AAC audio, the same codec used in purchases from the iTunes Music Store. To its credit, the PSP did seem to have a little more bass when needed — but this was a pretty small difference that we had to use fairly expensive listening equipment to hear.

Battery Test

Once again a blowout. The iPod video lasted two hours and twenty-one minutes on one charge playing the movie in a loop, while the PSP lasted seven and a half hours one one charge playing the same loop. Granted, the iPod’s screen was brighter for the duration — it doesn’t have a brightness control — but the constant accessing of the hard drive and smaller battery size really hindered the iPod’s performance in this test.

Overall

It is very close to being a toss-up. The PSP has its strengths, and so does the iPod. Of course we didn’t try to watch either of them hooked up to a TV — something that you can’t currently do with a PSP — but the resolutions of the files lead us to believe that the difference would have been negligible. Really, it’s all about what you want. If you want super-sharp video and can stand the small screen size, the iPod isn’t a bad choice. If you want the larger screen and don’t mind losing a little bit of the image clarity, the PSP is your gadget — plus you can’t forget about the always expanding library of UMDs to which the iPod has no answer. It’s these facts, coupled with the faster video encoding and longer battery life, that lead us to the conclusion that the PSP is the better mobile video player.