Friday, February 26, 2010
It is of utmost importance to note that I have had no personal experience with other eReaders, so I am judging the PSP as an eReader solely based on its merits and shortcomings.
There are a few methods to read books on a PSP:
1. HTML files, which are totally acceptable - and mediocre - for book reading,
2. Image files, a very much less acceptable book form for the PSP and,
3. bookr, homebrew eReader for the PSP.
You cannot use bookr unless you have custom firmware on your PSP, which is a tremendous pity, for bookr is the ultimate medium for books to appear on your PSP. I highly recommend that you find some way to get custom firmware on your PSP if you intend it to be a eReader, as the alternatives are ugly and painful in comparison.
There is a site dedicated to books for the PSP in HTML format, and you might want to patronise it should you be stuck somewhere with only your PSP and a wi-fi connection. This site has a decent collection of books, formatted for the PSP.
If you have PDF files, you can either convert them to image files, and use the PSP's inbuilt picture viewer, or bookr, which is a much more elegant solution.
I shall base my review mainly on bookr, which is what I have been using to read.
Bookr supports numerous formats, TXT, PDF and HTML to name the most common ones. It does not, however, support your DRM-laden files, and you might have better luck somewhere else with those. Not that I would know where. I read with the PSP held vertical, in one hand, index finger on the trigger. Some might like it different, but I do not know of any sane reason to read with with a widescreen aspect.
Battery life is more than decent: three whole afternoons of my pointless conscript life spent on Atlas Shrugged and it's still has juice in it for another. Granted, I set the CPU speed of the PSP down in bookr's option menu, along with setting it on the dimmest screen brightness, which conserved considerable amounts of battery life - but still, it does last as an eReader. PDFs will be more sluggish at these low CPU speeds, so you will have to make a compromise between battery life and responsiveness. TXT files are snappy at the lowest CPU speeds.
The PSP feels ergonomic in the hand, and flipping pages is a natural action. The weight of my first-generation PSP fat tires my hand out after a few hours, leading me to switch hands, but owners of newer and lighter PSPs might have better luck with this.
Screen glare is a non-issue for me at the lowest screen brightness.
Transferring books is simple, plug the PSP in, and your OS should detect it as a removable drive. Transfer your books on, and presto, the deed is done.
The default font is clear and legible, and I have found no reason to change it, but if you are as so inclined to, you may.
PDF support is good. It works, is fast if you choose to make it so and you can resize the page, but you cannot resize the page and make it fit on the screen.
Storage will depend on your memory card's size. Personally I use a 4GB stick, and it is more than adequate for the job.
You will have to manually find books for your PSP, for there is no integrated shop for books. The Gutenberg Project has a few books, and you, given enough Internet-savvy, will find other libraries online for your books.
PSPs are also a whole lot cheaper than dedicated ebook readers like Amazon's Kindle or the Nook, plus it can play games and videos. I guess it's a plus in PSP's favour over dedicated ebook readers.
TL;DR: PSP is a good eReader, if you have custom firmware. It is not, if you do not.
There are a few methods to read books on a PSP:
1. HTML files, which are totally acceptable - and mediocre - for book reading,
2. Image files, a very much less acceptable book form for the PSP and,
3. bookr, homebrew eReader for the PSP.
You cannot use bookr unless you have custom firmware on your PSP, which is a tremendous pity, for bookr is the ultimate medium for books to appear on your PSP. I highly recommend that you find some way to get custom firmware on your PSP if you intend it to be a eReader, as the alternatives are ugly and painful in comparison.
There is a site dedicated to books for the PSP in HTML format, and you might want to patronise it should you be stuck somewhere with only your PSP and a wi-fi connection. This site has a decent collection of books, formatted for the PSP.
If you have PDF files, you can either convert them to image files, and use the PSP's inbuilt picture viewer, or bookr, which is a much more elegant solution.
I shall base my review mainly on bookr, which is what I have been using to read.
Bookr supports numerous formats, TXT, PDF and HTML to name the most common ones. It does not, however, support your DRM-laden files, and you might have better luck somewhere else with those. Not that I would know where. I read with the PSP held vertical, in one hand, index finger on the trigger. Some might like it different, but I do not know of any sane reason to read with with a widescreen aspect.
Battery life is more than decent: three whole afternoons of my pointless conscript life spent on Atlas Shrugged and it's still has juice in it for another. Granted, I set the CPU speed of the PSP down in bookr's option menu, along with setting it on the dimmest screen brightness, which conserved considerable amounts of battery life - but still, it does last as an eReader. PDFs will be more sluggish at these low CPU speeds, so you will have to make a compromise between battery life and responsiveness. TXT files are snappy at the lowest CPU speeds.
The PSP feels ergonomic in the hand, and flipping pages is a natural action. The weight of my first-generation PSP fat tires my hand out after a few hours, leading me to switch hands, but owners of newer and lighter PSPs might have better luck with this.
Screen glare is a non-issue for me at the lowest screen brightness.
Transferring books is simple, plug the PSP in, and your OS should detect it as a removable drive. Transfer your books on, and presto, the deed is done.
The default font is clear and legible, and I have found no reason to change it, but if you are as so inclined to, you may.
PDF support is good. It works, is fast if you choose to make it so and you can resize the page, but you cannot resize the page and make it fit on the screen.
Storage will depend on your memory card's size. Personally I use a 4GB stick, and it is more than adequate for the job.
You will have to manually find books for your PSP, for there is no integrated shop for books. The Gutenberg Project has a few books, and you, given enough Internet-savvy, will find other libraries online for your books.
PSPs are also a whole lot cheaper than dedicated ebook readers like Amazon's Kindle or the Nook, plus it can play games and videos. I guess it's a plus in PSP's favour over dedicated ebook readers.
TL;DR: PSP is a good eReader, if you have custom firmware. It is not, if you do not.