Convert YouTube videos for PSP really easily

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 17th 2007 at 1:15AM }

The PSP is supposed to play Flash video one of these days ... but considering Sony's slow adoption of features we really want, we wouldn't hold our breath for it. Until then, there's a ridiculously easy solution for converting videos from sites like YouTube ... and it doesn't even involve downloading any software!

1. Get the URL of the video you want.
2. Copy URL into the "FLV Online Converter" at vixy.net
3. Choose "MP4 for iPod/PSP"
4. Wait for the conversion, download file, and then save it to your PSP under the "VIDEO" folder.

Does it get any easier than this? Not really. I found it to work quite quickly, with some impressive results.

[Via Zeropaid]

Tags: converter, download squad, DownloadSquad, flash, flv, ipod, video, vixy, youtube

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jimmy @ Jan 18th 2007 3:19AM

COOL!!! this can be useful.

PSP Gamer @ Jan 17th 2007 3:11AM

This is great... But why can't Sony just fix these kinds of things? Maybe if they actually gave us things like full flash support, the homebrew community wouldn't be so rampant.

Jose El Maton @ Jan 17th 2007 3:16AM

Ha! It works perfectly! Mr. Yoon, you are a GOD! I love you, man. Do... do you love me?

Seriously, this is why I read the Fanboy. You don't get the variety of PSP Fanboy on any of the other Fanboy/Joystiq sites I read. Thanks for all your blogotry!

extremo113 @ Jan 17th 2007 5:58AM

For windows users who want a video converter that works with most video formats there is a free program called any video converter(does not really convert any video format) at http://any-video-converter.com/.I use it for most videos that I want to convert for use on my psp.

Kichigai Mentat @ Jan 17th 2007 8:56AM

Well, let's show the Mac users some love in this department. First, the universal "get the movie" step. Get a copy of FireFox (if you don't already, and I highly recommend keeping it and using it for all web browsing) and install the VideoDownloader extension. Next, go to YouTube and find the video that you want. Click on the VideoDownloader button, and follow the instructions to save the video.

Now you have an FLV file. The next step involves ffmpegX, a Mac OS X front-end to FFMPEG, which can convert from virtually all formats known to man (save SWF, but that's not really video, it's more like animation). Drop the FLV into the "Drop File Here" box, and for output select either PSP MPEG-4, or PSP H.264. If you have a PSP running a firmware 2.80 or newer, you can also use MPEG-4 in MP4 or H.264 in MP4. Click the Encode button. Voilá!

Notes to be aware of: sometimes the encoder's progress bar is a little tweaky, and you'll end up seeing the video be complete at 125%, or greater. You can also add other video encoding jobs to the queue and have them done in sequence. If you use the PSP presets, you'll also get your output file named in the old style convention. In order to give your video a proper name, if using the older presets, click on the "Options" tab and there should be a box to insert a name for the video (by default it just says "Movie").

It's worth noting that FFMPEG can run on Windows, Linux, or any other operating system, and each of them probably has their own front-end as well. The PSP presets are part of FFMPEG, not ffmpegX, which means no matter what front-end you use, you'll have those presets. A nifty shortcut, though (and this works on all operating systems), is to check and see if the video you want is on Google Video (video.google.com). Google Video, about 95% of the time, has a link to download the video you're watching in a format that plays on both the PSP (firmware 2.80 and newer only) and the iPod.

Enjoy.

Tree @ Jan 17th 2007 10:59AM

I tried that "any-video-converter" program first, but it is shareware and burn it's web address into all your converted videos. I wasn't too impressed with the quality, either. pspvideo9 doesn't mention this in their documentatin, but I was able to convert my videos with it into my preferred 16:9 widescreen format. Now, if they'd just update their converter for 3.0+ firmware.

beavis @ Jan 17th 2007 12:07PM

use PSP Video 9, it also convert .flv, but when selecting the file, choose "all files" to see the .flv
To get the .flv from youtube use firefox and an addon called unplug. for mkv/ogm it is a little more complex, but i have some success with alltoavi.

Kspraydad @ Jan 17th 2007 12:29PM

Lifehacker had a nice site link yesterday for Hey, Watch.

Quote:

Web site Hey!Watch lets you upload videos from your hard drive or online video sites like YouTube, then encode said videos to nearly any format on the planet, including pretty much anything you might need for a portable device.

One of the most brilliant features of Hey!Watch is that they create a podcast feed of your converted videos, meaning you can, for example, add your feed to iTunes, which can then automatically download your converted videos and sync them to your iPod. We've posted several online file and media conversion tools lately, but so far Hey!Watch is by far the best online tool for video conversion I've seen.

http://lifehacker.com/software/video/convert-video-to-any-format-with-heywatch-229066.php

http://heywatch.com/site

Jaleeb Caru @ Jan 17th 2007 12:26PM

Please assist me with the process if you can, thanks in advance for all your help.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'd love some help. I've tried this on both a PC and a Mac. I'm using 3.03. I've run the url through the site's process. I then put the file on my Memory Stick under MP_ROOT/100MNV01. It then has the MP4 extension displayed. I change the name to M4V10001.MP4 and add a thumbnail from a jpeg that's 160x120 and make the thumbnail's name M4V10001.THM.

After it still shows on the PSP up as unsupported format. I have both flash and wmv enabled. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

J-Dog @ Jan 17th 2007 3:14PM

I need help too! I went through the site's process and put the video on my PSP,but it doesn't show up in the VIDEO menu! Can someone help me?

Andrew Yoon @ Jan 17th 2007 3:29PM

Please, everyone that's been sending in e-mails/comments: put the video in the VIDEO folder, NOT the MP_ROOT folder. Requires firmware 2.80 or above.

Jason Langley @ Jan 17th 2007 10:56PM

Am i the ONLY person that actually bought the psp media manager? for 20 bucks it works pretty well for me.

Kmastergamert @ Jan 17th 2007 8:08PM

this is pretty good info and it actually works!!!!!! not like the other ones i tried

Countess1002 @ Jan 18th 2007 9:20AM

Thank you so so much for this! Just the other day I was telling my friend how I would love to have some of my favorites from youtube on my psp and then I happen to find this article yesterday. I've downloaded so many videos now I need a bigger memory card.

A good converter you can find at www.download.com and it's free. Here's the link for the download: http://www.download.com/Any-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-10611989.html?tag=lst-0-1

Really good for converting those mov files to mp4.

Sad_panda @ Jan 18th 2007 7:17PM

After i download the video i started watchin i to make sure it really worked the video has fine but the sound sounded muffed

Kevin @ Jan 18th 2007 9:45PM

Hey some of you should upload these to google video that way you and many others can download them faster, and for people who cant get a video to work when its in the video folder, firmware 2.80 then format a memorystick FIRST then save in video folder, because the psp wont recognize the folder before that

CurryMad @ Jan 27th 2007 6:30PM

So from the comments above, does this mean you can only get Google Video working on a PSP with 2.80 or above?

I download some Google Video as mp4 but it won't play on my PSP. I have had MP4's downloaded to my PSP in the past and they work fine - Just the ones from Google Video that don't.

Any suggestions? - Apart from upgrading to 2.80!!

jrm5girl @ Jan 29th 2007 1:42PM

Hey thanks for this really useful tip. One thing though: it worked for one of the videos that I converted from YouTube but now that I am trying to convert another, it says DB Error. What's that about? Thanks again, bro!

Johnny Bravo @ Jan 29th 2007 1:51PM

when i try to download something when its done it says error what should i do?

Dan @ Feb 4th 2007 7:44PM

I'm getting so mad i made the files for the videos and im putting the videos in and when i go out of usb mode some space on my psp has been taken up but when i look in my videos nothing shows up. All my other files work though. Can you please tell me what's going on

Thanks!