There are alot of websites today that offer video content for your viewing pleasure that you may like to copy onto your PSP to watch away from your computer.

Most times, this is easily done by downloading the video, putting it through some software like PSP Video 9, and getting a video file at the end in the correct format that you can put on the PSP to watch. However, a number of sites are now using the Flash Video encoder to play movies, which isn’t so easy convert - big sites like YouTube have been using this format for a while.

All hope is not lost however, and this tutorial will talk you through installing a YouTube video onto your PSP.

Flash videos can now be converted online using a service provided by Vixy.net. This site takes a link to a video and converts it to the format of your choice, which you can then download to your PC.

You need to find a video to convert, so hit YouTube and find something you’d like to watch. For this tutorial I simply picked the first video on the homepage.

Next you need to find the link information for the video:

Open up the Vixy.net site and paste the url into the form. Select the MP4 for iPod/PSP option from the list, and press the Start button.

After a few moments, you will see a link to download the converted video file.

Click the link and you should see a dialog box like the one below:

Save the file to your harddisk somewhere (noting the location). The filename will be a long series of letters and numbers, with an mp4 extension.

Now connect your PSP to the PC via its USB cable. You will need to ensure that you have a video folder in the root directory (if you are using the 3.03OE custom firmware). The root of your Memory Stick should look like this:

If you are running an older firmware version, you may need to place the videos in a directory called MP_ROOT/100MNV01, but custom firmware (3.03OE) users can place the video in the video directory at root level.

When you have copied the video across to your PSP, it should be available under the video option in the XMB. If you have to put the video into the MP_ROOT/100MNV01 folder, you will need to rename the video in the following format :

The last five digits of the name can be incremented up as you copy more videos onto your PSP. Custom firmware users (3.03OE) don’t need to stick to this naming format.

In my example, I have renamed the file to M4V10023.MP4, but in reality I could have called in youtube.MP4, and it would still have worked (my PSP is running custom firmware 3.03OE-C).

The main issue for video playback on the PSP is the change that has occurred in the directory structure you need to use. Originally videos had to be named with a specific format, and had to exist in the MP_ROOT/100MNV01 folder. The latest firmware release (at least the custom firmware 3.03OE) allows videos to be named however you like, and are simply placed ina video directory in the root of the Memory Stick Pro Duo.

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