PSP World

PSP On TV Review

When the PSP On TV was announced last October, it was the first of several warranty-safe TV adapters for the PSP. While it’s form was rather large, the possibility of playing our portable favorites on our large screen was very appealing. Unfortunately, it turns out the adapter is better suited to smaller screens. Read the review to learn why.

Our review unit of PSP On TV arrived straight from the assembly line, so we can’t comment on the unit’s final packaging or operating instructions, but the device is intuitively designed, so that really wasn’t a problem. The unit attaches to the PSP via a simple molded clip on the bottom and two thumb screws that go into the PSP on the top. Two cables run out of the bottom the device, one to the headphone/remote port and one to the PSP’s AC port. On the top of the device is a replication of the headphone/remote port and AC port — which also supplies the power needed to run the PSP On TV unit — and a mini-USB port for the AV out.

Once the TV unit is secure and plugged in to the PSP, all that is needed to get it up and running is plugging in the PSP’s power adapter to the top of the device and hooking the supplied AV cables into an available slot on your TV or monitor. We were somewhat disappointed that there was only composite video out — the “normal” RCA yellow cable — and not S-video, but for a lot of people this won’t matter. Standard right and left audio — the white and red RCA cords — supply the sound to the TV.

We tested our trial unit on two separate televisions — an older, 24” Sony Wega tube TV, and a 50” Panasonic LCD HD Rear Projection. With two viewing devices this different, we expected varied results — and that’s exactly what we got. Video-wise, the PSP On TV unit performed fairly well on the 24” Sony. The picture was formatted for a 4:3 screen with black bars at the top and bottom preserving the original aspect of the games, and the overall video signal — brightness, color, clarity — wasn’t bad. The audio wasn’t the greatest, with some crackling and distortion, but we got it to an acceptable level by adjusting the volume on the PSP and the TV.

When we hooked the device up to the Panasonic, we had a very different experience. The video looked muddy at best, and downright awful at other times. To be honest, we expected slightly less impressive results from this setup simply because of the greater resolution of the TV — which is native 720p — but it was still disappointing. The colors seemed off, and it was really never bright enough to play comfortably. Plus, since the audio in this setup was being run through our Bose Lifestyle system instead of the TV, all of the small problems we had with the audio were exaggerated.

Now for the real problem — playing the PSP with the unit attached. Since it is such a small machine, the PSP has a weight balance that can easily be thrown off. With the PSP On TV unit attached, the balance is thrown off, making the PSP want to fall back towards you when it’s in your hands. To make the situation worse, the proximity of the device to the square button made hitting it uncomfortable at times.

Overall, the PSP On TV is a decent — at best — first effort at making an affordable warranty-safe TV adapter for our favorite portable. If you plan on hooking it up to a late-model TV with a high resolution and a large screen — skip it. We also recommend that you keep in mind the playability problems when considering your purchase. Given all these issues, we really only recommend this product to those who are really concerned about the warranty issues that come with a more intrusive TV solution, and who plan to use the device with screens 20” and smaller.