Sony LocationFree Wireless Base Station
Available: Now
Price: $199.99
Sony is trying harder and harder to incorporate PSP-support into their other products. The most interactivity is between the PlayStation 3 and PSP, of course, but Sony’s new LocationFree base station can stream video to your PSP or computer from anywhere in the world.
PROS:
* PSP Connectivity
* Acts as Wireless Base Station
* Good Video Quality While on Home Network
CONS:
* Software Setup is Complicated
* Video Quality Suffers over Internet
* Additional Software Players Cost Money, No Official Mac Version
We love taking our media on the go, whether it be on our PSP, iPods or whatever, but usually we have to encode the video files to a specific format and load them onto the player itself, which takes up space we could otherwise use for Aaron Carter mp3s. Sony (and Slingbox) is instead trying to move toward streaming.
The new LocationFree wireless base station features built-in PSP support and will stream to sufficiently upgraded PSPs over your home network or internet. The internet version of the streaming requires jumping through a few more hoops. First, you’ll need to know your IP address, which can change with most ISPs. A DNS service can be used to alleviate this, but that requires some additional setup.
In addition, the speed of the streaming will be limited by your home networks upload speed, which is usually the limiting factor, and your remote download speed. If you’re streaming from your living room to your bathroom over your wireless network, however, the quality is great. We enjoy watching TV on the PSP while on the can. Sue us.
The viewing software, unfortunately, is annoying to set up and other programs, like Microsoft’s Media Center, seem like complete packages over Sony's offering. On the PSP, this doesn’t really matter, though you will have to update your PSP to a more recent firmware if you’re still running an older version for homebrew.
The LocationFree base station will also take control of whichever device is providing the media. If this is a DVR, the DVR in your place will actively have to playback the show. This means if someone else is trying to watch something else they are out of luck. Granted, this is the same as the Slingbox, but can be annoying to others if you have anyone else in your life.
We recommend using a PS3 to remotely connect to from your PSP and just streaming video files. Now, the PSP can turn the PS3 on and off from the road and the PS3 supports DivX and XviD. If you need a wireless base station and are really interested in streaming your DVR content, you could kill two birds with one stone with this device, but it isn’t the best solution.
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