Simple RSS, Wireless Streaming Audio and Images, and JPEG Books from PDF for the PSP

The PSP

Some Workarounds

Recommended

How I use my PSP

Create and Use an Enormous Home-based On-line Library

Step-by-Step for Linux

#!/bin/sh
#
# pdf2jpeg - convert a pdf doc to individual jpeg images for
# viewing on a Sony PSP - IOW, an ebook creator...
#
# v0.1 by bravo_bravo_alpha_lima_lima
#         alpha_tango
#         tango_uniform_xray_delta_oscar_tango_oscar_romeo_golf
#
# requires: ImageMagick and pdftk software packages
# (adjust jpeg quality via convert's density option)
# 
# bugs: no error checking
# 

# create directory using pdf's filename
mkdir $1_book
cd $1_book

# split pdf into individual pdf pages
pdftk ../$1 burst

# convert each pdf to jpeg and rotate to landscape for psp 
for file in *pdf
 do
	convert -density 150x150 -trim -rotate 90 $file $file.jpeg
	rm -f $file
 done

# remove "pdf" from filenames
for file in *jpeg
 do
	mv $file ${file%pdf.*}jpeg
 done

# remove pdftk's burst report
rm -f doc_data.txt

Step-by-Step for Mac OS X

Listen to Music via RSS and Streaming Audio

- Aha! Two of my favorite albums. Let's create an .xml RSS playlist for the Seduction album:

$ mitunes boney_james jazz  boney_james/seduction

The result will be an .xml file named 0seduction.xml under the /Users/bball/Sites/psp/music directory - I programmed the script to place a zero at the beginning of the resulting .xml file so that the playlist feeds show up at the top of browser listing (makes 'em easier to find and scroll through). Modify the script to place the resulting .xml file anywhere on your Web site - perhaps under a directory named Playlists?

4. To use the RSS feeds, load up the PSP browser, navigate to the directory listing, and click on an .xml file. The PSP will then show a dialog asking if you want to save the RSS feed. Click OK, then go back and exit the browser. Next, load up the RSS client, connect, scroll through the list of feeds, and you'll see a new feed (in this case) with the name "boney_james." Click on the feed, and the list of .mp3s from the album will show up. You can then play your tunes wirelessly on your PSP from your server - no need for lots of internal storage and you can save the money you would have spent for a larger memory stick!

If you examine the script you'll soon see that there's nothing special there  - I'm sure you could improve the script (such as to provide recursion through all directories, selective playlists, etc.). All the script does is set a header, loop though the specified directory of mp3s, then create an item-by-item feed for each song.

Note some additional technical info in the script (which may change with firmware updates from Sony).

Here's the script (or you can get it here):

#!/bin/sh
# miTunes - A simple rss .xml mp3 playlist generator.
# 
# Originally intended for use with the Sony PSP and Mac OS X. 
#
# miTunes creates a named playlist of a specified directory containing
# an album's mp3 files.
#
# Version 0.4
#
# Usage: mitunes name_of_artist genre pathname_to_mp3_files
#
# Example: mitunes dave_koz jazz music/dave_koz/off_the_beaten_path
#      or: mitunes dave_koz jazz musi*/dave*oz/off*
#
# These examples will create an .xml playlist named "0off_the_beaten_path.xml" in
# the current directory. The playlist will be suitable for RSS on the
# Sony PSP.
#
# Bugs: no error checking
#
# NOTE: if using Mac OS X, uncomment the 822-date line below;
#       under Linux, use the date command with the -rfc option, else
#       RSS feed on the Sony PSP will fail. RSS .xml for the PSP
#       must use RFC822 or W3C date/time formatted strings.
#
# In this version you must also edit the embedded URLs for your setup.
# You should be able to see where to make the edits, right?
# :-)
#
# TODO: Sony's specs provide for image, music, and video streaming to the
# the PSP handheld, so this script could be expanded to support creation
# of other streams, and the addition of many features, such as thumbnail
# images. You can find examples through:
#
# http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/support/default.asp
#
# In particular, look for the document "PSP Media Manager Specifications
# for Feed Providers and Feed Publishers." Some examples may be found
# at:
#
# http://www.mediasoftwareapps.com/feeds/FeedList.opml
# http://www.mediasoftwareapps.com/feeds/PhotoExample.asp
# http://www.mediasoftwareapps.com/feeds/MusicExample.asp
# http://www.mediasoftwareapps.com/feeds/H263VideoExample.asp
# http://www.mediasoftwareapps.com/feeds/H264VideoExample.asp
#
# Note that video streaming apparently isn't supported by 3.03 or lower
# PSP firmware! Perhaps Sony is simply using the PSP as a test ground
# for the PS3's on-line battlefield against Xbox? 
#
# Create playlist .xml header
echo "
<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
        <rss version=\"2.0\">
        <channel>
                <title>$1</title>
                <link>http://192.168.1.102/~bball/psp/music/</link>
                <description>user-generated psp mp3 playlist</description>
                <language>en-us</language>
                <copyright>2007</copyright>
                <lastBuildDate>Mon, 29 Jan 2007 06:20:09 GMT</lastBuildDate>
                <generator>linux_author</generator>             <webMaster>sue_mee@yoohoo.com</webMaster>
" > 0$1.xml

# loop through designated directory
for file in $3/*mp3
 do
echo "	<item>
		<title>$file</title>
		<description>$2</description>
		<pubDate>$(822-date)</pubDate>
#		<pubDate>$(date -rfc)</pubDate>
		<enclosure url=\"http://192.168.1.102/~bball/psp/music/$file\" length=\"\" type=\"audio/mpeg\"/>
		</item>
" >>0$1.xml
 done

#end of playlist.xml
echo "
                </channel>
        </rss>
" >>0$1.xml

How to Use RSS to Serve Images to Your PSP

#!/bin/sh
# miFotos - A simple .xml generator for RSS of JPEG files.
# 
# Originally intended for use with the Sony PSP and Mac OS X. 
#
# mifotos creates an PSP-compliant RSS .xml filelist of a 
# specified directory containing JPEG images.
#
# Version 0.2
#
# Usage: mifotos name_of_slideshow category pathname_to_JPEG_files
#
# Example: mifotos vacation surfing photos/vacation/surfing
#      or: mitunes vacation surfing photos*/vaca*/surf*
#
# These examples will create an .xml file named "0surfing.xml" in
# the current directory. The filelist will be suitable for an image RSS 
# for the Sony PSP.
#
# In testing, it appears that the [current] PSP's firmware only allows
# recognition and feed of five images possessing the same <pubdate>?
# An inelegant solution, used here, is to issue a sleep(1) command inside
# the for loop in order to add one second to each <item>'s <pubdate>.
#
# For some reason, RSS <item> feeds for .mp3 files are not afflicted with
# the same behavior.
#
# Bugs: no error checking
#
# NOTE: if using Mac OS X, uncomment the 822-date line below;
#       under Linux, use the date command with the -rfc option, else
#       RSS feed on the Sony PSP will fail. RSS .xml for the PSP
#       must use RFC822 or W3C date/time formatted strings.
#
# In this version you must also edit the embedded URLs for your setup.
# You should be able to see where to make the edits, right?
# :-)
#
# Create filelist .xml header
echo "
<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
        <rss version=\"2.0\">
        <channel>
                <title>$1</title>
                <link>http://192.168.1.102/~bball/psp/photos/</link>
                <description>My PSP JPEG filelist</description>
                <language>en-us</language>
                <copyright>2007</copyright>
                <lastBuildDate>Mon, 29 Jan 2007 06:20:09 GMT</lastBuildDate>
                <generator>linux_author</generator>             <webMaster>sue_mee@yoohoo.com</webMaster>
" > 0$1.xml

# loop through designated directory
for file in $3/*jpg
 do

# necessary to increment date/time stamp on each <item> - bug in PSP firmware?
sleep 1;

echo "	<item>
		<title>$file</title>
		<description>$2</description>
		<pubDate>$(822-date)</pubDate>
#               <pubDate>$(date -rfc)</pubDate>
		<enclosure url=\"http://192.168.1.102/~bball/psp/photos/$file\" length=\"\" type=\"image/jpeg\"/>
		</item>
" >>0$1.xml
 done

#end of imagelist.xml
echo "
                </channel>
        </rss>
" >>0$1.xml

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