Man vs. Machine

With a work schedule that's finally settling down I'm turning my eyes once again to that time-sucker Mr. Sony has dubbed PSP. So far I've only played games on it, but I've really wanted to utilize its music and video capabilities. On the weekend I had another stab at it.

I say "another stab" because I tried to do so with little success about a month ago. The PSP is no iPod; it doesn't seem to have an inbuilt, intuitive interface to upload or catalogue music or video files. Nor am I a technophile by any means. If it literally isn't plug and play them my mind immediately clouds over. To give you some idea of my incompetence, setup wizards are the first circle of my computing hell.

My last efforts almost ended with the PSP sailing out the window. It took several hours of googling to find out what to do, then to find out why it wasn't working, then to find out what to do next, then to find out why that wasn't working. My best guess of the scenarios is:

The PSP can't play .wav unless you enable this option. You can't enable this option without it connecting to a network (so Mr Sony can keep track of you???). For this option you can't connect to a network using the USB, it's got to be WiFi. The WiFi connection begins with some kind of setup wizardy thingy, for which I not only have no WiFI network, but I also don't have Read Magic to comprehend.

Or if you go the non-.wav option you need a program to convert files into a format the PSP will read. These programs can be downloaded from the Internet.

So the first scenario I tried last time. It left me in defeat and with a notion that the PSP would look better smashed into a million itsy-bitsy pieces.

The second scenario I tried yesterday. This met with more success. I downloaded trial versions of xilisoft's products. Video Converter did convert the videos successfully (up to the 5 min limit of the trial). And Program Manager did put them onto the PSP, and I could watch these snippets with much hand-clapping glee. However the conversion took about 5 mins for a 5 min video (thank Gandalf I wasn't converting Return of the King) which seems a little slow to me, and Program Manager kept telling me the device wasn't a PSP (I said copy them over anyway) and after each copy, it crashed (although the copy was successful). As I'm unsure whether it is my fault, my computer's PSP driver's fault, or Program Manager's fault, I'm hesitiating to fork over the cash for the full version.

So to cut a dull story not short enough, to the other PSPers who may read this blog:
Is my take on the scenarios correct?
What do you do or use to listen to music or watch videos on your PSP?