MP3 codecs and the PSP

[charlaph]

What codecs can I use for MP3s if I want to play them back on a PSP? specifically can I use FLAC? I'm not averse to changing firmware/installing anything I need.

Basically I'm wanting a half-decent MP3 player, and faced with a choice of ?100+ for a dedicated MP3 player, or ?100+ for an all singing all dancing PSP then I could be tempted, but it's dependant on sound quality and what limitations are imposed on what I can play back, so any opinions would be welcomed.

[NekoFever]

It supports MP3, WMA (firmware 2.6+), AAC/M4A, ATRAC3, and WAV. FLAC doesn't work, at least not as far as playback within the PSP dashboard goes. There might be a homebrew media player that supports it.

As far as quality of playback the PSP is OK. It doesn't sound bad but the main drawbacks are that it's much bigger than most dedicated players and if you're after mass storage it's not the player to go for since in addition to the PSP itself you're probably want to go for a 1GB Memory Stick (?30 or so last time I checked), but even that's not an awful lot of music storage. MP3 players with hard drives sound expensive but 20-80GB is a ton of music.