Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Since version 3.30 of the Sony PSP firmware added H.264 video support, the PSP can therefore play the Podstar Runner files The Brothers Chaps produce. This brought me much joy, as I don't have an iPod or other portable video player, but I do have a PSP. However, I couldn't find any thumbnails, so things weren't as pretty as they could be. So I finally sat down and made some. I figured I'd share them with anyone else who likes to watch H*R on their PSP.

Link to shared folder containing all thumbnails
Thumbnails for the old podcast (2006-2007)
Thumbnails for the new podcast (2008, up until "Nightlife")
"Environment" thumbnail
"Winter Pool" thumbnail
"Fan Club" thumbnail
"Pet Show" thumbnail
"Licensed" thumbnail
"Buried" thumbnail
"Shapeshifter" thumbnail
"Rated" thumbnail
"Specially Marked" thumbnail
"Love Poems" thumbnail
"Hiding" thumbnail

I produced them using the pictures from the Wiki, since that seems to be what TBC has been using for the podcast, at least as of late. I wasn't paying attention during the old Podstar days, so I'm not sure about those. Anyway, I shrunk the pictures down to 160x120ish, and saved them as the highest quality jpegs I could. I wasn't happy with the artifacting produced at 80% JPEG compression, so they're uncompressed.

To make the thumbnails display on your PSP, just unzip them and dump them in the same folder on your memory stick as the M4V files. You may need to rename a few of them to match the M4Vs, I renamed all the podstar files on mine to make them easier to find.

I'll try to keep up on the podcast as it goes, and produce new thumbnails. I'll probably just upload them separately, and zip them up every couple months or so. Enjoy!

Edit: Current as of Thursday, September 18th!

I just so happened to be browsing on my PSP when I read this. Thanks!

Dude, this is awesome. I didn't even know the PSP could have thumbnails for video files until a week or two ago. Thanks a lot, hope to see them to keep coming!

_________________
Do you has? I do. I has a mirror of all the Podstar Runner episodes. Come get some downloads!

The PSP has all kinds of interesting, not-very-well-documented features. It took some experimentation to get the thumbnails to show up and look halfway decent. The PSP still stretches them, and it's more noticeable on some than others. Mainly the Virus and Video Games thumbnails. At some point I may have to go through and improve them.

As far as I've found, the PSP will only display movie thumbnails if they're in jpeg format, even though it can display a number of other image formats, and even make thumbnails of those on its own. I've read that the PSP will take larger thumbnails than the display size of 160x120 and shrink them down, but that may only work with certain aspect ratios or resolutions. It will stretch smaller images out to the proper size though. Ideal thumbnails would be exactly 160x120, so there would be no stretching or aspect distortion. I just got tired of that default filmstrip thumbnail, so I threw these together. It was a fun little project.

Anyway, I've uploaded a thumbnail for the latest Podstar update, Environment. Glad to know that people are getting some use out of them.

Edit --

Good to see the forums are back online. I've been uploading the new thumbnails this whole time, but had no way to link to them... Makes me wish I had provided a link to the folder originally. Well, it's there now, though I sincerely hope there will be no further forum-freezing events.

Do you mind if I attach these thumbnails to my Podstar Runner mirror? Credit for the icons'll go to you in the top of the page.

_________________
Do you has? I do. I has a mirror of all the Podstar Runner episodes. Come get some downloads!

Go right ahead! I really don't have any claim over the pictures; I got the originals from the Wiki, and it all belongs to The Brothers Chaps to begin with. I'm just resizing and converting them for my own use, and making them available to fans as a public service. I'm just glad that someone's getting some use out of them. Getting credit for doing it is just icing on the cake (well, that, and it's the currency that matters most on the Internet). I'm actually Laser-Grilled Crab & Cheese Sandwich on the wiki, but the forum isn't quite that flexible when it comes to names, so I made something up. I should probably put a link to the thumbnails on my user page... I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing so before.

Alright, here's the latest thumbnails now that Podstar Runner is updating again. I've gone back and refined the compression on the old thumbnails as well, so they're smaller, but shouldn't lose much, if any visible quality. I'll get to work on uploading them all separately, but for the time being, they're available all zipped up.

Folder of available thumbnails
Old Podstar Runner Thumbnails (2006-2007)
2008 Podstar Runner Thumbnails (Up to "Your Edge")

"Your Edge" thumbnail
"Magic Trick" thumbnail
"Being Mean" thumbnail
"Email Thunder" thumbnail