encoding DVDs for PSP on Mac OS X with Handbrake

an old post i made shortly after my linux -> mac switch showed a Handbrake command-line interface script to encode a DVD for use on a PSP. that was successful but there's a simpler and smaller (in terms of file size) way to do something similar with the GUI:

* open Handbrake 0.9.2 (might work with other versions)
* choose the DVD you inserted as the source
* choose the PSP preset
* change the Output Setting: Codecs: to "AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio"
* change the Video tab Average bitrate (kbps) to 384 (i couldn't notice a difference between this and other higher bitrates)
* add "level=21" to the Advanced tab Current x264 Advanced Option String section
* rip it!

this worked for me with my PSP that has firmware 3.80 and saved space while keeping good quality given my 1 gig memory stick duo.