PSP buying and using advice please
 

I'm living in the USA at the moment and am about to buy a PSP. I'm not too heavily into gaming at the moment but am about to get on a few long haul flights!

I know there are ways of "unlocking" the PSP firmware but don't really know how it's done, and what it allows. Will I be able to play PAL games on an NTSC system once it's unlocked? Also, after unlocking does it still only play MP4 format movies?

General tips and advice would be appreciated, cheers!!! :thumb: :thumb:

not sure how it will work for a US one, but i have a UK model, upgraded the firmware to play Vice City and now a chap at work has a DVD with a few million games on ;) and i need to downgrade the firmware to play these, apparently he has the software for this. AFAIK all vids need to be MP4 regardless, so im guessing that would knock out the PAL or NTSC side of things as MP4 is a universal format.

:)

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I managed to downgrade my psp by doing a bit of reading and then following the instructions. Take you time and read up, but it's pretty straight forward.
You basically downgrade to v1.5 and then upgrade the firmware to the latest hacked version. Everything you need is on the website.

I just bought a 2G memory card for my psp. PSX games and movies take up quite a bit of room.

Don't upgrade the firmware again! the later the version of firmware the harder it is to downgrade

My PSP now plays PSX games and I am also running a snes emulator.

Street Fighter, Zelda, Secret of Mana and Gran Turismo 2 are getting my attention at the moment.

Thanks for that! If it's all MP4 I guess I can convert all my files that are avi.

One problem I forsee is that I want to play Championship manager and the like (don't have time to play games like that at home!!) but for obvious cultural reasons games like that are not very popular in the US, hence I'd probably have to buy them in PAL format......

ADDED - Apparently there is a programme called Media Manager that handles the conversion of AVI and other files.....

With my downgraded PSP, you can play 'copies' i.e. there are obviuosly the usual copyright infringments, but you can download ripped PAL Championship manager and then play it directly from your memory card.
The website I mentioned has a number of free conversion utlilities to allow you do every PSP related conversion you will ever need.
I am playing a ripped psx version of Gran Turismo 2, it is an NTSC rip, but plays from the memory card on my PAL with no issues.

.....and yes I do have the original GT2 disc, but just can't be bothered dragging through a very dirty loft to find it :D

Thanks mate! :thumb: