sony PSP worth it?

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mycomputersucks

2[H]4U
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Oct 31, 2001
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i'm looking for a decent all-around portable media device and the psp's price/screen size has attracted my attention.

here is a synopsis of what i've read so far:

Pros:
mp3/movies/games
nice screen size
fairly small form factor
inexpensive
need to buy additional sony memory stick
wifi
web browser(but i read that it's shitty)
homebrew apps


cons:
movies need to be converted to mp4
no great games
interface seems a little complex and not sure how playlist support
larger than other media players
shitty web browser
homebrew can brick the device

so, do any PSP owners disagree w/ what i've read? can anyone attest to the web browser? what benefits do you get w/ homebrewing other than emulators?
 
Actually, there's quite a few great games for the PSP.
I like the interface, it's the exact same as the PS3's.
The web browser? Well, you can only do so much with 10mb of internal memory. I think it's great considering it's on a handheld. I'm still able to surf the hardforums and n4g with it.
 
I bought one not too long ago and I'm finding many great games for the system - not to mention its future is looking very bright. I won't argue that the PSP has been slow to find its stride though.

Haven't messed too much with the movie conversion yet, although I do have the PSP Video 9 converter on my computer ready to go. MP4's may be inconvienient, but converters are easy to come by.

I tried the web browser when I first bought it, and yeah, it was pretty damn clunky.

But I bought the thing for one thing really - the games. And so far they're great. Lots of hidden gems to play if you just open your eyes a little bit. Not all good games have to be AAA titles.

And the device really is beautiful with a gorgeous screen. It makes the DS look and feel like something from Fischer Price.
 
I got mine in Dec '05 and have loved every minute of it. I've stuck with DA 3.10OE-A FW since it runs all my homebrew especially POPS (PS1 emulator) the best. A few friends of mine had bad luck playing FF7 on some of the newer ones so I've stuck with it. FF7: Crisis Core and God of War: Chains of Olympus are coming out soon for the PSP so I may just have to upgrade.

I use PSPVideo9 (google, it's free) to convert my DVDs to play on my PSP for long trips or severe boredom at work. UMD movies are crap and will eat your battery to death.

I have about 9 UMD games but the only ones I really play are Burnout Legends, Syphon Filter (1st one for PSP, not the 2nd), and Wipeout. It's rare for me to play them though since I have nearly every NES game, tons of SNES ones, Genesis and Game Gear games and 6 PS1 games all on a 4gb MS.

I never use the MP3 plaer functions anymore since I got a real one. It was always bulky and cumbersome to use anyway.

All in all, the PSP is a fantastic portable device for gaming and the ocasional movie or music.
 
how stable is the homebrew emulation? i'll probably get a slim and don't want to risk bricking it.

thanks for the info/opinion guys!
 
mycomputersucks said:
i'm looking for a decent all-around portable media device and the psp's price/screen size has attracted my attention.

here is a synopsis of what i've read so far:

...

cons:
movies need to be converted to mp4
no great games
interface seems a little complex and not sure how playlist support
larger than other media players
shitty web browser
homebrew can brick the device

so, do any PSP owners disagree w/ what i've read? can anyone attest to the web browser? what benefits do you get w/ homebrewing other than emulators?
Click to expand...

  • To get the best experience/quality, yes you do need to convert the movies to MP4.
  • People who say there are no good games for the PSP don't know what the hell they're talking about. There are a lot of great games.
  • The XMB interface is very easy to use. As far as I know, the PSP does not support playlists.
  • Yes, the PSP is a larger than most other PMP. But consider the size of the screen and the add functionality it has over other PMP.
  • Yes, the web browser is limited and needs to be updated.
  • The chances of permanently bricking a PSP is very VERY slim now thanks to Pandora. If you make a NAND backup of the PSP before you do any modifications that saves all the necessary data that can't be regenerated (IDStorage).

Other than emulators, my favorite homebrew feature is the ability to store images of games on the memory stick. This way I'm not limited to carrying around only one game, I can have alot more. I don't pirate, I buy all my PSP games, but I rip them all so I can store them on the MS. Overclocking is nice too, it can speed up some games, smooth out some video, and speed up the browsing.
 
psp is so money and it doesn't even know it. I recommend it to most people, unless they want an etch-a-sketch then I recommend the ds.
 
stevedave said:
psp is so money and it doesn't even know it. I recommend it to most people, unless they want an etch-a-sketch then I recommend the ds.
Click to expand...

This comment was not necessary. There is no need to even mention the DS in this thread.
 
PSP is definitely worth it. Awesome games, media player, homebrew, and a nice, big screen. What's not to like?
 
I used mine for a month then decided it was too slow. Even afte I hacked it and put the games directly on the memory card it is too slow...I dunno for me it was not worth it... I need to do some research on emulators for it. Then it might be worth while. If only it did not rely on memoy stick! I was always frustrated with mine because I got it on ebay and it was a b it of a scam. Said it was like new. Well it works, but the CD door sticks out a bit when closed on the side without the latch, and the lanyard hole was broken (Cracked).

They seller blamed it on shipping but when I got t the lanyard was not attached (looped through itself) but rather the loop was stuck through the crack. So i really doubt it broke in shipping and then the lanyard attached itself in this fassion. if I ever find that little bastard i'm going to kick the crap out of him...Tried to dispute payment through P but I was out of te counrty with no internet, so that fell through the cracks. Every time I think of my PSp it pisses me off, so maybe thats why it sits unused.
 
PSP has tons of AAA games. The only con from your list that's true is the web browser, its functional, but slow as hell.
 
I can relate somewhat to being scammed off eBay on a PSP purchase...

I bought my second PSP off eBay, I knew it had a broken screen but the seller said that everything else was in excellent condition, although I expected that the faceplate had some damage due to the broken LCD. When I received it, the exterior of it had many, the UMD door didn't close right, the headphones port was messed up causing it to think there were headphones permanently plugged in, and one of the speakers was damaged because he accidentally cut the wire when reassembling it. It was pretty obvious that he had taken it apart before.

Luckily I know what I'm doing and was able to pretty much refurbish the entire unit with a new case, display, wifi/card reader board, and buttons.
 
aznpxdd said:
PSP has tons of AAA games. The only con from your list that's true is the web browser, its functional, but slow as hell.
Click to expand...

+1

Even overclocked to 333mhz, the difference is only slight when browsing.
 
Con: It'll explode in your pants...

Have to live in NY and caught the news last night to really get that.
 
acascianelli said:
I can relate somewhat to being scammed off eBay on a PSP purchase...

I bought my second PSP off eBay, I knew it had a broken screen but the seller said that everything else was in excellent condition, although I expected that the faceplate had some damage due to the broken LCD. When I received it, the exterior of it had many, the UMD door didn't close right, the headphones port was messed up causing it to think there were headphones permanently plugged in, and one of the speakers was damaged because he accidentally cut the wire when reassembling it. It was pretty obvious that he had taken it apart before.

Luckily I know what I'm doing and was able to pretty much refurbish the entire unit with a new case, display, wifi/card reader board, and buttons.
Click to expand...



Would it be worth fixing mine or just buying the slim? I want to put my NES and SNES emulators on it. :) Then I don't need to buy a bluetooth controller for my laptop. I never likeded any of the games I bougt for it other than Burnout Ledgends. But if I could get Nintendo stuff on it then it might be worth while. I have a $50 Target Gift Card that I have no use for to help with the cost I suppose.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
And the device really is beautiful with a gorgeous screen. It makes the DS look and feel like something from Fischer Price.
Click to expand...

If you are going to compare it with the DS screens, the only thing it has going for it is the bigger size and resolution. The PSP screen has HORRIBLE refresh/blur. The DS screens do not.
 
acascianelli said:
This comment was not necessary. There is no need to even mention the DS in this thread.
Click to expand...

It was ment for laughs lighten up. And besides there is no way that the DS could ever handle an etch a sketch's graphics.
shoryuken.jpg
 
I can see this thread is about to turn into a PSP vs. DS argument.
 
I just got one last weekend. It's "VERY" well worth it!
 
JDMs14 said:
PSP is worth it for PSX games alone.
Click to expand...

hit the nail on the head with that one. And maybe someday down in future a way to play ps2 games as well.

It's a god send for some jobs too. Right now I'm watching some Cowboy Bebop, posting online, developing some software and getting paid all at the same time. It's great for so many reasons you just have to be sure that you use it some people buy the psp and only use 5% of what it can do and those are the people you will hear say it sucks.
 
I was just in Best Buy tonight. The Star Wars version is deleted from their system. They will not be getting anymore.

I'm picking one up tonight. How do I get to play movies and old homebrew games on it? :rolleyes:
 
I heard on the new version you need to do a battery mod (need an extra battery to hack and solder or something)
 
Im not too lazy to post how to run homebrew on a DS...

Buy an R4DS, put roms/movies/mp3s/pictures on transflash memory card, plug it into your DS, turn it on... thats it, no flashing no firmware no nothing.
 
Won't I need to downgrade to a different firmware? Or would I be able to put movies on a memory stick after converting them, and watch them from there?
 
tgabe213 said:
Won't I need to downgrade to a different firmware? Or would I be able to put movies on a memory stick after converting them, and watch them from there?
Click to expand...

You don't need any sort of homebrew to watch movies on it. You just need to get a movie in MP4 format onto the memory stick - and that's where the aforementioned converters come into play.
 
how big are the movie files when you put them on there?

I have nearly 400 purchased DVD movices and it'd be nice to bring a couple with me on my flights....

I just bought the dexter PSP though and only havea 1gb memorys stick for now. Unless the movies work really well I don't see for upgrading the memory stick either. 1GB would hold anything you need that's legitimate.
 
A 2 hour movie is 375-400mb. 4gb cards are getting pretty cheap these days, if you're going to be using it for music and movies you should seriously consider getting a bigger memory card.
 
Justintoxicated said:
I heard on the new version you need to do a battery mod (need an extra battery to hack and solder or something)
Click to expand...

To enable homebrew on the Slim you need to create a Pandora Battery (which puts the PSP in service mode) and a Magic Memory Stick.

It took some time to do on my Slim, but well worth it.;)

http://pspupdates.qj.net is the place I go to. Has all the info you need.
 
yeah, homebrew seems to be what really makes the system worth it. i've done some research but since i don't own a psp it all seems like greek.

i'm thinking about getting a used slim at gamestop or something and then picking up the pandora battery/magic memory from ebay or something. it would be nice to have that as a backup and not have to worry about bricking my system or trashing the bat/mem card w/ the mods.

i think it's all the different firmware(slim and fat) versions as well as the different homebrew apps/version that get confusing.
 
I just got mine for Christmas and I'd say it's worth it even if you aren't going the homebrew route. The screen is gorgeous, taking movies with me on campus is great, there's good games out there for it, and while it is slow the web browser is a god send when I don't have my laptop and I need check due dates for assignments :p.
 
I might get one to play Patapon, that game looks amazing. Can I put my divx/xvid on the memory stick and watch it on the PSP?
 
shiznit said:
I might get one to play Patapon, that game looks amazing. Can I put my divx/xvid on the memory stick and watch it on the PSP?
Click to expand...

You have to convert them to MP4 first. But don't worry, converting is very easy with a program call Xvid4PSP.
 
acascianelli said:
A 2 hour movie is 375-400mb. 4gb cards are getting pretty cheap these days, if you're going to be using it for music and movies you should seriously consider getting a bigger memory card.
Click to expand...

Woah, what settings do you use for that? I have usually come out to about 900mb for a ~2 hour movie on the PSP. Are you encoding at the full PSP screen resolution? I used XviD4PSP to do the encoding. (disclaimer: this was a while ago, the encoders may have gotten better)

To the OP: Yes, the PSP is awesome. On a single 4gb memory card I have like 50 old SNES and Genesis games, two PSP games, an E-Mail client, a text file reader (for FAQs and also reading books), several PSX games, and a movie. It is a very convenient and compact way to bring entertainment on long flights.
 
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