Can anyone help with a sony psp?

Angel777

I want to buy a xmas present for my brother.

I thought about an xbox 360 but my bro wants the playstation 3 when it comes out next year so i thought no point buying an xbox 360.

I am looking for a psp i thought this would be good until he gets the one he wants and at least i have something to give him for xmas!

Please can anyone tell me the best price and place to get this from?

Also what do people think of the psp?

Thankyou.

shane8960

The PSP is definately one of the best gadgets I have bought in a long time. In fact I have 2

I bought mine from Jap before it was released here (Paid £210 for PSP V1.0 (:D), 4 games, 2 videos and every accessory you could think of) and then later bought another one for the OH for £120 (A V1.5 this time) with 2 games, a 1 video and alot of accessories.

Some things to look out for:
If it is a second hand PSP, make sure you ask the following questions:
1) Any dead pixels?
2) Any sticking buttons?
3) Any problems/noises from the UMD slot?

Also depending on what you will use the PSP for, it might be worth finding out what firmware version it is. You want the lowest version possible (preferably 1.5).

The sound and image is superb for watching videos and playing games. I would recommend one to anyone who enjoys playing games/watching videos but is out of the house alot.

Angel777

Thanks Shane 8960 , that is really useful information just what i needed.

Its a good choice then.

Where did you buy your 2nd one from? Am i better going for a bundle or buying items seperately?

Thanks

shane8960

Angel777 wrote:

Thanks Shane 8960 , that is really useful information just what i needed.

Its a good choice then.

Where did you buy your 2nd one from? Am i better going for a bundle or buying items seperately?

Thanks

Mine where both from ebay, however the first was brand new and the second was 3 months old.

You will save a bit of money if you find a bundle of stuff you want. However if you want to play games off the memory stick then just buy the PSP on its own and then get a 2gb duo memory card for it.

jos_4

You seem to know your stuff so i have a question for you. Can you watch films on it without buying the special film disc thingys (good technical term)
What do you need to do so????

Angel777

Thanks Shane8960 i am looking on ebay i think my brother would like to play games and sometimes watch films to. I have the same question as above! Does it take special games or can you play dvd's on it?

Thanks again.

barmonkey

if you get the latest version with the latest mother board you cant (yet) downgrade the firmware to allow you to play games from the memory stick.

if you want cheap secondhand games the best place seems to be Choices Video. they always have lots of fairly new stuff for about £13.

BilboBaggins_3

To summarise, PSP plays games/movies on minature UMD discs, not the full size dvd. If you downgrade the firmware to 1.5 then you can play downloaded games of the web.
anything over a V2.00 will not play downloaded games
anything over a V2.00 can not be downgraded to a V1.50 to play downloaded games
anything between v1.50 - V2.00 can be downgraded to V1.50

ajbrynoffa

sorry Bilbo but your wrong there,i`ve got a v2.71 and just downgraded mine successfully.

shane8960

Ok this is what you can/cant do:

PSP plays mini UMD discs. You can buy films & games on these. You will pay about £10-15 for a film and £30-40 for a game,

ALL PSP's no matter what firmware can play films from a memory stick - needs to be ripped from the DVD and converted to the correct format for the PSP.

There are several different PSP firmware versions, as follows:
Firmware 1.0
Firmware 1.5
Firmware 1.51
Firmware 1.52
Firmware 2.0a
Firmware 2.0b
Firmware 2.01
Firmware 2.5
Firmware 2.60
Firmware 2.70
Firmware 2.71
Firmware 2.80
Firmware 2.81

There is also a "Custom Firmware", which is Version 2.71SE.

At the minute only versions 1.0, 1.5 & 2.71SE can play games from the memory stick, however versions 2.71 and lower can be downgraded to version 1.5.

HOWEVER - to add something else into the mix, there is a "new" type of motherboard (TA-082) which CANT be downgraded at the minute regardless of firmware version (However I think they are working on a workaround for this).

I would recommend trawling ebay to find a PSP of version 1.5 - dont forget to ask the questions I posted in the first thread as these are 3 quite common problems. Also despite the version 2.71SE custom firmware being released - I would NOT recommend anyone to upgrade to this!!

A useful resourse is https://www.psphacks.net

doublekite

Best new price deal I can find is Toys r Us who have base pack plus 2 games for £159. No codes or vouchers I know of.