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PSP 101

Index
1. How to format a Memory Stick DUO for PSP use
2. How to connect a PSP to a PC/MAC
3. The PSP folders explained
4. How to add music to your PSP
5. How to add photos to your PSP
6. How to add movies to your PSP
7. How to create a network connection (to be posted)



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How to format a Memory Stick DUO for PSP use
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Before start using a new Memory Stick DUO, it needs to be formatted. In order to have the PSP folders created in the memory stick, it's better to format your Memory Stick DUO using your PSP. In order to do so, you just need to do the following

1. Insert your Memory Stick DUO in the Memory Stick DUO slot on the left side of your PSP

2. Turn on your PSP and then, go to : Settings -> System Settings and choose "Format Memory Stick".



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How to connect a PSP to a PC/MAC
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Stuff needed:
- PSP
- Memory Stick DUO
- A USB Cable (5-pin, which looks like this one)



- A PC/Mac with a free USB port

arrow PC
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To be posted soon.

arrow MAC
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1. Make sure you have your Memory Stick DUO inserted on your PSP.

2. If you have not done it so, format the memory stick from your PSP by doing the following:
- In your PSP, Go to : Settings -> System Settings and choose "Format Memory Stick"

3. Using a USB cable, connect one end to your PSP USB port and the other one to a USB port in your mac.

4. Turn your PSP on, and then go to : Settings -> USB Connection and click x

5. On your mac, you should see your PSP mounted on your desktop just like in this picture



Or, if you diasabled to show removable media in the Finder preferences, you can open a new finder window and find your psp in "Computer"

6. Open the PSP by double-clicking its icon and you should see the following folders:



That's it, you've succesfully connected your PSP to your Mac and ready to start getting files on it.

7. When you're finished copyin files, remember to disconnect your PSP from your Computer using "disconnect hardware" if using Windows or eject the PSP icon in to the Trash can if using a Mac. This can avoid getting files corrupted.



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The PSP Folders
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Once you managed to succesfully connect your PSP to your computer, it's useful to get to know how the PSP manage its contents, in order to be able to add music, photos, movies and gamesaves.

The folders, once you are accesing your PSP in your computer, are explained next.


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It's important to mention that the folders that support nested folders only work with 1-level nested folders like shown in the next picture


In the last example, tracks in the Placebo, Radiohead and Muse folders will be shown in the PSP, but the tracks inside the Kid A folder, which is inside the Radiohead folder, won't be recognized in the PSP.


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How to add music to your PSP
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1. Connect your PSP to your PC/MAC
2. Depending on how or what music software management your are using, look for your music files and folders. Remember that your files MUST be .MP3 or ATRAC format
3. In order to upload your music, you can:

- Copy single songs files directly into the MUSIC directory in your PSP (see folder explanation above).

- Copy album folders you may have in your music files into the MUSIC folder in the PSP.

- Or create a folder in the PSP's MUSIC folder and copy some songs files you choose to the newly created folder. This can be useful if you want a certain kind of songs like "Driving" or "Rap Songs"

NOTE: Remember that the MUSIC folder can just read files and folders in it. Folders inside folders won't be recognized by the PSP. For more info, check out details in the "PSP Folders" section of this post.

4. After your songs have been copied. Disconnect your PSP from your Computer using "disconnect hardware" if using Windows or eject the PSP icon in to the Trash can if using a Mac.

5. On your PSP, exit USB connection mode and go to the Music Menu. Your files should display there and your folders displayed as groups. To access the group contents, just select the group you want and press X or right in the D-pad.


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How to add photos to your PSP
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1. Connect your PSP to your PC/MAC
2. Check out for your picture files. Remember that your files MUST be .JPG format
3. In order to upload your photos, you can:

- Copy single image files directly into the PHOTO directory in your PSP (see folder explanation above).

- Copy picture folders you may have into the PHOTO folder in the PSP. This is useful when uploading magazine snippets or pictures from a trip, etc.

NOTE: Remember that the PHOTO folder can just read files and folders in it. Folders inside folders won't be recognized by the PSP. For more info, check out details in the "PSP Folders" section of this post.

4. After your pictures have been copied. Disconnect your PSP from your Computer using "disconnect hardware" if using Windows or eject the PSP icon in to the Trash can if using a Mac.

5. On your PSP, exit USB connection mode and go to the Photo Menu. Your files should display there and your folders displayed as groups. To access the group contents, just select the group you want and press X or right in the D-pad.


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How to add movies to your PSP
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NOTE: This mini-guide works only with PSP-compatible .MP4 files. These can usually be found in sites like PSPCrazy.com, AnimePSP.com or PSPTrailers.net. If you are certain that the files you're trying to get to your PSP are PSP-compatible go ahead and check out this mini-guide. If problems arise, re-check Step 3 in this guide, that should get things right.

In order to get non-compatible PSP movies to the PSP is neccesary to first convert the movies to a PSP-compatible .MP4, for information about how to convert movie files please refer to the PSP Video Guide to be posted later here in this sticky.

1. Connect your PSP to your PC/MAC
2. Check out for your PSP-compatible .MP4 files.
3. In order to upload your movies, you need to do the following:

3.1. Check out your movie filenames!
Your movie files should be named like M4VXXXXX.MP4. Where XXXXX is a number, for example, M4V00001.MP4 or M4V00015.MP4. The number itself doesn't matter, as long as the filenames for your movies follow this naming convention, they should work if they are PSP-compatible. If you downloaded the movie files and they are not named using that convention, make sure you assign them a name like that, just make sure the numbers in M4V00001.MP4 aren't the same for more than one file.

3.2. Getting to work a .THM file
The other file usually in the same folder in a downloaded PSP-compatible MP4 is a .THM file. This file is a screenshot of the movie file and it's not really necessary. However, in order to work properly, this file should be named exactly like the movie file it belongs to. For example, M4V00001.THM

3.3. Re-check your filenames
It's common to have problems with movie filenames not just for the freaky numbers, but also because they are case-sensitive, meaning that for the PSP, it's not the same a .mp4 than a .MP4 file. Try to set all your movie files in CAPS. (I'm not sure yet if it doesn't work at all with lowercase, but I'll check it out)

4. Once everything ready, open your PSP in your computer and open the MP_ROOT folder. (If it's not there, create one)
5. Inside the MP_ROOT folder, open the 100MNV01 folder (If it's not there, create one)
6. Inside the 100MNV01 folder, copy your .MP4 files and its matching .THM files there. It's ok if you copy more than one movie file there.

4. After your movie files have been copied. Disconnect your PSP from your Computer using "disconnect hardware" if using Windows or eject the PSP icon in to the Trash can if using a Mac.

5. On your PSP, exit USB connection mode and go to the Movies Menu. Your files should display there with a screenshot if the .THM file is correct or with a generic image if the .THM is missing.

A common workflow for getting movie files can be like this:
1. Download PSP-compatible movies from sites like:
- PSPCrazy.com
- Sonyconnect.com
- PSPmagazines.com
- PSPtrailers.net
- AnimePSP.com

2. These files usually come as a .ZIP file. Unzip them and you'll get a folder containing (generally) 2 files: A .MP4 file and a .THM file

3. Check for the filenames. If they are already named using the PSP naming convention for movie files, they are ready to be copied. If not, rename them using the convention (M4V00001.MP4, etc.)

4. Drop your files in PSP/MP_ROOT/100MNV01.

5. If something's not working in your PSP with the movies, re-check Step #3 from this guide. If it doesn't work, the movie files you downloaded may not be PSP-compatible and need to be converted first. If this happens, be sure to check out the VIDEO GUIDE to be posted soon here in this topic.

PSP VideoGuide

Index
1. Facts, FAQS and Technical Stuff
2. The many ways to convert videos (to be posted)
3. Getting DVDs to PSP (to be posted)


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Facts, FAQS and Technical Stuff
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Well, everyone knows you can get video to the PSP, but actually doing it can be a nightmare. I will try to post both my experience and my web research on how to do this and hopefully get feedback from you and correct stuff if something's not working.

I gotta say I'm NOT a computer genius or anything like that, this stuff is result of my own web research from many websites and some trial and error. Hope it helps.

Fact: It's possible to play video from a memory card, not just from a UMD.

Question: What kind of video can be played from a memory stick?
Answer: MPEG-4

Question: Huh, MPEG-4? What the hell is that mumbo jumbo!???
Answer: I know, that stuff sounds like non-sense. Here's the take on it.

MPEG-4 is a video standard format created by some geeky folks in order to standarize all sorts of audio/video compression formats. This standard is divided into sub-standards, each of them made for different applications.

- ISO 14496-1 (Systems), Animation/Interactivity (like DVD Menus)

- ISO 14496-2 (Video), e.g. Advanced Simple Profile (ASP), as followed by XviD, DivX5, 3ivx... (Partially PSP compatible)

- ISO 14496-3 (Audio), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (Partially PSP compatible)

- ISO 14496-10 (Video), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also known as H.264 (Partially PSP compatible)

- ISO 14496-14 (Container), MP4 container format (uses the .mp4 extension) (Partially PSP compatible)
- ISO 14496-17 (Subtitles), MPEG-4 Timed Text subtitle format

One of these sub-standards is the one called .MP4, a video format that follows the MPEG-4 standard (ISO 14496-14). The .MP4 is a "contained format". A "contained format" allows you to combine different multimedia streams (most of the time audio and video) into one single file. Examples are AVI(.avi), MPEG (.mpg, .mpeg),Quicktime (.mov). This extension (.MP4) is known to be PSP compatible in most files and it's the more common I've seen.

IN PROGRESS...

~ Changing you PSP's background ~

Tired of the same old single color backgrounds on your menu? Well today I'll show you how to make your backgrounds personal!

* What you will need *
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[] A PSP
[] A USB Cable that fits your PSP
or
[] A Memory Stick Reader
[] KXploit
[] PSPersonalize
[] Images to use as your background
[] Firmware v. 1.50 or lower

Step 1: Look at the other guide!
To start follow the instruction in my other guide. Which can be found here(or you could scroll up wink )

Step 2: Finding an Image

The images for the background must meet certain requirements. They have to be in be a 24-bit BMP, be exactly 350x170(resolution), and be less than 150 Kb in size. If you dont want to make your own you can find some here. When you find the image you want and it is correctly formatted you have to rename it. The name will correspond with a month. Each month has a number
01 - January
01 - February
03 - March
04 - April
05 - May
06 - June
07 - July
08 - August
09 - September
10 - October
11 - November
12 - December

Step 3: Placing images on the memory stick

Once you have your images all set connect your PSP/Memory Stick to your computer. Transfer your images into the root directory of your memory stick. If your memory stick is listed as the E drive the images would go into E:

Step 4: Running PSPersonalize

On your PSP enter the Game menu then Memory Stick. Select PSPersonalize. If you've done everything correctly it should ask you if you want to replace a file with **.BMP answer 'Yes' everytime. Now exit PSPersonalize. Don't worry if your background is completely white, this is not bad per say. If this happens usually(for me) entering the date and time settings and selecting date and time and then pressing 'X' fixes it. If it doesn't turn your PSP off and on. By this I mean completely off not sleeping it, this means holding the switch up for 3 seconds.
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Original PSP Backgrounds
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I am not responsible if you render your PSP useless
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Made by Greg(Thor-Ax the Impaler) steal it and die!
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PM me or E-Mail me at darkness1908@gmail.com if you need help with any of my tutorials.

Downgrading Tutorial

Have a PSP with Firmware version 1.51/1.52/2.0 and want to run Downgrade to 1.5? Then your on the right track. Please be aware, that this may cause your PSP to brick. Brick means, that it will not work AT ALL. So you have a extremely expensive paper weight. If you follow the directions you should be fine. Also, there might be long term effects due to downgrading. If you follow the directions you should be fine, I have downgraded twice with no side effects or bricking my PSP.

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PSPCentral takes no responsibility of whatever happens to your PSP. This is all at your own risk.

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Before we get started, lets get all that you need.

-PSP with Firmware version 1.51/1.52/2.0 (Note: For versions 1.51/1.52 you will have to update to 2.0)
-MPH Downgrader Pack
Contents:
-overflow.tif
-h.bin
-index.dat
-1.5 Firmware Update Eboot

Note: I suggest picking up the MPH Pack and the Update Eboot from a reliable source. There is a PSP bricking trojan out, and anti-virus software/Eboot scanning software will state that both the good and bad downgrade files as harmful.

Connect your PSP to your computer via USB. On the memory stick (MS for short for the rest of this tutorial) create a folder called "UPDATE" without the quotes (Yes, in all capitals) inside :E/PSP/GAME where ":E" is the drive letter your computer assigns the PSP to. (Whatever it may be)

Place the EBOOT.PBP file (the 1.5 Update Eboot) in the "UPDATE" folder you just created.

Unzip the MPH Downgrader pack.

Note: If you do not know how to unzip/unrar or do not have the software for it. Go to http://www.download.com/ and search for...

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP: WinZip, WinRar

Mac OS X: UnRarX, Stuffit Expander

After doing so, take the overflow.tif file and place it in :E/PSP/PHOTO folder. Put both the h.bin and index.dat files in the root of your MS.

After all of this, your file system should look something like this.

:E/PSP/GAME/UPDATE/EBOOT.PBP
:E/PSP/PHOTO/overflow.tif
:E/h.bin
:E/index.dat

Disconnect your PSP from your computer and connect it to the AC adapter.

Navigate to the PHOTO section on your PSP through the XMB interface. Scroll down until you reach the overflow.tif

Do not panic, everything will freeze and you will get a black screen with some white text onscreen. Its just a bunch of random numbers, don't try to make sense of it.

Now power off your PSP by holding the power switch up for about 10 seconds. Then start up your PSP again.

If you hook your PSP up to your computer at this point, you will notice some new files on your MS. DO NOT TOUCH THEM. This is only to make sure they are there.

Back to your PSP, navigate to the game menu. (It should be somewhere under where the UMD would be) and find the 1.5 Updater. Start it up, but be aware that the update will not work unless connected to an AC adapter.

At the end of the update (at 99% to be exact) you will receive an error saying the upgrade failed and to contact Sony. No worries, that is supposed to happen. Ignore it and reboot your PSP.

When your PSP turns back on, you will receive a blue screen with a bunch of different languages. It reads that the PSP's settings info is corrupted and will tell you to Press "O" to repair them.

After doing so, your PSP will start back up and you will input some settings info. (The same stuff you put in the day you got it) Time/Date/and that kinda stuff.

Check your "System Settings> System information" and you will see your running Firmware version 1.50.

Congratulations! Your done! You can now run homebrew to your hearts content.