Adiuvo
Active Member
In this the pros and cons of 1.50, Team M33, Team GEN, and latest official Sony firmwares will be listed.
[FIELDSET="Official Firmware 1.50"]1.50
Summary: The so called "Ultimate Firmware." For a good part of the PSP's life this firmware was the most desired among PSP users. Here, we have full kernel access, a recovery mode, custom PRX loading, and many flash modifications. Just about all homebrew worked in this firmware, until M33 came along and homerbrew started being made in the 3.XX kernel. As of this time, this firmware does not support many media formats, with support for only MP3, MP4, and JPEG. However,the application Devhook allows the emulation of firmwares 2.0 to 3.02. But, due to Devhook being on the memory stick and not on the on board flash, certain features such as the web browser become sluggish. There are also certain bugs with Devhook, such as some users may have a problem with loading bookmarks. Overall 1.5 is now really outdated and useless. Stick with 3.95GEN or 3.90M33 if you want homebrew.
Pros:
Custom PRX loading
Flash modifications
Recovery mode
Complete kernel access
Able to emulate firmwares 2.0 to 3.02
Nostalgia feeling?
Cons:
Barley any media formats are supported
It takes time to load Devhook to emulate firmwares
Picture scaling is slow
No web browser
Little homebrew support
[/FIELDSET][FIELDSET=Custom Firmware 4.01 M33-2]4.01 M33-2
Summary: 4.01 M33-2 is a custom firmware made by PSP hacker Dark_Alex (DaX, DA, etc..). His firmware is largely regarded as the best and his has been around the longest. In 4.01M33-2, all the features of 1.5 (ie: homebrew), and the official Sony firmware 4.01, along with extra ones that DA put in. The major extra ones are the inclusion of a recovery menu, the ability to play any PSX game on your PSP, the ability to play ISOs without any UMD in the drive, custom PRX plugins, access to the flash via USB, access to UMDs via USB, among other things. All official Sony features are supported as well, meaning you get access to internet radio, podcasts, the internet browser, videos, games, pictures, UMDs, PS store games, that stupid little google icon, everything really. There aren't many cons to 4.01M33-2, besides some bugs that cause the PSP to freeze. However, these are quite rare, and the only one that is usually reproducible is the sleep mode bug. Place your PSP in sleep mode, and the PSP will freeze.
Overall, for hacking your PSP, 4.01M3321 is a very good choice. Some people may prefer 3.95 GEN-2, for whatever reason, but I still stick with 4.01 M33-2.
Pros:
All homebrew support
Theme support
Custom PRX plugins
Recovery mode
USB flash & UMD access
ISO loading
All official Sony features
Cons:
Sleep mode restarts PSP
Isn't officially supported by Sony[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET="Custom Firmware 3.95 GEN-2"]3.95 GEN-2
Summary: Based off of custom firmware 3.90 M33-3 since it was reverse engineered, developer Miriam created this firmware. 3.95 GEN features an updated kernel (3.95), and includes all of it's features. It also contains all of the features of 3.90M33-3, except support for PSX games and 1.5 kernel homebrew as it has no kernel addon. GEN also used to have problems with However, 1.5 kernel games can still be run through the use of Time Machine. GEN holds a few better features than M33, like it's recovery menu, and it allows the use of a full recovery menu or the VSHmenu in-XMB. More offsets have also been found for the 3.95 firmware, so themeing is better on GEN as it allows for more customization. Some people like GEN for the recovery menu it offers and the ability for more complex themes, but in my experience it seems most still use 3.90M33, due to the 1.5 kernel addon.
Pros:
Most benefits of 3.90M33
In XMB recovery menu
Cons:
No PSX support
No 1.5 kernel support
Isn't officially supported by Sony[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET="Official Firmware 4.05"]4.05
Summary: The latest official firmware out by Sony, 4.05, is basically 4.01M33 without all of the homebrew support, so no themes, homebrew, recovery menus, etc.. However, you do get a useless icon to go to Google's homepage and search for something, and an extra visualizer. Yay? Basically, 4.05 is crap unless you're into having the latest official thing, and into severely limiting yourself in what you can do with your PSP compared to the potential. Stay far far away from firmware 4.05 unless you like doing that. And remember, if you upgrade to 4.05 there's no going back to homebrew without the use of a Pandora battery.
Pros:
Latest official firmware
Supported by Sony
Support of all official features
Cons:
No homebrew support
No theme support (besides PTF themes, which are crap)
No user-made PSX game support
No recovery mode
Basically, no customization of PSP at all[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET="Official Firmware 1.50"]1.50
Summary: The so called "Ultimate Firmware." For a good part of the PSP's life this firmware was the most desired among PSP users. Here, we have full kernel access, a recovery mode, custom PRX loading, and many flash modifications. Just about all homebrew worked in this firmware, until M33 came along and homerbrew started being made in the 3.XX kernel. As of this time, this firmware does not support many media formats, with support for only MP3, MP4, and JPEG. However,the application Devhook allows the emulation of firmwares 2.0 to 3.02. But, due to Devhook being on the memory stick and not on the on board flash, certain features such as the web browser become sluggish. There are also certain bugs with Devhook, such as some users may have a problem with loading bookmarks. Overall 1.5 is now really outdated and useless. Stick with 3.95GEN or 3.90M33 if you want homebrew.
Pros:
Custom PRX loading
Flash modifications
Recovery mode
Complete kernel access
Able to emulate firmwares 2.0 to 3.02
Nostalgia feeling?
Cons:
Barley any media formats are supported
It takes time to load Devhook to emulate firmwares
Picture scaling is slow
No web browser
Little homebrew support
[/FIELDSET][FIELDSET=Custom Firmware 4.01 M33-2]4.01 M33-2
Summary: 4.01 M33-2 is a custom firmware made by PSP hacker Dark_Alex (DaX, DA, etc..). His firmware is largely regarded as the best and his has been around the longest. In 4.01M33-2, all the features of 1.5 (ie: homebrew), and the official Sony firmware 4.01, along with extra ones that DA put in. The major extra ones are the inclusion of a recovery menu, the ability to play any PSX game on your PSP, the ability to play ISOs without any UMD in the drive, custom PRX plugins, access to the flash via USB, access to UMDs via USB, among other things. All official Sony features are supported as well, meaning you get access to internet radio, podcasts, the internet browser, videos, games, pictures, UMDs, PS store games, that stupid little google icon, everything really. There aren't many cons to 4.01M33-2, besides some bugs that cause the PSP to freeze. However, these are quite rare, and the only one that is usually reproducible is the sleep mode bug. Place your PSP in sleep mode, and the PSP will freeze.
Overall, for hacking your PSP, 4.01M3321 is a very good choice. Some people may prefer 3.95 GEN-2, for whatever reason, but I still stick with 4.01 M33-2.
Pros:
All homebrew support
Theme support
Custom PRX plugins
Recovery mode
USB flash & UMD access
ISO loading
All official Sony features
Cons:
Sleep mode restarts PSP
Isn't officially supported by Sony[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET="Custom Firmware 3.95 GEN-2"]3.95 GEN-2
Summary: Based off of custom firmware 3.90 M33-3 since it was reverse engineered, developer Miriam created this firmware. 3.95 GEN features an updated kernel (3.95), and includes all of it's features. It also contains all of the features of 3.90M33-3, except support for PSX games and 1.5 kernel homebrew as it has no kernel addon. GEN also used to have problems with However, 1.5 kernel games can still be run through the use of Time Machine. GEN holds a few better features than M33, like it's recovery menu, and it allows the use of a full recovery menu or the VSHmenu in-XMB. More offsets have also been found for the 3.95 firmware, so themeing is better on GEN as it allows for more customization. Some people like GEN for the recovery menu it offers and the ability for more complex themes, but in my experience it seems most still use 3.90M33, due to the 1.5 kernel addon.
Pros:
Most benefits of 3.90M33
In XMB recovery menu
Cons:
No PSX support
No 1.5 kernel support
Isn't officially supported by Sony[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET="Official Firmware 4.05"]4.05
Summary: The latest official firmware out by Sony, 4.05, is basically 4.01M33 without all of the homebrew support, so no themes, homebrew, recovery menus, etc.. However, you do get a useless icon to go to Google's homepage and search for something, and an extra visualizer. Yay? Basically, 4.05 is crap unless you're into having the latest official thing, and into severely limiting yourself in what you can do with your PSP compared to the potential. Stay far far away from firmware 4.05 unless you like doing that. And remember, if you upgrade to 4.05 there's no going back to homebrew without the use of a Pandora battery.
Pros:
Latest official firmware
Supported by Sony
Support of all official features
Cons:
No homebrew support
No theme support (besides PTF themes, which are crap)
No user-made PSX game support
No recovery mode
Basically, no customization of PSP at all[/FIELDSET]
