The latest update to cooleyes' (or cooleyes_lf) homebrew application, PPA (more officially known as PMPlayer AdVanCe), is build 200070930 (20070916 for 1.50 and lower). It sports compatibility with any 3.xx firmware including 3.71 M33 custom firmware. This fact has been confirmed by tipster Yufina, who also gave us word on the application's availability.

PPA is as English-friendly as the previous build, but it doesn't come with instructions to translate all the text into English (see images above). You could try changing the current parameter for the skin from "default" to "normal-en" in the CONFIG.XML file to get the results we've happened upon. It worked for us, and it might for you, too.

Now the changelog is as lengthy as the previous build, and unfortunately it's just as cryptic. We've "babelized" the list to little avail, though many of those familiar with the application might pick up an idea or two in the jumbled context.

Installation would be easy, as cooleyes puts it. The developer hasn't included documentation, but the changelist has a cryptic version. Take care to follow it, lest you wish to cause harm to your PSP. The program does come in EBOOT format, however, simplifying execution by several folds.

Once again, thanks to Yufina for the tip! The changelog appears at the full article.

Download: PMPlayer AdVanCe (PPA) build 20070930 for 3.xx
Download: PMPlayer AdVanCe (PPA) build 20070916 for 1.50
Download: PMPlayer AdVanCe (PPA) build 20070916 for 1.00

 

A new day, a new PMP mod update. Lots of people get to modify their media players, but one mainstay in the homebrew scene (and one whose releases are very much looked forward to by many) is Madruscoe. His PMP Mod AVC allows you to play videos on your PSP in full resolution (and it can support subtitles). Also known as moneytoo in our QJ forums, Madruscoe updated his application once again - uh, correction: twice again.

The January 11 releases have these changes:

• Version 1.02M_g (11.01.07) tuned by madruscoe:
• fixed freezing when displaying osd without inserted battery
• fixed completing description of controls (some left)
• Version 1.02M_f (11.01.07) tuned by madruscoe:
• fixed single line subtitle limit in .sub file (now if its more than 62 chars, new line is added so subtitles are displayed correctly - no more gray strokes)
• added extension .avc is supported and displayed in filelist
• added basic support for analogue pad (only up/down in filelist)

We're uploading the most recent one (v1.02M_g) below. For those who are new to this player mod, take sure you check the readme file. All pertinent info can be found there.

Download: [PMP Mod AVC v1.02M_g subtitle mod]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

For PSP neophytes wondering what a PMP Mod AVC is, it's obviously a homebrew app. What it does is it allows firmware 1.5 users to play full resolution, high-quality AVC movie files converted using the PMP AVC Muxer. That in turn means you don't have to upgrade to higher firmwares.

Going back to our topic, moneytoo (aka Madrusco) has announced the release of PMP Mod AVC v1.02M_e on the boards. And for those wondering what he tweaked since version "c:"

Version 1.02M_e (10.01.07) tuned by madruscoe:

• fixed deleting (not disappearing dialog window)
• added elapsed/remaining time display (press X + start)

Version 1.02M_d (09.01.07) tuned by madruscoe:

• added description of controls (press square in filelist)

Remember to view the README in the zip bundle for more details. Moneytoo comments that he thinks the biggest update for the pack was the addition of the time display. Given how easily most of us lose track of time, this is a welcome addition to the 'brew. Kudos to moneytoo - this is not poor programming! Keep it up.

Download [PMP Mod AVC v1.02M_e]
Discuss [Forum release thread]

Madrusco (known as moneytoo in the QJ forums) has today proved that you don't need amazing programming skills to give something back to the community. He has released an updated version of the PMP Mod AVC subtitle mod despite describing his own PSP programming skills as 'poor'.

Well, they may be poor by his standards but by looking at the changelog, this mod should be very useful for any PMP Mod AVC user. It has some pretty good practical changes. See for yourself...here's the changelog:

• Added display subtitles up, when the bar is shown
• Added left battery life time on status bar during video play
• Added deleting only .pos file (press SELECT - O to confirm)
• Added time and battery on status bar during video play (audio stream and loop hidden - no use for me)
• Fixed file info date display (maybe only my problem cause of using xvid4psp)
• Fixed units Mb -> MB etc.
• Added deleting .pmp including .sub, .srt, and .pos files
• Added actual time display (press Start button to refresh)
• Added battery status (percent) and time left

Take a close look at the screens above if you aren't entirely sure what this mod will do, but if you fancy a change of scenery and would like the mainly cosmetic updates added to your PMP Mod AVC player then simply download below. This application will work on both 1.5 and 3.03 OE-A.

Download: [PMP Mod AVC v1.02M_c]
Discuss: [Forum release thread]

Ahman's iR Shell is arguably one of the best applications ever made for the PSP. However, all good things must come to an end, so with a heavy-heart he announced that this is going to be the final release for the iR Shell.

Being the phenomenal application that it is today, you'd never imagine that it was created through Ahman's failed search for a PSP homebrew that can serve as a wireless controller to his Pentax camera. He's been hard at work on the project since January and he's transformed the then unnamed and potential Pentax camera controller application into the multi-tasking, can't-do-without iR Shell that it is now.

The Pentax camera may have triggered everything in motion, but the legions of dedicated supporters have kept it moving. There's AnonymousTipster, who's responsible for the ZIP and RAR plugins plus in charge of redesigning the iR Shell website. The devoted beta testers, most especially to StoneCut, who helps moderate the forum and help out newbies in the ins and outs of the application. His impressive and well written test reports are essential to the project's development.

Torpie13 for his generous donation for the domain and free T3 hosting service. And if you're still in awe of the UI graphics' transformation, you have these talented graphics artists to thank - Triable, Skydew, Terdinglage, Numeror, PSPHax0r9 and other skin makers. He also extends his sincerest thanks to the different plugin makers and their original authors that makes full use of the iR Shell plugin system.

Download: [iR Shell v2.2]
Download: [Network Host File System Server 1.5 (Windows Version)]
Download: [Network Host File System Server 1.5 (Linux Version)]
Download: [Pronto Hex Code v1.3 (For Infra-Red Feature)]
Download: [MP3 Player Plug-in Module]

The full changelog awaits after the jump!

Legendary shell coder Ahman has released 2 new plugins for all of those iR Shell users out there today, the first being PMP Mod v2.02 and the second BookR v0.7.1. iR shell is probably the best shell program for the PSP out there at the moment, supporting a variety of plugins, skins and features a very nice menu system since the last update to iR Shell v2.0. These plugins further increase the functionality of iR Shell, allowing you to play PMP movies and read txt, HTML or PDF files directly from the iR shell file browser.

Ahman's BookR v0.7.1 plugin allows you to view txt, HTML or PDF files from the iR shell file browser using the latest version of the Bookr document reader which adds the ability to read Chinese, Japanese and Korean text amongst other updates.

Ahman's PMP Mod v2.02 is a plugin for the latest version of Jonny's PMP Mod Which allows you to watch full resolution video files on your PSP, generally outputting a smaller file than PMP MP4 converted media. This plugin allows you to play PMP movies directly from the iR Shell file browser.

Download: [BookR v0.7.1 iR Shell plugin]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.02 iR Shell plugin]

Raphael's nostalgic recount of how the PMP Mod has turned into what we now know as PMP Mod AVC will surely send loyal followers of this media application tumbling down memory lane. He referred to his post as a "malloc revival" version of PMP Mod, and inevitably lead to how Malloc was the first one to mod Jonny's original and how in turn, that got him started on his own mods.

We're pretty sure that you already have an idea on what changes have been made throughout the years, so I'll spare you the lengthy changelog. And the latest of these changes will also be added to the standard version PMP Mod 2.02, after polishing some more details.

As a reward for reading this article about memories and reveries, we're giving you Raphael's latest FontGen v.06, and as he explains on his post, "It adds back all Windows codepages from 1250-1258. This was necessary, because some of the ISO8859 fonts weren’t compatible with subtitles generated in windows and led to wrong output of the subtitles (cyrillic for example)."

Thanks Raphael for the tip!

Download: [Fontgen v0.6]

With all the changes incorporated in PMP Mod subtitle mod's latest version, Looks like Raphael has been quite busy trying to make a better app for all you PMP Mod users to enjoy. The subtitle mod for PMP Mod v2.02 bears the following updates:

• Based on Jonny's v2.02 source with all improvements.
• Now has support for SubRip (.srt) subtitles.
• Asian language subtitles are now supported - Japanese, Korean, and Traditional Chinese (but Raphael admits that due to his lack of knowledge with the Asian languages, this new feature has not been highly tested yet).
• Support for up to eight different subtitles per video (switch them during playback with CROSS+LEFT TRIGGER).
• Change subtitle font and border color with CROSS+SQUARE and CROSS+CIRCLE.
• File list is filtered to *.pmp files
• Change CPU speed before playback (RIGHT TRIGGER in file list).
• ISO8859 fonts included in the release.

ISO8859-1: Latin-1, Western European (Danish, Dutch [partial]), English, Faeroese, Finnish (partial), French (partial), German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Rhaeto-Romanic, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swedish, Albanian, Afrikaans and Swahili.
ISO8859-2: Latin-2, Central European (Bosnian, Polish, Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, and Hungarian).
ISO8859-3: Latin-3, South European (Turkish, Maltese, and Esperanto).
ISO8859-4: Latin-4, North European (Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Greenlandic, and Sami).
ISO8859-5: Latin, Cyrillic.
ISO8859-6: Latin, Arabic
ISO8859-7: Latin, Greek
ISO8859-8: Latin, Hebrew
ISO8859-9: Latin-5, Turkish
ISO8859-10: Latin-6, Nordic
ISO8859-11: Latin, Thai
ISO8859-13: Latin-7, Baltic Rim
ISO8859-14: Latin-8, Celtic
ISO8859-15: Latin-9 (revision of 8859-1 including euro sign € and complete coverage of French, Finnish and Estonian).
ISO8859-16: Latin-10, South-Eastern European (Albanian, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Slovenian, Finnish, French, German and Irish Gaelic [new orthography]).

Raphael promises all the features in this PMP Mod v2.02 subtitle mod will also be integrated in the PMP Mod AVC release - patience is the keyword.

As was mentioned, Raphael does not have much knowledge on Asian languages and he feels that character placement of the Asian subs "looks really bad". So expect a more accurate character placement in future release of this great mod.

Like previous releases, a font generator tool for Windows is included in this release (an updated version of which is coming very soon). And as always, Raphael requests those who'll be generating a font not included in this release to share the font with others - or at least with him, so the generated font can be included in the final release.

Version 2.01 of this subtitle mod can now support 2.01+ firmwares with the use of eLoader and both the GTA and TIFF exploit (thanks to tommydanger's help!). Speaking of 2.01+ firmwares, Raphael writes, "since we now have a working downgrader for 2.6, I don't provide any further updates on the 2.0+ version, unless I get enough feedback that it is still wanted. Version 2.01 for 2.0+ will still be available though."

The downloads are below, you know the drill. Don't forget to voice out your thoughts on the PMP Mod v2.02 subtitle mod via the QJ forums or the comments section. Enjoy!

Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]
Download: [PMP Mod AVC 1.02 subtitle mod (fw1.5)]
Download: [PMP Mod AVC 1.02 subtitle mod (fw1.5) Source]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.02 subtitle mod (fw1.5)]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.02 subtitle mod (fw1.5) Source]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.01 subtitle mod (fw1.5)]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.01 subtitle mod (fw1.5) Source]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.01 subtitle mod (fw2.0+)]
Download: [PMP Mod v2.01 subtitle mod (fw2.0+) Source]
Download: [Font Generator (Windows)]
Download: [Subtitle Mod Fonts] - includes ISO8859, Shift-JIS (Japanese), Uni-Han (Korean), and BIG5 (Trad. Chinese)

So you’ve been waiting for the holidays all this time. But then, you checked out the upcoming titles for the PSP… Surprise! There is nothing to look forward to if you’re looking at official games.

Don’t worry though, the homebrew community is gonna have one of its best times. Here are a few reasons why these holidays will be something to look forward to.

The Modchip - Frankly, I don’t think there’s any homebrew user who doesn’t know about the modchip. The news is practically explosive. Although it’s been circulating all this time, the first shipments are just starting to reach the eager customers. And the possibilities seem endless.

Reviving bricks, Dual firmwares, Custom firmwares… It’s all there. And frankly, I can’t wait to buy one of them myself. Just thinking about homebrew on the latest firmware gives me the goosebumps. There was a time when a few people had 2 PSPs - one for homebrew, and the other for the latest firmware features and games.
Now, with the modchip round the corner, you can as well sell the second PSP buy a chip.

2.XX kernel access - So you don’t want to spend $90 on a modchip. Or you can’t possibly comprehend how the whole soldering thing works. Fret not! Hitchhikr and Neural (a group) have practically busted open into the 2.XX kernel functionality. And this was just 2 days ago!

Right now, there’s no practical use of the exploit. But for developers, it offers the same depth of functionality which they’ve been programming in for the earlier firmwares. And there’s already been a flurry of activity. Fanjita is currently checking out the depths he can go to using the exploit. And who knows, MPH or Edison Carter might come out with another bombshell any time. We can certainly hope for some exciting time because of this latest exploit.

Awesome homebrew - If homebrew’s your thing, you still have a lot to look forward to. The homebrew community is churning out great homebrew almost everyday.

iR Shell – If you haven’t used this, you’re missing out on a lot. Though it doesn’t give you the whole ‘OS’ type feel, this shell is the only one which I actually use everyday. As much as I like other shells, fact is, they tend to get in the way. iR Shell gives the functionality which I can use, not so that I can show it off. And going by the improvements in the latest version, I can’t wait to see what else Ahman has up his sleeve.

PSPRadio – Another one of those ‘must-have’ homebrew applications. It’s one homebrew which would make Sony ashamed of themselves. In the last year and a half, all they’ve come up with is a lousy browser a useless Location Free player. The rest of the functionality is frankly forgettable. PSPRadio can only be described in the superlatives. Haven’t tried it out? What are you waiting for? Especially check out the full-blown Links2 browser!

PMP Mod and PiMPStreamer – Again, these applications (developed by Jonny and DickyDick1969 respectively) show the functionality which should’ve been included in the PSP when it was released. And if Sony couldn’t make something like this, they had no right to block the hi-res content only to UMDs. PMP Mod allowed me to watch hi-res movies. And PiMPStreamer practically blew the roof off by allowing you to stream them without you requiring 'm4d sk!llz'. Again, download these two applications if you’ve not done it already.

Countless more games and homebrew – I can’t possibly list out all the homebrew and games. But suffice to say that there’s a lot to be tried out.

Our Summer Homebrew Competition – So you’re planning to develop something eh? This would be the perfect time, seeing how you can actually win some prizes from it. Our competition promises to be very exciting. And I can’t possibly wait for some of the homebrew released during it.

Our special features - There's gonna be a lot of special features, just for our readers. A current example would be the 'Know the Developers' series of articles. We've also got a few more tricks up our sleeve to make your summer absolutely fantastic.

There you go... This summer, you and your PSP are gonna have a blast! And we’ll be there to cover every bit of it. Stay tuned to your favorite PSP hangout - PSPUpdates!

Mondy from the iR Shell forums has released a Plugin for Ahman's amazing app thus allowing you to launch PMP Mod AVC v1.02 files from within iR Shell with subtitle support. This is a mod of PMP Mod AVC v1.02 by Jonny which was modified by Raphael to include subtitle support, and then modified by Mondy in order for it to work as an iR Shell plugin.

The plugin modification is based on StoneCut's PMP Mod AVC plugin for iR Shell which was based on Ahman's PMP Mod 2.0 plugin, so some of the credit goes to Jonny, Raphael, Ahman and StoneCut. All you have to do in order to install this is copy the contents of the folder "PMPModAVC" into the X:IRSHELLEXTAPPAPP1 directory on your PSP; where x is your PSP. And remember, because the plugin in the APP1 directory would have been the PMP Mod v2.01 plugin, you don't even have to assign the filename suffix again!

This will overwrite the PMP Mod v2.01 plugin originally supplied with iR Shell v1.6, so be sure to back up the App1 folder if you wish to revert to PMP Mod v2.01 again at a later date. The source code has been included for all the prospective iR Shell plugin creators out there.

Download: [PMP Mod AVC v1.02 subtitle iR Shell plugin]