Gp2x Or Psp

[DavidBeoulve]

I own a (pink )DS, a PSP, and a GP2X, and I love them (almost )equally.
I will try to point out as many as I can of the positive sides of my machines...

Perhaps the most well-writ response from someone who owns multiple systems in this thread. Thank you Oddwarg!

I assume you mean a "tape" or "film" style one, I wouldn't bother, the screen does not scratch that easy and the replacements are only $10 on the way outside chance you drop it on sharp rocks.

Uhh, Nubie, this is not true! The GP2X screens are easy to scratch! Perhaps it is my 30/20 vision (I can see at 30 feet what most people see at 20) but I promise you, it's easier than you portray here, bud.

I recommend a screen-protector pack. These things are hard to install, I have to use windex, a terry-cloth napkin, a can of compressed air, and a squeedgie (many objects will do). With a pack, you can afford to "learn" on the first two tries.

Edit: removed double word

 

[Wite_Noiz]

Damn good review, Oddwarg.

I may not own anything that takes the Sony sticks, but I'm especially jealous of your 512gig one

 

[DavidBeoulve]

This whole thread, and a visit from an IT friend, got me worked up to doing a blog about something my friend Dove pointed out:

PSP is Crippled by DRM

Just thought I'd share.

 

[deadlychicken22]

I may not own anything that takes the Sony sticks, but I'm especially jealous of your 512gig one

:lol:

 

[OmarNawaz]

Dont get SFA3, the non diagonal issue is a pain with that game.

I thought it came with some sort of joystick cap or something to solve that problem?

Dunno but i think that voided warranty or something and sony got pissed so they stopped it

PSP really is an excellent device the devs have just had to get used to making games for it and i think they have got their stride Monster Hunter is an excellent game and really shows off the power of the psp

And they are alot of cool upcoming games

Sony really made a pigs dinner of the psp it truly could have been ultimate all in one device if they concentrated on making the firmware with improved features rather than crippling it

they have been too slow supporting the users of the device been too distracted by there sales war with Nin

 

[skeezix]

I didn't read all the replies, but many/most that I did read were (of course) a little over-GP2X; it being a GP2X fan board its hard to get around that. I imagine most of the people replying don't also own both GP2X and a PSP .. they're replying out of love for the 2x.

It is more difficult than many will bring up.

The PSP screen is _amazing_ and big, but it (as many pointed out) not as high a refresh rate. (Course to _also_ be fair, the Mk1 GP2X screen is _interlaced_ which few or no one mentioned. Thats the fan-side that forgets the flaws The PSP screen looks stunning for emus. DaveC will bring up the aspect ratio, but its perfect in many cases (like for Atari ST, my thing.) Since its my emu on both platforms I can compare and it looks great on PSP and great on GP2x, and I don't notice the refresh much So sorry to say, its not a clear-cut answer like many would say.

The PSP is pretty fast (sure, Risc, but the 333 is actually pretty darned fast. Irs also dual-333 plus the GPU .. thats a lot of processing power) though ARM is faster in some cases. (Theres more to it than pure CPU of course; bus, ram, predence of an FPU that ARM doesn't have.) There are a lot of commercial games, some of which suck, some are great - thats an opinion call that people shouldnt' put into your mouth for you. If you can't be bothered to use a TV console (like me, since my wife has the TV , then GTA is great on PSP since no chance to play it on the PS2. Katamari, Socom, Gradius, etc etc all great on PSP. Most of the ones I like on PSP are ports from PS2, or same familes as PS2.. but I barely play PS2 so great.)

But most are ignoring the real question.. emulation and homebrew, and the reality of it all.

A 2.0 or earlier PSP can be rolled back to 1.5 to 2.0. Those are good firmware versions so you can do lots of cool things.. open up most commercial games, and do homebrew easily.

If your PSP is firmware 2.1 or later, you get trouble.. do far they can't be rolled back to an earlier firmware version, and these are not cracked really well yet. FW2.6 is needed for a number of commercial games (some that cannot be run on 1.5 even with mods) so many people end up on 2.6 or 2.7 and firmware is a _real pain_ on these.)

So for _homebrew and emulation_ in msot cases the GP32 and GP2x are king since they're openly able to do it; if you have an older PSP then _great_, its very good.. but if you do intend to use commercial games oyu might get bonered.

(Course, the GP2x will have virtually no commercial games. Fans will forget this. Sure, yuo'll get a few, maybe even a half dozen or dozen .. but not hundreds!)

The PSP _may_ well get a modchip; theres abotu 10 people who've built their own, and there are a couple companies about to release modchips so you can run multiple firmwares.. 1.5 for homebrew, and the current flavour for games.

What would I suggest?

I don't suggest, since thats the only way to be fair

If you want homebrew and emulation, GP2x is the way to go unless you want to wait for PSP+modchip, or buy an old PSP and never use it for commercial games

Myself, with Sony always fighting with devs to break any homebrew exploits and combat modchips and such, I wrote off my PSP -- it is onyl for commercial games. Its a great screen (emus like _great_ on it, though it does not refresh as fast as you might like. Its also an _enormous_ screen!) and all.. but if you have to fight with Sony, load up GTA and use a save-game exploit to break out to a launcher.. its too much. Screw it ,and boot up the 2x I say.

But I own both, depending what I want to do.

jeff

ex: On a 1.5 FW PSP you can just boot homebrew from the PSP menu; on a 2.0 PSP you boot up an exploit that fires up a launcher, that you boot homebrew on. On a 2.6 FW you boot up GTA:LCS and after it loads (a minute or two) theres an exploit that breaks you into the launcher. On 2.7 your'e stuck with Flash games.

ex 2: The latest GTA:LCS UMD's dont' have the exploit present, so you can see how Soyn and co are working to stop homebrew. New FM versiosn every month or two, and companies fixing exploits. So a year from now, you'll need a modchip (if they exist), or no homebrew and new games _likely_(who can tell) on the PSP.

GP2x will always be homebrew friendly.. since homebrew is all it will (likely) ever have.

Another point: the GP32/GP2x scene is one of the best. The 2x is bringing lots of people but the old guard GP32 people have beaten them more or less into good sceners.. its like the good old days here on gp32x.de

 

[DaveC]

. Its a great screen (emus like _great_ on it, though it does not refresh as fast as you might like. Its also an _enormous_ screen!) and all.. but if you have to fight with Sony, load up GTA and use a save-game exploit to break out to a launcher.. its too much. Screw it ,and boot up the 2x I say.

But it is "enormous" for emus *only if you stretch to 16:9*. You must mention when you do this things look squashed and fuzzy though. If you stretch to the correct aspect ratio not only do you get the pixel distortion and filter fuzz but the image is about the same size as the GP2X when running 1:1. The GP2X screen is actually *slightly* taller than the PSP screen just not as wide.

Whatever though they are both good for their own thing.

 

[DavidBeoulve]

What was funny was when Ian, an IT guy, saw my GP2X this morning. He was mildly interested until he saw it run an episode of Deadwood on DivX.

"This is DivX?" he asked.

It took me a bit to figure out what issue I accidentally pressed upon, but suddenly he was talking about how his PSP has been on a shelf for months because it doesn't let him do much and he should probably sell it. He wasn't sure if, with a brand-new baby girl, he could float a GP2X but he did ask the price.

The issue? DRM cripples PSP, as my friend Dove said.

It's great for games, but Digital Rights Management is crippling it. I feel sorry for the folks who go through firmware madness with their PSPs, UMD or die methodolgy, and restricted memory stick formats. Sony wanted to clamp down to make money on it - guess what? They did.

Sad, really. It looks awesome, and it was the handheld I rooted for when it first came out. I wanted a handheld to dethrone the GBA.

Other than the screen issue, if the PSP didn't have all of these DRM measures (memory stick, movie formats, and homebrew) would we really BE here?

*chuckles* I probably wouldn't have ever found the GP2X but for running into those issues.

 

[darkman]

I would have to dissagree about the PSP screen. After having a BLU and being used to the GP32 screen, when I actually got my hands onto a PSP, I was really not that impressed. Yes it is a bit longer, but I think what really impresses me is the graphics engine that is built into that system that you can hold in your hands. The one that I played with belong to someone else. I will get one toward the end of this year, but only for the commercial games. There are some out now and others that are on their way that I want. Gradius collection, for me, is a must have. I will not fight the filmware issue. My GP2X that is soon to be in my hands will be my emu and homebrew system.
I was talking to a co-worker and we got to talking about the GP2X (he never heard of it before) and he goes and orders himself one, GETTING ONE BEFORE I GET MINE. I will have mine at the first of next week. <_<

 

[DaveC]

This whole screen thing is a bit of a roose. The higher the contrast the slower the display. Why? because the better the contrast the more time the Liquid crystal has to go from black to white, the greater the angle from on to off . this means more time and more ghosting. I recently got a DS lite and while the contrast is awesome like the PSP it pays the price in response time. The DS lite now has the contrast and brightness of the PSP and also much of the ghosting too. The Gp2X has great contrast with the M2 but not as good as the PSP or DS lite, but it doesn't have the ghosting problem either. It is a tradeoff. LCD technology is pretty much set and can't get much better. Now it is a matter of what they will give, better contrast/brightness or better response time. The GP2X is at a pretty good balance now.

 

[Azure]

Ignoring Sony's attempt to stop all the homebrew and what not, do you guys think that the PSP's homebrew scene (Including emulators and all other user created applications) will grow much bigger than the GP2X's due to the PSP's popularity and easy accesibility? Again, IGNORE Sony's attempts to stop homebrew (just COMPLETELY forget about that, I'm not focusing on that). Would you say that the PSP already has a bigger scene?

(p.s. ignore Sony's attempts to stop homebrew)

 

[banner88]

Well, the thing you're asking us to ignore is a vital component, so how can we answer? Personally, I believe we'll overtake em - heck, the 2X is very young, and having linux is much better for longevity and ports than a proprietary OS. And Sony's fondest wish is to personally execute anyone who has not got the newest version of that OS.

 

[OmarNawaz]

This whole screen thing is a bit of a roose. The higher the contrast the slower the display. Why? because the better the contrast the more time the Liquid crystal has to go from black to white, the greater the angle from on to off . this means more time and more ghosting. I recently got a DS lite and while the contrast is awesome like the PSP it pays the price in response time. The DS lite now has the contrast and brightness of the PSP and also much of the ghosting too. The Gp2X has great contrast with the M2 but not as good as the PSP or DS lite, but it doesn't have the ghosting problem either. It is a tradeoff. LCD technology is pretty much set and can't get much better. Now it is a matter of what they will give, better contrast/brightness or better response time. The GP2X is at a pretty good balance now.

Ghosting on the DS Lite?

Ive never seen it what game were you playing?

I never heard about Contrast ratio affecting refresh rate? How does that work out since the backlight is seperate from the tft module?

Ignoring Sony's attempt to stop all the homebrew and what not, do you guys think that the PSP's homebrew scene (Including emulators and all other user created applications) will grow much bigger than the GP2X's due to the PSP's popularity and easy accesibility? Again, IGNORE Sony's attempts to stop homebrew (just COMPLETELY forget about that, I'm not focusing on that). Would you say that the PSP already has a bigger scene?

(p.s. ignore Sony's attempts to stop homebrew)

The amount of users is huge the scene itself is quite big although its more underground due to a certain companies tactics and the community isnt has close knit as ours also the community if full of trolls though as much is expected

EDIT: Those guys in that "OTHER" thread are so annoying I make a easily readable post and they are like "I dont understand your post use punctuation"

man are those psp guys touchy its like theyre pissed off that any other handheld exists I have a theory that prolonged exposure to Sony products turns you into Sony controlled troll

 

[Azure]

Well, the thing you're asking us to ignore is a vital component, so how can we answer? Personally, I believe we'll overtake em - heck, the 2X is very young, and having linux is much better for longevity and ports than a proprietary OS. And Sony's fondest wish is to personally execute anyone who has not got the newest version of that OS.

I said to ignore that!

Pretend that Sony isn't trying to stop them. Do you still think the GP2X will overtake the PSP scene?

 

[Aninhumer]

I think the problem is that Sony's crackdown on firmware is the main reason people will switch to developing on the GP2X.

And, yes I think we will overtake them, I don't actually know what the PSP scene is like, but Sony will keep finding ways to get you to update.
(Perhaps something with the WiFi?)

 

[DaveC]

Ghosting on the DS Lite?

Ive never seen it what game were you playing?

I never heard about Contrast ratio affecting refresh rate? How does that work out since the backlight is seperate from the tft module?

man are those psp guys touchy its like theyre pissed off that any other handheld exists I have a theory that prolonged exposure to Sony products turns you into Sony controlled troll

I was playing that new Mario game. Scrollers show it more than most other titles. In certain color combos there is some ghosting. It doesn't seem as bad as the PSP though.

Contrast ratio is not just the back light. An LCD screen has liquid crystals that align in a certain way when current is passed through to block light. They "twist" and then relax as power is cycled. The time needed to twist then relax is the response time. The more power the more the twist and contrast but because the crystal is moving more it takes a bit longer to cycle back. When it doesn't return to it's original state fast enough you see trails or "ghosting". Shorten the time to go from black to light by not making the crystals twist as much and you get better response time but not as good contrast.

This is why certain color combos show it more than others. Black and more saturated colors twist the farthest which is why those colors ghost more than lighter ones. Lighter colors don't twist the crystals as far so they don't have the distance to go back.

Yeah I noticed that PSP guys are touchy. I was somewhere and someone asked about emus and I mentioned the GP2X. The guy was interested but this PSP guy was like "the PSP does that" "the PSP is better cause it is rechargeable" " I don't need to change batteries the PSP lasts 12 hours when playing emus" "but the PSP has full speed N64 emulation" "I don't know what that other thing is but nothing will beat the PSP" It was like he felt if someone bought anything other than a PSP that Sony would fold and go bust or something.

 

[skeezix]

The PSP scene is pretty large simpyl due to the enormous number of units in market.. but I wonder if it is a shrinking market since..

o new devices are on 2.7 firmware (I _assume_) meaning no decent homebrew (I don't count flash) at this stage

o old devices tend to slowly get updated

Mind you a few mod chips exist, and at least one has 'gone commercial' (assuming it is not a scam), which means PSP may blow right open.

As is, I simply have ot say .. all my PSP developed apps stopped working, and its a pain to figure out what Sony did to break them. So I said hell with it ages ago.. I'm not interested in fighting with someone who doesn't want me to use their device.

But its a fun platform to dev on (the GPU is enormously fun to play with!) .. it was great to have dual 333 and have fade-outs on panels over the emulation playfield without losing any FPS and all that.

But right now I wouldn't touch it for homebrew myself (ie: above I try to be more fair, but now I'm speaking personally .. but when modchips come it could be pretty nifty.

But theres a pretty large pile of people making decent hombrew.

ie: with 802.11 built in, thats cool stuff; there are a half dozen peopel workign on various video streamers for instance.. if you're into that its pretty exciting (I'm not

jeff

 

[gaterooze]

Mind you a few mod chips exist, and at least one has 'gone commercial' (assuming it is not a scam), which means PSP may blow right open.

I kinda doubt that, considering the extreme cost and difficulty of doing it. There's also strong rumors that Sony will be releasing a 'fixed' PSP later this year which will again set that back.

It seems crazy to me -- if Sony embraced homebrew but only cracked down on the ISO loaders for piracy, the PSP would sell a hell of a lot better... I honestly think the homebrew scene on the Xbox helped its sales massively.

EDIT: the first modders are now offering PSP mod services... at a total cost of US$170 (inc. chip). Same price as a GP2X from playasia...

 

[DavidBeoulve]

DaveC: I noticed the same thing (regarding the PSP scene).

gaterooze: Holy Moolabags, Batman! I read about (PSP MOD chips) coming out and folks thought it would cost $100.

skeezix: Dual 333MHz?

Azure: Yes, if we ignore all logic, the PSP will/would own. I would have bought a PSP and never found out about a GP2X until too late, if I hadn't run into the Sony/Homebrew war.

Aninhumer: That's why I did more research and found the Gp2X.

banner88: *chuckles*


Edit: Added clarifications.

 

[gaterooze]

gaterooze: Holy Moolabags, Batman! I read about (PSP MOD chips) coming out and folks thought it would cost $100.

The chip itself is $99, but installers are charging $70 for the modding service + return post.

Those prices will probably come down over time.