Help me decide what to buy for my DSLite!

Well, I have a couple questions.
I have used a SuperCard SD in the past with my GBA's, it worked okay, except it's a hacked version of M3's products and it doesn't have the updated Crystal Engine for movies, and it also has visible slow down in some games. It's alright though.

Now, I have a DS lite.
It's a black one, I don't know what the Ique looks like.

Anyway, I want the best card to use to emulate NDS software on my DSL. I was thinking about the M3 Perfect SD (the one that fits the DSL profile) and a passcard 3, I heard that was the latest version and pretty much the best. But, I don't know for sure.

It was advertised as no slowdown at least with GBA games.

So, what's the best and/or newest setup to get with the DSL? I do want to go for the memory card solution and not built-in memory.

Also, I'm wondering, I read a few things but, doesn't seem to say, will using one of these gba cards and a passkey alter my DS's flash memory?

I'm trying not to alter the DS's flash or invalidate an warranty, etc.

Also, I heard there was those 'brick' viruses running around (bad code that flashes your DS into a paperweight) so, I'd want to avoid that.

Also, can anyone tell me if there is actual any nintendo official media player software/hardware for the DS or if any is possibly planned?

The Supercard is not at all a hack of the M3 product. In fact, I believe the Supercard was out before the M3 did. However, you're right in that it has slower RAM and therefore does not playback GBA binaries as well as other products.

If you want a product that has very good DS and GBA compatibility, the M3 Perfect + Passcard 3 would work fine. Alternatively, you could get a slot-1 device like the Supercard DS or R4 or M3 Simply combined with the slot-2 EZ-V 3in1 expansion pack, which will give you near-perfect GBA compatibility and other benefits. The expansion pack uses built-in flash, but you use software on the DS itself to write files from the microSD card in slot-1 to the flash memory of the expansion pack.

Homebrew devices should not alter your DS in any way.

There are a couple of brickers out there, but honestly I've never seen one myself, and the two that were released had very limited distribution, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

There is the alternate firmware replacement called FlashMe. If you decide to go with the M3 Perfect + Passcard 3 combo, you can then install FlashMe to remove the need for the PassCard 3, as it will autoboot to the M3 Perfect. This also will provide bricker protection, as you can use the emergency recovery mode to reinstall FlashMe should your firmware get bricked. However, FlashMe installation involves bridging a contact under your battery cover, and technically it voids your warranty, though I've never heard of Nintendo returning any DS due to the presence of FlashMe. There are two versions - one that removes the health and safety screen at bootup and one that leaves it intact.

Thanks for the info. Also, I just heard that web browser ( a ds card 34.99 not download ) is out tomorrow or tuesday.

So, now when people mistake your ds for a blackberry or pda you really can browse the web, check your email, watch youtube, and check out uh..other important stuff :P

One other thing, just lemme make sure I got what you said right, an m3+passcard 3, or another solution will let me run gba, nds, and other emu files, but doesn't alter the flash, unless I opt to upgrade with flashme, so i don't have to use the pass3 is that correct?

In other words using a hardware pass3 i won't need to alter the flash. I've done hardware modding before in the past but, I just don't feel comfortable messing with my ds, or my wii or 360 for that matter :P , i did mods on like 3 xbox's in the past though, and repaired at least 5 xbox's that friends brought to me, insisting that they were flat-out dead. I managed to resurrect them :P

If you use the PassCard 3 then you will not need to install FlashMe at all. If you decide to install FlashMe however, you will need the PassCard 3 at least once to launch the .nds file in the first place, after which point you can put the PassCard 3 to the side.

Yes, the English web browser is due tomorrow. They claim Flash is supported, but I doubt the DS has enough power for it. We'll see anyway. I know the European release doesn't have any Flash support at all, which means no Youtube.

I'd actually recommend getting a slot-1 device (which has built-in passthrough functionality) with the EZ-V 3in1 expansion pack, as it gives you the best of both worlds, with the ease of use of slot-1 with the GBA compatibility of slot-2. This would also be cheaper as well. You would need to buy a microSD card, but I feel it's worth it. The microSD card should come with a microSD-to-SD adapter that will let it fit in your regular card reader.

Of course, if you want to go with the M3 Perfect, it's also a fairly good option, so I won't attempt to stop you. It's just expensive, that's all.

Thanks I'll check out that ezv31.

Alright, one more is the Ez-v 3in1 comparable in speed to the M3 Perfect's GBA/NDS speed? I.E. will there be visible slowdown in some games or portions of games as in the old Supercard SD?

The 3in1 uses NOR flash, which is what the original GBA flash carts used before devices like the Supercard and M3 started using RAM instead. NOR flash is very slow to write to, but incredibly fast to read from, so there should be no slowdown issues at all. Using Rudolph's tool, you can also load GBA binaries up to 16 MB in size into the RAM on the cart, which is quicker than writing to the NOR flash, though I'm not sure how the speed on that compares.