A few questions from someone coming from the PSP world

After being bored to death with my PSP I've decided to sell it and get a DS. The fact that homebrew is easier to use without the chance of bricking my system is very attractive to me. I just have a few questions.

First off, I'm not interested in playing DS roms, as I have gamefly, so there isn't much of a point.

I am, however, very interested in homebrew.

Now for the questions...

1) I'm looking for something that will let me play music and video, so what programs would be good for that?

2) I'm also looking for a web browser. I think it's a little ridiculous that the opera browser costs $30. Are there any good homebrew browsers out there?

3) I want a slot-1 device, as it seems to be easier to use and a cheaper solution all around. I've been thinking of the Games n Music card, since it seems to do everything I'd want, but I hear it doesn't play with homebrew very well. What would be a good card for a good price?

Thanks in advance guys

The GnM would be the worst possible device you could buy. It plays music, and I think movies, but its homebrew support is horrible. That said, let's get to the questions.

1. Pretty much any device will work for music and movies aside from the GnM, using the Moonshell application. You have to convert videos to the DPG file format first however.

2. The homebrew web browsers aren't that much to write home about. The best one is the one in DSOrganize, but even that is text-only. The best one is the Opera browser.

For slot-1 devices, the recommended ones are the R4, M3 Simply, and Supercard DS. You can tack on the $20 EZ-V 3in1 expansion pack if you want to use GBA homebrew as well. It's currently mostly available in Lite-sized form, though a few retailers have started selling Phat-sized versions.

I've heard of Moonshell. Converting is a problem as anything would be better than converting for the PSP.

Web browsing is more of an afterthought after music and video. What kinds of homebrew programs are available in general?

I've been leaning toward R4. Seems to have everything I'd ever want in one nice little package.

And I've been thinking about getting a lite anyway.

Thanks for the answers.

There are a few homebrew web browsers out there:

1. DSOrganize has a built-in one. This is probably the most polished homebrew browser, as it supports forms and lets you physically click on links and such. However, it does this by actually downloading the HTML page to your media card and then running it through the HTML renderer it has, so it doesn't render on the fly.

2. Bunjalloo resides entirely in RAM so it doesn't work quite like DSOrganize. This one is probably the most usable after DSO, though it's only seen one release. It doesn't have a history (like DSO does) and you can't really refresh the page without typing the url in again.

3. DSHobro uses both a PC-side server application that actually browses the page and sends the DS a snapshot image of it. Pretty useless, though you can click on links that are in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

4. There are two web browsers in DSLinux called Retawq and Links. They are ports of already-existing PC browsers, so I find them to be the most usable. Retawq will run on your R4 if you use the DLDI build and manage to setup your wireless config file correctly, while Links renders pages more accurately but requires extra RAM to function or else it will crash. The 3in1 provides enough RAM to run Links.

The R4 would be a good choice.