Please Help with a newbie in need of homebrew and flash support

I'm new to the psp thing (got one yesterday), i've been using a ds to run homebrew with a supercard sd, it's really easy. Is it me or is the psp homebrew thing just a complete nightmare? I've spent over 4 hours searching the net so far - various sites, forums etc, and i'm not even sure what i'm doing yet. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me some advice on the following:

1 - Can i run homebrew and have browser flash support at the same time?

2 - i believe that flash is supported on firmware 2.71 How can i upgrade to 2.71, there are no links, Sony only provide a 2.80 upgrade (and there are no current downgraders for 2.80 so i'm not really willing to use it) and i've pulled no luck trawling the net for 2.71.

3 - I would rather not have to mess about with GTA save patch if possible is there any other way to run homebrew?

4 - Is there any difference between us and uk firmwares, or are umd games/films region free - i Have a uk psp.

My current firmware is 2.60


Sorry if these questions get asked a lot, i have spent a lot of time searching forums, but search engines don't seem to be very forthcoming, and i've read so much that my eyes are falling out (my glasses currently hold them in place LOL)

Thanks in advance for any help provided :)

It's good to see more people converting to the PSP side of the force (or whatever)...

Homebrew on PSP can be really simple IF you know what you are doing but yes, even when I started I found it to be a complex nightmare of files and folders ;) Now onto your questions;

1. Not 100% sure but I can't see this being important anyway.

2. Flash is supported in FW2.71 and up. To get the update you should probably look on google or psp-hacks.com for the file. To upgrade put the EBOOT.pbp in the folder X:PSP/GAME/UPDATE (X:/ being the PSP root) and go the Games menu to start the PSP updater.

3. To run Homebrew on higher Firmwares download and use eLoader v0.99. You could also use the reverse DevHook for 2.71 which gives FW1.5 whilst still on 2.71 but I'm not 100% sure how that one works :(

4. The only Firmware differences are for the Japanese ones where they use O as confirm and X as cancel. UMD games are region-free but UMD movies are not. So to play movies you will need to buy local.

Hopefully this will help you out in getting Homebrew working on your brand new PSP :)

Dont tell him to update his firmware! >:(
Although he can still downgrade it... You need to downgrade to 1.5. With that, you can do pretty much whatever you want on the psp...
The flash games arent worth it anyway....you can still play them on 1.5...

Wow - quick response or what? Cheers for advice, is u.s firmware the same as u.k firmware then? Thanks again for advice so far, maybe i can tempt you into the world of ds homebrew, there are some amazing homebrew games & Apps out for ds. Media streamers, so you can play music from your pc, organiser software (dsorganize) that uses the full advantage of the stylus. I'm sure the psp has just as amazing a selection of homebrew, can't wait . Ta again :)

and hi to a fellow salad fingers fan :) - is there homebrew support for flash games? What are the downsides to downgrading to 5.1? Does the emulation of newer firmwares from a 1.5 firmware flashed psp good then (animated backdrops\web browser\flash support in sony browser) - ta

weird actually - one of the first things i tried to put on my psp was salad fingers (converted from flash to avi) played all weird - shame

Are you a fan Of fat-pie?! Salad fingers kicks ass! As Does burnt face man and spoilsbury toast boy...

There are absolutly no downsides to 1.5....none....you can do everything you can do on 1.5 as you can on the higher ones... And a hell of alot more...

spoilsbury toast boy - yeah. But i prefered the original devo - really scary. 2 of my mates have salad fingers t-shirts LOL

T-shirts....Hardcore fans....very good...

But yeah, there is a program called devhook which allows you to emulate higher firmwares, which will allow you to use the psp browser, and play the psp games which require higher firmwares(the latest releases)
With 1.5 firmware you can also install something called custom firmware...This allows you to directly launch a pre- set firmware by having the wlan switch down. If you want to just load normal 1.5 firmware have the switch up.

Another thing you can do with custom firmware is by setting a specified homebrew to load whilst holdint the x-button on boot up.

1.5 firmware it truly the way to go, without a doubt.

Dev(vo)Hook. Devvo at Leeds festival is hilarious!