The good news is that if you own a PSP under 3.03, you can downgrade to 1.50. Now what's so good about 1.50? Well, for one, it lets us play games, known as homebrew. These homebrew games are made by programmers for the PSP and are readily available to download to your PSP legally. In addition to being able to play homebrew games, we can also download emulators which let us play a range of "old school" games from other consoles like Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Master system, Atari, and even one for the Nintendo 64 (plus a stack more).

Aside from the thousands of games w can play with a downgraded PSP, you can also download homebrew applications, these applications let you do a wide variety of things with your PSP such as turn your PSP into a Universal Remote Control, Wi-fi Sniffer (lets you find wireless networks in your area), GPS and you can even stream media over the Internet through your Wi-Fi receiver on to your PSP.This is why many people make the decision to downgrade their PSP.

You should consider purchasing a bigger memory stick if you decide to downgrade your PSP, currently when you purchase a PSP, you are usually given a 32 MB memory stick, which is not a lot of room and if you really want to make the most of your PSP I would recommend you purchasing a 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB or even the recently released 4 GB memory stick for your PSP. Obviously, the bigger your memory stick, the more games, applications and DVD's you can place on your memory stick.

To downgrade your PSP you really only need a couple of things. Firstly, you need a mini USB cable to connect your PSP to your computer. Secondly, you need the correct downgrader to run and install the correct files on to your PSP.

Be very careful, when downgrading your PSP and make sure you follow the instructions exactly as they are presented. If you do not, the chances are you will brick your PSP (brick meaning, render it useless). It also goes without saying that if you try to downgrade your PSP with the wrong installer, e.g. using a 2.8 downgrader and your PSP is a 2.6, this will also brick your PSP.

While some people may think that downgrading their PSP is not worth the risk. I for one feel it is. Downgrading my PSP has changed it from the average run-of-the-mill PSP to a fully functional multimedia centre. I no longer have to purchase games if I want to as there are hundreds if not thousands of homebrew games that I can legally download and play, I can also back up my entire DVD collection and watch them on my PSP, and my favourite,change the TV channels with my PSP while everyone wonders who the hell keeps changing the channels, doesn't it sound enticing?

I suggest you downgrade your PSP today, you won't regret it and you'll never look back.