Posts Tagged paypal
Fake PSP Memory Stick: Paypal Refund
I was lucky, the seller of the fake 8GB Memory Stick Duo for my PSP gave me a refund, as I returned the item.
I doubt this happens to many people. I think I’ve learned my lesson and will have to do more extensive research the next time I think about buying something on eBay.
More PSP Media and Firmware hacking
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on March 7, 2008
Apparently, filing the claim with PayPal over the fake memory stick prompted the seller to at least tell me he’ll give me a refund. I put the fake stick in the mail yesterday and I’ll see how that goes.
The real stick came from Newegg today and it seems to work well.
Following this link, I was able to downgrade my 2.6 firmware to 1.5 using the Lumines exploit (I had to buy a copy of Lumines, but it’s a good game). Since I had neglected my PSP for so long, I had a relatively old firmware version that was easy to downgrade to 1.5. So now I’m running M33 3.90 custom firmware. This should allow me to experiment with homebrew applications while still being able to run the handful of games I’ve got. I tried running a universal remote control homebrew app, but didn’t have much luck with it. All of this custom stuff seems real finicky.
I found VisualHub, which allows me to encode videos in PSP format and I put on a few to see how it looks — very crisp image quality and good sound as well. VisualHub allows you to increase the volume if the sound is too low. A 45 minute TV episode takes about 250 megs, so with an 8 gig card, I’ve got space for plenty of shows to watch while I’m on the elliptical or somewhere with some down time. Of course, I also trimmed my mp3 list to about 3.5 gig, so with that on there, the available space is nearly halved, but I should be okay spacewise. SyncTunes allows me to transfer an iTunes playlist to my PSP without too much hassle. It seems there are better programs out there for Windows, but I would rather keep everything on the Mac.
Hopefully I’ll have time to screw around more with the PSP, especially with homebrew. There is a lot of interesting stuff out there for it, very little of which existed two years ago when I got my PSP and just kind of neglected it. The universal remote just sounds funny — turning off anyone’s TV with your PSP. There are all kinds of skins and themes and shells for the PSP as well and it would be interesting to write some of my own programs, if I had the time.
Caveat Emptor: Fake Sony Memory Sticks on eBay
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on March 5, 2008
I ordered an 8 gig Sony Memory Stick on eBay a week and a half ago and it arrived last Friday. I really haven’t messed with it too much, but I did put on a few videos that I encoded. A few times, the PSP said the videos were corrupted, but for the most part it worked. The memory stick said it had a capacity of ~7700 MB, so I assumed that everything was okay.
Until last night.
I was browsing a PSP forum and came across this:
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/FAKE-Sony-Memory-Stick-Pro-Duo-MagicGate-Cards-Exposed_W0QQugidZ10000000001535763
Out of curiosity, I looked at my stick, and sure enough, the “T” in the serial number was present, the serial number wasn’t engraved as they said, and I experienced issues with corrupt data.
I filled out the complaint stuff on PayPal and contacted the seller, but I’m willing to bet I’ll be out the $70 I spent for it.
The seller had a solid feedback rating and several other people had bought the same item and left good feedback, so it appeared as though everything was good. The seller was also based in the US, as it seemed many similar products were being sold through Hong Kong, which seemed sketchy. Now I can see why this happened. The fake appears legitimate at first and then breaks down when you put a lot of data on it or use it for about a month or so, well after the time someone would leave eBay feedback. I left positive feedback as well, since I just slapped in the card, put on a movie, and it seemed to work.
Now I know better and to make sure I do more research before just jumping on the lowest price on eBay.
Newegg has a SanDisk 8GB version for ~$85, so I might go with that, knowing I can trust Newegg with their return policy if something goes wrong.
Verification?
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized on February 9, 2003
Trying to set up a Paypal account. It looks like this is going to take a while because I am trying to buy on eBay. It looks like it might take the remainder of the auction time just to get this thing set up. I have no idea what to do if I actually win on what I bid.
Recent Comments