The PSP is an incredible handheld and honestly one of my all-time favorites. It was the first portable to truly bring the home console experience into the palm of your hands with absolutely beautiful graphics and full cinematic cutscenes thanks to its unique gaming format, the UMD. So in today’s video, I’m going to give the console the star treatment and install some pretty cool mods into this gorgeous glacier white PSP and see if we can make it the ultimate version of itself. So stay tuned and let’s get started.

Hey everyone, how’s it going? My name is Tito and welcome to another episode of Retro New. Today I’ll be installing some pretty cool mods into the PSP in an attempt to make the ultimate version of one. The PSP in question is a 1000 model as this is really the only one that has mods made for it. I’m guessing because all the newer models address some of the shortcomings of the original.

Now, in comparison to the newer models, the 1000 has arguably the worst screen of the bunch. It exhibited quite a bit of ghosting, but at the time it really didn’t matter because there was nothing else out there like it, and quite frankly, it looked amazing and still does. But in an age with incredibly fast refresh rates and high-resolution displays, we’ve sort of become spoiled, and older devices like the PSP 1000 could use an upgrade. So I’ll be installing an aftermarket IPS screen that I picked up from Retro Gamer Repair Shop. I actually made a video a few years ago covering a similar IPS screen mod, but that one required an adapter ribbon cable and this one doesn’t. I’m hoping that we get the same good results as the previous one, so be sure to stay tuned and find out. And the other mod I’ll be installing is a very interesting looking internal HDMI video out mod. This allows you to hook the PSP to your TV and play your games on the big screen. It hooks up through this HDMI mini Port where the IR receiver used to be and basically mirrors the PSP screen. It’s definitely cool in theory, but let’s see how it performs in practice. Together with these two mods, let’s see if this is indeed the ultimate PSP.

Alright, so in this video, I’m going to go over all the parts that came with the kits I’ll be using, and then I’ll show you how to install them into the PSP. I’ll go over all their features, review the pros and cons, and of course provide you with my overall thoughts.

Starting off with the IPS kit, we have the LCD panel itself which has the same exact footprint and dimensions as the original screen and more importantly has a ribbon cable that is nearly identical to the original as well. This should make the installation easier and is an improvement over previous kits that required the use of an adapter ribbon cable. And the only other item included with the kit is this foam gasket to help keep dust from getting underneath the PSP screen lens.

Now moving our attention over to the HDMI kit, the first item we have is the main driver board which intercepts the video coming out from the PSP and converts it to a 720p HDMI video signal. It then outputs that video through this HDMI mini port at the top of the PCB. And here also connected to the main driver board is a touch sensor which is used to cycle through the different video output modes. The next item in this kit is the ribbon cable that connects the driver board to the LCD connector on the PSP and has this connector here to pass the video signal through to the LCD screen. Now don’t worry, this will all become very clear on how everything is working during the installation segment of the video. And the last things we have are a few strands of wires to make connections for audio and an HDMI mini adapter so we can actually connect this to a TV. Now the last thing I got here is a Micro SD card to memory stick adapter so we can actually load games. You’ll need to pick one of these up because the HDMI mod removes the UMD Drive, meaning you won’t be able to play physical copies of PSP games and instead we’ll have to load them off of a micro SD card.

Alright, so that’s everything that comes with both of these kits. But before I show you how to install them, let me tell you about the sponsor of today’s video: iFixit. If you’ve been watching my channel over the years, you’ve probably noticed that I use the same screwdriver set pretty much ever since I started the channel. This is the Pro Tech Toolkit, one of the many iFixit products that I use all the time. iFixit has an array of tools available that make my life easier when repairing and modding consoles. And in addition to their amazing tools, they also have replacement parts as well as detailed disassembly and repair guides for an array of electronic devices and video game consoles like the Nintendo Switch and the Steam Deck. And for a limited time, you can save $10 on any purchase of $50 or more using the code “MachoFix”, but you have to act fast because this is limited to the first 100 customers only and is valid from April 19th and ends on April 21st at 11:59 p.m. in each of the store’s respective time zones. So for all your electronic repairing needs, definitely check out iFixit using the link in the description below. And again, a huge thank you to iFixit for sponsoring this video. Anyway, now let’s go ahead and start modding this PSP.

Okay, to get started, we need to first pretty much tear down the entire PSP. Now, one of the things that’s absolutely critical for this is organization. And I say that because the PSP has quite an assortment of different screws of varying sizes and remembering where they go when reassembling is critical; otherwise, you could damage the shell or console. Now to help with this, I recommend getting a magnetic board like this one here from iFixit. I’ve been using these long before they sponsored the channel, and it’s an invaluable tool to help keep all your screws secure and organized with the magnetic backing and dry erase surface. Anyway, it’s just a great tool, and I highly recommend it. But anyway, let’s get back to the disassembly.

Now these here are the retaining screws for the UMD door. Be sure to remove them first before attempting to remove the door. Once they’re out, you should be able to pry the door off using a spudger. Now we can go ahead and begin to remove the UMD Drive. With the console flipped back over, unfasten the screws securing the mid-frame so we can remove that also. Next up, we need to remove the motherboard. Now to take the motherboard out, carefully fit it out from underneath the Wi-Fi antenna cable. It’s a bit fiddly, but it should come out pretty easily. Now before we start getting into installing the HDMI mod, we need to remove this other small mid-frame piece, and once it’s out, you’ll need to refasten the two screws we just removed that were securing that mid-frame. Now we actually won’t be reusing this, so you can just set it aside and store it somewhere safe. So with the PSP pretty much fully disassembled here, you can see my magnetic iFixit board and how I’m able to organize all my screws. I definitely can’t recommend this tool enough as it’s proved invaluable whenever I disassemble consoles. If you’re interested in checking it out, I’ll leave a link to it down below.

Okay, so now we need to go ahead and trim this plastic piece here. My preferred way of doing this is to score the plastic using a sharp blade like a craft knife, and then with a set of needlenose pliers, I carefully fatigue the plastic off by bending it back and forth along the score until it eventually breaks off. And as you can see, this usually results in a nice clean break. Next, we need to trim the small plastic fins here on the other side of the UMD Drive opening. Flush Cutters work really well for this, and if you do have some rough edges, you can use a file to smooth it out. Next, we need to remove the IR receiver. The way that I did this was by applying some solder and attempting to lift it off as shown. Another way to do this would be to use hot air. Once it’s removed, go ahead and cover the pads with some Kapton tape. Next, in order for the kit to be able to pull the audio from the PSP, we’ll need to solder three wires to three small ceramic capacitors. This is a pretty delicate job, so definitely take your time here. You can see where I soldered the wires to. Red is for the right audio channel, white is for the left, and black is ground. I actually resoldered the white wire so that instead of it being…

To install the new IPS screen, we need to bridge two pads near the LCD connector. There are actually four revisions of the PS motherboard, so refer to the photos that Highspeed Ido has provided, which indicate the pads that need to be bridged for each specific revision. I’ll link to them down below in the video description. Bridging these pads allows the screen to display a properly positioned image, so it is absolutely necessary to do. And here’s the bridged pads for my particular PSP revision. Audio Channel had they all been the same color it would have been pretty difficult to differentiate them. Next, I’ll be installing the touch sensor. I find that it’s actually easier to remove it completely, stick it to the location that you want, and then resolder it back to the board. Next, we’ll install the HDMI ribbon cable, and then we’ll install the LCD ribbon cable to this pass-through connector on the HDMI ribbon cable. I recommend folding the LCD ribbon cable like this…

Be the most challenging mods I’ve ever done. It was by no means trivial but is the juice worth to squeeze? Well, both the IPS screen and HDMI mod are great, but I think each offers a different value proposition given the difficulty of the respective mods and the overall enhancement that they provide in the end. So with that, let’s take a look at all the new features that these two mods bring to the table. Let’s start with the IPS screen mod. This one is from a guy named Highspeed Ido. It’s largely the same…

In person unless you’re looking at it side by side and I’m not really sure if the camera is going to be able to pick up the subtle differences as well. And if you compare it to an original Sony screen, you can certainly tell that there’s a difference. The brown background is a good example of this as the original looks very much to be brown while the new IPS kit has an ever so slightly different hue. In everyday use, this isn’t a huge problem, but for the PSP purists out there, this could be an issue…

000 models or you’re trying to alleviate the ghosting effect. But that’s enough about the IPS display kit. Now let’s move our attention to the HDMI mod. To use it is very easy. Simply connect it to your HDTV using the supplied HDMI mini adapter, and then you should get video and sound right on your TV. In terms of video output, there are three scaling modes to select from that you can cycle through by holding the touch sensor for a few seconds. It’s not exactly clear how the image is being scaled in each of y…

Limited in terms of features, but overall it does appear to be of decent quality. Although the image will look far more pixelated since the image is being stretched over a much larger area and you’re no longer looking at a small pixel-dense PSP screen. So when it comes to features, that’s about it. But now let’s go over the pros and cons, starting with the pros.

Let’s first talk about the IPS screen. I think it looks fantastic, and it’s as close to a drop-in kit as we’ve seen so far, primarily because it y…

The biggest pro in my opinion is the fact that we can now play PSP titles on the big screen. The PSP is honestly well suited as a home console as many of its titles have a caliber similar to that of its bigger brother of the time, the PlayStation 2. Overall, I think these are both great kits, although I do have some reservations, so let’s get into the cons.

When it comes to the IPS screen, it’s a bit of a bummer that it isn’t a simple drop-in unit requiring just a bit of soldering. Now it’s my understan…

Audio, I think it’s strange that when plugged into the TV, you have audio coming out of both the TV and the PSP speakers. From what I can tell, you are unable to turn off the PSP audio while connected to the TV without turning the TV audio off also. If you turn the volume down on the PSP, the volume also goes down on the TV. It’s really quite distracting to have audio coming out of both the TV and PSP at the same time. And another con is input latency. It’s small, but if you look for it, you can certainly e…

Console. In order to install a mod like this, you need to make room, and removing the UMD Drive was the logical choice due to how easy it is to install custom firmware onto the console to load your games. So while this is a con in my opinion, it does appear to be unavoidable. So yes, this does mean that you need to install custom firmware onto your console in order to play games. If you’re interested in learning how to do that, I strongly suggest checking out Bland Locker’s tutorial video, which goes ov…

Ing wireless controller support would make this a far more practical and enjoyable experience. So really at the end of the day, is this something that I would recommend? Well, if this was for me, I can’t say that this is something that I would personally do to my PSP. I think there are certainly a few areas that need to be improved upon, but if you are dead set on getting decent quality digital video out of the PSP and onto your TV or capture device, then this is certainly a decent option to consider, bu…

And I’m really looking forward to it. Well folks, there you have it, two mods for the PSP, one great and one that shows potential. While I don’t think we have an ultimate PSP just yet, I do believe we are getting closer. Now if you enjoyed this video, I really think you’ll like this one here, so check it out. And as always, thank you

all so much for tuning in today, and I’ll catch you again next time.

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Does the Ultimate PSP exist? Over the past few years, the PSP has gotten some pretty exciting mods and in this video I’ll be installing a few to see if we can in fact build the ultimate one!

Products from video:
► PSP IPS Screen (Affiliate): https://retrogamerepairshop.com/products/psp-1000-lcd?ref=6njgx4sufvs
► PSP HDMI Mod (Affiliate): https://retrogamerepairshop.com/products/psp-1000-hdmi-out-kit?ref=6njgx4sufvs
► iFixit Magnetic FixMat: https://www.ifixit.com/products/fixmat
► iFixit Magnetic Board (value version): https://www.ifixit.com/products/magnetic-project-mat

PSP Custom Firmware Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhYh5bYtLI&t

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Timestamps
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19:01 Pros and Cons
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Disclaimer: This video is only for entertainment purposes. Any injury, damage, or loss that may result from improper use of tools, equipment, or from the information in this video is the sole responsibility of the viewer and is to be used at the discretion of the end user/viewer and not Macho Nacho Productions or Tito Perez. If you are uncertain about any step of the process or feel unsure about your skill level, seek a more authoritative source.

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