Due to the two more-than-real truth about Sony PSP, one is its popularity of being the most portable multimedia hardware worldwide available, the other is the high limited usage of the patented applications and Medias, PSP downgrade is becoming increasingly demanded across the Internet.

What is firmware downgrade? Downgrade is degrading the PSP firmware from the high version to its early version which can be easily hacked and thereby allows you to play none-Sony games, movies and applications. These other games and applications are known as "Homebrew" and are developed by programmers who want to release these games and applications free of charge to other PSP users around the world. This is the big attraction of a PSP Downgrade and is why people take the risk of downgrading their PSP. Currently there are 100's if not 1000's of homebrew games and applications available to download for free. Not only are there homebrew games available for the PSP user who has gone through the PSP Downgrade process but there are also 1000's of "old school" games that you can play on you downgraded PSP, games like Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers and more.

The latest and safest way of downgrade is dubbed as "Pandora batteries". The fact is return the PSP to service mode and then boot from memory stick which has pre-stored with downgrade programs, the exact same way as Sony service stuffs do. This method is creating a battery/memory triggered combo that'll let you get any PSP back up and running with the v1.5 firmware. Briefly it works like this:

1. You run a program on a homebrew-enabled PSP that will convert a standard PSP battery into a jigkick battery.

2. You run a program to generate the unbricker memory stick image, built from the v1.5 update EBOOT (note that this, and the custom IPL, means the release is completely free of Sony copyright materials).

3. You run some programs on a PC to install the image to your memory stick.

As you can see, the crucial part is turning your spare Sony battery into Pandora battery to begin the trick. It is not surprising for Sony to take steps to stop this. The newly made-in-Japan Sony PSP batteries are patched to be Pandora-proof, only original PSP batteries can be transferred to Pandora battery, which require careful instructions and hacking experience.