Late to the game for PS2 modding..

Popoutman

I got my first PS2 recently, as friends were getting rid of one of their two consoles. It's a silver fat ps2.
I would really like to be able to get a proper modchip installed, as I've found that the DVD output over component is deliberately corrupted by Sony, and I'd quite like to get this bypassed. I will be putting a harddrive and network adapter into it as well for the express purpose of playing my own backups - I don't particularly want to see the stack of games that I've recently amassed fromthe bargain bins in Game, Gamestop and HMV - I'd prefer to have them to hand.
Herself got a Wii for Christmas and I added the Homebrew Channel to that and it is used both as a media player and because I've backed up all of our games onto an external USB drive, it's a great machine to bring to parties as it's self-contained. I'd like to be able to do this as well for the PS2, but using the internal drive that I should be getting soon.

I'm happy to do a little soldering, I'm crap with an iron but I can usually work it out - not pretty but effective enough

What are the current recommendations for modchips, and where can I get my hands on them?
My research so far points to the "DMS4 EZI LITE SE Solderless" as ticking all of the required boxes, but the availability is nonexistant.

Popoutman

Of course I should be reading the stickies for the required information....

Sorry!

Myrddin

Backups aside :rolleyes:

I'd recommend soft-modding your PS2 with Free Mcboot, mod chips are a pig to install on the ps2 mobo I always found.

TouchingVirus

EnterNow wrote: »

Backups aside :rolleyes:

I'd recommend soft-modding your PS2 with Free Mcboot, mod chips are a pig to install on the ps2 mobo I always found.

Can it be made region free with Free Mcboot?

Myrddin

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Can it be made region free with Free Mcboot?

Yep, afaik it can

TouchingVirus

Schweeeeet! Been trying to figure out how to fix an NTSC PS2 when I can just Free Mcboot it and the owner can get back to playing DDR, she keeps going on about it :P

Popoutman

Can anyone confirm if the FreeMcBoot will remove the green corruption from DVD playback when outputting over RGB (YPbPr output) cables? This is the primary reason I wish to mod. Region-free DVD is a bonus and I dont care about game region locking.

Point take re: backups, a lot of people would abuse the ability - I don't see the point as I have most of the game disks that I would play regularly anyway.

TouchingVirus

You might save yourself a headache by using DVD Region X, a loader disc you throw into the PS2 before putting in a DVD. It kills the green screen

TouchingVirus

Just to bump this rather than starting my own thread; do I need a swap magic disc to free mcBoot a PS2?

Myrddin

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Just to bump this rather than starting my own thread; do I need a swap magic disc to free mcBoot a PS2?

Its preferable, but I used a 007 game & made my own slide tool from an old bank card instead. Prob a long winded way of doing it, but fun all the same.

TouchingVirus

You need it all the time, and not just for a once-off?

Myrddin

TouchingVirus wrote: »

You need it all the time, and not just for a once-off?

Once off exploit which boots the installer, & it installs onto the memory card. After that, all you need to do is have the memory card plugged in, if not, the PS2 boots stock.