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The PS TV can now run every single app/game without restriction (via simple hack)

Gandalf

Member
I *think* I've done all the steps correctly. Unfortunately I can only test the exploit by updating afterwards and downloading a game, as I only got the console today! (Damn third party sellers)
I've blocked the Vita sites, I'm fairly certain I've done the e-mail thingy correctly. We shall see! Not the end of the world if it doesn't work... But it would've been nice!
 

Dunkley

Member
I blocked the following web addresses ...using the URL filter on my modem, where the whitelist is obtained by the PSTV from downloading a game from PSN:
vitacl.ww.dl.playstation.net
vitacl.xx.dl.playstation.net
(credit to Dunkley for this)

Wow, so it really updates the whitelists seperately?

That's awesome.

I mean still not ideal since there's no way of refreshing the hack and due to the PS3 fetching seperate whitelists for the copy restrictions it's not ideal by any means, but at least this way there is a method of retaining the hack if you have no choice but to update.
 
So as someone that has yet to setup an old PS TV, would this be safe:

1) Boot PS TV, enter PSN details, go to the bubbles but dont update, turn off auto updates
2) Perform the email hack
3) Block white list URLs from router at home
4) Do the PS TV FW update
5) Download games directly to the PS TV or use a Vita to download them to a memory card??( Do I have to patch the card somehow)???
 

Gradon

Member
GAF I have a mighty question: If you remove the memory card, format and put in another one for another account, will the hack stay or disappear? And if you do the same put back in the original memory card, will it stay or disappear? Thank you. ~
 

Rich!

Member
GAF I have a mighty question: If you remove the memory card, format and put in another one for another account, will the hack stay or disappear? And if you do the same put back in the original memory card, will it stay or disappear? Thank you. ~

It's got nothing to do with the memory card.
 
It sure doesn't take them long to dish out firmware that spoils everyone's fun, but when it comes to them adding features to their systems that people actually want, then they drag their feet.
 
Wow, so it really updates the whitelists seperately?

That's awesome.

I mean still not ideal since there's no way of refreshing the hack and due to the PS3 fetching seperate whitelists for the copy restrictions it's not ideal by any means, but at least this way there is a method of retaining the hack if you have no choice but to update.

I'm still not sure if this is 100% failsafe though. I need to test your theory further in different scenarios. So far, it's pretty good news. Able to download any Vita, PSP, PSP mini and PS1 title from PSN, and without any errors playing games that are deemed "incompatible" with PS TV.
However, later Vita games released may not work if you choose to block the whitelist from being overwritten, for example, I tried launching Xeodrifter and it gave me the traditional "This game is not Playstation TV compatible" error. So bear that in mind, especially if you plan to download games like Broken Age or Super Meat Boy for your Vita next week.

I added both URLs in case a whitelist was overwritten. It's likely Sony will find a way to ruin this too. :/
 

hymanator

Member
Well this sucks. I would love to read an official Sony statement on this whitelist nonsense. It's so stupid that I have to "mod" my console as if I'm pirating games just to play games I bought.
 

vongruetz

Banned
So bear that in mind, especially if you plan to download games like Broken Age or Super Meat Boy for your Vita next week.

Since Broken Age is already a compatible title, will it have problems running with the whitelist blocked?

And I still can't figure out why Xeodrifter is blocked. There is nothing in that game that requires touch or any other unique feature.
 
Since Broken Age is already a compatible title, will it have problems running with the whitelist blocked?

And I still can't figure out why Xeodrifter is blocked. There is nothing in that game that requires touch or any other unique feature.

Ah, my mistake. I was going by the PS Plus titles and I assumed Broken Age wasn't out yet. Broken Age should be fine.

As for Xeodrifter, I have absolutely no idea. It's the only title on my system that won't play.
 
Just want to confirm one thing:

This does not enable you to directly download, on a Vita, PSP games that would otherwise need to be transferred from a PS3, right?
 

andshrew

Member
Just to point out to those updating the firmware. The risk is that while you may be able to block the whitelist download update at the moment it's possible (probable?) that this will be fixed in future leaving you with no way to alter it back again.

I'm afraid a few of you are living in Cuckoo Land if you thought an exploit that allows reading and writing to parts of the filesystem would remain unpatched...
 
Just want to confirm one thing:

This does not enable you to directly download, on a Vita, PSP games that would otherwise need to be transferred from a PS3, right?

Which games are those? I can, I think, download all my Vita and PSP games through my Download List even if they aren't compatible.
 

vongruetz

Banned
I'm afraid a few of you are living in Cuckoo Land if you thought an exploit that allows reading and writing to parts of the filesystem would remain unpatched...

What gets me is that even if some people do hack the system and pirate games, chances are they will also buy legitimate games as well. It seems like systems that are not easily hacked or offer piracy just don't sell in the first place.

The PSP wouldn't have sold nearly what it did without pirated games. Nor the DS or even 3DS. Sony's laser like focus to eliminate piracy from the Vita has dramatically hurt the system's success. It's why they have expensive proprietary memory cards, and probably why they have such poor sales.
 

joesploggs2

Neo Member
Based on this hack I purchased a PSTV. It arrived today- now it wouldn't let me launch any game until I do a system activate which itself requires alter system update.
I take it I am out of luck??
 

Pillville

Member
What gets me is that even if some people do hack the system and pirate games, chances are they will also buy legitimate games as well. It seems like systems that are not easily hacked or offer piracy just don't sell in the first place.

The PSP wouldn't have sold nearly what it did without pirated games. Nor the DS or even 3DS. Sony's laser like focus to eliminate piracy from the Vita has dramatically hurt the system's success. It's why they have expensive proprietary memory cards, and probably why they have such poor sales.

This restaurant would have more customers if it would just let people steal food!
 
Which games are those? I can, I think, download all my Vita and PSP games through my Download List even if they aren't compatible.

Gradius Collection and Valkyria Chronicles 2, in this case. They work on a Vita (at least in NA) but can't be downloaded from the Vita download list.
 

Dunkley

Member
I added both URLs in case a whitelist was overwritten. It's likely Sony will find a way to ruin this too. :/

I guess they will at some point if the address blocking gets out to their ears, but given that the launch whitelists are, to my knowledge, mostly PSTV specific, I am kinda just holding out hope they aren't going to bother with it.

By the way, thanks for doing all that additional testing since the blocked addresses net a lot of relevance if Sony only syncs them from these servers and not along with the system updates. In the meanwhile since I haven't updated my device to 3.55, I will investigate if communicating with a PS3 will overwrite the whitelists or not so 3.55 users know if they are safe while copying non-downloadable PS1/PSP games over.

As far as I know, two files are fetched for copying restrictions which determines which content the Vita is allowed to copy over from the PS3 (Hence the mandotory online connection in order to copy data from PS3 to Vita), but I'll look into if it goes outta its' way to sync the launch whitelists as well while it's at it.
 

vongruetz

Banned
This restaurant would have more customers if it would just let people steal food!

I think that's apples and oranges.

I'm not advocating piracy and I don't support it. But history has shown that devices and systems that are open tend to be more successful. Sony's single-minded focus on stopping piracy on the Vita has led to one failure after another. Why doesn't Sony just have SD cards in the Vita instead of some proprietary memory card? To stop piracy. Why can't you just connect the Vita to your PC to back up the system? To stop piracy.

If they just relaxed and let the community start to modify it, then things might be different. How many people in this thread were suddenly interested in buying a Vita simply because they could now play Ys or Wipeout on it? That's not even piracy, that's legitimate purchases that will now no longer happen because of this stubborn anti-piracy stance. Instead of having an open system that people want, they insist on keeping it locked down under ridiculous conditions and people will punish them for that.

They need to ease off. They don't care about the system, that much is clear, so why not let the community take care of it? If someone builds an emulator that allows them to run PSP games on it for free, that sucks, right? But then those people who bought it to run emulators will also buy a controller... and then there's that sale on Vita games. So maybe they'll pick up some things that are cheap. And they'll make purchases that are legitimate that would haven't otherwise have happened.

All I'm saying is that systems that have been easily hacked in the past tend to do pretty well over time. Sony obviously cares more about locking down their system than they do on the success of the system.
 
I guess they will at some point if the address blocking gets out to their ears, but given that the launch whitelists are, to my knowledge, mostly PSTV specific, I am kinda just holding out hope they aren't going to bother with it.

By the way, thanks for doing all that additional testing since the blocked addresses net a lot of relevance if Sony only syncs them from these servers and not along with the system updates. In the meanwhile since I haven't updated my device to 3.55, I will investigate if communicating with a PS3 will overwrite the whitelists or not so 3.55 users know if they are safe while copying non-downloadable PS1/PSP games over.

As far as I know, two files are fetched for copying restrictions which determines which content the Vita is allowed to copy over from the PS3 (Hence the mandotory online connection in order to copy data from PS3 to Vita), but I'll look into if it goes outta its' way to sync the launch whitelists as well while it's at it.

I never thought about that. Good thinking!
 

vongruetz

Banned
As far as I know, two files are fetched for copying restrictions which determines which content the Vita is allowed to copy over from the PS3 (Hence the mandotory online connection in order to copy data from PS3 to Vita), but I'll look into if it goes outta its' way to sync the launch whitelists as well while it's at it.

It would seem that an internet connection is needed to copy data between a PC and the PSTV as well. My internet was out for a bit and despite both systems still being connected to the same network, it would not allow me to copy anything between them.
 

Rich!

Member
It would seem that an internet connection is needed to copy data between a PC and the PSTV as well. My internet was out for a bit and despite both systems still being connected to the same network, it would not allow me to copy anything between them.

Use QCMA, not the official Sony content manager software.
 

joesploggs2

Neo Member
So I went ahead and did the hack, blocked the sites on my router then did the 3.55 update so I could activate the PSTV.
So good news and bad news for me. I managed to unlock PSP and PS1 (works across all memory cards) but something must have gone wrong with the other whitelist email as the blocked Vita games still don't work- gutted!!
 
So I went ahead and did the hack, blocked the sites on my router then did the 3.55 update so I could activate the PSTV.
So good news and bad news for me. I managed to unlock PSP and PS1 (works across all memory cards) but something must have gone wrong with the other whitelist email as the blocked Vita games still don't work- gutted!!

What Vita game did you try, and did it show an error, or did it show a "This game is not compatible with PSTV" message?
 
This restaurant would have more customers if it would just let people steal food!
I was gonna buy a PSTV soon but now I won't because they patched it before I could get in on the action.

If Sony would just cut it out with the stupid Whitelist bullshit this wouldn't even be an issue to begin with.
 

joesploggs2

Neo Member
What Vita game did you try, and did it show an error, or did it show a "This game is not compatible with PSTV" message?

Tried a large selection of them- Gravity Rush, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection notably.They gave the incompatibility message.

PSP and PS1 games that seem to be working for me/ Liberty City Stories, Persona 3 (hurray will finally play it), Metal Gear Solid 1.
 

Qwark

Member
If Sony would just cut it out with the stupid Whitelist bullshit this wouldn't even be an issue to begin with.

It's easy to say that from the sidelines, but we have no idea what kind of legal obligations they have to maintain. I really doubt they're sitting there saying "Lol, they can't play their games".
 

Tevious

Member
Shit, they patched it already? They just couldn't wait one more day, could they? I'm in the process of moving and had no access to an HDTV to do this with my PSTV.
 
It's easy to say that from the sidelines, but we have no idea what kind of legal obligations they have to maintain. I really doubt they're sitting there saying "Lol, they can't play their games".

Considering all they did was patch the e-mail exploit, which more or less opened a lot of possibilities that are considered "harmful", such as fake trophies and all that, I don't think Sony just targeted the whitelist exploit. If they did, they would have actively overwritten the whitelist with the default one in the 3.55 update.
 

Apoc87

Banned
So can someone explain why they killed this functionality in the new update, and why everything wasn't playable to begin with?
 

n0razi

Member
I was gonna buy a PSTV soon but now I won't because they patched it before I could get in on the action.

If Sony would just cut it out with the stupid Whitelist bullshit this wouldn't even be an issue to begin with.

Im sure there are 3rd party contracts and stipulations that prevent what you want.. the blame is not on just sony.



So can someone explain why they killed this functionality in the new update, and why everything wasn't playable to begin with?


Most likey they are legally obligated to
 

Qwark

Member
I'd like to know why Wipeout isn't playable.

Presumably because the touch title screen is janky, and they had no one to patch it. I wish they would patch it though, you're right, obviously not a legal issue there.

It's not though. Using the touch emulation, it's perfectly usable. I don't understand why they don't allow it.

That's not what I mean by janky, I mean "not ideal". Yes, it is usable.
 
Presumably because the touch title screen is janky, and they had no one to patch it. I wish they would patch it though, you're right, obviously not a legal issue there.

It's not though. Using the touch emulation, it's perfectly usable. I don't understand why they don't allow it.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
So as someone that has yet to setup an old PS TV, would this be safe:

1) Boot PS TV, enter PSN details, go to the bubbles but dont update, turn off auto updates
2) Perform the email hack
3) Block white list URLs from router at home
4) Do the PS TV FW update
5) Download games directly to the PS TV or use a Vita to download them to a memory card??( Do I have to patch the card somehow)???

I just did the hack today, and it works fine after updating thanks to the URL block.

You might want to transfer the games before you update to test and make sure you did the email hack right first. You can download them too but only after updating.

Doing it through comcast's email didn't work. It renamed the "#0" file to "done" for whatever reason, and clicking on it did nothing at all. Doing it all again with Gmail did the trick.
 

vongruetz

Banned
Most likey they are legally obligated to

When I was young and optimistic, I probably would have agreed with you. But then as I gain more experience, I grow more and more cynical. I don't see the legal obligation they have to patch a harmless hack for a system that is not selling well. The whitelist protects them against accusations against "but I bought games so-and-so and it didn't work on the PSTV. I'm suing!!" Sony could say, well, an illegal hack of the system software negates your claims and violates our terms of service. So such a lawsuit is prevented.

Closing this loophole, despite every major website that reported on it begging Sony to just allow it to happen, means that Sony's policy on preventing hacks is more important than consumer satisfaction. They'll probably never comment on it, but I want to know why I can't play the games I own on a system that is both legally and capable of playing them? In the eyes of Sony's licensing agreements, the PSTV is simply another version of the Vita.

Which brings to question, if the Vita and PSP have different licensing agreements, why do they get lumped into the same grouping when it comes to portable activations? You can only have three devices activated across PSP/Vita/PSTV and yet they all seem to have different licensing agreements with game devs? Something there isn't right.
 
It's easy to say that from the sidelines, but we have no idea what kind of legal obligations they have to maintain. I really doubt they're sitting there saying "Lol, they can't play their games".
There is literally no justification for why I can play my imported US copy of Danganronpa 1 on my Vita TV, yet if I'd been a good boy and waited for the local EU release like many others I wouldn't be able to play it at all. The whitelist is horseshit, plain and simple, and Sony US/EU have made absolutely no efforts to hold publishers feet to the fire to get these fully compatible games running.
 

Az987

all good things
So if I have a Vita can I just update that and download games I want to play on the PStv there to get around the update?


Edit: Nope. It tells me to update if I put a memory card in from my updated Vita if I want to use the memory card.
 
Damn, that sucks that fixed it so quickly. I have only have an 8 gig card, so all I was able to download off my list was Ayesha Plus and Wipeout 2048. Already bought a physical card of Ys, so at least I can play two games I want without updating.
 
I was hoping to get around to Tearaway on this before it got patched - oh well. I really had fun with it while it lasted and I'm glad I archived most of my play sessions with it.
 
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