The PlayStation Store isn’t available in all countries so it can be difficult to buy games and other content unless you have a credit card registered within the country, for example, buying games from the US PlayStation Store means you need to have a US credit card. Luckily, there is a easy way to get past this restriction through the use of a "virtual" credit card. This method has been confirmed in working for the US, Hong Kong and Japanese PlayStation Stores.

Instructions:

1. Create a new account on your PS3 and sign up to the PlayStation Network, selecting you desired country to use. E.g. Create User "US1" and sign-up to the PSN using "United States" as your country. (How to create a Japanese PSN Account)
2. Go to EntroPay.com and login (if you are a registered user) or create a new account. EntroPay creates a virtual credit card using a real card, but it does not use an address to you can use it anywhere.
   EntroPay charge for loading money on to your card (4.95%), so loading $10 will cost you $0.50 (total amount charged will be $10.50). There is also a charge for moving your money from the card back to your account.
3. Once you have created a account, load some money onto your card using a debit or credit card – this will activate your card. If you wish to spend $25 on the PlayStation Store, top-up your virtual card with $26-30.
4. On your PS3, go to [PlayStation Network] and select [Account Management].
5. On the [Account Management] screen, select [Account Management] and then select [Edit Billing Information]
6. Enter the card details shown on the EntroPay website:
   
   Your card number is the long number on the card. Card Holder name is "ENTROPAY USER". In the above example, the expiry date is "06/09" and the security code is "123".
   
7. Once your card details have been entered, click on "Continue". You will then be asked to enter your billing address. Here, you can enter any address you want. Once finished, click "Continue" again and you will get a confirmation message.
8. To load money onto your PSN Account, return to the [Account Management] screen and select [Transaction Management].
9. Select [Manage Wallet] and then select [Add Funds].
10. Select [Credit Card] and select the amount of money you want to add (the amount should be less that the amount available on the EntroPay Virtual Card or the transaction will fail). Click "Continue" to complete the transaction.
    
11. You will receive a confirmation screen stating the transaction is complete. You can now go to the PlayStation Store and purchase some content.

If you cannot edit you billing information on the PS3’s Account Management screen, try again after 10 minutes – it may take a while for your virtual credit card to become active. You virtual credit card must have at a balance of least $10 for it to work.

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Using HDMI, you cannot record the video signal from the PlayStation 3 since the signal is encrypted. However, you can record the signal when using a PS3 AV cable – this does mean that the quality will be reduced dramatically. We find it easier to record our gameplay action and tutorials directly to a digital format, but you can record the signal to other devices such as a VCR, DVD recorder or PVR. Check out the tutorial below.

Requirements:

• TV or other form of display
• SCART/AV cable
• A device to record to (we use the Neuros Video Recorder 2). The device must have a AV connection.
  • If you use the Neuros MP4 Video Recorder or similar device, you may require a RCA adapter and a memory card (Memory Stick or Compact Flash)
  • Alternative options can be DVD recorder, VCR or PVR (Personal video recorder).

PS3 AV Cable	RCA Adapter	Neuros MP4 Recorder

Instructions for General Devices:

1. If you are using a HDMI connection, change your display to use the AV cable. This can be done by going to [Settings] > [Display Settings]. Don’t forget to change your Audio settings too.
2. Connect your equipment up.
   • The AV cable from the PS3 should be connect to the recording device.
   • The recording device should be connected to the TV so you can see what you are doing.
   • Tune the TV, if necessary, in order to view the recording device’s display.
3. Use the record function on the device to record gameplay or anything else you can think of.

Instructions for Neuros MP4 Recorder:

1. If you are using a HDMI connection, change your display to use the AV cable. This can be done by going to [Settings] > [Display Settings]. Don’t forget to change your Audio settings too.
2. Connect your equipment up.
   • Use the RCA Adapter to connect the PS3 AV cable to the AV cable that comes with the recorder (connect it to the "AV In" port).
   • Connect the other AV cable that comes with the recorder to the TV (connect it to the "AV Out" port).
3. Turn on the Neuros recorder and select the record tab. You will see the PS3 display through the preview area of the screen. You can expand the preview to a full screen view by pressing enter on the Neuros remote.
4. You can record what you see by pressing the record button on the remote. To stop recording, press the record button again.
5. You can upload your vides directly to YouTube once done.

Examples:

Check out some of the videos we recorded using the Neuros MP4 Recorder and our PlayStation 3, here are a few:

• How to Install a game
• Setting up a Wireless Internet Conenction
• PlayStation 3 DixX Playback Demo (Firmware 2.10)
• PlayStation 3 Music Visualizations (Firmware 2.10)

• Compiling a Theme
• Installing a Theme
• Customizing a Theme

To create a XMB theme for your PlayStation 3, you will need the XMB Theme Creator program. Unzip the contents of the zip package to your hard drive and you are ready to begin. A sample theme can be found in folder "/sample/01". You can compile this into a theme using the below instructions.

Compiling a Theme

1. Open Command Prompt and go to the folder where p3tcompiler.exe resides. To open command prompt, go to Start > Run and enter "cmd".
2. Once at the directory, enter
   p3tcompiler sample/01/sample.xml
   and press enter to compile the theme.
3. Once the theme is created, the "sample/01" folder will contain several new files. Copy the "sample.p3t" file to a memory card or external hard drive. The theme must be put in the "PS3/THEME" directory of the memory card or hard drive.

Installing a Theme

1. On the PlayStation 3, go to [Settings] > [Theme Settings] > [Theme] and select Install.
2. Select the device and then select the theme you wish to install.
3. You can set, delete or view information about the theme by clicking on the installed theme from the same menu.

Customizing a Theme

Creating your own theme requires several hours of work depending on how much you wish to customize the theme. The easiest way to customize a theme is by modifying the images in the "sample/01" directory. The "sample.xml" file can be modified to change the theme name, font, theme colour and icon names. See the below example on how to modify the XML file.

<infotable>
	<info
		name="theme name"
		icon="icon.png"
		url="author website"
		author="author name"
		authoricon="authoricon.png"
		genre="genre information"
		version="version information"
		comment="comment on theme"
		preview="preview.png"
	/>
	<localizedinfo
		locale="en"
		name="theme name"
	/>
	<localizedinfo
		locale="jp"
		name="theme name"
		comment="comment on theme"
	/>
</infotable>

<font selection="font number {1, 2 or 3}" />

<color selection="color number {1 to 12}" />
    

You should only change the information shown in green. The icons should not be modified unless you have modified the file names of the images. Also, the locale should not be changes. This information is used to display the theme name in different regions, namely English and Japanese, which is denoted by "en" and "jp" respectively.

The remainder of the XML file should also not be modified unless the icon file names have been modified. The easiest way to modify a theme is to edit the images and the "<infotable>" part of the XML file only. Once you have modified icons and/or the XML file, you must recompile the theme file.

Ripping Blu-Ray discs and other discs is easy using your PlayStation 3 console. But before you can begin, you will require the following:

• Linux installed on PS3
• 50GB free space under Linux or external hard drive
• Blu-Ray game disc (or other disc)
• Access to PC with Windows XP

In this guide, we use Yellow Dog Linux to show how to rip blu-ray discs using your PlayStation 3. Follow the below instructions to the letter in order to successfully rip a disc.

1. Boot up your PlayStation 3 using the OtherOS Boot Option. Go to [Settings] > [System Settings] > [Default System] and select “OtherOS”. Select “Yes” to boot into the OtherOS.
2. Change the session to use Gnome. To do this, click on Session and select Gnome. Login using username “root” and your password.
3. Once logged in, start the Terminal Program.
4. Insert the game you wish to rip if it is not already inserted.
5. Connect an external hard drive via USB if you do not have enough space. You should have 50GB free, but the actual disc may be smaller than this amount.
6. In the Terminal window, enter the following command:
   dd if=/dev/cdrom | split -b 4000m – /location/to/hard-drive/game.iso. (remember to include the last period ‘.’).
7. Depending on the size of the disc, it could take a few minutes to rip a game. We managed to rip a 6.9GB Blu-Ray game in just under 13 minutes.

Once ripped, you can test the ISO files by removing the suffix (e.g. .aa) so that it becomes a ISO file. The ISO images can be opened up using File Roller. Depending on the size of the disc, the ISO image may be split into several parts. This is because there is a file size limit on the FAT file system. To recombine the files into one ISO, it is best to use a Windows XP PC with a NTFS formatted drive. You can use the command line:
copy /b game.iso.* game.iso