VitaXMB 1.7.1

Updating from 1.7.0 (or older): this one update is done by the updater app already on your Vita, which starts VitaXMB twice, and the second start makes the system ask "close the VitaXMB Updater?". If you use the NoLiveArea plugin, its black screen hides that question: press the PS button, press OK, and VitaXMB opens. It happens once: 1.7.1 installs a new updater that starts VitaXMB only once, so later updates are clean.
If an update ever fails, download VitaXMB-v1.7.1.vpk from this page and install it with VitaShell.
If you use the NoLiveArea plugin, the update replaces its file and asks you to restart the Vita. Updating from 1.5.x with the plugin installed can leave the screen black: press the PS button, then restart when VitaXMB asks.

New in 1.7.1:

Fixed:

• NoLiveArea plugin 1.7.1: no more "can't find the app" when VitaXMB is gone. If VitaXMB was uninstalled (or a failed update left it missing) while the plugin stayed in ur0:tai/config.txt, the plugin still tried to start VitaXMB every time an app closed, and the Vita answered that it could not find the app. The plugin now checks that ux0:app/VXMB00001 exists before it launches anything, hides the screen or watches games, and does nothing when it does not. It works again by itself once VitaXMB is installed again. The Restart required screen tells you about this.
• If you are stuck with the old plugin and no VitaXMB: delete the line ur0:tai/NoLiveArea.suprx from ur0:tai/config.txt (from a PC or with VitaShell), or reinstall VitaXMB from this page. Holding L while powering on skips all plugins.

Changed:

• The updater app is replaced by what is inside the package, not by a version number. VitaXMB stamps the checksum of the updater package it installed (ux0:data/VitaXMB/updater.crc) and installs the updater again whenever the package in the running VitaXMB differs, so any change to the updater arrives with the next update. The updater is now 01.07: after an install it waits a moment, starts VitaXMB once and leaves. (01.05 and 01.06 retried up to four times, but a second launch while the updater was still running made the system ask "close the VitaXMB Updater?", so the retry is gone.)

Tested on firmware 3.65 only. The plugin edits the system shell; if the console ever misbehaves at start, hold L while powering on to skip all plugins.

VitaXMB 1.7.0

Updating from 1.6.1 or older: the update installs fine, but VitaXMB may not open by itself afterwards. The updater app on your Vita is the old one and only tries to start VitaXMB once. Just open VitaXMB yourself from the LiveArea. This happens once: 1.7.0 replaces the updater app at your next update, and the new one brings VitaXMB back on its own.
If an update ever fails, download VitaXMB-v1.7.0.vpk from this page and install it with VitaShell.
If you use the NoLiveArea plugin, the update replaces its file and asks you to restart the Vita.

New in 1.7.0:

Added:

• Game boot movie. Starting a game now plays the PSP's own game boot movie (the blue wave, the white flash and the bokeh, about 2.5 seconds) with the start-game jingle and a logo laid over it, then starts the game. It is the firmware's real movie, decoded in software and drawn at twice the size; if it cannot be opened, the old fade to black happens instead.
• Game Boot Logo setting (Settings > VitaXMB Settings). The logo over the movie is PSV / PlayStation Vita by default. It can be switched to the PSP's own picture (PSP / PlayStation Portable) in that setting at any time.
• NoLiveArea plugin 1.7 (optional, beta): it now also watches the shell's list of running apps. If a game started from VitaXMB ends without the shell reporting it, VitaXMB is still brought back; if starting VitaXMB only opens its LiveArea page, the plugin starts it once more. An empty file return.off in ux0:data/VitaXMB turns these two off.
  • If you already have the plugin installed, updating replaces its file and the Restart required screen now says what is new in the plugin. Restart the Vita (or refresh taiHEN) to load the new build.
  • New installs get the plugin from the first-start offer or from Settings > VitaXMB Settings > No LiveArea Plugin (beta).

Changed:

• The PS button no longer drops to the LiveArea while VitaXMB is open (a long press still opens the quick menu). Use Exit to LiveArea in Settings to leave VitaXMB.
• The plugin in this release has no debug hooks and no per-event logging (they are only built with -DNLA_DEBUG=ON): it is about a third smaller and writes only a few lines to its log.

Fixed:

• The VitaXMB Updater app on the Vita was never replaced when its package changed (1.6.1 gave it a new icon, but the old one was believed current). Its version now comes from one number in CMakeLists.txt, so an older updater is replaced. Because the check is in the new app, this happens the next time you update after 1.7.0.
• The VitaXMB Updater now brings VitaXMB back after an install (or a failed one): it used to start VitaXMB once and leave at once, and right after an install that first launch often only opened VitaXMB's LiveArea page. It now launches, checks that VitaXMB is running and launches again, up to four times.

Tested on firmware 3.65 only. The plugin edits the system shell; if the console ever misbehaves at start, hold L while powering on to skip all plugins.

VitaXMB 1.6.1

New in 1.6.1 (The same day as 1.6.0, which it includes):

Changed:

• New bubble icon, LiveArea background and start image, drawn from the app's own blue sky, the PSP's wave and the PSP's font. The updater app's bubble uses the new icon too.

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From 1.6.0:

Added:

• Video player (beta). Videos now play inside VitaXMB instead of opening the Vita's Videos app.
  • MP4, MOV, M4V and 3GP play with the Vita's hardware decoder (H.264 and AAC), start at once and run smoothly up to 720p.
  • MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV, TS, MPEG, VOB and more play too, decoded in software (H.264, HEVC, VP8, VP9, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VC-1; AAC, AC-3, DTS, FLAC, Opus, Vorbis, WMA ...). Meant for small pictures; large ones stutter.
  • The PSP video player's control panel (Triangle), laid out and worded like the PSP's: three rows of icons with the selected one named underneath; Display shows the title and clock along the top and the state icon, time line, chapter and time along the bottom. It has play, pause, stop, previous / next, fast reverse / forward (three speeds), slow motion, frame advance and playback speed (software-decoded videos), Go To a time, repeat (title, folder), shuffle, A-B repeat and clear, audio options (tracks and left / right / both channels), subtitle options, screen mode (Normal, Zoom, Full Screen, Original, 4 : 3) and help. Without the panel, holding Left / Right searches and a tap jumps 10 seconds.
  • Subtitles from inside the file or from a .srt / .ass / .vtt file next to it, and resume where you stopped.
  • A warning before a video bigger than 720p (or a large one that has to be decoded in software) that the Vita will not play smoothly.
• FLAC, WAV, AIFF and Ogg Vorbis in the music player, next to MP3. Titles and artists come from each format's tags. Files are streamed from the card, so a large lossless file no longer has to fit in memory.

Changed:

• The music list draws the PSP's own number box, digits and format tag at the Vita's native resolution (sharp instead of stretched), shows each file's format (MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, AIFF) and a dash for a track without an artist; the selected row's glow pulses.
• File names of videos longer than 110 characters now open.
• NoLiveArea plugin (beta): a new way of hiding the LiveArea. Instead of switching the screen off, the plugin keeps the system shell's picture invisible while the console starts, while a game loads and when a game closes. The display stays on, and VitaXMB comes back faster after a game closes (about 0.12 s instead of 0.4 s, and it tries again if the first launch fails). A 30 second safety timer always gives the shell's picture back. If the shell is not the one the plugin was written for (tested on firmware 3.65 only) or the hook cannot be installed, it falls back to the old way. If you have the plugin installed, updating replaces its file and VitaXMB asks you to restart.

Known issues:

• The video player is a beta: pictures bigger than 720p do not play smoothly, and non-MP4 files are decoded in software, so large ones start slowly and stutter. No hardware decoding for H.264 inside MKV / AVI yet; no Scene Search or Chapter Repeat.
• The FLAC decoder sometimes returned nothing in the middle of a good file. The player now reopens the file at the same spot and carries on.

VitaXMB 1.6.0

Added:

• Video player (beta). Videos now play inside VitaXMB instead of opening the Vita's Videos app.
  • MP4, MOV, M4V and 3GP play with the Vita's hardware decoder (H.264 and AAC), start at once and run smoothly up to 720p.
  • MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV, TS, MPEG, VOB and more play too, decoded in software (H.264, HEVC, VP8, VP9, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, VC-1; AAC, AC-3, DTS, FLAC, Opus, Vorbis, WMA ...). Meant for small pictures; large ones stutter.
  • The PSP video player's control panel (Triangle), laid out and worded like the PSP's: three rows of icons with the selected one named underneath; Display shows the title and clock along the top and the state icon, time line, chapter and time along the bottom. It has play, pause, stop, previous / next, fast reverse / forward (three speeds), slow motion, frame advance and playback speed (software-decoded videos), Go To a time, repeat (title, folder), shuffle, A-B repeat and clear, audio options (tracks and left / right / both channels), subtitle options, screen mode (Normal, Zoom, Full Screen, Original, 4 : 3) and help. Without the panel, holding Left / Right searches and a tap jumps 10 seconds.
  • Subtitles from inside the file or from a .srt / .ass / .vtt file next to it, and resume where you stopped.
  • A warning before a video bigger than 720p (or a large one that has to be decoded in software) that the Vita will not play smoothly.
• FLAC, WAV, AIFF and Ogg Vorbis in the music player, next to MP3. Titles and artists come from each format's tags. Files are streamed from the card, so a large lossless file no longer has to fit in memory.

Changed:

• The music list draws the PSP's own number box, digits and format tag at the Vita's native resolution (sharp instead of stretched), shows each file's format (MP3, FLAC, OGG, WAV, AIFF) and a dash for a track without an artist; the selected row's glow pulses.
• File names of videos longer than 110 characters now open.
• NoLiveArea plugin (beta): a new way of hiding the LiveArea. Instead of switching the screen off, the plugin keeps the system shell's picture invisible while the console starts, while a game loads and when a game closes. The display stays on, and VitaXMB comes back faster after a game closes (about 0.12 s instead of 0.4 s, and it tries again if the first launch fails). A 30 second safety timer always gives the shell's picture back. If the shell is not the one the plugin was written for (tested on firmware 3.65 only) or the hook cannot be installed, it falls back to the old way. If you have the plugin installed, updating replaces its file and VitaXMB asks you to restart.

Known issues:

• The video player is a beta: pictures bigger than 720p do not play smoothly, and non-MP4 files are decoded in software, so large ones start slowly and stutter. No hardware decoding for H.264 inside MKV / AVI yet; no Scene Search or Chapter Repeat.
• The FLAC decoder sometimes returned nothing in the middle of a good file. The player now reopens the file at the same spot and carries on.

VitaXMB 1.5.1

Fixed:

• Adrenaline 8.0.2 (isage) could freeze the Vita when it was launched a second time from VitaXMB while the NoLiveArea plugin was installed. The plugin's black screen between apps ran while Adrenaline's kernel module was loaded. VitaXMB now tells the plugin when it starts Adrenaline, and the plugin skips the black screen for that launch (the LiveArea may show for a moment instead).

Changed:

• Updating VitaXMB now also updates the NoLiveArea plugin file if you had installed it. The plugin is a separate file that the Vita keeps loaded in memory, so the Vita cannot use the new version until it restarts. After updating, VitaXMB shows a "Restart required" screen with one button (Restart now) and no way to cancel, and shows it again each time VitaXMB opens until the console has restarted. This is needed once here for the Adrenaline fix; later updates that change the plugin do the same.

VitaXMB 1.5.0

New:

• NoLiveArea plugin (beta). VitaXMB can now install a small taiHEN plugin that keeps the LiveArea out of sight: VitaXMB opens by itself when the Vita turns on, the screen stays black while a game loads, and VitaXMB opens again when a game closes. It is offered once at the first start and can be installed or removed any time in Settings > VitaXMB Settings > No LiveArea Plugin (beta). The Vita asks to restart afterwards, because taiHEN only reads its plugin list at start. Tested on firmware 3.65 only; pressing the PS button inside a game still shows the stock LiveArea. See the README for details and the kill switch.
• The PSP start-up animation now plays once each time the console starts, not every time VitaXMB opens (after a game closes, for example).
• Battery Percentage (Settings > VitaXMB Settings): shows the battery level as a number beside the clock, off by default.

VitaXMB 1.4.0

New:

• Touch screen support for the whole XMB. Drag up or down to scroll a list, drag sideways to change the category (a swipe to the right goes back inside a folder or a Settings page), tap a row to select it and tap it again to open it, tap a category icon to go there, and press and hold a row for its Options. The Options panel, dialogs, the folder picker, the Color and Custom Theme chooser, information pages and the music player can be used by touch as well.
• Last played: the game you started last now sits under Memory Stick in the Game column with the PSP's UMD icon, like the disc in a PSP's drive. Select it to start the game again, or press Triangle for Start and Information.

VitaXMB 1.3.6

Fixes:

• Fixed: all Latin text now uses the PSP's own font (ltn0.pgf), and the clock is drawn in it at size 28. A custom theme's font still replaces it; text with a character the PSP font lacks falls back to the previous font.
• Fixed: "Memory Card" is now "Memory Stick™" in the Game, Photo, Music and Video lists and in System Information.
• Fixed: opening Options on a game now slides the bar and the game list to the left like the PSP does; the slide distance comes from the theme.
• Fixed: the confirmation dialog now fades in at the speed the theme sets.

VitaXMB 1.3.5

Fixes and theme work:

• Fixed: PSP and PS1 games (Adrenaline bubbles) showed only their first letter. VitaXMB now reads the real name from LiveArea's database.
• Fixed: the stock mute icon had a black box around it. The stock status pictures are now redrawn at 4x, so the box is gone.
• Fixed: the charging animation did not move at higher battery levels. It now plays the firmware's sequence (empty, one bar, two, full) at every level.
• Fixed: the battery and mute icon sat about 2 px too high.
• New: long text in a row now scrolls like the PSP's ticker on the selected row (Settings rows, game and category columns, folders). The timing is the usual one, not measured from a PSP.
• Custom themes: opening Options on a game slides the bar and the game list to the left like the PSP does, using the theme's own patched values. The confirmation dialog fades in at the speed the theme sets.
• The stock battery, mute icon and busy spinner use the firmware's pictures at higher resolution; a theme's own pictures are still used first.

VitaXMB 1.3.4

Custom themes (beta) and fixes:

• Fixed: the busy spinner showed four copies of itself.
• The clock follows the theme: its position, size, opacity and colour. The mute icon sits next to it as the theme places it, and the legend text and button glyphs take the theme's colour.
• Text: the size of the sub text under a row, the Options text and the text shadow follow the theme.
• Pictures: a theme's glow behind the selected row, its shadows, its loading and broken pictures for games and save data, shadows behind the button glyphs.
• A folder's Options and the other lists' Options have their own positions, and a theme that hides the Options panel background is respected.
• New: choose Random at the end of the Custom Theme list to get a different theme at every start.
• README: the custom theme section lists what is supported and what is not yet.

Known issue:

• The mute icon has a black box around it when no custom theme is on (the stock look). It shows up when the volume is at 0 and is only cosmetic. Not fixed yet.