PS3 as MD

[archived]

Hi,

I think the PS3 would be a very good Media Director. I think it will be possible to install the Pluto on it (look at: http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/manual.html)

But i can't test it because the launch in austria is in March 2007  

So, what do you think about the PS3 as a Media Director???

ciao
avajon

[archived]

It looks like the potential is there to allow easy ports of core linux distributions to PS3 and a lot of them have already got ports for PowerPC.

In terms of it then becoming a Pluto MD there are still quite a few hurdles;
* Firstly getting a linux distribution running on it.
* Getting drivers for all the specific hardware. There is no mention that Sony will be providing them anywhere so they will need to be developed before probably even X Windows will run.
* Compiling Pluto software and all dependencies for the platform. Different architecture will mean everything has to be recompiled for it.
* Getting an MD to run from a local install rather than network boot OR figuring out how to get it to network boot and having network boot support multiple architectures.
* Ensuring all the bits work, like remote control with LIRC and controller support. Blu-ray support etc.

All this stuff is possible and could be done but it is a lot of work and then  when it comes down to it, the machine is still quite expensive and will probably be so for a little while yet at least. So it is probably even over spec'd for an MD.

Don't mean to sound too negative but I think that there are better options for the short term at least.
But who knows what will progress.

Regards
Darren

[archived]

I agree with Darren. There are much better variants like XBox, Mac mini and Amino STB. PS3 is too expensive.

[archived]

Dear All,

the PS3 is just in the moment to expensive but i think in future
the price will fall like all the predecessors did.
The Hardware and Design would be really "acceptable" for a MD!

As i heard from the CCC - Germany; they had already workarounds
with the ps3 and Distro's for it, with full linux hardware support.
I'm sure there will be further Workshops at the Chaos Community Congress
in Berlin this Year (it's from 27.12 to 30.12).
I'll take a look and let you know about it.

Regards to All

Eddie

[archived]

Hi Eddie,

The biggest problem (IMHO) with XBox, Mac mini and PS3 is net boot procedure. As you know MD should boot from tftp server. I spent some time to boot Mac mini and I didn't get positive result. The latest Fedora support Intel-based macs hardware but it doesn't provide a way to boot them from tftp.

[archived]

In theory XBox has netboot support through the cromwell bios (via Etherboot). I just havn't got it to work yet

The XBox will also require a different (patched) kernel but I think that is not such a big deal (as long as it is the same version as Core)

Soon I will get time to again look into it (it is crawling its way to the top of my priority list)

Regards
Darren

[archived]

I have a PS3 running Yellow Dog but I'm not using it for much because there is no video hardware acceleration, bluetooth support, or wireless (although Sony released the code for the wireless driver). There are a number of hurdles that need to be dealt with but depending on how things look in the future I'm interested in seeing how powerful of a backend it could be because of the Cell processor. I agree it might be a bit much for a media director, unless of course it could run in Game OS so all of the PS3 functions are available without a reboot.