PS2 client pipe dreams?

[maninblack_30]

I just stumbled upon some webpages about linux for playstation2. I have a network card and HDD in my PS2, and this got me wondering what the chances (if any) that a sageTV client could be done for the PS2. Has anyone looked at it?
Just a thought.

[dagar]

Got a working Java client for it?

[maninblack_30]

I don't know the first thing about linux, or programming or anything (not much good am I?) I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the idea.

[flavius]

Here is some info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2

The specs suggest that one would have to mod the ps2 first.

[paulbeers]

The best we could hope for from a PS2 would be an SDTV client that could only playback the videos we recorded and not have the Sage interface. I just don't think that 266mhz (or whatever the speed is) proc could handle a placeshifter client on top of the linux platform. Now if we could get an Xbox360/PS3 client, that would be the bees knees!

[Mahoney]

I've been researching the PS3 a bit; sadly the linux they allow to run is severely circumscribed, it has access to the processor but not to the GPU.

In my perfect world you could run the PS3 with a single UI giving access to all Sage client *and* PS3 functionality. So from the same interface you could play a Blu-Ray disk, an audio CD (I believe the PS3 can do this, though for reasons that escape us all Sage insist on a third party STV to do this in Sage...), watch live TV, set up recordings, watch recordings and play whatever game you have in the drive.

Instead of "Play DVD" I'd have something more intelligent - a dynamic menu option that is only present if a disk is in the machine, and reads "Play DVD", "Play CD" or "Play [Game Title]" depending on what you have in there.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

I've been researching the PS3 a bit; sadly the linux they allow to run is severely circumscribed, it has access to the processor but not to the GPU.

Yep, I've read that too. The xbox 360 is still a long way off too. It sounds like the xbox360 has some encryption built in that causes problems from being able to boot into anything other than xbox360. It's too bad really. The original Xbox is too weak for an HD client also.

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Yep, I've read that too. The xbox 360 is still a long way off too. It sounds like the xbox360 has some encryption built in that causes problems from being able to boot into anything other than xbox360. It's too bad really. The original Xbox is too weak for an HD client also.

Well, its not really encryption, they just built it so that it it picks up that its being probed to immediately crash the system, and the processor has 'e-fuses' that can modify the processors design slightly on the fly, which breaks most firmware cracks. If it wasn't for the e-fuses home brew would have been on it already, right now linux is possible only with 360s with really old dashboards at the moment.

As for a PS2 as a client, It probably could do it, Java would have to be ported however. wasn't it going to be opensourced finally when 7 comes or was it only partial?

[src666]

I was a beta tester a LONG time ago for the QCast media client for the PS2, and all I can say is that the PS2 just doesn't have the horsepower needed. It could barely handle half-resolution SDTV, and they were never able to get full MPEG2 support working at any decent framerate. They eventually were bought out, and the product died a quiet death.