ryan.goat at gmail
Mar 19, 2007, 8:54 AM
Post #16 of 18
(6901 views)
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On 3/19/07, Brian Wood <beww[at]beww.org> wrote:
>
>
> On Mar 19, 2007, at 3:07 AM, Gene Stapp wrote:
>
> > So are you planning to compile the mythfrontend to run on the PS3
> > or is there a problem with doing that currently? If myth would work
> > well, I'd seriously consider using this as a frontend at that point
> > (power usage isn't an issue my power costs are extremely cheap in
> > my state). Plus, I could get some gaming out of it as well.
> >
>
> I'm thinking that the PPC frontend-only version might compile, and
> might even actually work, but of course the problem is getting the
> time to work on it.
>
> It's an interesting proof-of-concept project, but it certainly isn't
> going to be able to do anything that can't be done already with more
> conventional hardware.
>
> You also would really want a display with HDMI or DVI input, and also
> HDCP if you wanted to play Blu-Ray disks at full resolution.
>
> The digital audio output seems to work under Linux, it's optical
> only, no coax, though I suppose you could jeep the digital audio out
> of the HDMI connector if you wanted a copper path.
>
> I would certainly not buy a PS3 just for a Myth frontend, but if you
> are looking for the cheapest BR player available, and also get a
> machine that can run Linux and perhaps Myth, it's certainly a
> bargain. It's the best bargain going even as a standalone BR player,
> but that situation might not last long, and I expect BR/HD-DVD
> players will become more common and cheaper soon. Anybody buying any
> sort of HD disk player today is paying the "early adopter" tax, and I
> haven't seen any HD movies available that were actually worth
> watching yet.
>
> As I said, already I can NFS mount my Myth recordings and play them
> with mplayer using the CLI, that's enough to make me happy, but it
> might not have a high WAF for non-bachelors.
>
> Also, Terrasoft describes the Bluetooth interface as "unsupported"
> but both my Gentoo machine and my Mac can connect to the interface
> easily, that might be a route for getting a remote control working.
> The "game controller" is BT, maybe you could cobble that up to be a
> remote, as I can't see what else it would be good for :-)
>
> Also - I've read that Sony may be discontinuing the cheaper 20GB PS3
> in favor of the more expensive 60GB unit which also gives you WiFi
> and a card reader. Those additional features can be bought elsewhere
> at far less than Sony prices, so if you're thinking about buying the
> 20GB box I'd consider that.
>
> I'd also consider purchasing directly from Terrasoft. I'd much rather
> support an outfit that's doing Linux development than the local Big-
> Box Store chain - but that's strictly a personal opinion.
FYI, I installed Ubuntu PPC on my PS3 and was able to install Mythfrontend
through the package system no problem. Mythfrontend loaded and I could
browse through the menus no problem. Trying to playback a recording brought
the system to its knees though. I think the problem was the limited memory.
Ubuntu doesn't have the most lite weight memory footprint. I don't remember
the exact figure but just sitting at the Ubuntu desktop, used well over half
the system's memory. I definitely saw the system slowdown with the more
applications I loaded. At one point the system didn't like switching
between the multiple xterm, gedit and firefox (which is VERY memory hungry)
windows I was using.
I plan on reinstalling with a more lite weight distro but haven't had the
time.
--
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Ryan Patterson
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