PS3 media machine...?

[Sol]

So I've been looking a little bit at the PS3, from a hardware perspective it's a fairly impressive machine, nice video chip, cell processor... And it runs Linux... And it costs S*ny money if I buy one and no games...

It seems like these things would make ideal media-centre style machines... Sure there are no Linux 3d video drivers but the cell processor is easily capable of rendering any movies I want to play by itself, and I'm sure there are efforts in the works to develop a 3d driver via reverse engineering (it's been done... Although I don't like the odds of it happening all that quickly).

I'm not really sure how much use I'd get out of one... But if I can get one for under £400 (and a quick search suggests I can) then that seems like a pretty good price for the amount of raw grunt in the box...

 

[sechs]

If you want to use a gaming console, it seems to me that the Xbox 360 would be a better choice. It's cheaper and is designed to act as a media center.

The PS3 is... a trainwreck.

 

[CougTek]

But you can run the F@h client on the PS3 and not on the Xboîte 360. Merc should buy plenty of the cheaper PS3 console and run the F@h client on those, without ever buying games. That would hurt S0nee and help humanity.

 

[sechs]

You could better help humanity by not helping people find ways to screw-up nature....

 

[Pradeep]

IME the 360 is way too frigging loud to use as a media anything. The DVD drive itself is a loud piece of gear, but even without a disc in the drive, the fans make more noise that I can accept for anything that could playback movies etc. I won't accept a silent moment in a movie being compromised by the whir of the 360. I own one, and it is strictly for gaming.

The PS 3 seems like a much quieter machine by all accounts (I don't own one yet). The hard drive is easily replaced with any 2.5" SATA drive you care to purchase, if you want larger capacity. Sony even includes instruction on how to do this upgrade. Whereas with the 360 you are stuck with 20 GB.

MY only concern in Sol's case is to check what region the UK and Australia are in. If he buys a UK PS3 he may not be able to playback Aus Blu-Ray/DVD movies.

 

[Pradeep]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#Region_codes

Looks like no worries. UK and Australia share the same Blu-Ray region.

 

[Sol]

Actually I was thinking of getting a Japanese console anyway, they're about £60 cheaper (I can only guess that some importers trying to make some extra cash overestimated the demand prior to the UK launch and are now having to dump the consoles cheaply) and contain a real PS2 chip so they're 100% PS2 compatible where the European/Australian one isn't (yet)... Not that I'm likely to play PS2 games but I figure it's slightly more likely than my ever buying a Blu-Ray movie...

 

[Mercutio]

But you can run the F@h client on the PS3 and not on the Xboîte 360. Merc should buy plenty of the cheaper PS3 console and run the F@h client on those, without ever buying games. That would hurt S0nee and help humanity.

S*ny is not allowed to have any of my money, ever.
Plus I don't like console systems, even as a concept.
And I don't Fold because Folding is a pain in the ass.

Why was my name invoked here, again?

I did briefly have an Xbox360, but having played the game for long enough to realize that I can't stand console controls under any circumstances, I ditched it.

 

[Buck]

Why was my name invoked here, again?

The more often your name is mentioned and you respond, the quicker you'll hit 10,000 posts.

 

[Handruin]

The more often your name is mentioned and you respond, the quicker you'll hit 10,000 posts.

And the sooner I'll have to add more space to the database.

It's currently at 197MB...which isn't all that bad. :-D

 

[Sol]

S*ny is not allowed to have any of my money, ever.

By all accounts S*ny lose a few hundred bucks every time someone buys a PS3 console so in fact S*ny would not get any of your money if you bought one, they'd give some of the money they already have to several of their suppliers.

I'm not entirely sure the extent to which some of those suppliers may not be themselves but given the numbers bandied around I don't much like their chances of maintaining any of it.

I think this was probably the crux of Cougs suggestion, you'd get to bump your folding score at S*nys expense... None of which addresses the issue of folding being a pain in the arse, but I don't claim to be any more enlightened than Coug on your folding habits (or lack thereof) so we can probably safely put that down to a lack of specific knowledge...

 

[timwhit]

Sony might not make any money and may very well lose money on the transaction, but you would still be out the $400-500.

 

[sechs]

At that price, you may as well consider putting together your own SFF system to do the job.

 

[Handruin]

If the only thing you plan to use it for is folding, then yes S*ny will lose money on the system. If you buy even a single game or Blu-ray movie, you're giving them money.

 

[Sol]

It doesn't look like Sony will be releasing the 20GB version in Europe and a reverse engineered openGL driver for Linux seems likely to be a long way off at best... I think I'm better off investing in an R600 for my PC and leaving this particular experiment for when the PS3 is a lot cheaper.

 

[Mercutio]

I've heard that certain US retailers are dropping the SKU for the 20GB Playstation for some reason. If that's the case they may discount them to get them out of the supply chain. I guess the unit with the bigger drive is vastly more profitable and popular?

 

[Sol]

I think the price difference was quite low so people said "hey I'm spending this much I may as well get the good one". Which totally ignores the fact the 20GB is a hell of a lot of save games and 60GB is still bugger all for media files or anything else you might want to chuck on it so the cheaper one would probably be better for just about everyone assuming you can attach an external hard drive...

I think MS are discontinuing the 360 core pack for the same reason. lack of interest. No one cares about saving less than $100 on a console that costs as much as these do...

 

[Pradeep]

You can attach an external USB drive, no worries.

The other differences are that the 60GB version also includes a memory card reader and wireless ethernet.