PS3 + Linux + 360 HD-DVD Drive = Golden Ticket!!

[niknik]

Full story: http://netlixir.typepad.com/3sty/2007/10/ps3-linux-360-h.html

"I bought the PS3 to be my dedicated DVD ripper. I have become sick and tired of waiting around 16 hours for my wimpy PowerPC Mac to finish ripping and encoding a DVD. Damn it, I want real time H.264 DVD encoding, and I don't want to pay a lot for it."

[communist]

Apparently DVD playback / ripping works just fine with other distros. No need to buy the HD DVD drive if you want to rip ('SD') DVDs.

I take it as evidence that even the Linux kernel running on the PS3 knows that the Blueray drive is a second class citizen.
My goodness.. fan-boys..

The distro [Yellow Dog Linux] with the strongest relationship with Sony, which I consider to be an advantage. The biggest one: not being able to copy/read vobs :)

I would recommend the PS3 + Linux + 360 HD-DVD Drive ripping solution for anyone who already owns a XBox 360 and would use the HD-DVD drive with that. Otherwise the solution will cost you an extra $170 for the HD-DVD drive, and at that price point I am not sure if it is worth it. $500 was my price point for a VERY fast DVD ripper, but I probably wouldn't go much higher. Or just use another distro ;)

Anyway its a neat idea, how much of the hardware is really accessible and not 'shielded' via the hypervisor. It would be very interesting to get access to the full power of the machine I guess.

[Sharktooth]

Cell is not that "powerfull" btw...

[Inventive Software]

It is, but it's not being used to it's full potential yet. Linux "geeks" could harness the full power of the Cell architecture for the OS, then compare it to, say, a Mac or PC. I'm waiting for the day when I can confidently program for the PS3 and say "here ya are Sony, that's how you do games!"

[Adub]

What exactly was the point of this article? For a guy to say he hooked up his HD-DVD drive to his PS3? Or to say he can now rip DVDs weeeely fasth.

[communist]

Or to say he can now rip DVDs weeeely fasth.
Do it with a prebuild 'machine' that will also double as a blu-ray player and play games, all for $500 (the PS3 is that much?).
The only downside is its small hdd.

[Sharktooth]

@Inventive Software: i'd prefer 8 general purpouse cores instead of Cell's TMUs. i can assure you it would have been much faster and easier to program...