Playstation 3 questions, from Ubuntu to gaming

[Schadenfroh]

Greetings,

Today I purchased a 60gb PS3 to use as a network storage device, home theater PC (mainly rolling over files to it from my TIVO), bluray / upscaling DVD player (once I acquire an HDTV in a few months) and mild gaming. A few questions for you guys.

• Have there been any announcements on if there will be a firmware update that will add divx support to the PS3?
• Anyone ever swapped out a PS3's HDD? I have a spare 160gb 2.5" notebook SATA hard drive itching for a new home. Any idea if this procedure will void my warranty and/or work with the latest firmware? The instructions are rather old.
• Any way to disable the annoying "do you want to run this plugin" everytime I navigate a webpage? (I assume it is complaining about flash)
• Anyone use their PS3 to stream movies / music from your PC? If so, what software do you use on your PC?
• I will be installing Ubuntu for the PS3 tomorrow probably (once the updated instructions get posted), but I assume that it will be possible to dual boot between Ubuntu and the default PS3 OS(?) to play games? Anyone currently do that and can comment on it?
• Will the PS3 be pretty snappy in Ubuntu for say, converting video files to various other formats compared to an Athlon64 4000+ / x1950 pro?

I will need to use ubuntu in order for it to act as my network storage device anyways (for I doubt there is a way to gain this functionality using the stock PS3 OS), but it would be nice to have the stock OS play Divx and not display that annoying request to play flash.

Finally, a question about games....

Any playstation 2, 3, or even 1 games similar to the following:

• Story driven RPGs or adventure games that focus on character development, dialog, and plot rather than action? Maybe something similar to Baldurs Gate 2 or PlaneScape: Torment on the PC?
• Business simulators (not the tycoon games, more general approach with complex markets with many products), similar to Capitalism 2 on the PC?

Thanks

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

[*]Anyone ever swapped out a PS3's HDD? I have a spare 160gb 2.5" notebook SATA hard drive itching for a new home. Any idea if this procedure will void my warranty and/or work with the latest firmware? The instructions are rather old.

I changed my 20gig to an 80gig. In the manual it says it may void your warranty. The next sentence states that "SCEA is not liable" blah blah, might be worth checking that out. also, i believe the ps3 has proven that it has excellent build quality and youll probably never need to use the warranty anyway.

[*]Anyone use their PS3 to stream movies / music from your PC? If so, what software do you use on your PC?

I tried it when it was added to firmware, only played mpegs because I didnt take tht time to install streaming software that transcoded. I used windows media player.

[*]I will be installing Ubuntu for the PS3 tomorrow probably (once the updated instructions get posted), but I assume that it will be possible to dual boot between Ubuntu and the default PS3 OS(?) to play games? Anyone currently do that and can comment on it?
[*]Will the PS3 be pretty snappy in Ubuntu for say, converting video files to various other formats compared to an Athlon64 4000+ / x1950 pro? [/list]

You can switch between the game os and the "other os". In the game os there is a menu item that sets the ps3 to boot the "other os", then in linux there is a command line like boot-game-os that sets the ps3 to boot the game os.

I did it with fedora and yellow dog linux, and it was pretty cool. I do not think it will outperform your PC for converting files, unless someone has coded/ported something and optimized it to take advantage of the cel. Its actually quite sluggish overall, but the potential is there for homebrew apps.

I will need to use ubuntu in order for it to act as my network storage device anyways (for I doubt there is a way to gain this functionality using the stock PS3 OS), but it would be nice to have the stock OS play Divx and not display that annoying request to play flash.

it should be great as a nfs, and if you can figure out how to install something like vlc(i couldnt but have seen it done) it should play divx just fine, but unfortunately there is no real flash player for ppc linux builds. while researching that before I did find a couple of open source ones but nothing official from adobe. i believe it was called gnash.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> "Story driven RPGs or adventure games that focus on character development, dialog, and plot rather than action? Maybe something similar to Baldurs Gate 2 or PlaneScape: Torment on the PC?"

I don't know of anything as good as PS:T, but you should try some JPRGs like Final Fantasy X or XII and perhaps what I'm playing now, the Xenosaga series.

If you don't mind 2D that's more Wasteland than Fallout you can try the old PS1 JRPGs like Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger.

You might want to get a gamefly sub and try PS3's Folklore and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. They should have some of the PS2 JRPGs as well.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
> "Story driven RPGs or adventure games that focus on character development, dialog, and plot rather than action? Maybe something similar to Baldurs Gate 2 or PlaneScape: Torment on the PC?"

I don't know of anything as good as PS:T, but you should try some JPRGs like Final Fantasy X or XII and perhaps what I'm playing now, the Xenosaga series.

If you don't mind 2D that's more Wasteland than Fallout you can try the old PS1 JRPGs like Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger.

You might want to get a gamefly sub and try PS3's Folklore and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. They should have some of the PS2 JRPGs as well.

I'll recommend Xenosaga too. If you haven't, try Xenogears if you can find it. It's the spiritual predecessor to Xenosaga and one of the best RPGs ever because of its plot.

 

[Jules]

Swapping out the drive does not void the warranty. Make sure you make the 60gb hd though.


Make lol. I mean keep.


***EDIT

 

[Schadenfroh]

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

Make sure you make the 60gb hd though.

I do

If you don't mind 2D that's more Wasteland than Fallout you can try the old PS1 JRPGs like Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger.

2D does not bother me, I am actually replaying the Baldurs Gate series for the 2nd time this year right now. I have always heard good things about Final Fantasy, but I have never played a Japanese RPG (almost all have been advanced D&D cRPGS). Do I need to play the other Final Fantasies to understand what is going on in VII?

My local rental store has many PS1 and PS2 games for $1 per day, I may have to stop by there and pick up one of the above mentioned games, but I will probably have to clean the tobacco vapors off of the heavily scratched discs before getting it close to my new shiny black baby

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Do I need to play the other Final Fantasies to understand what is going on in VII?

No. FFVII is it's own stand-alone story. Most Final Fantasty games are this way, they only recently made a sequel to FF-X, and are making a ton of games based on FFVII (though they all aren't RPGs).

FFVII is one of the best games I've ever played, easily in the top 3, maybe even the best of all time. This coming from a guy who NEVER plays RPGs, so if that tells you something.

 

[fallensight]

TVersity is great for streaming any data to the PS3, its free too. You have to add any folder you want to stream, but it is really easy to use.

Folklore is fairly well story driven. There is a demo on the Playstation Store for free downloads. I am not too far into it yet(just not enough time in the day) but so far the story is pretty good.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I was able to get streaming MPGs and MP3s working with WMP using the latest firmware. I did not notice the type of screw (mistook it for another) holding the HD in place, so it got a bit stripped (my poor vision strikes again). Anyway, will pickup the proper screwdriver later and put my 160gb notebook sata drive into it. The version of Ubuntu (from psubuntu) that I downloaded yesterday has a glitch in it that keeps it from being installed (only thing that installed was the bootloader, anyway others are having the same problems and the guy will probably fix it). Went back to using the entire thing for the PS3 data.

The main two gripes that I have are as follows:

• Web browser constantly asking "do you want to allow this plugin" whenever flash is used
• Lack of divx support (which does not make any sense since sony has DVD players that support DivX)

Downloading several demos now, madden 08 was disappointing (graphics were not that good compared to say the Resistance demo) and the controls are crazy (at least to me), so I will have to sit down one day with the instructions and figure out what does what. The folklore games looks promising. Thanks again for all of the advice guys

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you like giant robot games like Mechwarrior, try the Armored Core 4 demo too.

Flying a dragon? Rent (not buy!) Lair -- some people do fine with the controls after a half-hour - hour learning curve, some people hate them.

Heavenly Sword is supposed to be good but short, another rental. The demo is -really- short so you might be better off renting blind instead of bothering with the demo.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

Make sure you make the 60gb hd though.

I do

If you don't mind 2D that's more Wasteland than Fallout you can try the old PS1 JRPGs like Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger.

2D does not bother me, I am actually replaying the Baldurs Gate series for the 2nd time this year right now. I have always heard good things about Final Fantasy, but I have never played a Japanese RPG (almost all have been advanced D&D cRPGS). Do I need to play the other Final Fantasies to understand what is going on in VII?

My local rental store has many PS1 and PS2 games for $1 per day, I may have to stop by there and pick up one of the above mentioned games, but I will probably have to clean the tobacco vapors off of the heavily scratched discs before getting it close to my new shiny black baby

Sorry about that. I mean make sure you keep the 60gb hd.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: fallensight
TVersity is great for streaming any data to the PS3, its free too. You have to add any folder you want to stream, but it is really easy to use.

Folklore is fairly well story driven. There is a demo on the Playstation Store for free downloads. I am not too far into it yet(just not enough time in the day) but so far the story is pretty good.

I had a problem with tversity. It worked great but for some reason it made a folder called download i think and it had over 4 gigs of random data (Pictures and videos of news crap. Wth was up with that?)

 

[Schadenfroh]

Alright, I have a feb 07 60gb, the blue screw with the arrow to it that holds the HDD in place is something odd, not Phillips or flat head or hex, looks like a swastika almost. Any clue what I need to detach the HDD screw with?

Update: it is actually some special type of Phillips head, precision type or something of the like.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Alright, I have a feb 07 60gb, the blue screw with the arrow to it that holds the HDD in place is something odd, not Phillips or flat head or hex, looks like a swastika almost. Any clue what I need to detach the HDD screw with?

Update: it is actually some special type of Phillips head, precision type or something of the like.

thats strange, mine was a phillips. try checking your manual?