This is what I am talking about. Saw it over at ThinkGeek.
Anyone ever heard of it? Anyone use it?
Apparently its media software for the PS2 to connect to a Windows/Linux/Mac system and play media files off of it. Includes MP3, Ogg, AVI, and the like.
So has anyone heard anything good/bad about it?
UPDATE (12/27):
Well I got it for XMas and installed it. Here is my quick rundown on it. My setup: PS2 with Sony Network Kit, PC with WinXP, PS2 using Optical out to receiver.
In short it works, almost all of the time.
The MP3's I threw at it are either personal CD rips using "lame --r3mix" (yes I know there are better now) or 160/192 encoded livesets (which basically means 100+ meg MP3's). It played them all almost without problem. A couple of times I noticed some crackling in the playback of the mp3. I could switch to another one and the crackling went away. When I came back to the offending mp3, it wasn't there anymore, but I don't know if that was due to a reboot of the PS2 or not. But the sound of the mp3's is very good. Much nicer than me hooking up my Nomad 3 via RCA cables (analog connection).
The image files work fine, but who really cares about that.
The movie files work okay. High bit rate DivX don't work due to the limitations of the thin-client design (BroadQ is fully aware of it), but lower bit rate ones work fine. Some other formats of movies just flat out don't work either due to CODEC problems or resolution problems (they list the recommended resolutions on their website). But in general, the movies work good and it is definitely nicer to watch them on a big screen TV with home theater setup than some smaller monitor.
Updates for it are very easy to apply. The Windows client automatically downloads and installs the updates. The Mac OSX and Linux clients apparently don't right now.
Some small problems are that if the system hangs (say due to a bad movie), you have to completely reboot the PS2 (toggle the power button on the front). Also, some of the custom settings don't seem to get saved, like "Show ID3 tag" is by default off, but all my mp3's have them, so I want it on. Each time I use it, it has to be switched back. Also, when playing mp3's, you can't go back to browsing the server to add more to the playlist without stopping playback.
But all in all, a very nice product. If you have a nice home theater setup with the PS2 there and the network kit, this works great. Makes a nice way of streaming (as that is what it does) all you media content from your server to the home theater setup. I definitely recommend it.
Anyone ever heard of it? Anyone use it?
Apparently its media software for the PS2 to connect to a Windows/Linux/Mac system and play media files off of it. Includes MP3, Ogg, AVI, and the like.
So has anyone heard anything good/bad about it?
UPDATE (12/27):
Well I got it for XMas and installed it. Here is my quick rundown on it. My setup: PS2 with Sony Network Kit, PC with WinXP, PS2 using Optical out to receiver.
In short it works, almost all of the time.
The MP3's I threw at it are either personal CD rips using "lame --r3mix" (yes I know there are better now) or 160/192 encoded livesets (which basically means 100+ meg MP3's). It played them all almost without problem. A couple of times I noticed some crackling in the playback of the mp3. I could switch to another one and the crackling went away. When I came back to the offending mp3, it wasn't there anymore, but I don't know if that was due to a reboot of the PS2 or not. But the sound of the mp3's is very good. Much nicer than me hooking up my Nomad 3 via RCA cables (analog connection).
The image files work fine, but who really cares about that.
The movie files work okay. High bit rate DivX don't work due to the limitations of the thin-client design (BroadQ is fully aware of it), but lower bit rate ones work fine. Some other formats of movies just flat out don't work either due to CODEC problems or resolution problems (they list the recommended resolutions on their website). But in general, the movies work good and it is definitely nicer to watch them on a big screen TV with home theater setup than some smaller monitor.
Updates for it are very easy to apply. The Windows client automatically downloads and installs the updates. The Mac OSX and Linux clients apparently don't right now.
Some small problems are that if the system hangs (say due to a bad movie), you have to completely reboot the PS2 (toggle the power button on the front). Also, some of the custom settings don't seem to get saved, like "Show ID3 tag" is by default off, but all my mp3's have them, so I want it on. Each time I use it, it has to be switched back. Also, when playing mp3's, you can't go back to browsing the server to add more to the playlist without stopping playback.
But all in all, a very nice product. If you have a nice home theater setup with the PS2 there and the network kit, this works great. Makes a nice way of streaming (as that is what it does) all you media content from your server to the home theater setup. I definitely recommend it.
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