Slashdot Mirror

The relevant docs can be found here:
https://partners.playstation.n...

They do not have a 30% royalty like Apple does.

If the case against Apple is won by the plaintiffs, someone could try to file suit against Sony, though they'd have a weaker case.

Yes, with V2.00 of the PS4's system software, released 4 years ago. Didn't you get the memo?

More seriously didn't you check out the new stuff in the updates?

FYI the PS4 has TWO media players.

One is just the simple USB music player, that's the simple unobtrusive one that works best while playing games. That one only does music and only MP3's/AAC. You will only see it's icon pop up if you plug in a USB storage device. With that one you can change folders and whatnot without suspending the game.

https://manuals.playstation.ne...

The second is the Media Player, that's the one that also can play FLAC, video, phots and does DLNA. That one always has the icon visible. It doesn't work as well while playing games.

https://manuals.playstation.ne...

Yes, with V2.00 of the PS4's system software, released 4 years ago. Didn't you get the memo?

More seriously didn't you check out the new stuff in the updates?

FYI the PS4 has TWO media players.

One is just the simple USB music player, that's the simple unobtrusive one that works best while playing games. That one only does music and only MP3's/AAC. You will only see it's icon pop up if you plug in a USB storage device. With that one you can change folders and whatnot without suspending the game.

https://manuals.playstation.ne...

The second is the Media Player, that's the one that also can play FLAC, video, phots and does DLNA. That one always has the icon visible. It doesn't work as well while playing games.

https://manuals.playstation.ne...

I have a media server that the PS3 plays from. PS4 won't.

Sure it will

https://manuals.playstation.ne...

I just started up Rygel (on Fedora) shared my music folder on the external drive (you want to serve it over "lo interface) and the server popped right up in the PS4's media player.

RTFM - https://manuals.playstation.ne...

...or RTFM - https://manuals.playstation.ne...

And BSD?

PS4's are FreeBSD machines....so yes.

https://doc.dl.playstation.net...

they are automatically backed up online for your "primary" PS4 system if you have auto upload enabled. Some people don't know they should do that:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

Then setup automatic uploads, if it is not already turned on:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

You can also upload manually or copy to USB storage:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

they are automatically backed up online for your "primary" PS4 system if you have auto upload enabled. Some people don't know they should do that:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

Then setup automatic uploads, if it is not already turned on:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

You can also upload manually or copy to USB storage:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

they are automatically backed up online for your "primary" PS4 system if you have auto upload enabled. Some people don't know they should do that:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

Then setup automatic uploads, if it is not already turned on:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

You can also upload manually or copy to USB storage:

http://manuals.playstation.net...

The PS4 is already a FreeBSD box.

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

I have a PS3 so maybe the experience is better now.

It is.

But whenever I do pull out my PS3, usually about 30 minutes is installing the latest OS update. Then the next 10-20 minutes is installing whatever game patch is out.

You're not using it enough and you obviously haven't set it up for automatic updates. (which it will do at around 4-5 AM by default)

http://manuals.playstation.net...

And if it takes 30 minutes...is your hard drive in the PS3 old or getting full? It shouldn't take that long.

It may be that people who were using their PC primarily for gaming are beginning to opt for consoles more (if I understand the term "console" correctly),

My PC runs Linux, but I game on a PS4.

And if the major software manufacturers decide to move to consoles, I think that will encourage more people to use FOSS.

Here's a thing you probably didn't think of....consoles (and console games) using FOSS.

Every piece of Sony gaming hardware since the PSP, has FOSS notices. In fact you can see Eric S. Raymond's name in every PSP, PS3, Vita, and PS4. The PS4 is essentially a FreeBSD system.

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

It may be that people who were using their PC primarily for gaming are beginning to opt for consoles more (if I understand the term "console" correctly),

My PC runs Linux, but I game on a PS4.

And if the major software manufacturers decide to move to consoles, I think that will encourage more people to use FOSS.

Here's a thing you probably didn't think of....consoles (and console games) using FOSS.

Every piece of Sony gaming hardware since the PSP, has FOSS notices. In fact you can see Eric S. Raymond's name in every PSP, PS3, Vita, and PS4. The PS4 is essentially a FreeBSD system.

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

It may be that people who were using their PC primarily for gaming are beginning to opt for consoles more (if I understand the term "console" correctly),

My PC runs Linux, but I game on a PS4.

And if the major software manufacturers decide to move to consoles, I think that will encourage more people to use FOSS.

Here's a thing you probably didn't think of....consoles (and console games) using FOSS.

Every piece of Sony gaming hardware since the PSP, has FOSS notices. In fact you can see Eric S. Raymond's name in every PSP, PS3, Vita, and PS4. The PS4 is essentially a FreeBSD system.

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

Do the major video game consoles use HDCP on their output?

Yes, but you can disable it for games, why did you not know this already? Do you not know how to google?

http://manuals.playstation.net...

I know OUYA does, and in my opinion, inability to share gameplay videos was a significant part of what caused OUYA to fizzle out.

Significant? In what fantasy world do you live in. The real reason Ouya failed is that the masses don't want a microconsole to play sucky android games and emulators.

Does it support things like WebM (MKV container, VP8 or VP9 video, and Vorbis or Opus audio)?

Have you turned into RMS? Just use h264 with AAC audio in MPEG4 containers for video and MP3 for music as the gods intended. You know damned well that "open" formats tend to be less well supported on consumer media devices so you don't even need to ask. Besides, you can have the DLNA server transcode any unsupported format, though you should just stick to the formats I listed above.

http://manuals.playstation.net...

Forget to turn on automatic updates? The number of Slashdotters who seem to NOT know about that is surprising to me.

http://manuals.playstation.net...

For example there was a recent Minecraft update. I haven't turned on my PS3 in a while, but if I was to turn it on, Minecraft on the PS3 would already be updated without me doing anything.

By now it's more complicated to use a console than getting a PC to play your games for crying out loud.

No it's not. Why do you say that?

You know what would be the tits? Imagine a console with something like Steam.

Have you been living in a cave? Haven't heard about the Steam boxes yet? However the SteamOS ones...well they suck. And the Windows ones have all the faults of Windows.

hell, let people create their own if they wanna but don't MAKE me join your fan club just so I can play that fucking game of yours

That's how the PSN communities feature works, if you're a PC gamer you probably haven't heard about it or know how it works. ..

http://manuals.playstation.net...

They're user created and totally optional.

"You don't wanna cough up the dough for my online gaming platform, you don't play online, fuck you."

No, dear console maker, fuck you. It's free on PC.

It's not actually "free" someone pays for the hosting/bandwidth. Whether it is the publisher or developer, or some altruistic guy with a well paying tech job hosting a Quake II and teamspeak/mumble server for the past 20 years....SOMEBODY is paying. And don't some private servers ask for donations? Besides, PS+ is only $49 a YEAR.

And it's not quite accurate to say that ALL online play requires payment on the PS4

F2P games don't require PS+ for Online play. This includes games like War Thunder, Warframe, Planetside 2. F2P MMO's like Onigiri and DCUO also fall under this rule.

Subscription based MMO's don't require PS+, currently this means FFXIV.

Games that do a "play by mail style" send turn feature also don't require PS+ SCEA used an example of a chess game with a send turn feature

Buy to play games, which is the vast majority of PS4 games, require PS+ for online mutliplayer, this includes the MMO TESO since subscription is optional and it is not a F2P game. It doesn't include Destiny which lets you do "some" online play without PS+

PS3, Vita and PSP games still don't require PS+ for online play.

They don't use Linux because of licensing.

Sony does use open source, and has done so since the PS2 days. PS2 dev kits were Red Hat based

PSP's have "some" open source code in them, BSD licensed, things like libungif, libtiff, and the BSD networking stack IIRC.

The PS3's OS is FreeBSD derived but not BSD itself, it's not using a BSD kernel

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

Same goes for the Vita:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

The PS4, however, is running actual FreeBSD:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

They don't use Linux because of licensing.

Sony does use open source, and has done so since the PS2 days. PS2 dev kits were Red Hat based

PSP's have "some" open source code in them, BSD licensed, things like libungif, libtiff, and the BSD networking stack IIRC.

The PS3's OS is FreeBSD derived but not BSD itself, it's not using a BSD kernel

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

Same goes for the Vita:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

The PS4, however, is running actual FreeBSD:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

They don't use Linux because of licensing.

Sony does use open source, and has done so since the PS2 days. PS2 dev kits were Red Hat based

PSP's have "some" open source code in them, BSD licensed, things like libungif, libtiff, and the BSD networking stack IIRC.

The PS3's OS is FreeBSD derived but not BSD itself, it's not using a BSD kernel

http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

Same goes for the Vita:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

The PS4, however, is running actual FreeBSD:
http://doc.dl.playstation.net/...

bloated piles of shit that tie up the PlayStation for 30 minutes when you want to watch a movie or play a game.

If you see updates often, it means you're not using the "Automatic update" feature, or you're not using the PS3 that often.

http://manuals.playstation.net...

And if it takes 30 minutes either:

1. your network connection is slow, what are you using 768k DSL or something?

2. your PS3's hard drive is either getting full or is getting old.

and their mandatory updates that remove functionality that you paid for.

You can choose to keep OtherOS, however you'll lose access to PSN if you keep the older firmware because your PS3 won't be "trusted". It's your choice. Any PS3 update that will remove OtherOS requires to be confirmed TWICE and warns the user in no uncertain terms what it will do before it does so.

However, any OtherOS user can tell you that the feature was used by only a minuscule minority of PS3 owners. Not only that but the partition schemes are NOT optimal. Either you have 10GB to OtherOS and the rest to what Sony calls GameOS, which cripples Linux. (You'll have to custom parition that 10GB or else some compiles will fail. You'll also have to seriously watch your compiles and installs (forget about doing a full LaTeX install) and what you download to home Or you have 10GB to GameOS and the rest to OtherOS which seriously cripples gaming. In that situation a single game can take up most of that space with HD cache, and you can forget about large digital downloads.

.

You don't have to update to play a game or watch a movie.

Unless your movie is on Netflix or some other online service, or your movie is a BluRay that requires you to update your firmware.

Right, activities that require access to the Internet, require access to the Internet. But the thing provides lots of ways to 'watch a movie' (which was the original assertion) that don't require Internet access. You can 'watch a movie': via Plex, via a DLNA server, via USB drive, or via DVD, for example.

Fuck Sony and their mandatory updates; bloated piles of shit that tie up the PlayStation for 30 minutes when you want to watch a movie or play a game.

You don't have to update to play a game or watch a movie. You might have to update if you want to play your game online, but if that's no concern for you, then you can sit there, disconnected, and play whatever game you want with whatever software revision you have.

If you do want to play something online, then you have to have a PS+ subscription (which is required for online play), which allows you to set your PS4 to download and install updates automatically.

Fuck Sony and their mandatory updates that remove functionality that you paid for.

Yeah, removing the 'Other OS' option was kind of a dick move, but what have they updated on one of their consoles since then that removed functionality? For that matter, what have they updated previously that removed functionality from their consoles?

Fuck Sony and all the other consoles. They all suck!

Yeah, all consoles suck. So do all computers and all operating systems and practically everything else on the planet. (Except for you, you're awesome, apparently). The trick is to find something that sucks the least for what you want to do, and then go with that. Or you could impotently spew invective. Your call.

Thats "one" persons opinion

Everything is one person's opinion until it's tested in a court of law. The article I linked states that such a case has been decided for board games, but not for video games.

Look, the only company that really doesn't care for streaming is Nintendo, goes to show just how stuck in the past they are.

From the article I linked: "Capcom can make you get a license for the 'public performance' of the game. In fact, that is exactly what Capcom does with for-profit tournaments" with games in the Street Fighter series. Blizzard likewise has tried to use copyright to give one Korean TV network exclusive rights to StarCraft II . Sega at one time did a massive takedown of its Shining RPG series on YouTube.

Streaming is built right in to the PS4 and Xbox One.

From the manual: "For some games, there might be scenes in which video cannot be recorded. The maximum 15 minutes of gameplay that are saved as a video clip do not include scenes in which video cannot be recorded. An icon is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen at the start and end of these scenes." This Ars Technica article agrees. Is a licensee allowed to designate the entire game as such a scene? Apparently so, according to this Polygon article and this reddit post.

I don't know any way to copy those along, you have to redownload them AFAIK,

You can do a system backup to external drives now, Firmware 2.50 added that feature.

http://manuals.playstation.net...

I never owned a PS2 so can't comment there (does it even have an HD?),

YES! The network adapter has a connector for a standard full size PATA drive. The official PS2 HDD's are 40GB Maxtors IIRC, they're "blessed" though, special firmware so games recognize them. PS2 Games won't recognize a non-blessed HDD. FFXI requires, and is shipped with the HDD. The only way to get the official retail non-Linux-kit PS2 HDD is by buying FFXI. There are a few other games that have HDD support in the US.

Linux on the PS2 is a different story, it can use any HDD, blessed or not.

The solution is to use a proper e-mail client with your webmail service.

Do they even make "a proper e-mail client" for, say, a PlayStation Vita system? Sure, there's the included Email app, but I didn't see anything in its manual about PGP or S/MIME.

Standardize your joystick API so us devs can make joystick games on ipad/iPhone.

Apple introduced the MFi joystick API a year ago in iOS 7.

Anyone can see a touch screen is no way to play a reflex action game, the controls just aren't there.

PlayStation Vita's built-in joystick is part of why video game developers are joining the PlayStation Mobile (formerly PlayStation Suite) developer program.

I'm not going to start because Sony stupidly made patches mandatory, even if I just want to play a single player game.

Turn off it's internet connection, then it won't even check and you won't have to worry about updates at all.

And PS+ costs money that I should not have to waste to have something as rudimentary as auto-patching.

Yes, they shouldn't have kept that PS+ only for so long. You get some automatic updates if you're not PS+....now. But you have have it turned on, and many people...especially if they don't keep up with PS3 news, don't know it's available.

http://manuals.playstation.net...

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10...

If you have PS+ it keeps track of your disc based gameplay and automatically gets the updates for those most recently played games for those too.

It also amazes me that the PS3 doesn't have a 'download quietly and then turn off when the download is finished' function.

It does.

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/users/turnoff.html

The GP is correct. The PS3 is a great media center out of the box, and with a media server on a network it's exceptional.

Its decent - it lacks a LOT of things, like proper DLNA/UPnP support (no remote control??), DLNA integration (choose your music, as long as it is NOT on the network), media support (what are subtitles in MP4 files?!?) etc. Google it, or compare it to just about anything else.
Only my Philips radio does worse - every other kit I have has the PS3 licked in terms of being a media center.

Well, if you've been playing movies on the radio, I can see where you're having problems. The PS3 has DLNA support - here's the manual entry. You get a remote control free with the console - it's a controller that's remote, it's just not dedicated to A/V functionality. It doesn't support subtitles on .mp4 files, fair enough. It's also compact, looks pretty good and fits on a shelf under the TV for a reasonable price.

It's also extremely quiet, as the parent would know if he'd ever, y'know, used one. In fact, this was the primary motivator for choosing the PS3 over the XBox360 (which sounded like a jet engine and destroyed a disc in the 2 weeks we had it).

Less noisy than a jet-engine is not the same as quiet. Seriously, I have 2 PS3s, 1 first gen 60gig and a most-recent gen. Even the newest one, in the hallway, is more noisy than ANY DVD/BD player I have seen. Even my old Philips surround-DVD-radio-otherthings player is no-where as noisy.
So relative to XBoxes, F16s and tumbledryers - sure. Compared to other things - not in this world.

Really? I'm sorry to hear that because mine is almost completely silent. It might be marginally louder than my DVD player, but you'd need a sensitive decibel measuring device to tell the difference. And if I'm watching anything on it, it is entirely unnoticeable. The disc drive in the slim PS3 is marginally louder than the one in the fat PS3 when spinning up, but that's about it and they're both comparable to any DVD player I've used. I've never, I must admit, used a standalone blu-ray player (why would I, I have 2 PS3's) but I can't imagine they're that much quieter.

(here's a tip - that 5% referenced is people who have money to buy games consoles - i.e. their market).

You're saying only people in the US (the 5% that can get netflix etc) can afford PS3s? And you called ME an idiot??? No, Europeans and others also buy PS3s, but these features advertised by GP as being reasons to buy a PS3 doesn't apply to them.

Fair enough there, I misread your original point. In Europe we don't have netflix and hulu, but in Ireland the PS3 integrates the local TV channel's digital service into the main menu and there's a specific app just for it, which is really very nice indeed. So there are compensations.

Your original point was incorrect, it does a lot of things very well. Our mutual dislike of Sony's behaviour does not change this, and saying it does makes you sound like you're bashing its capabilities simply because you dislike Sony, which is stupid.

Interesting. Heres the EU address. Are all firmwares equal?
http://fus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/eu/ps3-updatelist.txt

direct download link, always contains url of the latest sony firmware:
http://fus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/us/ps3-updatelist.txt

currently it points to v3.56
http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/image/us/2011_0127_6e070c96e0464e993aaf9deac3660863/PS3UPDAT.PUP

this firmware update can be installed without having to have a PlayStation network account or having to agree with the PS Network ToS & User Agreement

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110202220600258

direct download link, always contains url of the latest sony firmware:
http://fus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/list/us/ps3-updatelist.txt

currently it points to v3.56
http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/image/us/2011_0127_6e070c96e0464e993aaf9deac3660863/PS3UPDAT.PUP

this firmware update can be installed without having to have a PlayStation network account or having to agree with the PS Network ToS & User Agreement

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110202220600258

Here you go:

All intellectual property rights subsisting in Sony Online Services, including all software, data, and content subsisting in or in connection with the operation of Sony Online Services, the Online ID, the access to content and hardware used in connection with Sony Online Services (collectively defined as "Property"), belong to SCEA and its licensors. All use or access to Property shall be subject to the terms of this Agreement, other applicable agreements, if any, and all applicable copyright and intellectual property rights laws.

First off, this guy says in this post:

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738550&cid=33093222

that there are apparently two update versions, one is essentially a patch version that isn't the Full version...you'd want the Full version on your storage device. Was your download 167MB?

This is this the smaller patch version:

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/image/us/2010_0727_00c835be718fc3d5f793e130a2b74217/PS3PATCH.PUP

and this is the full

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/image/us/2010_0727_00c835be718fc3d5f793e130a2b74217/PS3UPDAT.PUP

It's also possible to get a bad download, especially if the servers are busy, happened once with me on the PSP.

First off, this guy says in this post:

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1738550&cid=33093222

that there are apparently two update versions, one is essentially a patch version that isn't the Full version...you'd want the Full version on your storage device. Was your download 167MB?

This is this the smaller patch version:

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/image/us/2010_0727_00c835be718fc3d5f793e130a2b74217/PS3PATCH.PUP

and this is the full

http://dus01.ps3.update.playstation.net/update/ps3/image/us/2010_0727_00c835be718fc3d5f793e130a2b74217/PS3UPDAT.PUP

It's also possible to get a bad download, especially if the servers are busy, happened once with me on the PSP.

Actually it DOES upscale PS1 games and performs smoothing too. http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/gamesettings.html#2443

Even if it wasn't stated in the box, it was advertised that it did run Linux. Even people who doesn't need or care about this functionality should stay up to Sony on this. Next time they may remove a funcionality you do care about. Conceptually, it is the same thing as removing the capability of playing Bluray discs.

Well, Sony certainly "advertises" it in their manual:

http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/manual.html
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/3_15/settings/osinstall.html

Choice quote from the second link:

There is more to the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system than you may have assumed. In addition to playing games, watching movies, listening to music, and viewing photos, you can use the PS3(TM) system to run the Linux operating system.

It may not be on the box, but it's certainly documented on Sony's own websites

- Linux installation isn't very complicated on it, but not terribly useful. As others have mentioned, it's a limited RAM system and with current firmware there is no access to the accelerated hardware. I've ran Xubuntu and Yellow Dog on it. Both worked fine, but the system was too slow to play HD movies etc. Also, you need a keyboard to boot between PS3 os and Linux. There is a project to be able to select using a controller at boot but it wasn't functional.

- No IR support. That means in order to use any kind of all-in-one remote you need to buy something like the Nyko blue wave (gives you a USB IR device). Even with that, you cannot power the system on and off. Not everyone wants to waste power by leaving their components on indefinitely

- To your point of "nearly flawless" video etc, the fact that it _requires_ upnp to play over network is silly. Most everyone would prefer a simple CIFS share, which would work on windows and Linux. Installing a totally unsecured upnp server == suck.

Also, the video formats it supports is highly restrictive, requiring many folks to reencode or transcode their media files. It seems almost arbitrary what formats they support. This is the list. The fact is even if you have files encoded in their 'blessed' list, there are options that cause playback failure (compression settings etc). Very frustrating.

I was unable to reliably play fairly low bitrate avi's over a upnp server using the wireless adapter. I had to hardware it to my network.

- As a gaming console, it's okay. It has much longer than expected loading times for games across the board, though. For instance, GTA4 takes ~ 3-5 min from disk insertion until it's ready to play. EA Fight Night 3 is constantly taking 1-2 min to switch contexts (different fighting modes, training etc).

I bought it as a cheap console addon to replace my broken DVD player. For that, it does well. It certainly has gotten much better with the firmware updates - the travesty of limited to no ps2 game compatability (depending on which version of ps3 you get) is a joke.

With gaming consoles, you either need to do something breakaway awesome (like WII) or vastly improve on old stuff (like 360). A slightly better but buggy and limited release will give you small initial adoption, and without a large initial explosion the platform will never truly be successful compared to its rivals.

They basically got owned by the R&D time & costs of developing their architecture making the 360 development much quicker and less buggy. Also by their arrogance in thinking the market would be happy with an inferior product they'd patch up later with firmware.

Someone had told me the GameOS supports the "plug and play" network media stuff that Microsoft and other vendors (including Myth TV?) offer.
Does it? If so, what's the best the PS3 can do "off the shelf" ?

Yep, that plug n' play network stuff is called DLNA, as far as I know if you got the bandwidth you can stream (or copy) 1080p video (in formats the PS3 supports) to the PS3 right out of the box once you enable the functionality.
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/connectdlna.html

It works with photos and music too.

I am sorry, but you probably just wasted money because the PS3 does upscale DVD's. http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/bdsettings.html

"This option can only be used when the video being played is in SD resolution and the video output setting of the PS3â system is set to 1080p or 1080i."

Not according to TFA which links to the PS3 manual as its source, so I'd tend to believe Sony.

From the manual:

If you perform any of the following operations after backing up, copyright-protected video files in the backup data may not restore correctly.
- Format the hard disk
- Restore the PS3(tm) system
- Move copyright-protected video
- Download copyright-protected video
- Play copyright-protected video that has a time restriction for the first time

I take that to mean that swapping hard drives or restoring the PS3 after a catastrophic failure does prevent access to the movies. It's also quite clear that if you change PS3s, you can't restore it, period.

In some cases, you may not be able to use the Backup Utility feature to back up or restore the system correctly. It is recommended that you always copy or move important data to storage media in order to independently back up your data.

Great advice, Sony, except for the part where the DRM doesn't allow you to. This also covers "certain save files?!"

According to the online user's guide, PS3 already supports h264.

>>Here's what happened exactly... Dear klipp0th, You recently listed the following auction-style listing: 250051615791 - Playstation 3 PS3 Premium w/ Fedora Linux Installed The listing was removed because it violated eBay policy. All fees related to this listing have been credited to your account. We also notified members who placed bids on the item that the listing has been canceled. The sale of unauthorized copies of copyrighted media (including software, video games, music, television programs, ebooks, and photographs) is illegal and not permitted on eBay. "Unauthorized" copies include back-up, pirated, and bootlegged copies. >>And my extremely angry response thus far... Here, I'm doing the work for you. Have your legal department look over these documents in reference to your allegations of illegal/immoral conduct on my part, and ruining a lot of hard work and advertising beyond Ebay itself. Sony's Official Stance: http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/faq.ht ml http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/cur rent/settings/osinstall.html Fedora's Official Stance: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution The only question left is how are you going to make this up to me? How will you compensate me for the huge media attention that my achievment in installing an open source OS on the PS3 got me, how will you replace the 30-something people that were viewing my page when last I checked, and how do you replace the people that had started to bid? You have no idea what I went through to get Linux to work on a PS3, what I went through to composite video of it in action for people to share, and the amount of time I put in building excitement amongst all of the major news sources & blogs about my accomplishment for you to just take it all away. It is the first time I have ever sold anything through ebay, and to do something completely legitimate and even promoted by Sony, just be accused of Piracy by you? As I said...read the links above, then tell me just how you are going to make it up to me. If I could get the entire internet buzzing about Linux on a Playstation 3, you know I'll be the first one to report when a company decides to illegally contradict and oppress the Open Source Community. Check Slashdot's membership totals if you need some numbers on that. And then check Digg, Engadget, Kotaku, Gizmodo, and any of a dozen other news sources, and you'll get the idea... Expecting to hear from you very soon. >>So, think I was pissed off enough? I may end up selling to a famous person in technology world, but we'll see how that goes. I may just keep it after all. But I definitely don't have to agree with Ebay's policies as regards open-source software.I mean, I may be a "noob", but at least I know how to read legal disclaimers and I have a cursory understanding of open-source, which is more than they know. It very well could have been one of the trolls that were hating on me that went to Ebay trying to get me in trouble... If I were trying to sell Linux, that would be one thing, but I was just trying to sell my PS3 and maybe making a little extra for my hard work of getting Linux to install correctly. And as a note, it is almost complete. Everything works now except sound comes out all garbled while the system says there is no soudcard, and there is an error message related to the PMU device, which seems to dissappear whenever I reboot. I have figured out the script that will create the PMU device, but now I need to figure out how to get that command to run upon bootup every time. This is the script: sudo ./MAKEDEV pmu Anyone know how to get that to run every time, so I'm not stuck with an error message upon bootup? And the pmu device is a power management device, and could very well have something to do with my messed up sound, so if I can get the command to run on bootup, then it may kill 2 birds with one stone...