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Using the Playstation2 as an Editing Medium?

Posted by Cliff on from the since-it's-in-the-entertainment-center-already dept.

zeropanic asks: "I'm not a person who likes to shell out 100's of dollars on new PC (or Mac!) equipment each year just because it's been "replaced" with something better.. Broke down and got a PS2 for Christmas this year, eyeing the iLink port in front. I know the designed task for the PS2 iLink was to hook up two or more Playstation units together, but could it be adapted to something else? Has anyone ever thought to write some software turn the PS2 into a DV suite? With all camcorders going to digital, someone (like me) who has a PS2 and a Sony handycam could connect up and do some minor editing.. Titles, splicing, etc.. while hooking up a USB HDD for temp storage.. (Poke poke to Sony!)" While this would be an interesting use for the PS2 hardware, why not use a laptop instead?

2 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Limitations by The+14+year+old · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The PS2 has a 300mhz processor, and only 32mb of ram. In the pc world is a 1ghz with 512mb of ram. You must also remember that USB has 12mbps of bandwidth which would make it pretty much impossible to store video on a usb hard drive. Not to mention the HD is only 20gb.

    --
    "I hate people, but i love Gatherings. Isn't it ironic?" -- Randall Graves, Clerks
  2. Add it up and shop around... by xFoz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A used iMac with a FireWire port is more suited to the job of editing video. I've seen them going for as little at $400. You might have to add some RAM but it's not like that's going to cost much.

    Out of the box it's ready to edit. It runs iMovie which is really easy to use and produces great results. Plus you have an upgrade path to more powerful editors. You could graduate to tools such as Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Special effects tools like Adobe After Effects, Pinnacle Commotion and Descrete Combustion will also run on that little Mac. Sound editing is accomplished with Peak, ProTools or even Spark XL. Oh and don't forget the 3d tools you might need. You've got your choice of LightWave, Universe, and Hash just to name a few.

    One thing that all the above have going for them is that those tools are all many rev's old. In my experience they seldom crash. So you can get real work done and it doesn't feel like beta testing.