Looking Closely at the Restrictions of Linux on the PS2

Hal-kun writes: "I wrote an interesting article about Sony's upcoming Linux distro for the PS2 and some intellectual property concerns I have with it. It's an intresting look at how Sony limits the ability to have full access to the system, yet being able to keep it under GPL."

Comments

Re:how they limit it

[Hougaard]

A couble of comments:

1) Its actually not "bad areas" that Sony is using with PS2 discs. They have encoded a sort of sub-signal onto the disc that bruners cannot recreate and more important, nor can asian "copy shops".

2) The PS1 discs has a error written into the TOC but CloneCD (aand others) deals with this without problems.

3) Developers can actually buy CDR's at Sony with the copyprotection on, so they can burn discs to test on non development equipment.

4) Sonys DVD-ROM's has the same copyprotection buildin as the CD's. So even with a DVD-R (Burned on the A03) you cannot boot with a modchip.

Re:how they limit it

[Anonymous Coward]

3) Is wrong. Sony supply 'Test' decks, which can boot gold-discs. Developers _cannot_ create copy-protected discs.
You need to be a licensed developer to get a TEST deck.

Sync on green....

[wowbagger]

I keep seeing people who don't understand what "sync on green" is, and this guy is one.
<Electronics_lession>
For *any* monitor, it is required to know when a horizontal scan line starts, when it stops, and where the top of the screen is. This information is called sync, and is seperate from the video data that paints the image.

In a normal, modern monitor, five signal lines go to the monitor:

1. Analog red
2. Analog green
3. Analog blue
4. digital vertical sync
5. digital horizontal sync

Now, the hsync line is in one state while the monitor is scanning across the display, and another state during the time the electron beam is being swept back across the display (the horizontal retrace interval). The vsync line is in one state when the screen is being painted, and another when the beam is brought back to the top of the screen (the vertical retrace.)

Now, in older monitors, to save signal lines, they used a technique call "sync on green". During the normal horizontal scan, the green line was at a voltage between 0V and 1V, with 1V being full on green, and 0V being no green. During horizontal retrace, the green line went to -0.5V to signal sync. During vertical retrace, the green line was -0.5V during the whole scan line, and went to 0V during the horizontal retrace. By suitable filtering and phase-lock techniques the actual sync signals were recovered from this. Thus, a sync on green monitor required only 3 signal lines.

Now, if you take a normal monitor, and connect it to a sync-on-green system, the monitor's sync inputs will be undriven. A multirate monitor will simply turn off it's drive to the screen, assuming the computer is turned off.

Sync on green has nothing to do with "synchronizing the red and blue signals with the green" - they are synchronous in time already.

Your best bet for such things is to go to a computer graveyard, and try to find an old monitor. Many older monitors would do sync on green as well as normal discrete sync.

</Electronics_lession>
<Rant>
What I don't understand is why everybody is getting so excited about this. Sony is locking you away from the hardware - without a massive RE effort you are not going to be able to do much with this system. For the price of the PS2 and the Linux distro and hardware you could by far more useful devices (until somebody cracks all the hardware protection). Assuming somebody does manage to get raw HW access, Sony will make that person disappear in a puff of red smoke.

Why don't we all just ignore these people until they learn to play nice with others? Look at the Atari 2600, the Apple ][, the PC. They were successful because people could hack them. Sony and Apple learned the wrong lesson ("We must have total control! Nobody BUT US CAN MAKE MONEY OFF THIS") rather than the right lesson ("Hardware like parachute - works best when open.").
</Rant>

Re:how they limit it

[billcopc]

I don't know where you've been getting your information, but it is very possible to boot DVD-R discs in a modded PS2, however the technique is just a little awkward with the currently modchips (a double swap is required). I used to own an A03 (until the thing died and the shop had no stock to replace it - ugh!), and I've tried a few copies on my unit, they work fine.

I don't see why I couldn't just concoct a PS2Linux-based DVD-R with custom software, it should be fairly trivial.

Re:Sony and Warranty

[miracle69]

I've had a similar bad experience with Sony myself.

When I broke the screen on my palm (customer abuse), I called Palm and asked if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They did. For 100 bucks, I got a refurbished palm shipped to me, then I shipped my broken one back to them. Very resonable policy for a portable electronic device.

I had broken my Clie screen (customer abuse) and called to see if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They didn't. They were less than useless. Unfortunately, I had tied myself too much to their memory stick, so I had to get another Clie - but I picked up the cheapest one instead of trying to get some extra whiz-bang features.

I won't be buying other Sony PDAs in the future.

Palm - build a kick-ass next generation PDA and my money is yours.

Re:Sync on green

[sph]

Sony claim they HAD to limit playback in this way (cos of the marcovision thing, I think), but most standalone dvd's over here, including ones manufactured by Sony DO let you play dvd's over an RGB lead.

This isn't very believable explanation from Sony. It is true that Macrovision has not been specified for RGB, only composite and S-video, but that's because most of the consumer-level equipment can't record RGB signal. And because VHS works with composite anyway it doesn't even matter.

Of course RGB signal is far superior to both S-video and composite, because all color components are separate, and because it is the "native" format of CRT-television, and every additional signal conversion will degrade the quality of the picture, no matter how it's done. Also, RGB doesn't have NTSC or PAL color encoding (because it's RGB, duh), so with RGB PAL-television doesn't have to support NTSC to watch imported NTSC-formatted DVDs in color and full quality (and vice versa). Actually, this might be more realistic reason for out-of-box PS2 not displaying RGB correctly with DVDs...

Re:Informative article.

[Bazman]

It sounds like linux sits on top of the Runtime Environment, much like an emulator sits on top of the host OS of another system. They can release the Runtime Environment under any license they want, linux would just be a GPL app running on it.

Baz

Re:Sony and Warranty

[pherris]

Maybe Sony hasn't heard of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. 2302(C))?

This federal law regulates warranties for the protection of consumers. The essence of this law concerning aftermarket parts is that a manufacturer may not condition a written or implied warranty on the consumers using parts or services which are identified by brand, trade, or corporate name (such as the company's makers brand) unless the parts or service are provided free of charge. The law means that the use of an aftermarket part alone is not cause for denying the warranty. However, the law's protection does not extend to aftermarket parts in situations where such parts actually caused the damage being claimed under the warranty.

pherris

Japan isn't THAT different

[URSpider]

When I lived in Japan from 1992-1996, I saw the state of intellectual property there first hand. For example, normal broadcast radio does not play top 40 hits. Actually any transmission of copyrighted songs over the air, even a sample, must have a royalty paid to the publisher. If you want to listen to music on the radio, you find an American military station broadcasting on base. Japanese singers also do not commonly own the copyright to their own songs, they couldn't give them away even if the wanted to. Concert recordings are also illegal. There is also royalties you have to pay for the subtle music played in department stores, doctor's offices, and on the phone when you are on hold.

And, except for not playing Top 40 on the radio, how is this different from the Good ol' USA? Ever heard of ASCAP, buddy? Here in the US, radio stations sure as heck pay royalties for the songs they play. Muzak is a pay service, and they've got to pay their composers. If you play CD's or commercial radio as background music in a store, without paying royalties, you are violating US law! And, how much of their own stuff do you think Garth Brooks and Mariah Carey write?

Re:Sony and Warranty

[ncc74656]

When I broke the screen on my palm (customer abuse), I called Palm and asked if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They did. For 100 bucks, I got a refurbished palm shipped to me, then I shipped my broken one back to them. Very resonable policy for a portable electronic device.

3Com accidentally sent me a Palm III to replace a PalmPilot Pro under that $100 replacement deal a few years ago (fell off my bike on the way to class and landed on my Palm...I thought I had lost my notes, but it worked well enough to sync everything out). I called to let them know of their error...they said I could keep it or, if I really wanted, I could send it back in and they'd send a PalmPilot Pro. Guess which option I took. :-)

I had broken my Clie screen (customer abuse) and called to see if they had a replace/exchange/repair type policy. They didn't. They were less than useless. Unfortunately, I had tied myself too much to their memory stick, so I had to get another Clie - but I picked up the cheapest one instead of trying to get some extra whiz-bang features.

A Sony car stereo that I bought a couple of years ago conked out after a few months. It was purchased as new old stock and I had a receipt for it (it was an older shaft-type unit with a reasonably decent feature set...you try to find something better than a $20 parts-store radio that'll fit a '77 Olds without hacking the dash to bits). I took it to a local repair shop for what I figured would be an in-warranty repair. To make a long story short, even with the dated receipt, Sony wouldn't honor its own warranty.

I won't be buying other Sony PDAs in the future.

If I were you, I wouldn't buy anything Sony. They might've made decent stuff in the past (my dad has an open-reel tape deck that's almost as old as I am that still works AFAIK), but Sony seems to be more about image and style than functionality or making a product that'll hold up to at least normal use.