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Playing with Sony's Linux-Based Networked Media Player

Posted by timothy on from the practical-application dept.

ZorinLynx writes "A while back, Sony released the NSP-1, a 'Network Storage Player.' It is intended to be a source of video for signage, such as plasma displays in banks, airports, and so on. I got a chance to play with one today. It's Red Hat Linux-based, which seems unusual for Sony! Though pricey at $1995, it's an interesting use of Linux, and could probably be hacked into a nice set-top video jukebox. It has a nice small form factor, as well as ethernet, USB, and video output in various formats, and a PCMCIA slot for removable media."

41 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Overall, a fun hack. by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    So where's the "review" on this NSP?

    The article is more about trying to log into Red Hat without a password ( BTW is it really that easy?).

    Here's my submission

    "Playing with Toyota's Civic"

    This morning when I was about to go to work, I realized I have locked the car key inside my 1989 Civic, everything was locked and I can't remember where I put the spare key.

    Arrgh. After some fiddling with the keyhole, though, I found that I have left the driver side window slightly opened! The gap's big enough to slide a coat hanger in! So I grabbed my trusty coat hanger, made a hook and the opened the door.

    The car has a steering wheel, AM/FM radio, few buttons, pedals and seats. I also have a Knoppix CD and some Open Source documents in the glove box. Now I really don't want to sell it especially I can only fetch less than $200! ARRGH!

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doesn't Honda make the Civic?

    2. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by fireboy1919 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm with you on this being a useless review.

      $2000 AND I have to hack it to do something useful?

      Does it give me super powers or something? Because I can think of roughly a kabillion devices that I don't have to hack in order to actually use them that cost WAY less. And I can MythTV those if I really want a media player that badly.

      --
      Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
    3. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by ZorinLynx · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Heh. I actually wish I had gotten more time to play with it, but it had to go back where it came from as soon as I "fixed" it.

      I was just surprised to find out this thing even existed, and that Sony was using Linux in one of its products. Sony has always come off to me as a company that does everything their own proprietary way, and gives the finger to most open standards. (Memory stick, anyone?)

      -Z

    4. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by William+Robinson · · Score: 5, Informative
      The article is more about trying to log into Red Hat without a password ( BTW is it really that easy?).

      Yes.

      All you need to do is ...
      1. Boot from external device like CD. (If you are using installation CDs, use linux rescue option.)
      2. Mount the appropriate HDD partition.
      3. chroot it.
      4. now use setpass to change the password.

      I prefer to set password for setup, which prevents intruders to change booting options. If the intruder can not boot from an external device then it is almmost impossible for him/her to log in.

      --
      hilarious
    5. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by mrchaotica · · Score: 2, Informative

      No kidding: Memory Stick, ATRAC3, UMD, MiniDisc, Betamax... did I forget any?

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    6. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by rogueuk · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sony using Linux!?, that's completely unheard of.

    7. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by erlenic · · Score: 3, Informative

      Solution to BIOS password:

      1) Carry in my own laptop.
      2) Shutdown target machine.
      3) Remove hard drive.
      4) Place in USB drive enclosure.
      5) Mount from laptop and change password.
      6) Replace the drive in the target computer.

    8. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by chaotixx · · Score: 4, Funny

      Your car is worth way more than $200 dude. Civics made by Toyota are really rare and I bet collectors will pay big bucks for them. If you have an '89 I think it might be one of a kind!

    9. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I prefer to set password for setup, which prevents intruders to change booting options. If the intruder can not boot from an external device then it is almmost impossible for him/her to log in.

      If he has physical access then he can probably remove the cover and short the CMOS reset jumper.

    10. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >I prefer to set password for setup, which prevents intruders to change booting options.

      That does raise the bar, but every motherboard I've looked at had some way to bypass the BIOS password, and in extreme cases someone with unsupervised physical access could pull out the hard disk and copy it. Not to mention that an attacker could read and write arbitrary memory if the machine has a Firewire port (http://pacsec.jp/advisories.html).

    11. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by esconsult1 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Yup. I wish you had gotten some time to play with it too. That way you could have posted a reasonable review instead of a disappointing paragraph or so.

      Next time at least take some pictures.

      --

      Newsfollow.com

    12. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sony isn't 3 guys in a room. Different divisions of the company solve problems in different ways.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    13. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by IBeatUpNerds · · Score: 2, Informative

      I was just surprised to find out this thing even existed, and that Sony was using Linux in one of its products.

      Is it really that shocking? Lots of consumer devices are using Linux. Sharp produces something similar to this one which they dub a "Digital Media Adapter." It also runs Linux. IMO, the Sharp toy is cooler anyway. You feed it media over WiFi, and the DMA shoots it to your TV.

    14. Re:Overall, a fun hack. by michrech · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is slashdot. Facts don't matter here. :)

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  2. $1995?? by XanC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For cryin' out loud! Mod an Xbox, people!

    1. Re:$1995?? by MBCook · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Did you bother to read the specs for the thing on Sony's site?

      Ignoring the fact that most businesses would MUCH rather pay for a legal, supported device than a legally quesitonable hack without a warantee, this is not some simple slide show machine.

      The page says that it can show up to five layers of content, dynamically changed if you want, with a soundtrack. It can show video, images, and even Macromedia Flash files.

      Looking at the specs, it looks like if you could just get live video INTO the thing, you could do all the effects for your local nightly news with it and then some. This box is much more than you (or any hobbiest) could make out of a modded XBox.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  3. Linux... by Devil's+BSD · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because it runs Linux, it must be worth the $2000. Welcome to /.!

    --
    I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
    1. Re:Linux... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I doubt it is marketed towards you or any hard core Linux user. I don't think it is only about hardware. Actually, the hardware is kind of irrelevant, though it needs some to do its job. From the description, it looks to be already set up for easy web-based remote administration. Then there's the support.

      A Linux geek could set up remote administration and remote scripting, but if this thing is set up like I think it is, said geek probably wouldn't get it done under that cost and still have it be easy for a non-Linux person to use.

      The weblog entry does look like they didn't get a manual or didn't bother to read it.

  4. Sony and Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sony Playstation runs Linux. So this isn't something extemely new for Sony.

    $1995 is a little expensive.

  5. Not the first Sony-Redhat collaboration by mo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    FYI, the t10000 (Playstation 2 Development Tool) runs a version of redhat. Something ancient like RH4.2 if I'm not mistaken. You don't ssh into it or anything though, but it's web admin allows you to upload rpms to upgrade various subsystems on it.

    1. Re:Not the first Sony-Redhat collaboration by xbmodder · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, My friend worked on it. They are redhat 7.2.

  6. not suprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sony has used Red Hat Linux before. I work in the broadcast industry and I find it interesting that they use linux in a lot of their products. (both Red Hat and Debian) The thing that surprises me though is the price...

  7. When I saw the headline... by slapout · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..."Playing with Sony's Linux-Based Networked Media Player"...

    my first thought was, "Someone's already ported Linux to the Playstation 3!" :-)

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    1. Re:When I saw the headline... by adam31 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Yeah... Sony has.

      Sony loves linux. Why? Because Microsoft hates linux, and Sony loves to support anything that Microsoft hates.

      Even before the XBox. When PS2 dev tools were released it was all Linux-based. If you wanted to develop for the PS2 on Windows, you had to either go with 3rd party tools or according to Sony "If you're a big dumb idiot, then you can use Cygwin. But you shouldn't." Then, just for kicks, they released PS2 Linux.

      Unfortunately, Sony's linux dev tools weren't up to snuff, but I doubt they'll make the same mistake with the PS3. Remember that IBM has a hand in this now, and a vested interest in making this Cell fly with more than just game developers.

      Cell is a good place for Linux. Don't get me wrong, they're definitely going to milk the Us vs Them theme against Microsoft for all the money it's worth.

      That's just business.

  8. This is /. Front page material? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, This is more of a page from someones personal diary.

    'Dear Diary, I saw NSP-1 today in the halls today. I'm so in love.' XXOOXX

    So why not replace the Headline with...

    "Sony's NSP-1 Device runs Redhat Linux"
    Would be so much simpler and straight to the point. It isnt even for normal use, its to run large plasma screen billboards. (Think Statium's big screen, only higher quaility). I could see something like this to say, run a home entertainment system.. but this? Eh, intersting one liner at best.

    How did /this/ get on the front page anyways..

  9. NOT UNUSUAL by atcdevil · · Score: 3, Informative

    The PS2Linux is RedHat based and came out years ago.

  10. Sony TV by poppageek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I bought a Sony 34" widescreen CRT TV. In the documentation was a copy of the GPL. Seems the menu runs Linux. They list the kernel, busybox and about 6 libs. I submitted it as a story but was rejected.

    I thought it was interesting as it takes awhile for it to display anything when you first turn it on. I thought the CRT needed to warm up. Maybe it is just Linux booting.

    1. Re:Sony TV by ZorinLynx · · Score: 4, Funny

      My 32" CRT TV stays dark for a few seconds and then suddenly turns on. Not sure if it's linux booting, or just a circuit that suppresses the picture until the tube warms up so you never see a dim, blurry image before it's optimally warmed up...

      -Z

  11. Video streaming... by jay-be-em · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I could definitely see some uses for streaming video off a linux device, in particular http://www.dejenerate.net/ruxpin/pub/BLACKPPL.avi

    --
    "Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
    1. Re:Video streaming... by planetoid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Phil Collins fellating a Pringles chip. Now I've seen it all.

      --
      Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
  12. How times have changed.... by mister_jpeg · · Score: 3, Funny
    Years ago I spoke to a company in Chicago who were just breaking into, even creating this market. They were using plasma displays and whatnot in retail environments. The kicker was they were running Macintoshes and all of the artwork was in Director. They ran ISDN lines to each and every location, and when there was an update, they'd have to dial each machine and upload the new artwork.


    I don't think that company still exists ;)


    Yay for Linux, yay for broadband.

    --
    -jpeg
  13. No kidding... by nighthawk127127 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Did anyone else notice that this guy submitted something that he had written from *his own personal blog* to Slashdot, only a few hours ago? It's only a freakin' paragraph long, for crying out loud! Not only that, but the same guy makes 5th post AND gets a +4 "Interesting" mod. Someone's a mod point whore...

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    10100111001
  14. How very American... by m4c+north · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just when I was about to ask how Sony could charge nearly 2 grand for a device that uses an open-source OS, you had to go and pre-emptively answer my question. That's some hard-core video processing going on, tho I don't suppose it's all hardware... Mayhaps Sony has written a (closed) app for the video/audio mixing?

    --
    Who's your user, program?
  15. Linux Media Player? by querencia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they're using Red Hat Linux, anyone have any idea what player they're using? I doubt they wrote their own from scratch for this thing, and because Sony isn't a Linux house, I'd guess that they are licensing 3rd party or using open source. (I'd love it if it used ffmpeg so I could get my hands on that cool video scheduling interface, and in any case, I'd like to know what Sony chose for their "high bit rate" mpeg2.)

    Can someone with access to one of these things take a look at the video libraries and tell us where they come from?

  16. Pioneer Plasmas Too by asv108 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On the same note, I recently purchased a Pioneer Plasma TV and found notices for the linux kernel and openssl. Apparently the media box that comes with the display runs on Linux and uses openssl.

  17. imagine if it came with windows by updatelee · · Score: 3, Funny

    $1995 and it comes with linux, Imagine how much it would cost if it came with XP, $2995 ?

  18. There:-) by khrtt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Delta Song Airline has an onboard satellite TV in each seat back, and they all run linux. Yay!

    How do I know? Well, one time I was flying Song, and the system hung up, and the stewardess rebooted it, and the linux boot screen came up on all the seatback displays, complete with the Tux logo. It's sooo coool!! I'm soo coool!!

    1. Re:There:-) by MostlyHarmless · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yay Linux sightings, but: what does it mean if two random slashdot users both saw those seats needing a reboot? Tell them you saw a BSOD instead, and we'll just not take credit for that particular system...

      --
      Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
  19. Easy. by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Informative
    And your solution to a password locked drive?

    Just type in the password at the prompt.

  20. Symbian in NOT based on Linux. by SenseiLeNoir · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your statement is incorrect on many counts.

    - Symbian is NOT a Linux Variant. The Symbian company was originally spun off from the Software division of PSION, and formed as a joint venture between PSION, Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola. The Symbian OS is the evolution of the PSION EPOC32 Operating System originally for that platform. It is an "Open" system, but not Open Source/Free Software (Liscenses have to be paid to implement it). It is "Open" in the way UNIX was.

    - Sony and Sony Ericsson are totally different Companies. Sony Ericsson is a Joint Venture between Sony and Ericsson, that is headquartered in London, UK, with labs throughout the world, inluding Sweden, Japan, UK.

    - The P800/P900/P910 are at heart originally Ericsson Devices. Sony provided the MemoryStick Duo technology, Jogdial, and the Screen Technology, but the internal is pretty much Ericsson. And the product is made by SonyEricsson.

    --
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