[geeks] Playstation 3 + HD-DVD

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Mark wrote:
>> I wonder how hard it would be to hack a Playstation 3 to make able to
>> talk to the Xbox360's external HD-DVD player.  I also wonder whether
>> anyone's already working on it.
> 
> My best suggestion would be that if the XBox360 drive is USB, which I  
> believe it is, the *hardware* may work with PS3 Linux, but that alone  
> won't play the movies as you require H.264 support (not an issue on  
> it's own AFAIK) AND the codec to play back material protected by the  
> HD-DVD DRM.

It is indeed USB.

> Looking at it from that POV make it look difficult to me as any HD- 
> DVD, or for that matter Blu-Ray, player for Linux will need  
> proprietary code to play the discs. I don't know how this would sit  
> with Linux hippies, and also if studios and software vendors would  
> even support the idea for fear of reverse engineering.
> 
> I believe there is a CSS support package for CSS encrypted DVDs. I  
> don't know of any HD-DVD/Blu-Ray support packages of a similar type.

Of course, the optimal setup would be to use the decode setup used by 
the internal Blu-ray player.  If one can see past the formats and get 
around the DRM, the decode isn't all that different between Blu-ray and 
HD-DVD.

Peace...  Sridhar