[ydl-gen] cheapest, best display for PS3

[Warren Nagourney]

I fully concur with David's excellent summary.

I am using a Samsung 94BW 19" 1440x900 HDCP monitor ($200 to $250 and  
a very good monitor) with a HDMI to DVI adaptor and it works very  
well for games, but the scaled video makes small print difficult to see.

I finally decided to put the PS3 in another room and use remote  
Xwindows. This works very well in my opinion - it is fast, good video  
(no scaling) and avoids the awful window managers Linux is stuck with.

In my opinion, the very annoying unaccelerated video that Sony has  
stuck us with doesn't make it worthwhile to use a more expensive  
solution (assuming one has another computer). This sort of makes  
credible the theories of the conspiracy minded who claim that Sony  
allowed linux on the PS3 only to avoid some export licenses (or  
something like that).

With remote X windows and the SDK 2.0, I am having a very good time  
learning about Cell programming (C and assembly).

-Warren Nagourney
UW Physics


On Feb 25, 2007, at 4:13 PM, David Seikel wrote:

> On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:34:28 -0600 Nathan Moore <ntmoore at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I've seen a few of these video FAQ pages at YDL/IBM etc.  What I'm
>> hoping for is a post like: "Hey man, I'm using a $50 viewsonic
>> panel, model number ^&*^%*&%&*, and it works just fine"
>
> The basic problem is that there are too many restrictions on what  
> Linux
> can do with the video output of the PS3.  It's just a pain to do it
> cleanly or cheaply.  Which is why the YDL on PS3 video HOWTO is so  
> long.
>
> You could use a DVI monitor, but it needs to be HDCP compliant, and
> those tend to be big expensive wide screen monitors that are hard to
> find.  The same applies to HDMI monitors.
>
> You could use use wide screen Component video on an expensive HDTV.
>
> You could use a cheap VGA monitor with a Component to VGA transcoder,
> but you will only get wide screen resolutions stretched to fit onto a
> square monitor.  Looks lousy on an LCD.  Cheap transcoders tend to
> introduce artifacts into the video signal.
>
> You could use a low resolution on a TV via S-Video or Composite, but
> Linux sucks at low resolution.  Composite is the only output type
> supported by the cables that come standard with the PS3, so every  
> other
> option will cost you more.
>
> You could use VNC, ssh with X forwarding, or any other networked
> display software to send the display to some other computer.  You at
> least get a proper computer resolution out of it, but it requires
> another computer.  No hardware acceleration, but Linux doesn't have
> access to that anyway, so it wont make a difference at typical local
> network speeds.
>
> The PS3 is capable of doing ordinary VESA computer resolutions, but  
> only
> through HDCP, which is not cheap.  So the great majority of computer
> users out there with the great majority of computer monitors are just
> SOL.  If Sony just allowed the three VESA modes from OtherOS without
> requiring HDCP, the PS3 would make a whole lot more sense as a
> computer.  At the moment, it's just for niche markets that can put up
> with this video output nonsense.
>
> To put it simply in terms any scientist can understand:
>
> PS3 + ordinary monitors or TVs = lousy output
>
> PS3 + decent output = too expensive
>
>
> BTW:
>
> Hey man, I'm using a BENQ FP71G+S 17 inch LCD panel via a VDigi VD-Z3
> Component to VGA transcoder, or via ssh+X11 through my other computer.
> The transcoder adds a slight bit of ghosting and stretches the wide
> screen 720p video format to fit my square monitor.  The ssh+X11 works
> just fine.  B-)
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