Great application for the PlayStation

[akami]

I just setup a Pluto Home system (smarthome + media server, plutohome.com, free open source). It’s really cool. It has a streaming movie server, music server, pvr. Plus it does home automation and controls A/V equipment too. There’s only 1 problem…

You designate 1 PC to be the server; they call it the core. It exposes a network boot image for any other PC in the house, so your PC becomes dual purpose—normal PC, or net boot and it’s a set top box. You control it with Bluetooth mobile phones or web pads. And all the set top boxes in the house work together. Your media even follows you as you move from room to room if you keep the phone on. The problem is I don’t have enough media PCs for all the rooms in my house, and buying a full PC for each room is too expensive. Plus there’s no video cards for the PC that have component video output—which is the only way I can get HDTV into my TV.

The PlayStation seems perfect as a media director. It’s a PC inside, right? So why couldn’t it boot like normal as a PlayStation, or net boot as a pluto media director? Then it would be part of a whole house solution that did everything. I could even use the PlayStation to turn on my sprinklers if I wanted, and do all sorts of stuff with it. Plus, since Pluto gives it a network boot image, space is no longer an issue—all the software could be stored on the main server. And the PlayStation has component video and it’s quiet and cheap.

Does anybody have an idea if it would be possible to use the PlayStation as a media director like that, doing a network boot? Then I could just buy a few of the PlayStations rather than having to buy regular PCs.

[Moby-Dick]

I've not heard of playstations used like that , but that doesn't mean that its not possible !

I woudl have thought that an xbox might be better suited for it.

failing that you'd have to build some cheap boxes base don epia boards.

wat sort of hardware spec does the "settop box" need ?

personally I run XBMC as my media centre and I'm pretty happy with it.

[Xenctuary]

I'm not sure the PS2 would be able to handle that without a hard drive, but, like Moby-Dick said, that doesn't mean it's not possible. The Xbox would be a lot better for something like that, or just purchase yourself a really cheap PC?

[5lab]

yeah i'd say you're better off just getting a very barebones pc to do it

[Xenctuary]

Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 is recommended if you wish to just stream media. I use that on my main TV and it works a treat. It runs off a cheap Dell OptiPlex.