Here’s how I got MKVs transcoding in real time to the PS3 (with 5.1 passthrough!) on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.

• Install Mediatomb
• Install ffmpeg
• Make sure you are using the *-unstripped libs as dependencies for ffmpeg (See here for details)
• Follow the instructions here and here to setup basic support for the PS3.

Edit /usr/bin/mediatomb-transcode-video with your favorite text editor. This is the script that I am using:

#!/bin/bash

FFMPEG_PATH="/usr/bin/ffmpeg"
INPUT="$1"
OUTPUT="$2"
VIDEO_CODEC="mpeg2video"
VIDEO_BITRATE="4096k"
VIDEO_FRAMERATE="25"
AUDIO_CODEC="copy"
FORMAT="mpegts"

exec "${FFMPEG_PATH}" -i "${INPUT}" -vcodec ${VIDEO_CODEC} -b ${VIDEO_BITRATE} \
-r ${VIDEO_FRAMERATE} -acodec ${AUDIO_CODEC} -f ${FORMAT} - > "${OUTPUT}"

Notes:

• The audio codec is set to “copy”. This simply forwards whatever audio stream is present. This successfully forward Dolby Digital 5.1 to the PS3, through the TV and out to the speakers!
• The format can one of several things. It was originally set to “dvd” but that caused buffer underflow errors to spew forth during transcoding. “mpegts” seems to maintain compatibility but without the errors.
• I’m not sure if the framerate is truly neccessary.
• I tried using 8192k as the bitrate but it didn’t seem to make a big difference.

Here’s my list if anyone is interested.

So it occurred to me that it might be useful to keep a running tab of how much I have spent on the Nintendo Wii so far… all prices are after tax.

As of January 23rd 2008, here are the items so far…

1. Console (Futureshop.ca) – $330
2. Wiimote (Nintendo Canada) – $50
3. Nunchuk (Wal Mart) – $25 (USD$21)
4. Zelda: Twilight Princess + Wario Ware (Amazon.ca) – $122
5. Linksys Wireless Router WRT54GL (NCIX) – $65 after $20 MIR
6. 1GB OCZ SD card (NCIX) – $7.50 after MIR
7. Wii component cables (Play-Asia) – $16
8. Guitar Hero 3 (Bestbuy.ca) – $102

Grand Total: $615.50

The total so far seems high, but when you compare with a PS3 at $699 right now, it really doesn’t seem that bad, considering I have 2 games and an extra controller already. The controllers are mightily expensive at $75 for a single set!

The difficult part is installing VMware Tools in order to take advantage of the features like Shared Folders and mouse movement between the physical and virtual OSes. The main problem is that VMware Tools only recognizes Xorg 6 and below. As Dapper uses Xorg 7, the installation is unable to detect the proper version and it’s not fully installed.

Thankfully, some searching on the Ubuntu forums led a method that works! It’s located here and although its actually written for Fedora Core 5, it should work for Ubuntu too since both use Xorg 7. Make sure you do the final step in order to enable auto-moving between OSes and mousewheel scrolling.
Would I use it as my main desktop? I’m not sure. Ubuntu is secure, speedy and there are Linux versions of pretty much every Windows application so migrating is not a big issue. The main problem for me would be games. I could pretty much run Linux-everything except for games so I guess this method will have to suffice for me (or maybe dual-boot). I wouldn’t mind dual-booting actually but I’m just wary of losing all my data when repartitioning… cos that would be an unmitigated disaster!

General Playback
The player appears to use a Sunplus chipset which is not flashable (damn!), but the DivX support seems good, the couple of videos I tried (Top Gear, Wedding Crashers, Bourne Identity) all worked great, although sometimes it would display a corrupted image during Top Gear playback. No idea if it was a bad burn or an error by the player but not a big deal.

Subtitle support
.idx + .sub files don’t seem to work. Although .srt files work, they are a pain to work with anyway if you converting from .sub as you have to run through an long process of OCR using SubResync or SubRip. The only option I can think of is to hardcode the subs into the .avi file.

They had a Philips player nearby which was on sale for $59 (down from $79). This might be a better deal for $20 more, especially since you can get firmware upgrades from Philips and modified ones off websites. I’m pretty happy with this though, if I could get subtitle support to work right it would be perfect!

UPDATE: Almost a month into ownership and it’s not going so well. It’s having huge problems reading certain DVDs that I burnt. The DVDs skip every few seconds and sometimes it just plain stops. DVDs containing .avi files do just as badly, with some files refusing to even play. The same DVDs (good quality Taiyo Yudens BTW) work great on my older dying DVD player and the PC so I guess it’s the fault of the player. Gonna return it and get the Philips instead.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
I spent much of my youth in front of the TV, mashing away furiously at my Mega Drive controller. Thus it is only natural that the vast majority of my games now are for the Mega Drive. The easiest way to get into Mega Drive emulation is probably to use a PC based emulator like Gens. For maximum pleasure you’ll definitely want to pick up a gamepad. Contorting your fingers on the keyboard is a good way to get carpal tunnel syndrome. An excellent alternative is to run emulators written for current generation consoles, both the XBox and PS2 have Genesis emulators. I personally use PGen for the PS2. The graphics are even better than the Genesis as the PS2 is connected using component video inputs and optical output for sound.

Need games? Well I can’t help you there but Google might.

Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES was my first console back in the 80s. Games like the Mario series, Donkey Kong and Zelda have really shaped the way games are made today. Nesticle used to be the emulatore of choice for me, but it’s really old and hasn’t been updated in ages. A more recent alternative is FCE Ultra. It runs on most desktop platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and game compatibility is supposedly very high. A PS2 emulator called It Might Be NES exists, but I couldn’t get it to work on my PS2. Your mileage may vary!

Good Tools
Now that you have emulators and games ready to go, you’ll need to organise them if you are to maintain any semblance of order. THE tool to use in this situation is actually a series of utilities called Good Utilities. These utilities scan your ROMs and rename them to the proper names, as as well help you do housekeeping. Unfortunately, the tools are all command-line based, which definitely is a pain to master. Thankfully there is an excellent GUI for all the Good tools. GoodGUI is written in C#, runs on the .NET platform and definitely easier to pick up than the command-line.

If you want emulators for other systems, Zophar’s Domain has a huge listing of emulators for everything from the Commodore 64 to Neo Geo. If the arcades are your thing, then MAME is for you! With all these applications at your disposal, reliving your childhood has never been easier!

As for the Dell deals so far, the usual suspects have been appearing, like the the popular widescreen 2005FPW and 2405FPW LCD monitors. They do have some interesting items though, like a MIDI keyboard combo thing from Creative, and a wireless music system from Logitech. Not that I need them, but I’m sure some people do, and these deals really deliver a great bargain. There’s still 9 days left to go… check the Dell website for more details every morning!

Thankfully, it works great now once it is back to room temperature. It still has issues trying to focus, but my trusty sidekick has taken over 6000 pictures for me over three and a half years… too bad most of the pictures come out crappy! I wish I had the ability to compose better pictures, but somehow I end up with something wrong most of the time. I think one of the biggest drawbacks to a point-and-shoot camera is the inability to create substantial depth of field. Everything is always in focus, and it’s tough to focus attention on your subject when everything is razor sharp. I would love to pick up a used Digital Rebel DSLR but that is quite low on the list of priorities at the moment!

BTW if anyone is looking for an awesome way to organise your photos, Picasa rocks! I moved from ACDSee (which has more features) to Picasa and I have no regrets. It’s just much more intuitive and user friendly, especially with their Googlesque I’m Feeling Lucky button, which auto corrects brightness, contrast and colour temperatures with 1 click. Try it out!