Play MP3s on Playstation 62
Juan Fernando writes "I just noticed this newsbit over at mp3.com covering an $80 enhancement for 1st Generation Playstations that allows them to playback CDs chock full of mp3s. The product is called PSXAMP/MP3, is made by Fullway, and is currently available in Europa/Asis and soon in the US. mp3enhancer is taking preorders now."
Re:Why a box? (Score:1)
Software only MP3 player for PSX (Score:1)
Hmmm, I submitted almost this exact same story 2 days ago. Interesting...
Anyhow, in addition to these two hardware based players (which also provide nifty features like cheat codes, and 'mod-card' capabilities (so they can play the CD-Rs), there is/was a software-only based player called PSXAmp. Here's an article in German [gnn.de] about it.
Unfortunately, the web page that it is supposed to live on no longer seems to exist.
It's a neat idea. Even better would be to burn the MP3 software onto the same CD as the MP3s, so there is no need to switch CDs. The PSX might not have the horsepower to do this, though.
However, the Dreamcast actually has the entire OS on the same CD as the game you want to play, and it has plenty of power, so it might be possible to build a decent software-only MP3 player for the Dreamcast. Now I wonder how much a development kit for that platform is...
Mod Chip... (Score:1)
Re:Kinda Neat (Score:1)
per FAQ - not required (Score:1)
The Fullway [fullway.com] site has a nice FAQ which mentions this:
Q: Must I modify my playstation in any way ?
A: Our MP3 card supports both modified and un-modified playstations. For un-modified playstation, booting with an original CD is required.
Re:Why a box? (Score:1)
Surely it is possible to make a 32-bit integer MP3 decoder?
Or ... MP3 station / MP3 Smart Dj (Score:1)
Re:Software only MP3 player for PSX (Score:1)
You can email the author and get a very pissed off response that anybody even asks him about it anymore. (figure out the email address from the link in the german article; if you can't do that, get off the net)
But with a 33Mhz R3000A, you can't expect good decoding of high enough bitrate mp3s to be worth plugging into a stereo system.
Go buy an old laptop or cheap $300 computer, it'll work much better.
Re:Cool or not... (Score:1)
Acronyms curse my head. I'm not sure what RSAC has to do with this.
My baby was crying all night last night, I got 2 hours of sleep.
I thought this was done already... (Score:1)
Unless you have other MP3 CD players... (Score:1)
Also, in my apartment (I know, I'm not a good geek) the TV, PSX and real stereo are in the living room and the computer is not. I suspect I'm not the only one with this configuration.
What does Sony have to do with it? (Score:1)
BTW, I think the only reason MD hasn't taken off in the states is lack of marketing effort. Sony has never really gotten behind it here - I don't really know why.
Re:Sony and MP3...NOT GONNA HAPPEN (Score:1)
Re:Sony and MP3...NOT GONNA HAPPEN (Score:1)
Just a thought.
-efisher
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How wonderful.. if only I had a PSX (Score:1)
-efisher
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Re:Kinda Neat (Score:1)
Of course I could network the whole place and put pcs everywhere but that's a little bit overkill if all you want is to listen music in your livingroom. So for people like me a cd player that understands mp3 is a nice product.
Re:Eh, not completely news, and not that great any (Score:1)
I know I'm far above a mere user. I like these
toys. I like buying stuff for my toys. The more
hardware, the merrier. Who cares if it costs a
bit of money, when the novelty probably lasts
longer than such silly things like food and drink
Re:Mod Chip... (Score:1)
Thy Kingdom Come.. (Score:1)
yeah yeah.. i KNOW that they make them already.. but for gozakes.. the damn things a) have a stupid control thing that needs to be cheesily velcro'd down b) cost $1000.
___
"I know kung-fu."
Re:"SDMI compliant" - Easy to get around, for now. (Score:1)
-RossB
Re:Eh - SDMI = Nothing to worry about. (Score:1)
Re:Hope they get sued! (Score:1)
unfortunately it seems like the SDMI is sneaking it and working, dammit.
Re:Ummm, are you nuts? (Score:1)
> CD, let it read the code, then swap the cd's before it reads the rest
> of the cd. It's hard to time right, but can be done (i've only gotten
> it to happen a few times on my friends system. i don't own one.)
Nrrrrargh. Ahem. Sorry. That was an expression of disgust at having to do the DAMN swap trick. I can pull it off *maybe* once in ten. This is why you get a GameGenie -- it can be tricked into thinking that an import is actually a US disk. How else are we going to get the cool japanese RPGs that they refuse to translate for over here?
(Side note: Final Fantasy VIII *rocks*.)
Expensive (Score:1)
Re:MP3 and Minidisc are not mutually exclusive (Score:1)
Now we just need someone to make them.
(Note: the encoding format used on MD's is called ATRAC. It has an unmodifiable (I think) bitrate of 256 kbps.)
Re:Eh - SDMI = Nothing to worry about. (Score:1)
In software yes, but hacking a closed hardware system is, em, difficult. Which was my point in the first place.
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Re:How wonderful...what ever happened to NAiAM? (Score:1)
One question... (Score:1)
Patrick Barrett
Yebyen@adelphia.net
Re:Ummm, are you nuts? (Score:1)
There are _two_ parts to the CD's protection. One is a country code (either SCEA, SCEE, or SCEI) and the other is sectors 12-15 containg data but zero'd EDC/ECC data
So basically the firmware of the burners detect that the sectors are marked bad, decides you really don't want to do this, and "fixes" them.
BTW, these "plug mods" make me sick, it just increases the dumbification of pirates.
If you want to pirate PSX games, learn to solder. Period. (and learn from a teacher, i've talked to countless people who did things like put the solder on the iron and smear the iron onto the connection..)
Re:Eh, not completely news, and not that great any (Score:1)
Re:How wonderful.. if only I had a PSX (Score:1)
Re:Kinda Neat (Score:1)
Sony (Score:1)
Well, Duh.
This isn't as bad as the mod chip addition, but Sony is probably planning some sort of portable MP3 player itself(MP3Man?). This is probably going to cut into whatever they were hoping to push out on that end.
About the Playstion2... I doubt it would work on the new system. Backwards compatible doesn't usually mean identical.
Re:Sony and MP3...NOT GONNA HAPPEN (Score:1)
I'm sorry, consumers don't want MD? Sony are the only company who cares? In Britain any student worth there salt has a portable MD recorder. They don't skip, are small, and not all that expensive any more. As for only Sony, my player is a Sharp, and the Aiwa player is just sublime.
Re: PSX2 and PSX1 add-ons (Score:2)
MP3 players for PSX have been out for quite a while. You can search around and find them online at places that let you order stuff from hong kong. The unit I want is one that plays VCD's -AND- MP3's -AND- has game enhancer features. Pretty neat.
jason gill.
MP3 and Minidisc are not mutually exclusive (Score:2)
Why a box? (Score:2)
You can apparaently burn standard CDs to be readable on PSX, I read on USENET when researching which CDR to buy.
Did you read the whole FAQ? (Score:2)
Q: What is the potential market for the MP3 Enhancer?
A: Those who have playstation, even model of 9000.
Apparently, you *can* use it with the 9000-series PSX.
Heh heh... "I am PSX 9000 computer. I became operational at the PSX plant in Urbana, Illinois..."
Re:Sony and MP3...NOT GONNA HAPPEN (Score:2)
The whole purpose of the Minidisc, IMHO, is not rebuying your CDs, but taking your CD music anywhere with the ability to mix, etc with no worries. Most MiniDiscs players are also recorders(that's why they are expensive), so people can record tracks directly from their stereo/computer right to their MiniDisc. MiniDiscs are rerecordable too. Most MP3 players only allow you to play 40-80 minutes of music. A MiniDisc is 74 minutes multiplied by whatever number of discs you want to carry with you. If I have MP3s, I take the extra 15 minutes to expand them to AIFF and let them record to MiniDisc.
And although Sony may not like MP3, you can be sure that if people start making money off of players, they will start making MP3 players/recorders or make another music standard that they have control of. That's the way Sony likes to do it. They'll probably get away with it too, because they're Sony.
remy
http://www.mklinux.org
Cool or not... (Score:2)
434 RSAC lawyers just had orgasms.
Kinda Neat (Score:2)
Ummm, are you nuts? (Score:2)
Stick a regular audio CD in there. Works, doesn't it? Good.
The problem isn't with the black surface. Never has been. The modchips out there are to correct a problem with the fact that you can't copy a playstation CD with most burners.
The black surface CD's have a country code on them in a place where burners almost always put something else (i'm not fully conversant with all the details). The playstation reads this, notices it's not the right country code, and voila, no game.
The modchip basically feeds it that code all the time so that it'll still read wrong, but that read data never makes it to the bit where it checks. It's replaced by the correct code.
That's also why the "swap trick" works. You put in a real playstation CD, let it read the code, then swap the cd's before it reads the rest of the cd. It's hard to time right, but can be done (i've only gotten it to happen a few times on my friends system. i don't own one.)
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Won't work on new models... (Score:2)
Look before you buy if you are thinking about it.
Sony and MP3...NOT GONNA HAPPEN (Score:2)
Sony has LOTS and LOTS of money invested in Minidisc, and unfortunately, they seem to be about the only ones who care about the format. Consumers don't want them (I know a lot of people who hate the idea of having to rebuy their CDs; these people would probably never invest in a Minidisc recorder.) Other electronics manufacturers don't really care, since there isn't enough demand. And retail outlets can't be bothered.
MP3 is going somewhere, and a lot faster than Minidisc could ever dream. Rio sold like hotcakes, Nomad won't be bad, and by Spring we will be on the verge of REAL mp3 hardware (USB and IBM microdrive...now that would be sweet.)
In short, expect Sony to seriously lag behind everyone else when it comes to MP3.
Re:"SDMI compliant" - Easy to get around, for now. (Score:2)
Read up on SDMI, it uses watermarks, and the hardware checks files of all kinds for the watermarks. Copying the music from the soundcard won't help. Nor will making your own mp3s because future cds will have watermarked music as well.
Yes, this means degraded quality of cds.
Making a software player that doesn't give a fuck about the watermark is obviously easy (keep your current mp3 player) but the same cannot be said for hardware.
Maybe someone will figure out a way to strip the watermark off the file (some sort of interpolation of the music I guess), but I don't know how realistic that is...
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Eh, not completely news, and not that great anyway (Score:2)
For me at least it'd be better to get an mp3-capable CD player, or just use mp3s on my computer
"SDMI compliant" (Score:3)
Need I say more? Once they start watermarking the cds, you can kiss your freedom to do whatever you like with your music goobye on any "sdmi" compliant hardware.
Hardware may be ideal for compression schemes, but its also ideal for big money/government extortion...
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