PS3 - Cell Processor

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switch
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Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:21 pm

PS3 - Cell Processor

Post by switch »

Hi,

Encoding video to iPod format (High Rez) on my 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 is painfully slow (approx 12 hrs / DVD), and I have a large DVD collection which I would like to rip to my recently purchased 160 GB iPod Classic.

However, I also own a PS3 and am acutely aware of its processor's powerful capabilities. I also know that it can run Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, YDL), and that Handbrake's source code is available for linux.

It should therefore be possible to use a PS3 to encode my entire DVD collection at a far faster rate than my ageing PowerBook.

Has anybody had any experience of this? Does it work? How well does the PS3 benchmark?

Thanks in advance!
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s55
HandBrake Team
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Post by s55 »

as far as I know, no-one has got handbrake running on a PS3. Feel free to try.
stmiller
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Post by stmiller »

The PS3 would definitely be faster than that G4 powerbook.

I've used HandBrake on a Powermac G5 running Ubuntu, and it worked great. You do have to compile HB from source for PowerPC Linux, and you are of course left with the command line-only binary. There is someone working on a Linux GUI in the development section of this forum if you want an interface.
jbrjake
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Post by jbrjake »

stmiller wrote:The PS3 would definitely be faster than that G4 powerbook.
Uh...but things are optimised for G4, to take advantage of AltiVec, etc. As far as I know, there is not a single library used by HB that has been optimized for Cell...so how can you say it would "definitely" be faster?
stmiller
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Post by stmiller »

http://www.geekpatrol.ca/2006/11/playst ... rformance/

Geekbench has showed the PS3 performs like a single CPU Powermac G5, with no cell optimizations. It's a 64bit chip @ 3.2Ghz, which can do all of the altivec stuff also.

This is perhaps a question for the x264-dev list ?
jbrjake
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Post by jbrjake »

stmiller wrote:This is perhaps a question for the x264-dev list ?
There was some discussion of this on that list last spring. ( http://www.via.ecp.fr/via/ml/x264-devel ... 00017.html ) Someone at IBM wants it done. But the guy with the AltiVec experience seemed to be trying to pass the project on to someone else, like he wasn't interested.

Not sure how that shook out. But you might wanna research a bit before asking. I have a feeling they've fielded that question a number of times by now.
chmoder
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:59 pm

Cell Broadband Engine

Post by chmoder »

I have worked on this for a while. First thing I found is that cat /proc/cpuinfo shows the G5 processor. I ran handbrake and x264 in ubuntu on PS3 and it was just like a G5.

Another thing is that you cant fully compile HandBrake. So is what I had to do is configure x264 by itself so I didn't really get handbrake to work. The SPE'S are only seen when the kernel is loading (indicated by multiple penguins).

If you go to IBM's Cell Broadband Engine (CBE) downloads page they keep updating the SDK and stuff so you can reWRITE the x264 codec and handbrake. I thought when I baught the PS3 all I would have to do is recompile it with there gcc compiler but I think I was wrong.

If anyone does attempt to get this working in the future i would be extremely interested in helping!
ndyclrk
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Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:40 pm

Re: PS3 - Cell Processor

Post by ndyclrk »

I compiled and ran HandbrakeCLI on my PS3 with firmware 2.10 and running Gentoo.

It only detected two CPU's, and averaged 4-7 fps.

I went back to using my PC.
themiddleman
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:56 pm

Re: PS3 - Cell Processor

Post by themiddleman »

i am running this on my ps3 as we speek (or type)

its getting avg 25 fps, so idk about your 4-7, and it detects 2 processors

i actually came on here to find out why it was so slow :D my 1.8 ghz laptop does it at like 35 fps, but i guess its just not optimized for the cell
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