Mad Catz to make PS2 = Entertainment Hub!

[Deepak]

Link

Mad Catz to Release Audio, Video Software for PS2
Fri May 9, 5:02 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mad Catz Interactive Inc. (AMEX:MCZ - news), which makes peripheral devices for video game consoles, on Friday said it plans to introduce software that will turn the market-leading PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console into an audio and video home entertainment hub.

San Diego-based Mad Catz said the GameShark Media Player would turn Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s (6758.T) console, when combined with Sony's networking adapter, into a playback device for MP3 and OGG audio files, MPEG and DivX video files, and JPEG and PNG photographic files.

Mad Catz said the software would also support HDTV displays and offer "trick-play" functionality like fast-forward and rewind. Priced at $49.95, it is set to go on sale in mid-June.

The PlayStation 2 has a dominant foothold in the North American market, with an installed base of nearly 19 million. Nearly 600,000 network adapters have been sold for the console to date.

The network adapter, which screws on to the back of the PS2, allows players to get online via either a dial-up phone line or a broadband connection and play games with and against others around the world.

Sony's chief competitor in the space is Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Xbox (news - web sites). Microsoft is set to release its own software next week that will allow the Xbox to copy audio and video from a user's PC to the console's internal hard drive.

 

[London Geezer]

Link

Mad Catz to Release Audio, Video Software for PS2
Fri May 9, 5:02 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mad Catz Interactive Inc. (AMEX:MCZ - news), which makes peripheral devices for video game consoles, on Friday said it plans to introduce software that will turn the market-leading PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) console into an audio and video home entertainment hub.

San Diego-based Mad Catz said the GameShark Media Player would turn Sony Corp (news - web sites).'s (6758.T) console, when combined with Sony's networking adapter, into a playback device for MP3 and OGG audio files, MPEG and DivX video files, and JPEG and PNG photographic files.

Mad Catz said the software would also support HDTV displays and offer "trick-play" functionality like fast-forward and rewind. Priced at $49.95, it is set to go on sale in mid-June.

The PlayStation 2 has a dominant foothold in the North American market, with an installed base of nearly 19 million. Nearly 600,000 network adapters have been sold for the console to date.

The network adapter, which screws on to the back of the PS2, allows players to get online via either a dial-up phone line or a broadband connection and play games with and against others around the world.

Sony's chief competitor in the space is Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) Xbox (news - web sites). Microsoft is set to release its own software next week that will allow the Xbox to copy audio and video from a user's PC to the console's internal hard drive.

why isn't sony doing this? i never liked Mad Catz, always preferred Blaze as a third party hardware manufacturer. their VGA adapter is absolutely awesome, giving PS2 the edge in IQ over XBOX and GC in europe at least even though it's only for *some games* since it's the only way to play pro-scan games here in europe... unless u wanna go back to good old Dreamcast...

anyway i rather wait for Sony to come up with something...

 

[Tagrineth]

MadCatz's new PSX/PS2 controllers kick some serious ass ^_^

They're basically identical to the original controllers, but a little more 'full', rubber grips on the handles, and... the PSX one has a discpad almost identical to Saturn's (YAY!!!!), and the PS2 one has a real crosspad. Also they have a weird mode where if a game isn't using analogue, the left stick can 'fake' crosspad input and the right stick can fake face button input (up is triangle, left is square, etc.) which is really weird but it works pretty well ^_^

 

[marconelly!]

Madcatz is just reselling the product that has been available for a while.
Take a look here: http://www.qcast.com/

It's the same product