PlayTV Comments by Tom Bramwell

Good Stuff!

So as good as MGS4 then? ;)

How about this for a feature: Picture in Picture support while you're playing a game.

Glad to hear you can still backup data to an external source, even if you can't watch it elsewhere.

Overall it sounds a little underwhelming though. I'll be waiting untill i've heard more from real world users, before thinking about investing.

It's a nice idea, but who really has a HD telly without built in freeview? so its just for recording freeview, that can only be watched back on the PS3.

Remote-play may be the redeaming feature, especially when abroad. I never could stand missing House or Top Gear while away from home.

"It's a nice idea, but who really has a HD telly without built in freeview? so its just for recording freeview, that can only be watched back on the PS3. "

The problem with Freeview on HD televisions is typically appalling EPGs and the absence of PVR.

Any word on upscaling etc?

Sarah Beeny won't be pleased you spelt her name wrong. Bet she's got a Wii.

Actually, a little bird tells me that if you "back up" recordings to PC, you can get them to work using PSP Video 9, although I haven't been able to test this.

Err - does this do anything my Sky+ box doesnt already?

Can you record the HD channels? Not sure I saw that.

Can you record on one PS3 (say in the living room) and play back on a different one in your household's LAN?

No mention of how it works when your PS3 is switched off in standby?

Does it automatically turn you PS3 on and off at the appropriate times, or will you have to leave your PS3 on all the time, guzzling a rediculous amount of electricity?

I'd buy it if it was a Freeview HD box, but a basic PVR Freeview box is of no use to me with Sky+

"Actually, a little bird tells me that if you "back up" recordings to PC, you can get them to work using PSP Video 9, although I haven't been able to test this."

suddenly my interest has peaked again ;-).

Me: "although I haven't been able to test this".

(Which is to say I'm doing this now.)

"Any word on upscaling etc?"

Nothing in the software yet. Apologies for Beeny error.

"Err - does this do anything my Sky+ box doesnt already?"

Probably a lot faster to operate, but otherwise no.

"Can you record the HD channels? Not sure I saw that."

They say that's coming in a patch.

"Can you record on one PS3 (say in the living room) and play back on a different one in your household's LAN?"

The files can be copied off, but I've not (ever) tried any PS3 to PS3 network sharing.

"Does it automatically turn you PS3 on and off at the appropriate times, or will you have to leave your PS3 on all the time, guzzling a rediculous amount of electricity?"

For Remote Play, it's the same setup, so it can wake from standby if you've got it configured to do that. For scheduled stuff, I didn't actually test that (sorry! Will do this evening and post something here), but it does the opposite, i.e. switching off once recordings are complete.

It sounds great! A little annoyed about needing an analogue aerial though, wa shoping it'd get the signal from the internet in some magical way... with a crappy analogue signal - i.e. any one in London, unless you live next to Crystal Palace or have a decent aerial on your roof - the picture will probably pixelate and drop out lots.

Also, the article says "As with any Remote Play, you just need your PS3 on at home...". You don't need to leave your PS3 on at home for Remote Play at all, as long as you've checked the "Turn PS3 on over the internet"(or something similar) option turned on within the Remote Play settings, you can simply fire up your PS3 remotely, and then turn it off when you want via the START button on the PSP.

You don't to leave your PS3 on too much when your not using it either, it can be quite the power hog! As this article points out.

Nice review though, I would be looking forward to picking this up if I wasn't so concerned about getting a decent enough analogue signal from an aerial. That's a point as well, aren't they turning off all analogue signals soon? What's going to happen then, or am I confused about this siganl malarky? I work in TV, so thought I was fairly clued up, but may have missed something along the way...

Edit - fixed link, and last paragraph!

Edit2 - Mugwum mentioned the turning your PS3 on remotely if it's set up correctly, just above me there, so scratch that comment ^_^

Edit 3 - Damn it, link definately fixed this time!

"Glad to hear you can still backup data to an external source, even if you can't watch it elsewhere."

Surely the web is full of apps that can convert video formats of all types into each other?

Edit: ah, just saw Mugwum's post.

"Also, the article says "As with any Remote Play, you just need your PS3 on at home...". You don't need to leave your PS3 on at home for Remote Play at all, as long as you've checked the "Turn PS3 on over the internet"(or something similar) option turned on within the Remote Play settings, you can simply fire up your PS3 remotely, and then turn it off when you want via the START button on the PSP."

Sorry, that was badly worded - I didn't mean you need to leave the PS3 on at home, I meant that it needs to be switched on either remotely or locally. Will tweak.

@ Mugwum

Hehe, some of us are easily confused! ^_^

Hmm, it sounds ok, but there are Freeview PVR's on the market that offer more features and larger HDD's for only slightly more money, and guess what? they don't need a PS3 to work ;-p

The playTV box actually sounds rather overpriced for what it is, really, since its basically a freeview box which can use an external storage (in this case, the PS3) to record programmes.

Still, if I didn't have a PVR already, I'd be tempted to pick this up, but I do. So i wont.

The remote play features are the big sell for me. Without those it would be a much of a muchness between this and any PVR solution. With them, its an awesome bit of kit.

Amazon are listing it for £10 under everywhere else.

Please Mugwum, you must clarify the standby thing. Remote play only pretends to go into standby but consumes a pile of power even though it looks like it is off. For a PVR I think it is vital that if it claims to be off that it actually is and not eating 30-50W or however much it takes for the CPU to be spinning on a timing loop.

I suggest you try this:

1. Set it to record a show
2. Put it in standby
3. Turn it physically off at the back and then back on so it really is in standby
4. Does it wake for the show?

If yes, then try this:

1. Set it to record a show
2. Put it in standby
3. Unplug PlayTV
4. Turn it physically off at the back and then back on
5. Does it wake for show?

The first test will tell you if its really waking from standby or if the CPU is on. The second test will tell you if the PS3 can wake for itself from standby or if the PlayTV is doing it.

Cheers

I used to think that switching appliances off instead of leaving them on standby was actually a purposeful thing to do, but I looked into things a little more over the last year or so (as I tend to do) and I've honestly changed my mind.

If you have one extra shower in a month using an electric shower, you use more power than you will have saved by switching your TV off instead of leaving it in standby mode.

I heard a prominent scientist say (I forget who it was, which is really annoying, I shall try and track down his name) that reducing home power usage is a crutch for our peace of mind. Home users aren't really part of the equation when you look at global power usage. Just think how much juice it takes to run all of the streetlights, and trains, and cars, and office buildings, and hospitals, and broadband providers, and banks.

Switching our televisions off instead of leaving them on standby is just beyond unimportant.

Sorry for the rant. I used to really believe in switching off, and I still believe in the reasons behind it. The facts however just don't stand up.

@berelain
But can you set those to record and watch the recordings remotely? I guess you can watch them if you have something like a slingbox also hooked up but they aren't cheap.

Cool.

Here is a good article, until I can track down that bloody quote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/200...

kangarootoo,

Switch your TV off might be a moot point on a global scale.

But with rising gas prices and a slowing econcomy, most consumers are becoming much more aware of how to save every extra penny they can

Another article, linking to a chart related to the previous one.

http://www.slashgear.com/standby-myth-de...

I'm going to shut up now, as I'm starting to feel like some kind of rainforest slashing bastard, which I certainly am not.

:)

Saving money is a perfectly valid reason to switch things off. I totally agree there.

I don't want to the give the wrong impression of myself. I'm quite a green person compared to most, but I also like to have facts bear things out. I wish unplugging TVs actually mattered when it comes to green issues, but it doesn't. And to suggest it does might actually be a bad thing because it allows people to think they are making a difference, when in fact they aren't.

This is the first thing on the PS3 that I've actually been interested in. Keep it up Sony!

kangarootoo,

'And to suggest it does might actually be a bad thing because it allows people to think they are making a difference, when in fact they aren't. '

Self-delusion is a wonderful thing

It must be using CPU and IO bandwidth to de-multiplex the video data, and write it to HDD. OK, so it seems like all games written so far leave enough resource free for this to happen. What happens when developers start pushing the PS3 harder? Does every developer have to leave a bit free, just in case the console has PlayTV?

@ Nbz - no, but then I don't go anywhere where I would want to take my PSP, have a wifi connection, and have enough time to watch TV. For those that do, I guess its a great feature, but for me, remote play is just a useless commodity. Nice that its there and all, but I wish I had a reason to use it.

No one mentions if the back-up'd files work on PC or not. If they don't work on PSP, that's no problem really as remote play or PSP Video 9 deals with that. But does it work in PC as it is? what format does it save to? is there any DRM on the files?

Surely you will have to factor in the cost of a bigger hard disk as 40GB isn't big enough even if it didn't have anything on it.

Agree with kangarootoo, switching your TV from standby to off does almost nothing for your electricity usage, same with the PS3. Running a single bath uses the same energy as having your TV on standby for 3 months, to give another example.

But leaving your TV fully on, or your PS3 fully on, does in fact use a lot more wattage which will be noticable on your electricity bills. So the standby issue is a valid point and it's worth getting the facts right.

^^^

I suppose thats why the 80gb PS3 is standard now

"Err - does this do anything my Sky+ box doesnt already? "

Yes - it doesn't come with an expensive contract that's only worth having if you care about football.

Then again you can buy a standalone PVR for about £100 now with a 160GB hard disk, so this does look a tad expensive to me.

I wish they'd do a freesat version, my telly signal is atrocious and satellite is my only option really.

Going to see how Play TV beds in after people use it... and waiting for the HD Freeview standard comes in to see how it handles that. After that, a purchase will be yay or nay'd. I do like the idea of having my PS3 store and handle all. Big fat HDD a natural purchase for this.

My Philips 9632 has a horrific EPG so that would be nice to have, plus the recording bit of this is great. Don't have a PVR, am no way going for Sky+ or Virgin, Freesat loses too many channels at the moment that I'm interested in too.

I think if they could integrate this into the box in a later PS3 that would be awesome

I'm dreaming of a slim PS3 with playTV, dual shocks, LBP, Home and £200 price.

Now that would be system shifter

So all we need now is Dark_Alex or one of his buddies to modify their custom PSP firmware so it'll play back these files from PlayTV... Hopefully that's not too difficult.

I expect firmware / software updates to improve this helluva lot.

"Can you record the HD channels? Not sure I saw that."

They say that's coming in a patch.

Come on Tom.

Ask them some direct questions.
"Is the tuner inside PlayTV capable of receiving DVB-T2 ?"
"Is the tuner inside PlayTV patchable ?"

By the way, giving this a score out of 10 is pretty ridiculous.

@Chufty

"But leaving your TV fully on, or your PS3 fully on, does in fact use a lot more wattage which will be noticable on your electricity bills. So the standby issue is a valid point and it's worth getting the facts right."

Very good point, and rather more relevant to the article and product than my tangential wanderings :)

"By the way, giving this a score out of 10 is pretty ridiculous"

Lol. There is so much irony in such a short sentence.

Regarding the analogue signal being turned off, that's not until 2012 I think. So I suppose we will be in the next generation of consoles by then. It will no doubt be very annoying for a lot of people when PlayTV becomes absolutely useless at that point though, as lots of people still have PS2's now. In 4 years, I can imagine a huge number of people will still be using their PS3's.

Maybe they'll figure a way around that inevitable problem?

Where's the irony?

According to the EG scoring policy, PlayTV... "is [in] that tricky "almost brilliant" category, that for fans of the genre in most cases will still warrant serious recommendation to go out and buy, while even people into other genres will probably still draw plenty of enjoyment from. You should at the very least try and play the demo, borrow it or rent it first, but bear in mind that it's not necessarily going to appeal to every person who plays it.

There may be stand out moments spoiled by badly judged difficulty spikes, or numerous other minor and niggly factors that gang up and chip off another mark. "

Er, yeah...

@MasterNameless
PlayTV won't be useless when the analogue signal is turned off.
In fact it will be a great thing for it because signal strength and the number of Freeview channels will increase.

looks good, if there is a pre xmas bundle i might be tempted