PlayTV Comments by Tom Bramwell

Console trolls are bad enough, but that was way out of line, Higgins.

It sounds very cool but not very suitable for normal tele watching as it takes 30 secs to boot unless you dont mind the increase in electricity bill by keeping your PS3 switched on and heating your room.

Why on Earth are people getting wound up about it getting a score? Surely a rating out of 10 based on how well it does what it is supposed to do is only sensible.

Or if the fact that it isn't a game confusing you in some way?

Complete pointless bullshit from $ony.
Dammit why didn't the USA drop more nukes on them?
Now, I don't know if you are kidding, though I presume no one would ever for real write $ony, but isn't this product created by Sony London or something? I don't recall US dropping bombs on you guys, like ever, but as I'm one of these unpronouncable Danes, I do make mistakes ;-)

Just want to point out that EPG stands for Electronic Programme Guide - not episode guide.

@Kilroy My uncle was in the British Army in France during World WWII and he had Americans drop bombs on him. He told me a saying that the German POWs had.

When the German bombers fly overhead, the British take cover
When the British bombers fly overhead, the Germans take cover
When the American bombers fly overhead, everyone takes cover

A bit disappointing. I've been looking forward to this since it was announced. However, only recording one thing at a time, the fact that it crashes and the lack of an expansion card slot are real flaws (unlike most of the things these comments have been hissy-fitting about! ;-)

Freesat is too small a market to make a version for, isn't it? The only reason I use it is because I have an old Sky box, and cannot justify buying a Freeview box, especially as their EPGs are invariably crap.

To those asking why this is needed if you have Sky+, clearly you don't need it! It's a competitor, not a replacement! Think it through next time. You don't question the release of every new Ford car, just because you already have a Volvo...

Just to reinforce the point about the analogue signal, this is a Digital Freeview box. You use it to receive digital TV. That's the point of Freeview. When the analogue signal is turned off, you use Freeview to receive digital TV. That's what this does! [I presume the point being made in the article was that you take the ariel cable that used to deliver analgoue TV, and use it for digital. Magic!]

As for the suggestion that the TV signal might be coming via the Internet, are there even any products that do that yet? Is BT's system working yet? Nevertheless, that's called IPTV, not Freeview. As for bad signal - get a better arial. That's what they're FOR. Don't bemoan that you're not close enough to Crystal Palace, that's just how TV signals work (and have done for your old telly signal for years) Get a better arial!!!

As for video formats, I haven't tried the system, so I can't say with 100% certainty, but if PSP Video 9 can convert them to a format PSPs can view (which I think the article came from a source on the dwveloment team), the they will be viewable on the PC. PSP Video 9 (well, the software underlying it) needs to be able to decode the video before turning it into a format that will work on PSP. If the PC has the codec to decode it, then it will almost certainly be able to display those decoded images as a video.

Oh, and it's been claimed several times that HD will be supported in the future, though no-one has said whether or not that will involve updating the firmware on the PlayTV box itself.

On a brighter note, extremely good job responding to the questions: pay rise for Mugwum!!

"To those asking why this is needed if you have Sky+, clearly you don't need it! It's a competitor, not a replacement! Think it through next time. You don't question the release of every new Ford car, just because you already have a Volvo"

+1

The energy rating of using a ps3 as a STB is criminal. Its like using a jumbo to carry your golf clubs around the course.

@ rprince

Freesat is too small a market to make a version for, isn't it? The only reason I use it is because I have an old Sky box, and cannot justify buying a Freeview box, especially as their EPGs are invariably crap.

You can't use a Sky box to watch Freesat.

@ chrisjm

I think you have a point there - the PS3 would use around 5 times as much power as you average Freeview box then used to watch or record TV. Something certainly worth baring in mind before making a purchase.

Do we know if this supports Freeview+ for it's recordings, so it works like Sky+ for series link etc or is it simply allowing you to repeat record at the same time each day or week?

What's wrong with scoring it? Every_single_hardware_mag scores hardware so why not for this? In fact I want more scores, broken down into picture quality, audio quality, build quality, value for money etc ;)

@moggsy

Why not? I seem to get pretty much all the channels. I even found out recently that if I leave the box powered on (something to do with Sky still spying on me) then I even get E4 and stuff like that.

I guess it's called Freesat from Sky, but it's nigh on the same isn't it? Or is the satellite decoding and satellite it receives from, all different? I've always just called it Freesat (althought, to be honest, it doesn't really come in conversation all that often, ya know?), but I guess I stand corrected :-)

Can you still watch TV as nomral when the PS3 is in standby? Or do I have to turn it on just to watch TV everytime?

@ rprince

It is confusing but there is a difference between Freesat and Freesat From Sky (why they didn't choose different names I'll never know).

The channels are from the same satellite feed but Freesat has a different EPG, HD channels and, in the future, internet connectivity (for such things as the BBC iPlayer).

mugwum:

"I'm trying to sort out an interview to ask questions like that right now. "

Whilst you're at it could you find out why it only records one thing at a time if has two tuners? Most people have IDTVs or a separate freeview box so keeping a tuner free at all times for live tv isn't really necessary.

Also will it record to an external usb hard drive, or just the internal sata drive? What format is the video in whan exported, standard mpeg, or some special sony format? Thanks in advance.

"Can you still watch TV as nomral when the PS3 is in standby? Or do I have to turn it on just to watch TV everytime?"

You have to have the PS3 turned on to watch TV, unless you have a separate Freeview box or something, in which case you can take the aerial cable out of PlayTV and plug it in elsewhere. The PS3 will still remember to turn itself on to record stuff later, so you just have to pop the cable back in in time.

Incidentally, contrary to what the CVG review says, it does turn itself on to make recordings...

^^ Right, that is interesting, isn't it? Also, CVG had no problems copying the recorded files to the PC, PSP, etc. Maybe they had a different version of pre-release hw/sw with different features than yours? Oh well, time will tell.

@Hughes.

You have issues. Are you the sort of person that sounds their horn for a ludicrous amount of time when you get stuck in traffic, just to show everyone how serious about it you are? What are the odds do you think that I am the only person left here who doesn't now have you on their ignore list?

@kangarootoo

I do have issues with this site's years of pathetically substandard PSP coverage, well spotted. I thought I was maybe being too subtle about it. You must be Sherlock Holmes, yes, really him. You don't think that's an interesting comment from the editor of a multi-format website about the second biggest selling piece of hardware this generation? Especially a site that is constantly laughing off accusations of bias.

Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, rpt., by the way; it takes about 20-30 seconds, unless you thought I actually typed those all out individually.

No, the only time I use a car horn is when I'm buying a car, to test that it works. How about you, do you like car horns? I assume you're trying to start a chat out of sympathy, what with everyone else supposedly having me on ignore and all?

The reason PS3 can record when playing game, and will be able to with future more advance game, is because the PS3 has 9 processors within the "Cell". One is always turned off (backup only), game developers have access seven, and the other one is totally reserved to system's OS. PlayTV's "background record" uses the system processor only which games can not even access. This means however advance games get the reserve power will always be there for PlayTV!!

@ Mugwum
What's the remote overlay thing like? Does it fit well, look good and is it removable? If poss could you get a picture of it online?


@ rfielder
Wrong. The official full Cell spec has 8 SPEs but the PS3 only can ever use 7 due to variances in manufacturing tolerances, basically they can't guarantee all 8 will be working on mass produced Cells. Interestingly Cell chips that definitely have all 8 SPEs are often separated and used in server and super-computer applications. In the PS3 One SPE is reserved for the OS, which essentially includes PlayTV. Developers can only ever use 6 of the SPEs for development, that is all their development environments will allow them to access, this will not change. Just because a SPE is reserved for the OS/PlayTV does not mean it's performance is independent of games and there is no cross over. Memory bandwidth, HDD access and other shenanigans COULD cross over and cause issues from game to game if PlayTV is recording. It seems Sony may have done a good job of getting it all to work together but there is a chance stuff could go pear shaped with certain games, hence why PlayTV does warn of simultaneous operation

@ NecronomiconUK

Wrong. The PS3 has 8 SPEs and 1 PPE "the PPE is a general processor which also helps to control the SPEs". Thats 9 - 3.2GHz processors in total! The reason 1 SPE is turned off is to improve the yield when manufacturing as if one SPE dose not work the Cell processor can still be kept. It's cheaper to add a spare SPE then to bin an entire Cell processor every time a SPE is not working. Everything else I agree on, however it is unlikely future game's will impact Playtv, maybe loading time with a hdd game wile Playtv if recording.

@rfielder

All this talk about SPEs and processing is nonsense anyway, as DVB-T is broadcast in MPEG-2. The broadcast stream is saved directly to the disk, so the processing required is minimal.

The issue is with the databus traffic and and the up-to-15Mbps MPEG-2 stream being saved to the HDD while it's in demand for gaming purposes.

Such nonsense.

@Hughes.

As I've mentioned in many threads - as nice as my PSP is, it's a UMD player and a flawed gaming device. This is why EG hate it, and this is why gamers love the 360 - because it's designed around gaming.

If Sony modified the PSP or offered a second spec that had the controls in the right place, and had a shape suitable for playing games properly, then it's get more attention from the gaming press.

They could try including controls that allow us to properly play the games that are being developed these days, also.

Many games are broken by default on the platform due to the D-Pad and missing right analogue. The exisitng analogue is in the wrong place.

Anyone know if this supports Top Up TV on Freeview, or more specifically the Setanta card so I could watch that through Play TV? Would be a bonus if I could record Setanta stuff like the Football and UFC.