Sony clarifies PlayTV date, price Comments by Robert Purchese

not a bad price actually, colour me tempted

It is not future proofed for UK users. It only handles DVB-T signals.
Freeview HD will use DVB-T2.

Shame it can't handle DVB-S or it would be a wonderful second SKY HD box for 70 quid. Probably won't see any HD broadcast over terrestrial for a few years if ever.

Once HD freeview comes along - as long as this thing is compatible and actually does record while playing any game, then it should be a hit.

I'm curious about its power consumption if it's to be left to record shows during the day. Hopefullt the PS3 has a low power mode that allows access to the HDD, from which it can drop into standby when idle.

I said at the time I'd have it at about $70, so I'm interested. Especially since I don't have a Digibox in my room.

Can you give it a FreeSat feed? I know its not much use for some, but would be great for me as I have a redundant dish out the front of my house!

Hoping FreeSat becomes good in the next year or so.

Does it only record one channel at once? If so, no sale!

siksik6: What? What do you want, the moon on a stick?

Err, no. Pretty much every decent PVR does that now, most are under £100 and completely seperate.

I don't see why a £70 add on device can't do it.

It ain't replacing my Sky+ anytime soon basically.

can it work with cable tv?
I got cable decoder here with hdmi output would it be able to record from that ?

"Does it only record one channel at once? If so, no sale!"

I believe it can record one channel while you are watching another, but not record two channels at once. (Presumably, this would affect performance in-game too much?)

That's odd. To do that it would need two tuners... and if it has two tuners, then it can record two channels at once..


Maybe they couldn't get it do write to streams to the hard disk without breaking gaming...

Will this be able to record what you are playing atm? o.o

I was all up for this til I found out how much electrickery a PS3 running playTV would use compared to a regular PVR digibox. It's the sort of amount that would lead to noticeably higher bills!

I just don't see much market for this in the UK.

I think the market of people with an HDTV and PS3 in their lounge and no cable/satellite provider is incredibly limited; and these people clearly don't care much for TV. Consumers with PS3s under the main TV (single male gamers/cinephiles) who do value broadcast content will already have a Sky HD service for their HDTV. Familys that consume enough (SD)TV to want to record it will either have a Sky+/Virgin+ or DVD recorder. They might even be using a VCR. They ain't gonna buy a PS3 just to record TV.

What does that leave? Something for the kids?

Seems ill thought out.

It would likely run in a low power mode when the PS3 is off, much like the mode for remote play switching the PS3 on.

i've been waiting for this despite the fact i haven't actually bothered watching anything on tv for over a month. It would be good to be able to catch the stuff like comics brittania via the series link and not have to watch it via a computer on iplayer. I certainly don't need to record two channels at once given the current output. I'm in.

I agree with Gaol. Couldn't be less bothered about this (despite taking the time to write this of course). My TV has a built-in Freeview tuner, as does my DVD recorder underneath it. Plus I have a spare digibox lying around if I want to hook up the TV in my room. All this would be fine for people who don't have these things but given that many PS3 games recently have mandatory installs there soon wont be enough room on the hard drive to record anything. Like GT finally getting Top Gear episodes (even though they are free every day on Dave) this is another lame move.

It looks like you need to connect the PlayTV box to the arial, thence onto the PS3. I don't have an arial as I have cable TV; does this mean PlayTV won't work?

Does this work with DVB-C if not then don't even bother releasing it in holland.

@Furfoot
Nope it only does DVT-T

@Others
No Cable
No Freesat
No Sky
and in the UK it will not be able to handle Freeview HD when it eventually arrives.


In the UK it will be able to do Freeview.
In parts of Europe it will be able to do their terrestrial digital TV and also handle its digital equivalent (currently scheduled to use DVB-T)

milko :I was all up for this til I found out how much electrickery a PS3 running playTV would use compared to a regular PVR digibox. It's the sort of amount that would lead to noticeably higher bills!

That depends. If your playing on your PS3 and recording at the same time it is cheaper than having your PS3 on and a separate PVR.

@Furfoot
Nope it only does DVT-T

@Others
No Cable
No Freesat
No Sky
and in the UK it will not be able to handle Freeview HD when it eventually arrives.


In the UK it will be able to do Freeview.
In parts of Europe it will be able to do their terrestrial digital TV and also handle its digital equivalent (currently scheduled to use DVB-T)

how do you know it will not handle HD. Have Sony released the latest specs. The freeview HD standard has just been agreed and all of a sudden Sony are ready to release. Maybe it has been delayed for this reason.

Had a look at some pictures, and only one RF socket... so unless it splits it inside, that's only one channel you're watching and / or recording at the same time. (obviously you can watch a recorded one and record one, since that only uses one tuner)

Gaol: I just don't see much market for this in the UK.

I think the market of people with an HDTV and PS3 in their lounge and no cable/satellite provider is incredibly limited; and these people clearly don't care much for TV. Consumers with PS3s under the main TV (single male gamers/cinephiles) who do value broadcast content will already have a Sky HD service for their HDTV. Familys that consume enough (SD)TV to want to record it will either have a Sky+/Virgin+ or DVD recorder. They might even be using a VCR. They ain't gonna buy a PS3 just to record TV.

What does that leave? Something for the kids?

Seems ill thought out.

Sorry mate but i value tv but refuse to pay for SKY HD, they charge enough as it is a once you buy the box that should be it. There should be no extra charge for HD. They will have no choice to go free when freeview catches up. They are just stinging people at the mo. If they stopped wasting money on crap programs they could afford to let people have HD at no extra cost.

Had a look at some pictures, and only one RF socket... so unless it splits it inside, that's only one channel you're watching and / or recording at the same time. (obviously you can watch a recorded one and record one, since that only uses one tuner)

My Humax only has one RF socket but still records two channels at once.

"Had a look at some pictures, and only one RF socket... so unless it splits it inside, that's only one channel you're watching and / or recording at the same time. (obviously you can watch a recorded one and record one, since that only uses one tuner)"

My current PVR does technically have two RF inputs but then has a big square block connecting an output into the next input. Presumably Sony have come up with a more elegant solution that sits inside the box but does effectively the same thing.

That, or it only records one at a time!

so can anyone confirm whether it will accept future HDfreeview broadcasts??????? this is the main point, who cares bout lecky consumption and recording 2 channels at once?

You dion't need to aerials for a dual tuner. Infact, I have never seen a dual tuner PVR have more than one and they record two streams.

You can get a decent 80GB twin tuner PVR for that... Oh wait I already have...

As for dual tuners having 2 input, mine does, you can loop one to the other which I have but if you have a weak signal you could input each separately from a boost or such like.

As for dual tuners not being important, I would say they are very important, I wouldn't consider buying a PVR without dual tuners.

Still no need for a PS3 for me... try again sony.

@muzzer77
All major silicon manufacturers have told OFCOM that it will be the end of 2008 at the earliest before they have DVB-T2 tuners in production.
The Digibox/PVR manufacturers (including Sony) have told OFCOM it will be May-July 2009 before the first DVB-T2 devices appear on shop shelves and at least Christmas 2009 before they arrive in any meaningful volume.

DVB-T2 cannot be fixed with a patch or an upgrade (Programmable tuners are available but they cost bucket loads and would knock the price of the PlayTV tuner through the roof).

"You dion't need to aerials for a dual tuner. Infact, I have never seen a dual tuner PVR have more than one and they record two streams."

No, but you do need two TUNERS. You can use one Aerial and loop it, but you definitely need two tuners.

Sky+ also has two tuners, and two feeds coming from a twin LNB on the satellite dish.

Lovely!

Probably the best looking Freeview interface available *anywhere*, with no DRM and 2.5" HDD or USB recording. SOLD!

Its much more open than the other available, and far cheaper than any of them too:
http://www.freeview.co.uk/products/dtrra...

Lots more info on the official site too

Looks like they dont even mention *any* HD tuner now - I'll expect that to be announced later in an updated unit...

WOO! Reading through the comments:

1. Yes it is future-proofed for the UK. DVB-T works on MPEG-2, DVB-T2 works on MPEG-4. As long as they allow MPEG-4 decoding, we are futureproofed.

2. Yeah we need dual-tuners, but as Philips is the only company that produces a tuner I'm pretty sure that they have one with integrated loop.

3. I'm not paying the Sky+HD premium. Or the VirginHD premium.

4. DVB-T2 will roll out in 2012.

5. PlayTV works while the PS3 is turned off, and thus using minimal power.

Hope this answered a few questions, all others please email kazhirai@playstation.com

@seasidebaz:

1. No, DVB-T(1) is both able to use MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Boxer (the commercial gatekeeper in Sweden, Denmark and Ireland) is using MPEG-4, but these channels are encrypted and are not able to work with PlayTV. However a public service MUX in Denmark is entirely MPEG-4, and PLayTV will probably support that.

5. No it doesn't, it just automaticly turns your computer on.

(:

@seasidebaz
1)As moveteam stated DVB-T supports both MPEG 2 & MPEG 4 the same as DVB-T2. But the MPEG codec means nothing if the device can't decode the transmission signal (DVB-T or DVB-T2)

Play TV will not be able to handle Freeview HD - If it could Sony would be shouting it from the roof tops but there is no mention of HD anywhere on their website or press release.

@tonynibbles

An updated model - probably.
The current model being updateable - not a chance

I'm not paying the Sky+HD premium. Or the VirginHD premium.

There's no premium for Virgin HD if you have the XL service. I'm seriously thinking about switching from Sky+, as Virgin has nearly all the channels I watch, plus free Setanta Sports, plus the HD functionality, for £1.50 less than I'm paying for basic Sky.

Yeah, if you have the XL service.... ie PREMIUM

Anyway, I don't care as BT Vision is getting HD channels from September. Yay me!

/n00bs

The fact that it isn't HD ready is a concern. I'm not sure if the investment is worth it considering. Having said that standard digital broadcasting isn't going to be discontinued anytime soon so I'm torn whether it's worth the long term investment.

The only reason I'm getting one is for the ability to transfer the TV content to my PSP at the press of a button, no pissing around doing manual encoding, so I can watch last night's TV on the commute without having to do anything.

Zomoniac, Yeah that is a big selling point.

I'm tempted to buy this for the remote play functionality but I'm really concerned about the power usage of this thing. The PS3 uses a lot of power even idle.

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/revi...

So I take it there is no way to hook a standard Sky box up to it and record the football, movies etc? Still, nice price and I love gadgets.

"Sorry mate but i value tv but refuse to pay for SKY HD, they charge enough as it is a once you buy the box that should be it. There should be no extra charge for HD. They will have no choice to go free when freeview catches up. They are just stinging people at the mo. If they stopped wasting money on crap programs they could afford to let people have HD at no extra cost. "

My point was there isn't a market for Play TV outside of a few PS3 fans with limited interest in TV.

If you don't want to pay Sky for HD content then you're not getting any. Virgin give HD content on the XL package because they have only have ONE channel, BBC. They have HD films on demand, but thats pay per view. At the moment you have one reasonable choice if you want HD content and it's SKY - thats the reason they're charging extra, because they can, not because of the cost of x or y program.

It's gonna be a while until freeview HD turns up, and even longer before it offers a reasonable choice of HD channels. And until then, surely people with the disposable income for a 40" plasma and PS3 can afford a SKY+ or SKYHD box. Where does Play TV fit in outside a very small niche of tech geeks who don't watch much telly?

wow sounds really cool.

Not bad - Possibly worth a punt... :)

Cheaper than expected!?

Thats like the price of 6 freeview boxes.