PlayTV

[shadownz]

I been reading that Sony will be bringing out a DTT receiver for the Playstation 3, prediction is it will come to NZ around the same time that freeview launches DTT officially. Here is a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJQSAxqGCTU) I found on youtube where a demo is given.

[paulw]

I was at the Sony store at Silviapark yesyterday and the sales guy mentioned this was coming. I bet it will be expensive add on considering the current cost of the 40Gig PS3 here in NZ. Will need something like a 360Gig Hard disk to start with..

[MrElectricity]

Wish I new that was coming I may not have got the kids a Nintendo Wii for Christmas still maybe next Christmas. There sure is an awesome amount it can do, very impressing presentation.

[maccrazy]

Any updates on PlayTV? With Freeview HD launching soon, I would have thought Sony would have announced a few more details by now.

[Baldrick]

The only problem that I can see with Play TV is that there isnt really a way that you can have your PS3 connected to both your TV and a device to record (eg DVD recorder). I know you can record to the PS3 hard drive, but then what do you do if you want to put it onto a DVD?

[maccrazy]

They say that you will be able to play recorded video on other devices, so I would assume that you could copy it to your computer and burn a DVD using that. I was hoping that it would be out in the first half of 2008, but based on the dates that have been speculated for England, it looks like it will be later in the year unless we get it before them.

[danger]

I emailed Sony asking if the PlayTV accessory will be released in time for the Olympics and got the following reply...

"In response to your enquiry we would like to advise you that the un-official release date for PlayTV is late 2008."

I'm currently shopping for a full-HD TV and a PS3 and don't want to buy a STB if the PlayTV device is going to be released soon. I'm dead keen on the Olympics so must have this sorted by August 8.

Does anyone have any better information?

[paulw]

I emailed Sony asking if the PlayTV accessory will be released in time for the Olympics and got the following reply...

"In response to your enquiry we would like to advise you that the un-official release date for PlayTV is late 2008."

I'm currently shopping for a full-HD TV and a PS3 and don't want to buy a STB if the PlayTV device is going to be released soon. I'm dead keen on the Olympics so must have this sorted by August 8.

Does anyone have any better information?

From simalar questions that I've asked of Sony that's the best you will get. I suspect that they have no idea them selves..

[maccrazy]

Seems it won't be until January of February next year:


SCEE president David Reeves has told Eurogamer that PlayTV will launch roll out in Europe "from September to December" starting with a UK date of 10th September.


He also had some good news for gamers elsewhere in the PAL markets. "We've got Australia and New Zealand also lined up for it in January or February, because on their digital terrestrial they haven't actually set the standards yet. - http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=191896

We don't have standards set yet? :confused: Given that Freeview in the UK isn't HD, it seems a shame that the launch dates aren't the other way around.

[danger]

It seems bizarre that they would say that the standards have not been set yet when they have released iDTV's here...

[Digital]

Cool new feature, I wonder how much the receivers will cost though..

I won't be getting on board, just bought a 160GB Panasonic DVD Recorder, and my PS3s hard-drive is only 40GB so there's no point.

It'll give Sony a great advantage over the Microsoft though.

[paulw]

Cool new feature, I wonder how much the receivers will cost though..

I won't be getting on board, just bought a 160GB Panasonic DVD Recorder, and my PS3s hard-drive is only 40GB so there's no point.

It'll give Sony a great advantage over the Microsoft though.

I believe the Play TV software allows for large external USB drives to be used as capture storage plus a 80Gig version is about to hit the US market for the same or less that the 40Gig model..

[Digital]

Oh ok sweet. I've been thinking about getting a Western Digital 640GB external hard-drive for it from Noel Leeming for $199 on sale. Not sure if I'll get it or not yet...

[danger]

It is also very easy to upgrade the HDD in the PS3. You can replace the standard drive with almost any 2.5" SATA drive.

There are lots of websites with step by step instructions such as...

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6176090/index.html

[Digital]

Yes, but by doing that you void your warranty. Unless you upgrade to a 60GB hard-drive from an original PS3.

[danger]

Yes, but by doing that you void your warranty. Unless you upgrade to a 60GB hard-drive from an original PS3.

No - it does not void the warranty.

http://www.nz.playstation.com/support/warranty_ps3.jhtml

[Digital]

From the link you posted above:


You may not claim under this Guarantee when the Product is damaged as a result of:
• Commercial use, accident, fair wear and tear, negligence, abuse, or misuse (including, without limitation, failure to use this Product for its normal purpose and/or in accordance with instructions on proper use and maintenance, or installation or use in a manner inconsistent with applicable local technical or safety standards);
• Use in conjunction with any unauthorised peripheral (including, without limitation, game enhancement devices, hard disk drives, adaptors and power supply devices);
Any adaptation or adjustment to, or alteration of, the Product carried out for any reason, and whether properly carried out or not;

This Guarantee is only valid:
• When the original sales receipt or invoice (indicating the date of purchase and retailer’s name) is presented together with the faulty Product (and has not been altered or defaced since the date of original purchase)

[danger]

You can return the PS3 without the HDD and on the Sony site it says you are still covered here...

http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=362&p_created=1193251723&p_sid=u_I4HVXi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MTcmcF9wcm9kcz00JnBfY2F0cz0gJnBfcHY9MS4 0JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9aGFyZA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

[felix]

Typical Sony, messing up a perfectly good piece of hardware. Now there's DRM and no HD. :mad:

[Digital]

Still waiting for this to come out....Hope it's cheaper to buy than a Freeview STB.


"Sony has talked up the multimedia capabilities of the PlayStation 3 since before it was launched - but it is only now that those promises are being met.

Later this year Sony will launch an add-on that will let PS3 owners watch digital TV via their console: PlayTV is a small black box which connects to a USB port on the machine and has an aerial port in (and a pass through port) to pick up digital terrestrial signals.

I had a chance to play with PlayTV at Sony's UK offices on Wednesday. The hardware itself is uninteresting - it's the software and features that are worth talking about.

It's a very slick piece of user interface design. The Electronic Programme Guide and menu systems are well designed and laid out and the whole experience is certainly simple enough that PlayTV could be used as a main Freeview system in the home.

Just like a PVR, you can pause and rewind live TV, as well as record programmes. The PlayTV has a dual tuner so you can record one channel while watching another.

At the moment you can't record TV in the background while playing a game on the PS3 but I'm told the software developers are working hard to add the feature. If it isn't available at launch, the feature could be added later as a software update.

But the really interesting feature is the ability to watch TV on your PlayStation Portable from anywhere in the world using PlayTV, turning the PS3 into a Slingbox on steroids.

RemotePlay allows PSP users to access their PlayStation 3's over a wi-fi connection, either on a local network or over the internet.

You can already watch videos stored on your PS3's hard drive - but with PlayTV you can now watch live TV, programmes you've recorded to the hard drive or schedule programmes to be recorded in the future.

Cleverly, if you know you are likely to stick with one channel for a period of time - if you are watching live sport or a film, for example - you can increase the buffering on the PSP to improve picture quality. And it makes a real difference.

The developers have worked hard to keep the whole operation as simple as possible so that even casual users can get live TV up and running on their PS3 quickly.

It will be interesting to see how much marketing effort is put behind PlayTV because this kind of feature is a real competitive advantage over Xbox 360, which offers nothing remotely similar.

It is also another strong feature for the PSP which is beginning to flourish as a handheld device once again."

[paulw]

Sounds like Play TV is not going to be as wonderful as Sony first sugested.

"Sony adds DRM to upcoming PlayTV PS3 add-on"

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/Sony-adds-DRM-to-upcoming-PlayTV-PS3-add-on.html

"Back in February when Sony unveiled its upcoming digital TV receiver PlayTV, Sony that the recordings would be made in its raw digital format without copy protection. For example, recordings could be transferred to any storage medium or be re-encoded and transferred to portable equipment to play on the move. Unfortunately, Sony has now gone back to its old habit and decided to enforce DRM copy protection on the device, which means that PlayTV recordings made on the PS3 cannot be transferred to any external drive, PSP or PC.

So far there has been no explanation given for the decision to use DRM, particularly since many set-top boxes and especially PC based DVRs do not copy protect their recordings. With the new restrictions, recordings can only be played back on the PS3 or streamed to a PSP using the Remote Play feature.

The PlayTV device will launch in the UK on 19th September for £69.99 and the recording feature will be limited to standard definition programming. Sony plans adding HD support at a later time.

Now that the PlayTV will be crippled with DRM, from what I can see, unless one really wants to be able to record digital TV on their PS3, they would be far better off getting a PC based digital receiver which also costs less or even investing in a set-top digital TV capable DVD recorder."

[Digital]

Bloody Sony! Thanks for the update.

[Geekster]

Unboxing: http://stuff.tv/blogs/cool/archive/2008/08/19/unboxed-sony-play-tv.aspx

[lotech]

Just to add a quick rumour -
http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=31220 is reporting that the PlayTV records in a generic Mpeg4 codec/file and should work outside of just the PSP/PS3 world. If so - yay!
Theres no confirmation on that so until we have somesort of rundown demo of this you should take it like a grain of salt.

UPDATE http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=196481 CVG Review saying as much.

[danger]

There has been a fair bit of discussion on the freeviewshop.co.nz forum regarding PlayTV for the PS3 lately see the post from mikef at...

http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/forum/index.php/topic,422.60.html

It seems that it may be released in 2-3 months. It does feel like it is always just 2-3 months away! Close enough that you don't want to spend your money on an alternative and far enough out to be very depressing.

[lotech]

Update time - the newest firmware adds support NZ video (but not audio) streams. Far from perfect but only a firmware update away making the PlayTV an option.
A user has posted a review on freeviewshop forums with screenshots -

http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/forum/index.php/topic,422.msg3979.html#msg3979