PlayTV info

[Nesh]

Your country must support DVB-T

Here are is everything you need to know about it including the countries supporting it. Note that the list of countries includes those that WILL implement it too, not just those who have implemented it already

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T

 

[Arwin]

Looking at www.play.com every now and then, it seems to be selling fairly well, at least on that site, as it keeps showing up in the top 10 (all games, all platforms) and in the PS3 top 10 as second after Force Unleashed. For amazon.co.uk that's 15th and 3rd respectively.

 

[patsu]

Impressions from GAF today:
* http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12892059&postcount=99

Well, I got PlayTV in the end...

I got around the lack of RF throughput by using a 97p value splitter from Tesco, works fine and I still get 82% signal strength! Why Sony couldn't have just built this in to the unit itself is beyond me though.

OK, so impressions...

+ Excellent user interface. Extremely fast response, stuff like Text is incredibly fast, and the find/record programme by keyword option is incredible. Looks the dogs bollocks too, thumbs up here.

+ The way it turns the PS3 on and off automatically is great. Also, if you try and turn your PS3 off when recording in the background, it will show a PlayTV screen and then turn off automatically when it has finished recording. I'm completely surprised by how fluid and intuitive it all is - and that it works flawlessly too. Very impressed here.

+ The small box tucks away nicely behind my PS3 on my TV stand. Can't even notice it. Has meant I've been able to get rid of my old Sagem PVR box, getting rid of a mains lead and SCART lead. Nice.

+ The 320GB harddrive I put in my PS3 is now finally being put to good use.

- Picture quality isn't anywhere near as good as my built-in Freeview TV (Toshiba 32WLT66), it seems 'out of focus', a very soft picture and it's a shame it doesn't appear to use the PS3's excellent DVD upscaling engine (perhaps to reduce power consumption / fans, but the option would be nice). Luckily not a problem as I only intend to use this to playback recorded content, and not to watch live TV.

- NO series link. OK, so I know only BBC and ITV have actually got their Freeview act together on this anyway, but still. Yes, you can set it to record 'weekly' for x number of times, which is fine if: 1) you know how many episodes are in the series and 2) if the programme is going to be on at the same time each week. But, many times this isn't the case. The Apprentice shifted to another day for a couple of weeks this year for example, sometime football coverage delays a programme, and programmes like The Restaurant are on at funny times, with two episodes in a week, or if you wanted to record the X Factor, the show varies in length and starting time every week. Therefore, Series Link is ESSENTIAL. And I just hope it is possible for them to add this feature in the future, and it isn't missing due to hardware limitations or something. Just seems strange that it isn't there on day one.

- Boot up time. Having to wait for your PS3 to start, and then click on PlayTV and wait for that to load too, it's zzzzzzzz. Hopefully they'll add an option to boot the PS3 straight in to PlayTV, or at least speed up the loading time.

Overall, I really like it. The +s above are BIG +s. Much better than I expected. But there are some minor niggles (crashes, loading times). Also the lack of series link is worrying me, I just hope they find a way to add it. Soon. It'll be great to see them constantly update this and add in new features in the future, it could end up being phenomenal with a few adjustments and new features. Please Sony, don't let me down.

* http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12892016&postcount=98

 

[Gerry]

The series link option is grouped under the title "freeview playback" here in the UK. Basically means that the PVR complies with certain features - one of which being the series link/on-time recording.

I'd expect Sony to implement it with a software update - most of the current PVRs on the market did exactly that. They required a new software update (normally sent over-the-air) to provide the new functionality.

EDIT: Actually the biggest negative from the above link to me would be the picture quality. If you're using a PVR to record stuff it's far more convenient to use it to watch live TV as well, you don't want to be switching from one input to another just to access the PVR interface. Again, it's something you'd hope can improve via a software update.

EDIT2: Actually other people say the picture quality is fine. Seems you can only record one program at a time though which is disappointing.

 

[patsu]

Picture quality fix...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12893068&postcount=102

You might have to check both your TV and the PS3 settings on this one. Firstly, with that particular Toshiba model, sharpness has to be as low as it can go. This is -50. It's not actually negative sharpness, it's zero sharpness.

The way sharpness is applied to the signal may be different when it comes to SD/HD on your display. I'm not sure, but it may be adding sharpness before scaling rather than after having been scaled, which would give SD/HD inputs a different look, even if it's the same material.

Photos taken from a 32WLT66 a while back:

[screenshots plus instructions]

 

[whome0]

Some of the fellows here in Finland just got a PlayTV from play.com It works fine in a finnish DVB-T network and even dvb subtitles work fine. Few comments.
+ no DRM in a recordings
+ file can be copied to a XMB videos folder, then transfer to an external usb drive
+ recording is m2ts format, per program recording. This probably makes it easier n00bs to understand how it works.
+ one active recording per timeframe, if conflicts then can choose which one to keep
+ can watch other channel while recording
+ nice UI interface
+ easy first-time setup
+ Electronic Service/Program Guide (ESG) works ok
+ timeshift works automatically on an active channel, one hour buffer
+ timeshift can show ESG info of the previous programs
+ can play games while recording, but may affect the quality of the recorded stream
+ ESG has a channel filtering
+ can keep PS3 in standby, recording activates it and goes back to sleep mode
+ displays a notification on TV screen if recording activated from the standby

- slow startup from the cold state, takes 52 seconds total (PS3 on, PlayTV on)
- no a full mux recording
- if m2ts file is moved to XMB and played, subtitles does not work anymore
- cannot move files to PlayTV media library which is said to feel better than integrated XMB videos submenu
- takes an internal clock from the network, but does not understand local timezone (EET GMT+2h)
- watching a program, timeshift is on, and deciding "I want to record this program after all" does not record a full program (leading part from the timeshift buffer)

A decent v1.0 release, but most finns want to see DVB-C model. Please, Sony release a cable update. Most likely same box can work both, its just a software based modulation decoding issue.

 

[Gerry]

+ can watch other channel while recording

Well, it's got two tuners - anything else would be ridiculous. You really, really should be able record two channels at the same time though. My Humax can record two channels simultaneously AND allow you to watch a THIRD channel (with certain restrictions).

 

[manux]

Well, it's got two tuners - anything else would be ridiculous. You really, really should be able record two channels at the same time though. My Humax can record two channels simultaneously AND allow you to watch a THIRD channel (with certain restrictions).

Maybe it's issue with playing games @same time, or too slow internal hard drive. I would bet though that it's just software issue that can be upgraded later on. They probably had to prioritize features for the release and are continuing to make the software better.

For me it anyway would be secondary digibox so even the current features are enough. Though I would like to see a cable model.

 

[pcchen]

In theory, recording is simple. The most simple way to record from DVB-T is to just simply discard all packets you don't need (i.e. a PID filter). It'd be easy to do so with a SPE on CELL. The storage could be a problem, but I think the hard disk in PS3 should be fast enough to enable recording two channels simultaneously.

Although, from the point of Sony, the point of putting two tuners is to make it possible to watch a channel while recording another channel. It's probably not their intention to provide the function to record two channels simultaneously.

 

[Grall]

Visited Paris over the weekend, went around in a couple shops. PlayTVs a-plenty, they all cost €100 (or 99,99 - bah). Bought mine at the Virgin Megastore on the Champs d'Elysee or whatsitscalled, not that it matters.

Had some issues getting a picture out of it at first upon coming home. Lots of stuttering video and audio and black screens. Indoors antenna proved to be quirky, even though it reported very high signal strength during channel scan - 90-95%+. Finally seems to have found a position for the antenna that gives smooth picture and audio almost all the time. I'll buy a longer coax cable later and put the antenna in a window, hopefully that'll clear everything up.

Don't really like the software, feels clumsy and hard to use. On the surface it looks intuitive, but isn't really. There doesn't seem to be a way to set up a timer-based recording like any old VCR has been able to do since the 1980s. Instead I have to wait for the programme to show up in the on-screen list - and at least here where I'm at it won't do that until the show BEFORE the one I want to record is already playing. I'm also not sure if it'll let me do a daily recording indefinitely, or if it'll just record the number of days/shows I set in the software and then discard the entry. Also like others have mentioned the picture seems a bit fuzzy and I see quite a bit of MPEG banding and blocks at times.

Anyway, that said... It's still a pretty damn nifty gadget. I'm truly impressed it'll record stuff while I'm actually playing a game. I ran some super stardust in endless mode while making a recording of a random kids' show, because I felt that game might exercise the cell processor quite a bit and couldn't notice any performance degradation at all in-game. There were some dropped frames here and there in the resulting movie file but that might have been because of my less than ideal antenna position. Not sure, but I'm giving a tentative thumbs up here anyway.

Also I don't know how a game that loads more off the harddrive would affect recordings. Haven't tried anything like that yet. Now SETI is chewing proteins while it's recording the evening news. I'll check later how that turned out.

 

[Crossbar]

Visited Paris over the weekend, went around in a couple shops. PlayTVs a-plenty, they all cost €100 (or 99,99 - bah). Bought mine at the Virgin Megastore on the Champs d'Elysee or whatsitscalled, not that it matters.

Had some issues getting a picture out of it at first upon coming home. Lots of stuttering video and audio and black screens. Indoors antenna proved to be quirky, even though it reported very high signal strength during channel scan - 90-95%+. Finally seems to have found a position for the antenna that gives smooth picture and audio almost all the time. I'll buy a longer coax cable later and put the antenna in a window, hopefully that'll clear everything up.

Don't really like the software, feels clumsy and hard to use. On the surface it looks intuitive, but isn't really. There doesn't seem to be a way to set up a timer-based recording like any old VCR has been able to do since the 1980s. Instead I have to wait for the programme to show up in the on-screen list - and at least here where I'm at it won't do that until the show BEFORE the one I want to record is already playing. I'm also not sure if it'll let me do a daily recording indefinitely, or if it'll just record the number of days/shows I set in the software and then discard the entry. Also like others have mentioned the picture seems a bit fuzzy and I see quite a bit of MPEG banding and blocks at times.

Anyway, that said... It's still a pretty damn nifty gadget. I'm truly impressed it'll record stuff while I'm actually playing a game. I ran some super stardust in endless mode while making a recording of a random kids' show, because I felt that game might exercise the cell processor quite a bit and couldn't notice any performance degradation at all in-game. There were some dropped frames here and there in the resulting movie file but that might have been because of my less than ideal antenna position. Not sure, but I'm giving a tentative thumbs up here anyway.

Also I don't know how a game that loads more off the harddrive would affect recordings. Haven't tried anything like that yet. Now SETI is chewing proteins while it's recording the evening news. I'll check later how that turned out.

Where is La-la land? Have a similar experience but my program schedule does not appear until the same day as I am watching, yet it´s the full days schedule. Didn´t really try penetrate the problem because my 60 GB hdd is too full and I haven´t taken the time to upgrade. I thought it might be related to the fact that Sony does not sell it here in Sweden and it therefor lacked some online support, some sort of schedule service. If that´s the case it´s a damn pity because otherwise I thought it had a pretty good user interface.

I got it from amazon.co.uk for £59.99 via some English friends (free shipping :smile

 

[Weaste]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I think that it is better than starting a new one.

I took advantage of the weakness of the pound a few weeks ago and ordered this online saving myself around €45 on what it is selling for here in Spain. The kit itself and the software on the technical level is very impressive, and I'm very pleased with it. Even when playing Killzone 2 it records in the background almost flawlessly.

However, and maybe I'm just a little bit stupid and totally missing something here, but who on earth at Sony Cambridge didn't realise that in a product of this type should not let you reorder the channels or actually start a recording on a date and time specified by the user (rather than a selection from the EPG)? Yes, in certain parts of the Europe, many channels do not broadcast EPG information, and even if they do, it might only be for a few hours in advance. Where I live, they still don't even broadcast digital TV in widescreen!

So, as technically nice as it may be, I cannot put TVE1 on button 1, and I can't tell the thing to record something from this time to that time on this date to that date - or repeat on a daily or weekly basis using that information. What makes the matter worse is that these things are so easy to implement, yet although this product has been available for over 6 months, nobody has got around to implementing such simple features, the first of which my digital satellite box from 1999 could do, and the second that my VHS recorder from 1985 could do. It's bizarre to be frank.

 

[-tkf-]

Hehe i never really realised that this was a basic DVB-T tuner and with MPEG-4 support(?).

Gonna keep an eye on this when we get our first Public HiDef channal here in Denmark around November, maybe it will be updated by then.

Had some issues getting a picture out of it at first upon coming home. Lots of stuttering video and audio and black screens. Indoors antenna proved to be quirky, even though it reported very high signal strength during channel scan - 90-95%+

I got the same problem with my standard DVB-T box, it´s very sensitive i bought a outdoor antenna for my PC/HT room, works way better.

 

[patsu]

PlayTV updated: http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/04/03/playtv-gets-sd-upscaler-and-more-in-new-update/

The article includes a video explaining the new PlayTV features (like Eric Lempel's walkthrough of PS3 firmware upgrade).

Several new functions have been added, including: new fast-forward/rewind speeds and new volume control settings. More importantly, users will enjoy the new SD upscaler and direct-to-TV option via the XMB (no more having to go through the PlayTV menu).

Near the end (1:44), he also hinted at possible HD upgrade in the future.

 

[Murakami]

PlayTV updated: http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/04/03/playtv-gets-sd-upscaler-and-more-in-new-update/

The article includes a video explaining the new PlayTV features (like Eric Lempel's walkthrough of PS3 firmware upgrade).



Near the end (1:44), he also hinted at possible HD upgrade in the future.

It isn't available yet...

 

[patsu]

Make louder noise !

Supposed to be available soon, if not now according to the producer.

 

[Murakami]

1.10 update is out.

 

[patsu]

A screenshot of PlayTV 1.1's upscaled output (compared with Samsung Freeview snapshot):
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=15384872&postcount=51

Someone should profile PlayTV + KZ2/R2 running together.

EDIT: According to another post in the above thread, PlayTV still lack Series Link support.

 

[Weaste]

It still doesn't have channel reordering support, which confuses the hell out of older members of the family who want TVE1 on button 1, not button 7, etc.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Interesting (I thought)

one reader wrote in to let us know the UK PlayTV unit he brought down to NZ in '08 has, since the 2.10 firmware update, put its DVB-T compatibility to work and started picking up some broadcasts. So far he's able to catch TV3 in 1080i and AC3 surround and even pause and buffer video, but no program scheduling support. On the other 7 Freeview channels? Video, but no audio so far.

Although I am getting tired of NA always getting the short end of the stick, with Europe constantly getting games and other items, add-ons and accessories long before we do and sometimes even exclusively! We're gamers over here too, ya know!