PlayTV info

[Crossbar]

Interesting (I thought)



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!

Yeah that´s interesting. Sony may postpone the release until the installed base reached a certain number. They´ve only released in the largest contries in Europe so far, but still the program is already translated to at least Swedish, which I can confirm.

Anyway if they added a decoder slot to the PlayTV unit it would have a pretty big market here in Sweden. I think having just the free channels is quite limiting.

 

[catisfit]

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.

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)?

There always has been a manual recording option (under Find, I think), which allows you to specify channel, date, start time and end time.

 

[Weaste]

There always has been a manual recording option (under Find, I think), which allows you to specify channel, date, start time and end time.

Yes, but why do you have to exit to the main menu to do this? If you press record while watching a channel without a current EPG entry, it says it cannot record it, you have to exit to the main menu and then do it from there, which in fairness is quite crazy - I'm pressing the record button here. It's jumping through hoops for no reason. Unless I'm missing something here?

 

[catisfit]

Yes, but why do you have to exit to the main menu to do this? If you press record while watching a channel without a current EPG entry, it says it cannot record it, you have to exit to the main menu and then do it from there, which in fairness is quite crazy - I'm pressing the record button here. It's jumping through hoops for no reason. Unless I'm missing something here?

That's what the Live TV buffer does. Whenever I make use of the Live TV buffer, the results appear in the library like any other recording.

Manual and "from guide" recording is for scheduling recordings for the future, at least that's how I use it.

 

[MrSpiggott]

Has anybody else noticed an audio problem where by prologic II information is lost when watching live video, or video previously recorded in the library, through HDMI. Audio comes out as stereo on the left and right speakers only. The audio is being recorded correctly because if the programmes are moved over to the xb for viewing then the audio positioning works fine. It seems the PlayTV software is missing a PrologicII to LPCM converter, which is strange when there's a perfectly working one in the XB interface. The only work around that I've come up with is to disable all the LPCM settings in the xb audio menu, which is a right pain because I inevitably forget what mode I've left the PS3 in. Anybody else experienced this or come up with a better work around?

 

[patsu]

PlayTV article on the EU Playstation Blog: http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2009/06/19/playtv-update/

Apparently, the engineers are working on:
* RemotePlay via Sony Ericsson's Aino
* Enabling HD
* Series Link

A complete feature list for 1.10 is available in the link above.

I'd be keen to see if PlayTV can continue to record HD programs while running the latest heavy weight games (Uncharted 2, GoWIII, The Last Guardian, Heavy Rain, FF*, and Gran Turismo).

 

[Grall]

The 1.10 update gives a great picture quality with the upscaler enabled. Startup is still slow though, meh. Wish they'd work on that. PS3 boot times in general is fairly pedestrian unfortunately.

Hopefully they'll get series link working in short order. I find the current system too cumbersome and maintenance-heavy to use, so right now my playtv just sits here and collects dust.

 

[patsu]

PS3 DVR for Japan:
http://www.siliconera.com/2010/01/13/torne-turns-a-ps3-into-a-digital-recorder/

Sony is about to release a PlayStation 3 add on that turns the console into a digital recorder.

You connect your TV to Torne, the device, and plug that into your PS3’s USB drive. Torne saves shows to the PlayStation 3 hard drive and can automatically convert shows/movies/whatever for use on your PSP.

Is this the same as PlayTV in EU ?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Same idea, different device. Diffrent box, anyhow. Incidentally I was told PlayTV is available for £30 at Sainsbury's at the moment. Excellent value for a DVR!

 

[patsu]

Kotaku has more info:
http://kotaku.com/5447864/digital-recording-to-the-ps3-again

It's better than PlayTV.

The torne is a terrestrial digital tuner that connects to the PS3 via USB cable. Torne offers players an easy and colorful interface that lists programs. It's possible to look up programs and search the menu by genre or keyword. Using a timer, it's also possible to record in advance, and torne automatically records when the console is on stand-by or even while games/DVDs/Blu-rays are running. Besides recording directly to the PS3's hard drive, the torne can be used to record to an external hard drive as well.

There is a "search search" function for recorded programs. Torne gives viewers internet capabilities, while viewing recording, allowing them to search the internet.

The PSP media conversion is "new" too.

EDIT: Oh wait... I think the saving to external HDD feature is the same as the export to PSP feature. To the PS3, the PSP simply appears as a mounted USB drive.

 

[Arwin]

This reminds me - since the Slim came out we have a firmware that drops a bunch of stuff (like logos) to speed up start-up times for both the ps3 itself and its applications. Does this help in this case?

The 1.10 update gives a great picture quality with the upscaler enabled. Startup is still slow though, meh. Wish they'd work on that. PS3 boot times in general is fairly pedestrian unfortunately.

Hopefully they'll get series link working in short order. I find the current system too cumbersome and maintenance-heavy to use, so right now my playtv just sits here and collects dust.

 

[patsu]

I didn't see it that way but it would be true that the shorter boot time will benefit non-games.

Adriasang has close-up of the Torne screens on PSP and PS3:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/01/14/ps3_dvr_kit/

What's weird is this:

Developed by Sony's game development staff, the app makes use of the PS3's advanced processing capabilities.

So it's developed by a separate Sony team from PlayTV ? ([Confused] May be they value add on top of PlayTV ?)

Anyway, the app supports RemotePlay.

 

[JPT]

So it's developed by a separate Sony team from PlayTV ? ([Confused] May be they value add on top of PlayTV ?)

As one of the comments said, sounds like PlayTV for Japan. Was PlayTV ever released in Japan?

 

[Grall]

Japanese HD broadcasts use a different standard, no?

...So the same hardware wouldn't have worked there anyway (unless I'm totally wrong of course.)

I suppose the same software would work with some tweaking though, and a different box to plug into the system.

 

[pcchen]

Japanese HD broadcasts use a different standard, no?

...So the same hardware wouldn't have worked there anyway (unless I'm totally wrong of course.)

I suppose the same software would work with some tweaking though, and a different box to plug into the system.

Japan uses ISDB-T instead of DVB-T, so they need different demods. Software-wise, both DVB-T and ISDB-T uses MPEG-2 TS, but they are different in service data (network name, program name, EPG, subtitle, etc.) so there are some differences in software. Also, currently ISDB-T is MPEG-2 only in Japan except the mobile oriented 1-seg (although I've heard that in Brazil they'll use H.264). DVB-T has both MPEG-2 and H.264. Also, in Japan CA is basically mandatory (they use a system called B-CAST). So a PlayTV product in Japan will need a card reader for the B-CAST card.

 

[Arwin]

Japan uses ISDB-T instead of DVB-T, so they need different demods. Software-wise, both DVB-T and ISDB-T uses MPEG-2 TS, but they are different in service data (network name, program name, EPG, subtitle, etc.) so there are some differences in software. Also, currently ISDB-T is MPEG-2 only in Japan except the mobile oriented 1-seg (although I've heard that in Brazil they'll use H.264). DVB-T has both MPEG-2 and H.264. Also, in Japan CA is basically mandatory (they use a system called B-CAST). So a PlayTV product in Japan will need a card reader for the B-CAST card.

You need card readers in the Netherlands too, which is why we currently don't have a product. Would be nice if this eventually leads to a product we can use, although I doubt it.

 

[patsu]

Ok, that explains why SCE Japan needs to work on it.
What about US ? What do we use ?

 

[Crossbar]

You need card readers in the Netherlands too, which is why we currently don't have a product. Would be nice if this eventually leads to a product we can use, although I doubt it.

I think you will eventually. I bought PlayTV some year ago and though it does not support our region the current PlayTV software is fully localized and I believe it was for the Netherlands well. Each sw update has also been localized.

We have few free channels here and most people have extra channels through cardreaders built-in in the TV or separate boxes. That may be the reason why Sony hasn´t bothered to release the current PlayTV version. A PlayTV with card-reader would really have a much larger market here.

Edit - They may be waiting for the market to get big enough, the first version may have been testing the ground.

 

[makattack]

Ok, that explains why SCE Japan needs to work on it.
What about US ? What do we use ?

In the US, we use ATSC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC

 

[JPT]

We have few free channels here and most people have extra channels through cardreaders built-in in the TV or separate boxes. That may be the reason why Sony hasn´t bothered to release the current PlayTV version. A PlayTV with card-reader would really have a much larger market here.

What is "your" region?