Play TV Release Information

13 Aug

Sony have informed Eurogamer.net of the release information for Play TV - the addon for your PS3 which will allow it to be used as a fully fledged Freeview PVR. You will also be able to enjoy TV content from your PS3 via remote play on your PSP. The kit will be available to buy from the shelves on September 19th for a quite reasonable price of £69.99. Check Eurogamer for more details…

In: Uncategorized by: Three Speech Aug 13, 2008 @ 11:24 am

52 Comments

Futureproof for HDTV ?
Does this mean it will also work with DVB-T2 when it comes ?

Comment by xtc — Aug 13, 2008 @ 11:34 am
I’m skeptical. As I work within electrical retail, I know how many options are currently flooding the market and how many option are already on the market.
Why cough up £69.99 for an add-on that turns the PS3 into a “fully fledged Freeview PVR”, when a stand-alone freeview PVR box costs the same, consumes less electricity (does the add-on require it’s own power-supply?) and likely emits less noise?
With FreeSat newly launched, the prices of stand-alone Freeview PVR’s is dropping. £69.99 will currently buy you an 80Gb PVR (maybe bigger if you search around), and soon enough that price will drop, maybe even by the launch of PlayTV, and that price point will likely be used for 100-120Gb PVR’s.

Comment by The-Unknown — Aug 13, 2008 @ 11:43 am
@1 - I reckon so, yes. The decoding is done by the PS3 and controlled by the firmware. I.e. Firmware updates = futureproof device.

Sounds like a good deal to me. Count me in when there are HD channels available on Freeview. I don’t see any point buying it before then as I already have a Freeview PVR that supports standard definition.

Comment by reakt — Aug 13, 2008 @ 11:46 am
@2 - You could do that, but I bet a lot of people are more than willing to get rod of all these boxes to replace them with just a PS3 and a DVD recorder.

Also because everything is controlled by the firmware it’s completley futureproof.

It plugs into USB, no external powersupply needed.

It’s a fantastic deal, much better than freeview PVRs due to firmware updates (which you know will be supported for a long time, unlike others where firmware support is limited), an upgradable hard drive, and the usability and ease of having it all done in one place.

Comment by Gladman — Aug 13, 2008 @ 11:54 am
I’ll be buying this straight away, I don’t have a PVR but I do have a budget Freeview box. This could come in very handy.

Also with my budget DVD recorder, I can only record what I’m watching, this allows me to record something and watch somethign else (I read in a preview elsewhere).

Comment by Gladman — Aug 13, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Lots more details here http://www.playtvps3.com/en_GB/.

I will be picking this up day one, i want to record and keep stuff on the HDD. Under my TV i only have the PS3, it plays blu-ray, DVD, music and now it will record what i want to watch later without even having to stop playing a game or watching a film, great product from Sony and yet another reason to own a PS3…..

Comment by Nathaniel — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
Can someone explain where the “What you want from Leipzig” thread has gone?
All that negative feedback too much for you to admit to TS?

Comment by TheShirts — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Check this out:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/three-speech-muddying-the-journalistic-waters-212003.php

Comment by Terry — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
Three Speech isnt a semi-officlal blog its a PR stunt by Sony.

Comment by Terry — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
@2

I still don’t think that will work.

Having the PS3 do all the decoding while recording and playing a game, even the PS3 will struggle with that lot going on.

Also I don’t think you can do this in F/W.

I think they have either upgraded the tuners or TS and Sony are pulling a fast one, which will come back to bite them next year.

By the way still waiting for my answer to the mail from about 3 months ago from Tech support on this!!

An acknowledgment of the mail isn’t a response TS!!

Comment by GulfWarVet — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
£69.99, Reasonably Priced.

Bit of an overstatement, isn’t it?

Comment by hyped — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
@7: Where’s the “What you want from Leipzig” thread? Somewhere about here: http://threespeech.com/blog/2008/08/what-would-you-like-to-see-at-scees-leipzig-conference/

Comment by Hatstand — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
DVB-T2 needs hardware not firmware - it’s a different transimssion standard… no amount of firmware updates will give you it if the chipset doesn’t support it.

Sony are saying here that it’s build into the hardware, which is a net trick since the chipsets aren’t actually available yet (not that sony couldn’t have made some themselves, given their connections, but I’d want proof personally).

Comment by Tony — Aug 13, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Another point of concern is the user market as it stands. Sony are meandering into a section of the market assuming that there’s a large selection of PS3 owners that don’t already own Sky HD, a HDD PVR or FreeSat already.

I could pick up this add-on, and turn my games console into a PVR, but if I’m looking to downgrade and cut my costs from Sky, I’d consider FreeSat. Simply because with FreeSat you use your existing Sky dish and cables, only having to buy the reciever, which amazingly enough comes with a hard-drive. There’s a huge benefit to taking this approach that Freeview can’t match: A very low level of interference.

With Freeview, everything’s broadcast via transmitters, which suffer badly in adverse weather conditions and can be rendered completely useless by something as simple as a tree branch, leaving people with “scrambled” images and broken reception. FreeSat however uses satelittes, which provide a far more stable signal, reducing the chance of any signal interference or interruption greatly.

Oh… and FreeSat is firmware upgradable, as are the majority of Freeview PVR’s.

Comment by The-Unknown — Aug 13, 2008 @ 1:26 pm
Play TV is not freeview HD compatible, Just letting people know as SCEE never retracted its original statement
(note - its “was” compatible but then the standard for Freeview HD changed)

repeat NOT DVB-T2 compatable…
Rang Sony Customer Service had that verified….

Comment by Mr. Monkey — Aug 13, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
@terry
that was written in light of the
“Ilovepsp” blog
which was a HUGE PR disaster…

Agree with Luke tho, being bankrolled by Sony = Official
“semi official” is just a way to justfy the cone of silence we get from SCEE

Also note the Leipzig post has been unstickyed…
If thats not covering your arse for PR purposes I dont know what is…

Comment by Mr. Monkey — Aug 13, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
http://www.playtvps3.com/

Comment by weblink here — Aug 13, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
@14

The date of the article was some time ago, so its probably old news anyhow but it does figure why there is no feedback throught this site. If the blog was i any way genuine i’d seriously expect them to come back on this. If its paid for Sony surely that makes it official? The fact the domain is registered with a company who have history with Sony PR is the giveaway. Damn I should be a detective…

Comment by Terry — Aug 13, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
@12 actually the opposite is true.. Freeview uses broadcast frequencies that work well in all sorts of conditions, although they’re currently at low power (to avoid interference with analogue) which means they’re not so great if you’re miles away from the transmitter.. OTOH the days of frequent breakups are long behind us - that was doe to the poor hardware back in the OnDigital days.

It’s satellite that gets blocked by tree branches, weather, etc. In a heavy rain shower the sat signal can disappear for minutes at at time as water reflects the signal. A Freeview signal will even work on an indoor aerial.. you can’t get an indoor satellite dish as the signal just can’t get through any obstructions - it needs a perfectly clear line of sight.

Comment by Tony — Aug 13, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
@terry
Errr no you shouldn’t become a detective, everything you said has been public knowledge for AGES

like I said “semi official” is just a way to justfy the cone of silence we get from SCEE”

this post is also on Kotaku *waves* hi guys…

Comment by Mr. Monkey — Aug 13, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
@19

Well it made me feel good for a few minutes anyhow lol

Comment by Terry — Aug 13, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
Anyone who buys this is MAD!

A PS3 uses 160 Watts when idle. Add this device and you are talking 170 Watts +++.

Go out and buy an stand alone 80gig Freeview PVR for £40 (do a search on Google Shopping). It will be using less than 20 Watts, saving you 20p a day in electricity and is also cheaper!!!

Comment by Gav — Aug 13, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
[...] [Play TV Release Information] [...]

Pingback by SCRAWL: PlayTV Finally Dated and Priced for U.K. — Aug 13, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
8 Terry, lol @ kotaku raising issues of “journalistic integrity” this is kotaku, home of BS Rumours, FUD and raging out of control egos and “journalists” who think their readers give a crap about their personal lives! lol! thrrespeech has its issues , but I cannot stand for a site like kotaku looking down on anyone!

Comment by cg — Aug 13, 2008 @ 4:07 pm
@2 Why cough up £69.99 for an add-on that turns the PS3 into a “fully fledged Freeview PVR”, when a stand-alone freeview PVR box costs the same, consumes less electricity (does the add-on require it’s own power-supply?) and likely emits less noise?

Er… because all the other PVRs are:
a. More expensive
b. Bigger, and take up more space (obviously, in addition to your PS3)
c. None of them have User Interfaces that are as good looking as the PlayTV. And most freeview PVRs are *notorious* for having really bad interfaces.
d. Dont have slingbox style functionality with PSP and remote play.
e. USB ports and super-easy copying of files to other devices
f. Recording directly to a USB HDD

Comment by Tony Nibbles — Aug 13, 2008 @ 4:12 pm
Sony just lost a few sales.

NO MORE COPY TO OTHER DEVICES!

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=212585

Comment by Mostyn PSN: Mossychops — Aug 13, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
I have a question. Does the freeview get delivered over the PS3s internet connection or do you have to have a physical tv ariel plugged into the playtv device?

Comment by cg — Aug 13, 2008 @ 4:42 pm
@cg
You need a aerial…

Comment by Mr. Monkey — Aug 13, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=212585

Awesome. You can’t transfer the files as previously stated. There goes all the sales…

Comment by pat — Aug 13, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
@ Tony Nibbles - i can pop down my local electronics shop tomorrow and pick up a Freeview PVR with an 80gb drive for what Sony are charging for their item, which to be honest is no better than a £20 pc usb freeview pvr. at least the PC usb version lets you share files, so i can transfer them to my ps3/psp to watch if i like via upnp media server.

NOT allowing people to copy recored files off the ps3 to memorysticks/external hd means the thing is pointless.

Comment by mobiletone — Aug 13, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
I have been really looking forward to this product, but I’m crushed by the recent announcment that recordings are not transferable to the PSP (in contradiction to what was touted as a killer-feature up to this point). All it is now is a (expensive) PVR that uses up your PS3’s resources. If you need a PVR then buy a stand alone model:
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001151&langId=-1&searchTerms=5321272&Submit=GO+%3E

Gutted…

Comment by simonb — Aug 13, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
@mobiletone

+1
Sony said we could copy files to the PSP. sorry N0 sale.

Just cancelled my order.

Comment by Mostyn — Aug 13, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
No PSP direct copying? Remote play only? Count me out!

sarcasticgamer[dot]com/wp/index.php/2008/08/playtv-priced-disappointing.html

Comment by Yamster — Aug 13, 2008 @ 7:11 pm
Was going to get Play TV and get rid of my Virgin box No point now.

Comment by Mostyn — Aug 13, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
lame, no copy of file = no sale

Comment by carl(threespeech censored me) — Aug 13, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
Cancelled my pre-order.
No file copy no sale

Comment by garengarch — Aug 13, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
Pre-order cancelled.
No file copy = no sale.

Comment by garengarch — Aug 14, 2008 @ 7:52 am
Sony really need to make an announcement regarding the removal of the feature that would have allowed recordings to be *transferred* to another device. There still a page on the official website that touts the feature:
http://uk.playstation.com/games-media/news/articles/detail/item76297/TV-star/

Comment by simonb — Aug 14, 2008 @ 8:18 am
Sony has lost two sales from me, firstly was not that bothered about lack of freeview HD figured that the PS3 would upscale SD quite nicely (like my DVDs),

Secondly was sat on the fence about getting another PSP (sold my launch one), no file sharing, remote play only….

Well there seems no point to get them now, only usp left is record while you play games/watch blu-rays.

Something I imagine a stand-alone PVR unit could do quite nicely… (obviously)

Comment by Mr. Monkey — Aug 14, 2008 @ 8:56 am
Me too, not going to buy now.

Look around at all the forums and see how many folks have now decided against buying PlayTV in view of the non-transferable recording issue.

Sony you have just removed the real reason people were going to buy PlayTV on the PS3.

Clever.

Comment by magik986 — Aug 14, 2008 @ 9:50 am
Sony

I only wanted to watch TV on my Sony PSP and on my Sony Mp4 player on the go,

It is only the twenty first century after all.

Bring back Betamax.

Comment by Mostyn PSN: Mossychops — Aug 14, 2008 @ 10:05 am
@terry

Interesting article! Can’t say I’m surprised.
It’s funny how some people will still defend TS like they are all doing us a favour.

Comment by manley — Aug 14, 2008 @ 10:48 am
Got a notification e-mail from Play.com telling me it was available to pre-order, so I did…

Read that I can no longer transfer to my PSP or anything else….

Pre-order cancelled.

Will I carry on using my WinTV Nova-T USB Stick? Yes I will, Can I transfer those files? Yes I CAN!! Can I transcode them for my PSP? Oh Yes

Silly silly Sony.

Oh BTW your PSP GPS add-on is so stupidly priced I’m not buying that either.

Comment by Demibeard — Aug 14, 2008 @ 11:15 am
@9 - I’m not sure if Sony still gives Three Speech a “semi” or not!

Comment by reakt — Aug 14, 2008 @ 11:43 am
Locked features = file export and no HD recording! = no longer a purchase for me!

Although, if ThreeSpeech can confirm that you can still recieve HD channels (when they are avaliable)???????????

ta

*sob*

Comment by elephant_stone — Aug 14, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
@ simonb re: http://uk.playstation.com/games-media/news/articles/detail/item76297/TV-star/

That is disgusting and just rubs it in the face of the people who are so so dissapointed by this news!!!

Can we pull off a boycott of PlayTV????? Someone set one of those petittion pages up plzzzzzzz

*yelp*

Comment by elephant_stone — Aug 14, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
Got a notification e-mail from Play.com telling me it was available to pre-order, so I did…

Read that I can no longer transfer to my PSP or anything else….

Pre-order cancelled.

That’s funny, that’s exactly what I just did. You have to wonder what brand of moron are running that company.

Comment by Another One — Aug 18, 2008 @ 6:11 pm
No HD recording? Srsly? Count me out - even if it comes to rest of Europe.

Comment by TheRealDeal — Aug 18, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
no sale either. ps3 is just a low end pc? whats so ground breaking show me proof. Blu ray sony have monoply so price is held, excuses are made by officials that the cost is to high for production umm okay. gloryfied PC like i said.money needs to be raised as greed is never ending. stupid thing is not even password protected? & it sits in the living room? the browser is protected but how far? thing needs a lock down mech for safety as its connected to the world.

Comment by jabbawalk — Aug 21, 2008 @ 3:17 am
[...] it to be used as a fully fledged Freeview PVR. You will also be able to enjoy TV content from yourhttp://threespeech.com/blog/2008/08/play-tv-release-information/09:47 BST, 22/07/2008 Summer Session Press Release PROVIDED BY GAMES PRESS ?? Summer Session is a [...]

Pingback by free online rpgs — Sep 4, 2008 @ 11:49 pm
[...] Play TV Release Information [ThreeSpeech] [...]

Pingback by consoleer » Blog Archive » PlayTV Gets Final U.K. Date, Pricing [PS3] — Nov 4, 2008 @ 11:54 am
apparently you can stream recorded tv programs to your psp via remote play BUT you cannot copy recorded tv programs onto a memory stick for use in a psp

Comment by niall — Jan 3, 2009 @ 4:16 pm

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