PlayTV

Answers to Questions

Videos can be transferred to the PSP in MPEG-2 format which is PSP compatible. Recordings go into the PlayTV menu, you can then export them from here to the XMB and watch them on there or copy from there to PSP, Memory Stick or external HDD.

Yes, an external HDD can be used to store movies, photos, music etc but it must be formatted to FAT32 and not NTFS.

The remote play feature works a dream...I used my psp to watch UK TV when I was in australia.

Now for a quick review

Installation is easy, you plug the playtv "box" into the ps3 via USB and also plug your digital aerial (an aerial capable of freeview basically) into the box via the aerial cable. You insert the supplied disc and let it play a intro video while it installs in the background. Once this is done, it will scan for channels and hey presto, you can watch, pause and record live TV. I'd recommend updating playtv before the first use though. Options-About-Check Update, make sure the disc isn't in when you update though.

The picture quality is pretty much the same as my internal freeview tuner. Picture quality of the recordings is very good and if the ps3 is left on standby (Red light on power indicator) and you have programs scheduled to record the ps3 will turn on and record the programme and will turn itself off once its done. If you play games while recording you sometime get little stutters when playing back the program.

5/5 product and well worth the £49.99 PLAY are selling it for

Tip: Take a look at the 7 day programming guide on BBC One and FilmFour at 10pm onwards. There is a decent film to record almost every night! lots of savings over buying dvd's.

Please do not use reviews to ask questions without also leaving a review. Anyway I thought I would just clear this up...

Play TV will NOT allow you to watch or record Sky TV, Virgin Media, or any satalight or cable channels. It also does NOT allow you to watch pay TV channels availiable on freeview such as Setanta Sports.

Play TV can ONLY be used to watch and record FREEVIEW digital channels which you get through your aerial (the one you used to watch analogue channels). Play TV does this very well, much better than many other freeview PVRs, it is basically just like the FREEVIEW+ set-top boxes that have just come out, only it plugs into your PS3. It allows you to record one channel at the same time as watching another OR recording another OR playing a PS3 game. It has a 7 day EPG which is basically an on-screen TV guide and it allows you to setup a recording to take place at the same time each week to record all programmes in a series. With an update it could get a feature more like Sky+ 'series link' which does the same thing but if a program is cancelled or delayed due to football etc then the recording only starts when the program starts. Play TV features two 1080p HD tuners allowing you to watch (and record) 1080p HDTV that is encoded in DVB type video. However, there is NO HDTV availiable over Freeview at the moment so you WILL NOT get any HD channels. Ofcom has decided to bring out HD on Freeview starting in 2009 but this will use DVD-2 which Play-TV cannot pick up, even via an update because new hardware is needed.

There are many other features of Play TV that I will not go into now (search for it on wikipedia or google) but the best one in my opinion is that it can be updated via Playstation updates which allows it to get unlimited new features (except features that require new hardware such as HDTV over DVB-2). Play TV does everything it says it can do very well. But, AMAZINGLY, it cannot do things it does not say it can do.........

The demo available on the UK PS Store is refreshingly easy to use, even when using the regular controller and not the Blu-ray remote. The fast forwarding and recording of programs did become a bit of a hassel but it is understandable as the each program was about 1min long and as it was already on the hard drive seemed pointless to record. The use of start to pause the TV is good but could be confusing and can take getting used to also it tells you to press the PS button to exit. I assumed this meant exit back to the main menu (which is not what it did) and not get the usual PS button shenanigans (which is what happened). I will be getting this as I have no way of recording TV atm and also a recently upgraded PS3 HDD will mean loss of space is not an issue, it is a pretty pointless buy if you have sky+ for example as you must leave the PS3 on whenever it needs to record, you can record whilst playing other games though and it has a dual-tuner so watching one thing and recording another is possible and available from day 1. "Series link" is also not available and it only records at certain times regardless of what is showing. If you have sky+ it IS a pointless buy as sky+ probably performs better the only disadvantage being sky+ is an extra, large box and also the PS3's hard drive is easily upgraded whereas sky+ is much harder to do.

If you need a freeview box and have a PS3 I would get this as it will perform well.

Got my playTV delivered at 10am this morning, and set up and working within 5-10 mins.
Its very easy to use, no hassle setting up and is another great gadget to have for the PS3.
picture quality is no different to that of a normal digi-box, and the play tv box has mounting holes so that you could stick it out of the way on the wall.

the only minor problem is to do with the actual PS3, not play tv.....why oh why isn't there a USB on the rear of the PS3?!

I received my copy of Play TV yesterday, one thing i found straight away was how easy it was to set up and the ease of installing it. Once Play TV was installed it took me no time at all to figure out how to use it, the main menu is easy to navigate with options such as "library" "settings" and so on so you can tweak it to your personal preference. The library is where it saves all your programmes that have been recorded, i found mine had a few little clips already saved so i swiftly deleted them to save space. Couple of minor problems i have come across is that switching channel takes a bit longer than the average set top box, and when i switch the TV on it takes a while before the PS3 loads then you have to select Play TV and wait for that to load before you can start watching TV.
But overall its an excellent product, so easy to use and a really good interface, i love it. its a must buy unless you have sky+ of course.