PlayTV User

Like almost everybody else I’ve been looking to save money this year.

Now, despite running this site I still use Sky+ as my main PVR but have become increasingly disenchanted with Sky and their practices (e.g. charging an extra £10 per month for the “right” to access HD channels).

So I have been strongly considering ditching my Sky package and box and going the pure PS3 + PlayTV route, saving a fortune in the process (I currently have the full works on Sky, including Setanta, which costs above £70 per month. Ouch!).

Psyching myself up for the switch I’ve been using PlayTV as my main PVR for the last week. In terms of content, the Freeview channels suit me fine, as long as I’ve got BBC4 for the next series of Flight of the Conchords, I’m happy, but there is one thing that I can’t get past :

- the damn noise of my PS3.

Some history…

I own a 60GB PS3, purchased around two years ago, and I did notice the fans immediately were noisier than I expected, especially as I was sold on the “virtually silent” bullet point as reported by the US early adopters. Knowing this would bug me long term (I don’t know if I’m especially susceptible to being annoyed by fan noise) I took it back to Virgin (remember them?) and got a replacement.

The replacement was just the same. If anything, it was worse.

Deciding to cut my losses and anticipating that maybe this was just a bad batch, I got my money back and got Yet Another PS3 - this time from HMV.

Again - fan noise. At this point I just resigned myself to the fact that the a silent PS3 must be a myth - or I must have developed a Spidey-sense level of hearing when it comes to white noise!

Anyway, we decided to keep it - and to be fair, when you’re engrossed with your launch game de jour (Motorstorm) for the first few days, with the sound level ramped up, the fans are not something you notice.

As a result, I put the fan noise into Room 101 of my mind.

A couple of months passed until I did the usual PS3 ownwer ‘Eureka’ moment - “Hey! This thing also plays Blu-Ray movies!”.

So excitedly we rushed out to get ‘Superman Returns’ and then it hit us. This PS3 is like, erm, really noisy. For the first 30 minutes of the film it wasn’t too bad, but then it seemed like the fans were having a who can spin the loudest competition, making the dialogue only parts of the film virtually inaudible unless I played remote control jockey, quickly darting about to find the volume settings - and then turning it down again before the next theatrical instrumental surge returned (hey, at least it was more fun than the actual film).

At this point I rang Sony to get a replacement. I remember it well, it was early on a Sunday morning, and I got through to the most patronising technical support monkey I’ve ever had the misfortune to speak to.

Despite my protestations that the unit was unfit for purpose (c’mon - Sony clearly bigged up the PS3 as the ‘centre of the living room experience’ - and surely watching films counts as an integral part of that) this guy insisted that this was ‘normal’ and not a valid reason for a replacement.

Ultimately, he wore me down. I should have been more assertive, it must be related to my lack of ‘bar presence’ that means I end up waiting 20 minutes more than the average bear to get served a pint in any drinking establishment.

So I accepted the situation (and lost a lot of love for Sony and my PS3 in the process). We reasoned that we were unlikely to rent a lot of Blu-Ray movies as we already had our Sky HD movie package so it wouldn’t be that big a deal.

Fast forward two years and I now deeply regret not putting more pressure on Sony to send out a replacement as I would love to phone Sky and let them know where to tell Rupert Murdoch to stick it…but using PlayTV with my PS3 is a non-starter due to the fan noise.

So - what’s a guy to do? I could go the Freesat route with my Sky+HD box in which I cancel all my Sky packages - but then Sky still want £10 per month just so I can use the Sky+ functionality of the box (i.e. the ability to pause TV, record programmes, etc.) which I’m sure is bordering on the illegal, but somehow, like always, Sky get away with it.

No! I want to use my PlayTV and PS3 Godammit!

So, it looks like I’ll be on the lookout for a replacement PS3 (and selling the existing one on EBay), researching the PS3 bundles out there nothing really catches my eye at the moment so I might wait for the rumoured price drop. Assuming I sell my current model for around £200 and buy a new one for £300 I’ll be out of pocket to the tune of £100…or 10 months on the Sky Freesat option. Hmm….

Another sneakier alternative would be to sign up to http://www.continuousplay.co.uk/, Sony’s out of warranty insurance service for the PS3 for just £4.99 a month. I could do this for a few months to avoid suspicion, then make a claim to say the fans have “suddenly” gone bonkers, get a replacement, then cancel the insurance.

Hardly ethical, but given my experience with Sony customer support a few years back I wouldn’t lose much sleep over it.

Of course, this PS3 grand replacement plan is all based on my theory that all other PS3 models out there are actually whisper quiet. Is this the case? I’d love to know if other people are put off using their PlayTV due to the noise of their PS3 console, or is everyone happily using their PlayTV without even giving any consideration to the fan noise?

PlayTV firmware update 1.02 is now available to download. It comes in at 21Mb so depending on your broadband connection you might want to make a quick cuppa whilst it downloads.

What’s new in this update? Not too much to be honest in the way of new features, just improved performance when it comes to the EPG, simplified updating process and better help for setting up Italian channels.

So, no biggies apart from performance. Have you noticed your PlayTV being more responsive since you updated to 1.02?

Well, today is the day we have all been waiting for.

After months of speculation, the little black box is finally being delivered by grudging postmen around the country, and your PS3 will finally be able to record off the telly.

It will be interesting to see how Sony supports this gadget, will it get the same lavish firmware upgrades as the PS3 enjoys, or will it be the black sheep of the PS3 peripheral world, a curio intended for Europe/PAL TV networks, that will get neither the advertising promotion or technical updates its fans will clamour for.

Whatever happens, PlayTV User will remain your dedicated resource to all things PlayTV. If you have any specific queries about the PlayTV, or things you would like to see added to this site (a user forum perhaps?) then let me know..

Until then, enjoy your little black boxes, and feel free to give some feedback in the comments on your first impressions of your new toy!

Sony have updated the PS3 PSN store with a free demo of how PlayTV works, so if you want a quick illustration of how it all hangs together, get downloading
Also, today a new (positive) PlayTV review from Pocket Lint.

It looks like Sony might have made a very late move that is sure to shift some serious amounts of PlayTV units.

Reason? Judging from the latest review of the PlayTV from CVG it appears that you are free to copy recorded material from the PlayTV after all!

From the review :

“Or, brilliantly, you can export videos to your PS3’s XMB menu as MPEG-2 video (despite rumours suggesting the feature had been removed). From there you can use it like a normal file - watch it on your PS3, put it on PC, transfer it to your PSP… whatever you like. ”

Huzzah!

Time to “uncancel” those PlayTV pre-orders? Remember that Amazon still has it £10 cheaper than elsewhere

Rarely has there been a peripheral shrouded in so many mysteries as the PlayTV tuner for the PS3.

One is reminded of the old ‘there are more questions and answers’ song that was the undoubted highlight of the ‘A Question of Sport’ mystery guest round.

Common queries include :

• Does it upscale?
• Can you record two programmes at the same time?
• Can you copy stored TV programmes onto another device?

Rumours and counter rumours abound, football’s Transfer Deadline Day surely has nothing on this.

In addition to our PlayTV FAQ, the Guardian have managed to secure an in-depth interview with some kind of evasive Sony robot official who I’m backing for our next Prime Minister which might provide the answers you are looking for.

Read it here and brace yourself for our forthcoming robotic overlord (oh, and the impending release of the PlayTV).

Never forget, “SCEE is evaluating future plans.”.

Hmm…the usefulness of the PlayTV has become more interesting again, as this post on the rather excellent AV Forums site states that it is actually still possible watch exported programmes from your PS3 on the PC, despite the late changes made to the PlayTV that attempted to prevent this.

The only caveat appears to be that the only player capable of viewing them seems to be the ever versatile VLC software.

Thanks to “Patbateman69′ for the information. Can anybody else confirm that they have managed to get this working?

Eurogamer has come up trumps with the first full review of the PlayTV PVR for the PS3.

To summarise this in-depth review :

Good Bits

1. slick’n'responsive EPG
2. ability to create a list of favourite channels
3. no problems recording and playing games simultaneously!
4. PS3 can wake itself up to record

Bad Bits

1. confirmation that DRM is in force on the video files
   as expected, no support for Freeview (CAM) cards, so no Setanta Sports
2. ugly hardware (do we really care?)
3. prone to crashing
4. no upscaling
5. can only record one thing at a time

Overall, a pretty positive review despite the confirmation of the DRM restrictions on copied PlayTV programmes, and given Sony’s agressive updating of the PS3 firmware, hopefully we can hope for most of the negative points to be in future PlayTV firmware updates, together with additional features.

Other things worth highlighting :

1. 1 hour of programming requires approximately 1GB of storage space.
2. it comes with an overlay for the existing PS3 Bluray remote

Remember that the best price for the PlayTV is currently coming from Amazon - who are offering it for a full ten pound cheaper than other retailers. Nice.

Stuff.tv has got its dirty mitts on one of the first PlayTV boxes in the UK and has posted a preliminary review - thanks, guys.

Together with some new pics (including a nice piccie comparing the size of a PS3 controller with the PlayTV box) Stuff appear a little underwhelmed thus far, but have promised a fuller review soon.

Ah well.

After initially proclaiming that the PS3 PlayTV tuner would allow users to copy their recorded material from their PS3 hard drives onto any other device (e.g. memory stick, another hard drive,etc.) without worrying about copy protection, it now seems, according to Eurogamer, that this feature has been dropped.

What’s that clicking sound? Perhaps its the the sound of thousands of PlayTV preorders being cancelled?

Fortunately you will still be able to stream live TV to your PSP using the Remote Play functionality so I’m sure the 0.002% of people who actually planned to do this, instead of sitting in front of their 42″ LCD TV will be happy.