PlayTV User

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.