Sony PS3 PlayTV updated Mpeg4 Support

claytonie

Hi not sure if anyone posted this already but Sony has release a patch for their PlayTV offering that now supports Mpeg4 which is good news for everyone in Ireland with a PS3 and wants to watch the DTT broadcasts

Zonda999

Great news this.Hope it resolves the problem but tbh, i wouldnt be wanting to be the first person to try this out!:p

Hmmm, i wonder if i should now sell my Mvision Hd200c in favour of a humax hdr and play tv. Still, though, that seems to be a pretty messy setup with the two different epgs and the such..

watty

We await confirmation now from NZ, Estonia or Ireland etc.

Peiking Duck

Interesting. Could be a handy purchase.

STB

Working in Estonia Spain & New Zealand.... read for yourself

http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=417&message.id=40848

http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/forum/index.php/topic,422.90.html

They are having problems with the AC3 audion format in NZ. That wont matter here at the moment as we dont use this audio codec, presently.

Seems to be issues with recording though.

Mark#1

Tempted to cry "great news!", but like the wiser folk on here, I'll be watching closely for confirmations before putting on my leotard and practicing my back-flips.

When those guys on those threads talk about TV3, I take it that's an NZ channel, and not our own TV3?

Like Zonda, my hopes were that I'd have a Foxsat HDR and PS3/PlayTV. I've got the HDR, so if PlayTV proves to be a runner, it'll be a pretty easy sell to my wife to go for a PS3/PlayTV for the DTT PVR - the PVR aspect of PS3 is the only attractive point for her. The BD & games aspects draw me.

For anyone with a universal remote, (mine's a Harmony One), switching between Freesat & DTT would effectively be seamless.

Watching very closely . . .


Mark

givecredit

Mark#1 wrote: »

For anyone with a universal remote, (mine's a Harmony One), switching between Freesat & DTT would effectively be seamless.


Mark

You may have issues here. I think the Playstation uses blue tooth technology for remote control signals, Not infraRed.

keithoh

givecredit wrote: »

You may have issues here. I think the Playstation uses blue tooth technology for remote control signals, Not infraRed.

Apparently Logitech are in the process of making an adapter for the PS3 to allow the PS3 to be controlled by their universal remotes.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10200621-1.html

Mark#1

There's also IR2BT, IR4PS3, etc, and a few €10 USB converters that allow the use of IR remotes, with varying levels of control.

Mark

byte

Yeah, you can get your hands on an unofficial IR remote to work the PS3, which uses an IR dongle plugged into USB. Then just map the button functions onto the Harmony.

yel

Hi I'm just about to purchase the play tv- how do I go about getting the patch?

Dman001

yel wrote: »

Hi I'm just about to purchase the play tv- how do I go about getting the patch?

You update it through the PS3. I think you go into "System Update" or something like that.

Pat Gleeson

yel wrote: »

Hi I'm just about to purchase the play tv

Please let us know how you get on

yel

I got the play tv today in argos 99euro. Brought it home and tried it out, I only have sky and no ariel so no luck with an indoor ariel (but its an old one so not worried). Brought it out to my brothers house (he has ps3 and ariel channels)
Its so easy set up. Put in the disc into ps3 and a short video is played and the software is put on the ps3. Then it searches for channels and arfet about one minute it finishes with 4 tv and 4 radio channels. BUT the tv channels dont work. So you then have to update the software to v1.1 and thats in the menu. That takes about 3-4 mins and will depend on you broadband speed.

Picture is top quality on RTE 1, 2, TV3 and TG4.

There is no programme information on the channels.

You can pause live tv.

I didn't spend much time after that on it as I had to go.

I'd say it will be easier work with the sony remote ( the ps3 controllers are a bit fiddly).

So happy enough to start with

butts

Thanks for letting us know Yel. If it becomes available online for somewhere around the €60 - €70 I'll be very tempted.

yel

I'm sure you will- I only got itin argos as no where else had it where I am

Pat Gleeson

Thanks for that, yel.

Sounds interesting. A pity there's no programme info, but all in all sounds interesting.

Round Cable

butts wrote: »

Thanks for letting us know Yel. If it becomes available online for somewhere around the €60 - €70 I'll be very tempted.

play.com €65. Not a great exchange rate with sterling, but it's the best price going.

culabula

Round Cable wrote: »

play.com €65. Not a great exchange rate with sterling, but it's the best price going.

But surely they will not dispatch this to Ireland?

F1ngers

Pardon my n00b questions...:o
Will this work with digital NTL?
Will this work with this Philex satelitte kit?

culabula

F1ngers wrote: »

Pardon my n00b questions...:o
Will this work with digital NTL?
Will this work with this Philex satelitte kit?

No: this will only work to pick up the small Irish DTT service by using a terrestrial aerial attached to the playTV unit. Nothing else.

watty

Pat Gleeson wrote: »

Thanks for that, yel.

Sounds interesting. A pity there's no programme info, but all in all sounds interesting.

There may be eventually, as the service is not launched yet and they will be doing EPG via MHEG5. The current transmissions are just tests. We can't really forecast which TVs, Adaptors and Setboxes work with the EPG yet.

The PS/2 eye cam now can be used on Linux and Windows. I wonder if there will be a Linux or Win driver for PC for the PlayTV, or PS3 support for other USB tuners?

Pat Gleeson

culabula wrote: »

But surely they will not dispatch this to Ireland?

No, unfortunately they won't.

http://www.play.com/HOME/HOME/6-/Help.html?page=del#jump-pe

Round Cable

culabula wrote: »

But surely they will not dispatch this to Ireland?

They accepted my order on Thursday, so play probably classify this as a game rather than electronics. We'll see when it comes back into stock.

Peiking Duck

Round Cable wrote: »

play.com €65. Not a great exchange rate with sterling, but it's the best price going.

Amazon will ship it to Ireland. 77 euro

butts

Play.com have delivered PS3 peripherals to me before so I think you should be OK.

KeRbDoG

butts wrote: »

Play.com have delivered PS3 peripherals to me before so I think you should be OK.

Seems that Play.com will indeed ship the PlayTV to Ireland unlike all of there other electronics stuff - now, what can I sell off to convince myself getting one will cost nothing

watty

Maybe FreeSat PVR for other channels and ditch the DVD player for a PS3?

Better than a half baked combo with only 2 tuners in it.

shayg1971

Picked one up in Smyths in Newry today for £49.99. Installed the update in minutes and it works great. EPG not working, but nor is it working on my LG 50PG4500 at the mo.

Charles Slane

The epg seems to be not working anyway. Will be interesting to see if it appears on PS3. Definitely worth keeping an eye on this.

Peiking Duck

Charles Slane wrote: »

The epg seems to be not working anyway. Will be interesting to see if it appears on PS3. Definitely worth keeping an eye on this.

It will definately appear at some stage. The EPG currently doesn't work on my tv either.

watty

They are not yet transmitting the final form of EPG.

homer911

EPG is coming and going while experimentation if going on.

(I'm using a Viaccess NP4 card on a Sony LCD with only native MPEG-2 support)

Mark#1

So PlayTV should support whatever EPG Ireland gets for its DTT once it's finalised?

What about the PlayTV EPG that's featured in all the video features & adverts - I like the look of that.

I guess I don't fully understand the EPG aspect of DTT yet.

Is it the case that a 7-day EPG will eventually be a part of the PlayTV DTT experience, even if it's not now?

Game have PlayTV for £60 (€67 today on xe.com), and have a branch in Buttercrane in Newry (and Castle Court in Belfast, if you wanted to go further).


Mark

STB

watty wrote: »

They are not yet transmitting the final form of EPG.

?

SI information is being transmitted at present presumably by RTE NL's PSI/SI server which is generating PSI/SI tables and the EPG data. Isnt this the final format. Its a standard.

I would imagine it is probably subject to data being updated and engineering tweaks. Sometimes its on sometimes its off. Bit like the MHEG5 used for the fancy teletext. EPG data on at the moment and therefore should be working on Play TV as its working with other DVB hardware I have.

Charles Slane

STB wrote: »

EPG data on at the moment and therefore should be working on Play TV as its working with other DVB hardware I have.

Haven't seen any EPG data in a couple of weeks from Three Rock. Where are you getting your signal from?

watty

STB wrote: »

?

SI information is being transmitted at present presumably by RTE NL's PSI/SI server which is generating PSI/SI tables and the EPG data. Isnt this the final format. Its a standard. .

Satellite UK services has THREE EPG formats
1) PSI/SI tables which for German stations (19E) is a one Week EPG, Only Now & Next on 28.2E
2) Sky EPG via the closed "Open TV" format.
3) Freesat EPG via some form of MHEG5 application.

My belief is that the EPG will only be Now/Next on the DVB standard and the DTT full EPG will be an MHEG5 application.

Anything at the minute is no guide to to launched service other than the spec. Even that is subject to change.

STB

Charles Slane wrote: »

Haven't seen any EPG data in a couple of weeks from Three Rock. Where are you getting your signal from?

Most defo 3Rock Charles. 7 days on Clarketech HD5000C. Likewise with the Technomate 6900. What are you using to watch DTT. Its broadcast with the streams.....no problem.

Watty: EPG data is broadcast in the open on DTT, unlike on Sat were the data is stuck up on a transponder and is only now and next due to Sky not offering it in the open and Freesat using MHEG5 (think its huffman tables).

Even if MHEG5 was deployed tommorow you would have a scenario where EIT is broadcast in DVB SI in parallel (like NZ). RTE tendered for a PSI server for this very reason.

givecredit

Has anybody been able to record of Irish DTT using playtv? Or do the recording issues apply to Ireland as well?

anotherlostie

givecredit wrote: »

Has anybody been able to record of Irish DTT using playtv? Or do the recording issues apply to Ireland as well?

No, cannot record on it either - get an error report about format not being supported. This is the same as people in Estonia and NZ had reported on the PS3 forums.

Other than that picture quality is superb (in a 5th floor apartment in Dublin using a small booster aerial), and just wish there was an EPG!

slegs

watty wrote: »

My belief is that the EPG will only be Now/Next on the DVB standard and the DTT full EPG will be an MHEG5 application.

Any particular reason you believe this?

Pat Gleeson

yel wrote: »

BUT the tv channels dont work. So you then have to update the software to v1.1 and thats in the menu.

When you get the software first, there is no option for an update on the main menu (at least not on mine).

You have to go to the settings tab on the main menu, and then scroll down to the 'About' tab. It then asks if you want to update. When you update the option to update then appears on the main menu directly - handy for the next update

The picture quality is pretty good here off Woodcock Hill. There is picture break up on RTE 2, and TG 4 is off air showing a testcard and scrolling text -'RTE NL DTT Tests'. Live pause is available, record isn't.

Photo to follow

Pat Gleeson

Here's a photo of TG4 paused via PlayTV

Pat Gleeson

TG 4 EPG Info (such as it is) :-)

Pat Gleeson

I have the EPG working today. I changed the location from 'Other' to 'UK'.

No recording available as yet. Pause Live TV, Rewind and FF are - after pausing.

Mossy Monk

Is there any reason for the recording not working?

givecredit

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Is there any reason for the recording not working?

Im guessing here. But i suspect this a ps3 issue more so than Playtv issue. There is probably a compatibility issue with the file format. No doubt Sony will resolve this soon with a firmware upgrade..

Thats the great thing about the PS3. Its constantly being upgraded. Its a very different machine to what i bought 2 years ago..and at no extra cost, Bar 300gb drive.

Pat Gleeson

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Is there any reason for the recording not working?

It comes up something like 'file format not supported'.
The Text is now working too - see photos attached.

Pat Gleeson

The clock is one hour behind - on the Play TV EPG, Menu and on the Text.
I can't for the moment fix that.

watty

pause *IS* recording

Also recording does almost nothing, the work is in displaying, It must be a stupid bug in PS3 SW.

RE: EPG. It's been said that RTE plans on DVB for the EPG and the MHEG5 for the other candyfloss. If that remains the case it will be good for playTV and many other DTT solutions.

You don't have to go a menu someplace and set up a recording location, or only schedule recordings? Working Pause means it is actually recording and playing simultaneously.

More Music

Pat Gleeson wrote: »

I have the EPG working today. I changed the location from 'Other' to 'UK'.

No recording available as yet. Pause Live TV, Rewind and FF are - after pausing.

Fair play to you Pat. I have been using PlayTV for a week now and installed it under "Other" locations, so I had no EPG. I just changed it to "UK" and it rescanned. Up came the EPG.