Something to watch out for if using Play TV

woidoi

Just had an hour of unnecessary fun there with PS3's Play TV. As today is the official launch of Saorview I thought I'd rescan the frequencies on my Play TV. It was working perfectly but you always hope for something new.

Bad idea! It would seem that transmitters have been boosted a lot in power around the country. Play TV found various ones at about 15% where it didn't before, one at 100% (my usual one) another at 95% (second mux maybe?) and a whole load of other 10 or 12 percenters.

So what's the problem. Well Play TV picked up 18 stations on the first 15% transmitter and 18 on the 100% one. So you would expect Play to say hey you've got the same channels here from 2 transmitters, let's go for the stronger one. As I say, you'd expect that to happen. Of course it went for the weak one!

So much picture breakup that Play TV crashed, causing the PS3 to lock up. Had to switch the power off. Recycled it. Still the same problem. Got it to re-scan, same problem. Re did setup. Same problem. Re-installed Play TV software with latest updates, still bringing the Playstation to it's knees.

Was panicking now, only just got my wife round to using the bloody thing now what?

Finally hit upon a solution, it's cludgy but it worked. I noticed that the 15% transmitter is near the beginning of the scan and the 100% was nearer the middle.

So I set off a scan again but this time I disconnected the aerial before I started. (Just disconnecting the usb lead to the PS3 from Play TV won't work as Play calls foul).

When the scan got past 30% I reconnected it. Play TV picked up the channels from the strong transmitter only and voila I was back with full quality picture like I was before I started all this!

The words of my engineering lecturer came back to haunt me "If it ain't broken WTF are you messing with it for!"

homer911

Creative solution!

dellWlan

Any crashes since? My play tv has been crashing all evening. Locking up playstation. 60gb launch model. Can't get more than a few minutes out of it. Picture breakup is not the problem though. picking up maghera with 63% on set top aerial.

watty

Stupid software on the PlayTV. It should ignore the weaker ones with same names.

63% What?

Signal means nothing. It's Quality that counts. Also domestic "quality" meters don't respond to bursts of interference. Indoor aerials are notorious for Interference. Easier to see on analogue what is happening. Get a proper aerial installed.

ondafly

dellWlan wrote: »

Any crashes since? My play tv has been crashing all evening. Locking up playstation. 60gb launch model. Can't get more than a few minutes out of it. Picture breakup is not the problem though. picking up maghera with 63% on set top aerial.

this all sounds like its to do with Saorview signal strength, but the above issues started happening for me on Monday, when I updated to the latest PS3 software. I read up on a couple of forums, and the suggestions were to delete my PlayTV data from the "Saved Data Utility section on the PS3" - this obviously means you loose anything you record. But I was getting the exact issue as quoted, would lock up the PS3 completely. I deleted the saved data, and I had to do a channel rescan and all is well since.

However if what the OP is saying about signal strength this could be compiling the problem.

dellWlan

watty wrote: »

Stupid software on the PlayTV. It should ignore the weaker ones with same names.

63% What?

Signal means nothing. It's Quality that counts. Also domestic "quality" meters don't respond to bursts of interference. Indoor aerials are notorious for Interference. Easier to see on analogue what is happening. Get a proper aerial installed.

63% ???? signal strength I'll go with so rather than quality. PlayTV as far as I can tell doesn't let you check strength/quality other than when initially scanning and I think that's just a strength meter.
Unfortunately the budget doesn't stretch beyond a set top aerial. It is the one you suggested on your aerials faq: post but I guess I'm not in a good enough area.
Previous to this though quality has been great but maybe I'm teetering on the edge of the cliff in that regard.
I'll have to try it upstairs but with no tv up there I'm trying to use remote play off the psp. No joy so far though.
Was hoping to record magners league as I'm in work today.

Charles Slane

Something strange happening with the PS3 and Play TV alright. Going to RTE Gold (which is not showing any EPG info) causes the PS3 to lock up and has to be powered off to get it working again.

I was wondering if it's something to do with EPG info...

dellWlan

I did see the epg was missing plenty of data alright, no current info but had the following two days then blank again, and ps3 lock ups weren't confined to watching tv. It happened navigating from main menu to guide or opening guide while watching tv or changing channel. If I just left it on a station it actually worked without a hint of break up. I have it plugged in at home with magners league and champions league set up to record but I'm not holding out much hope.

I'm guessing epg is still EIT (I think that's what it's called) and launch day had no last minute tweaks no sudden mheg5 red button things or that.

I suppose playTV was never designed for saorview it just happened to appear to be compatible.

And one more question. I've set it to uk what's the difference between that and 'rest of europe' say??

ondafly

spoke too soon - mines after locking up watching the match. This is only happening since I updated on Monday

dellWlan

Recorded magners for me in my absence and got through champions league ok for me. Didn't touch a thing though once it was going. I'll probably have just jinxed though.

woidoi

Further to my OP. Having occasional lockups now on Play TV which it never did before. :rolleyes: If it freezes with an image still on screen it usually can be recovered gracefully (i.e. just killing Play Tv). If it dies with a blank screen, it's hard reset time. I must try that wiping of cache settings thing this evening as mentioned above to see if it clears the problem. Annoying especially when the RTE2 hd transmission quality is rather excellent!

mjsmyth

there certainly seems to be something funky going on with the PlayTV. Every now and again, perhaps twice a week, whilst watching a TV programme, the screen will just go black and there is no audio.

When this happens, I have to hit the power switch on the back of the PS3 to power cycle. PlayTV will then work fine till the next time..

AloKildare

woidoi wrote: »

Further to my OP. Having occasional lockups now on Play TV which it never did before. :rolleyes: If it freezes with an image still on screen it usually can be recovered gracefully (i.e. just killing Play Tv). If it dies with a blank screen, it's hard reset time. I must try that wiping of cache settings thing this evening as mentioned above to see if it clears the problem. Annoying especially when the RTE2 hd transmission quality is rather excellent!

I have the very same problem, it freezes just about everytime I use it which is very annoying! I cant seem to find a solution, it only started doing this last monday.:mad:

ondafly

Mine has completed this blackScreenOfDeath a few times now, and all since I watched President Obama on the RTE2 and installed the update. It seems to happen "more often" if I switch between channels.

My PS3 - is 250gig slim model. I'm wondering if they have changed something regarding writing to memory on the machine, as I think my PlayTV has live record turned on, and perhaps in some weird way is causing the issue.

woidoi

Don't think it's anything to do with Live Record, I don't have it turned on and the crashes are still happening. Also did a total clear out of settings from Game Data Menu and re-scanned. Just as bad I'm afraid. A lot of people on the British forums are complaining of this as well. Also found the following on the Joystiq site -

A Sony Europe representative has informed Joystiq that the company is aware of a current issue with PlayTV, the HDTV DVR add-on for PS3 available in the region. Users have reported encountering a system-crashing bug after applying the most recent premium update to the device.

"We are aware that since the latest PlayTV update, certain issues have arisen," a company representative told Joystiq. "We are working to fix these and hope to have a solution very shortly." A Joystiq tipster suggests the issue can be fixed by reinstalling PlayTV, though doing so will erase all data, including the paid update.



Wonder has it do with an update somewhere else in the system or has something changed with the RTENL streams from the weekend and official launch. I thought it was more or less set during test phase, ie. RTE 2 was being received as HD even though it was SD upscaled going in.

I also noticed the the programme info inthe bar at the bottom was jiggling as if constantly trying to refresh. Anyone else got that problem.

I know Play TV is not Saorview certified but Sony seemed to be quite happy that it was compatible. And a mate in RTE told me ages ago that he was involved in testing and was using his Play TV as part of it. He recommended setting it to UK region to get all the features working.

I noticed dellWlan said he was picking up from Maghera, as am I. Are ye all picking up from Maghera or different transmitters?

Gerry Wicklow

If British forums are complaining how can that be an RTÉ problem?

STB

woidoi wrote: »

Wonder has it do with an update somewhere else in the system or has something changed with the RTENL streams from the weekend and official launch. I thought it was more or less set during test phase, ie. RTE 2 was being received as HD even though it was SD upscaled going in.

I also noticed the the programme info inthe bar at the bottom was jiggling as if constantly trying to refresh. Anyone else got that problem.

I know Play TV is not Saorview certified but Sony seemed to be quite happy that it was compatible. And a mate in RTE told me ages ago that he was involved in testing and was using his Play TV as part of it. He recommended setting it to UK region to get all the features working.

I noticed dellWlan said he was picking up from Maghera, as am I. Are ye all picking up from Maghera or different transmitters?

Its Sony's crap software. lesson: Dont release something if its not capable of doing what it says.

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

If British forums are complaining how can that be an RTÉ problem?

How could British forums be complaining - they could only be complaining about similar problems with SD stuff. They use DVB-T2 for HD. These Sony devices are DVB-T only, they wont work for HD in the UK.

woidoi

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

If British forums are complaining how can that be an RTÉ problem?

I'm not suggesting it's an RTE problem, I'm nearly 100% sure it's a Sony problem. Just trying to find out a few facts from people about their experience before I tackle Sony support.

The fact that Britain doesn't use our system for HD transmission would back up this. They are having a problem, same as us, so it points to a Play TV software problem. It's just odd that it started this weekend for most of us over here so if there was a change in the streams somehow it might help to pinpoint it. If there was no change (however small) in what RTENL put out it again puts it back in Sony's park.

Play TV is not certified Saorview compatible but if we could find out what the problem with the software is, we might stand some chance of getting it included in a future update. (just wouldn't hold my breath that's all!):eek:


*****************************
NJI

Disclaimer: I'm only passing on information, you need to research for yourself and see if any action is required.

Have being having a look around the search engines and it seems a hell of a lot of people around the world are having problems with their PS3's since the PSN went back online. Basically constantly crashing, errors, not booting, on games, network and Play Tv. Seems the updated firmware 3.61 could be at fault.

Some of the effects are quite disturbing, bricked machines, overheating etc. Sony denying any problem but it seems to be worldwide. It even got a mention on BBC's Watchdog programme of all places. They were blaming some of the recent release games but it seems that it can apply to any activity on the PS3.

Some people are recommending a square one reset on the PS3, full wipe, start again but I'm going to hold off for a few days and see if there is an update.

There's an interesting thread here on the Playstation community that will explain better than I. Something to keep a watch on.

http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Technical-Help/Everyone-who-has-had-their-PS3-breakdown-this-week-post-in-here/td-p/12862903/highlight/false/page/14

AloKildare

I am receiving saorview from kippure, as I said in a previous post my ps3 crashes almost everytime I use play tv. Something has to be done asap!!

obliviousgrudge

I'm getting this problem too.

Mainly happens when I change the channel.

Pappy o' daniel

Having the same problem, also as woidoi says the program info flickers like its refreshing.

My firmware is 3.56 so I dont think it has anything to do with the new update.

Games still work fine, the only thing that has changed was the official launch of saorview, so it must be that, maybe they boosted transmission power or somrthing but I really have no idea why its acting up now.

dellWlan

As far as I know the British forums would be complaining about the paid for update which has series link and chat or something. That's supposed to be fairly buggy. I take it nobody Paid for that here? It's more likely a post psn outage latest firmware update which is also causing problems. I think the main game/ps3 problem was with L.A. Noire and that had overhearting issues although after Sony said it wasn't their fault and rockstar said it wasn't their fault the last I read was they rather helpfully released a joint statement saying it wasn't either of them to blame and it was probably mass spontaneous combustion although I'm paraphrasing that last bit.

Anyway back on topic I also have the flickering programme info. Could it be despite everything playTV didn't bother making decent code for mpeg4 over dvb-t or some other resolution related problem. Anyone read the non uk forums for any country with mpeg4?

akamossie

I am having the same issue, its nothing to do with the firmware thats for sure because works fine with 3.61, but since I updated the channels this thing been happening, I have deleted the Saved data and setup PlayTv again, I will keep an eye and see if crashes again, if still the same, going to backup the PS3 and do full reset for the PS3 and will see from there I guess.

woidoi

Had a bit of free time so tried a few things. Did the clearout as suggested of the PlayTV data from the game menu (strange that Sony treat this kind of peripheral as a game), no improvement.

Booted the PS3 in maintenance mode and got the listing of things you want to do. I ignore the temptation to wipe everything and start again and instead selected repair file system. It went off and checked and said that there were many errors on the drive (I love the lack of specifics from Sony!) . It offered to fix them and I said sure why not. A few minutes later it rebooted and guess what, so far so good, PlayTV hasn't crashed since for 2 days.

Could it be as something as simple as a corrupted file system, (probably caused by PlayTV crashing I would have thought but then again that would be cyclic thinking), or have RTENL transmissions settled down.

Only time will tell, but at least it's something to try before taking more drastic measures.

dellWlan

How do I boot in maintenance mode?

woidoi

... it started to crash again. Spoke too soon obviously. The file system repair didn't do the trick. It locked up again last night while I was trying to record something. I guess it's hit and miss from now on until Sony release a patch.

To get into safe mode below find a snip from the PS3 website, the first bit describes the procedure the second bit details what each one does. You can do a lot of damage to your game saves etc so proceed with caution. I did number 3 - Restore File system. As I said it found errors but didn't fix PlayTV.

Also you may need to re-activate multi audio out in audio settings in the XMB if your surround sound doesn't work after this.




Safe mode startup procedure

①　Verify that the power indicator on the PS3 system is solid red, and then turn off the MAIN POWER switch.
②　Turn on the MAIN POWER switch, then touch and hold the power button.
③　Keep touching the power button even after you hear a short beep after 5 seconds.
④　After 10 seconds, you will hear another short beep and the system will shut down (release the button at this point).
⑤　Touch and hold the power button again.
⑥　Continue touching the power button even after you hear a short beep after 5 seconds.
⑦　Release the button when two short beeps are emitted after 7 seconds.
⑧　As instructed by the on-screen message, press the PS button to start up in safe mode.

Effect of each safe mode option

1. Restart System Ends safe mode and starts up the system normally.
2. Restore Default Settings

Performs operations for [Restore Default Settings] on the PS3 Home Menu, and also deletes PlayStation®Network account information from the system.

* [User] information is deleted temporarily and then restored. An asterisk (*) is appended in front of the restored User name.

If you sign in to PlayStation®Network after performing [Restore Default Settings], purchased games can be played without any additional operations.
Note that for downloaded (purchased) games, if you turn off the system before you sign in, the following error message will be displayed when the game is started, even if you turn on the system again and sign in:

To access this content, you must activate the system.

Go to [PlayStation®Network] > [Account Management] to activate this system. (80029514)


To access the content, go to [Account Management] to activate the system.
(Even if [This system is activated] is displayed, deactivate it and then activate it again.)
*******
3. Restore File System Attempts to repair all areas on the hard disk drive where files can be saved. Corrupted data may be erased if it cannot be recovered.
*******

4. Rebuild Database Deletes messages, playlists, changes made on [Information] screens, trimming information for pictures in [Photo], video thumbnails, video playback history and video resume information.
* This operation may take a long time depending on the type and number of data items.
5. Restore PS3 System This corresponds to [Restore PS3 System] operation on the PS3 Home Menu (quick format).
6. System Update Updates the PS3 system software (can only be done from storage media).

akamossie

I have backed up all my saved data Restore to default settings and format the drive. Setup play TV again about 15 mins and its back the way it is. Guess will wait for new update from sony

akamossie

There is new firmware 3.65 any one updated any difference made. I am away at the moment can't test it

AloKildare

I have just completed the new update, I put play tv on straight away to test it (especially for you akamossie!!). I ran it through its paces for approx 4 mins when, hey presto, IT CRASHED!!!! I really thought this was the solution to our problem, maybe the next play tv update will do the job. We live in hope :rolleyes:

akamossie

Appreciate that AloKildare. I guess we have to wait and see the next firmware release from playtv so

Pangea

Play tv is a bit of a disaster, I uninstalled mine last week not because of picture breakup, but because on random occasions when I went to view the EPG, the screen would go black and the PS3 would be inoperable! I ended up having to turn it off at the back switch to get the PS3 working again.

mjsmyth

Thats exactly the problem I and many others are having.... Something has changed and not for the better.

MJ

benmeade

Yeah having the same problems as described by everyone else.
Glad to know im not alone.
I first noticed this when using remote play to my netbook and it lost the connection with the ps3 so i went to the ps3 only to find it frozen up but lights still on and it wouldn't respond to button presses on the joypad.

I only need to have it on for about 5 minutes and change channel for it to crash.
Noticed loads missing from the epg also.

The reason i didnt update the tv to saorview was because i had playtv and the Tv was otherwise perfect ffs!

akamossie

Sony are aware off the issue now as it's effecting all Europe. The issue is down the HD channel provided which in our case is RTÉ 2. An update will be coming soon

mjsmyth

Thanks Mossie.

benmeade

akamossie wrote: »

Sony are aware off the issue now as it's effecting all Europe. The issue is down the HD channel provided which in our case is RTÉ 2. An update will be coming soon

But RTÉ 2 has been HD for a while now hasn't it.
Glad to know Sony are aware of it all the same.
Cheers

akamossie

It was some how but not officially HD I am guessing something on their end of the encoding has been changed and effecting the playtv anyway I was trying a little trick last night. When I start playtv no interruption but the minute its on RTÉ 2 boom its black screen. So watch in the other channel for like 15mins and switch on the HD channel and works. I was watching TV for 2hours and no probs

mjsmyth

Any update on this issue?? I can't find anything on the Playstation forums. It happened to me after the match this morning. Pity it didn't happen during the match

benmeade

mjsmyth wrote: »

Any update on this issue?? I can't find anything on the Playstation forums. It happened to me after the match this morning. Pity it didn't happen during the match

I have abandoned my playtv as it's now unusable. Its a bit useless asking Sony to sort it as it was never made for Ireland.
They just fobbed me off!