Sony PS3 PlayTV updated Mpeg4 Support

Pangea · 25-08-2010 05:08PM

Sony PlayTV: New features detailed

Sony might have announced that it is adding ITV player to its Sony PS3 earlier this week at Gamescom, but it's now detailed a lot more information on what owners, new and old, will be getting with its PlayTV box.
For those not entirely aware of what PlayTV is, PlayTV is a Freeview ready box that you connect to your Sony PlayStation 3 console, allowing you to watch television and, more importantly, schedule shows to watch by recording them to your console.
Chat TV

Play TV is going to become an interactive experience with the great new "Chat TV" feature that lets you text chat with friends and other PlayStation Network users while watching live TV, as if they were in the room with you. Your chats will overlay the screen, which could get tricky to read, but at least you'll be able to bait them when your favourite team scores that winning goal.
TVTV

No, it's not a picture in picture offering, but a new premium programme guide from "tvtv", strangely enough, that lets you Plan your TV viewing 7 days in advance. You'll be able to search TV listings by genre, actors, directors, producers and more, something even Sky users can't currently do.
Series Link

Finally you'll be able to set Series Link on for your favourite shows in the UK.
Facebook

Yep, like the Xbox 360, PlayTV is going all social and that means you'll be able to send recommendations for your favourite shows to your Facebook wall and also any of your PSN friends. People will be able to comment on your Facebook recommendations or even set a recording for the show directly from the PSN recommendation.
Community Favourites

This feature lets you see what your friends and the PSN Community are watching and enjoying. So if you’re ever stuck for something to watch then just check out what everyone else is watching, no doubt porn and all.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/35067/sony-playtv-new-features-detailed

etcetc · 30-08-2010 12:52PM

Set this up last night

Got to first stage 16 channels found using indoor aerial radio stations working but tv stations give unsupported content message

How do I go about updating playtv software can't see any update function in the settings menu

30-08-2010 01:19PM

etcetc wrote: »

Set this up last night

Got to first stage 16 channels found using indoor aerial radio stations working but tv stations give unsupported content message

How do I go about updating playtv software can't see any update function in the settings menu

Hi. If you go to settings in the play TV application, then "about", you will have the option to update.

etcetc · 05-09-2010 12:19PM

i know probably already answered in this thread but its quite long plus added distraction of attention seeking 2 year old means limited free time

got this up and running using indoor aerial so 6 tv stations 4 functioning and 10 radio stations is what i gained

can any other stations be got and if so how

does the playstation have to be left on all time for scheduled recordings to work?

also any mods to playstation to make it not so noisy

05-09-2010 05:12PM

etcetc wrote: »

i know probably already answered in this thread but its quite long plus added distraction of attention seeking 2 year old means limited free time

got this up and running using indoor aerial so 6 tv stations 4 functioning and 10 radio stations is what i gained

can any other stations be got and if so how

does the playstation have to be left on all time for scheduled recordings to work?

also any mods to playstation to make it not so noisy

Unless you live near the border the channels you have are all thats available at the moment.

Once you set a recording the playstation will switch itself on to record and switch itself off afterwards.

As for the noise, I suggest you clean your Playstation! Get a hairdryer with cold setting and blow out all the dust from all the vents around it.

I did this to mine and its much quieter now, the noise comes from the fans having to do overtime to keep the PS3 cool, but if their is less dust then you dont need them to do all that work.

Pangea · 19-09-2010 01:24PM

For the people that are having problems with play tv recording the scheduled programme correctly , I have a question, do yous have an old ps3?
I have the old 40gb ps3 fat and Im thinking maybe play tv doesnt function with the old ps3 properly.
If i have it set to record the night before for the next morning ,it may turn itself on to record, but when I try and watch the programme later it shows it in the library but with a red dot beside it and then when i try to play it ,it says paused. Then sometimes it wont even wake itself up to record. Also as some of you have experienced when setting a programme to record in the next few days it will change and record the wrong programme.
There must be some issue with the PS3 clock system.
The only time it records perfectly is if I was recently using the ps3 e.g. playing it during the day and set it to record an hour or 2 after playing it.
Or maybe its a hardrive issue? I have a 500gb hardrive which I installed myself.

So 2 questions if you have Play Tv that is working fine or not.
What model of a ps3 do you have?
Have you changed the Hardrive?

watty · 21-09-2010 01:00PM

Is PlayTV now pointless?

The DTT dongle costs nearly x2 what DTT USB of PC/Laptop costs online.

It doesn't work very well compared to HD PVR which are dropping in price.

And now firmware upgrade is to be charged extra http://www.reghardware.com/2010/09/21/sony_playtv_update_charge/

bucks73 · 22-09-2010 01:53PM

I certainly wouldnt pay for a firmware upgrade after buying their PlayTV in the first place. Its not even working properly at the moment when it comes to scheduled recordings and they want to be paid for something which may or may not work well either.

I dont think so.

Chicharit0 · 22-09-2010 04:01PM

watty wrote: »

Is PlayTV now pointless?

The DTT dongle costs nearly x2 what DTT USB of PC/Laptop costs online.

It doesn't work very well compared to HD PVR which are dropping in price.

And now firmware upgrade is to be charged extra http://www.reghardware.com/2010/09/21/sony_playtv_update_charge/

i ordered mine from play.com about 2 weeks ago for e49, still hasn't arrived. :mad:
and as for charging customers for firmware updates :eek:
get real sony

thebman · 22-09-2010 04:12PM

Chicharit0 wrote: »

i ordered mine from play.com about 2 weeks ago for e49, still hasn't arrived. :mad:
and as for charging customers for firmware updates :eek:
get real sony

They can do it if they have new features however if there are unresolved bugs fixed in the new one that they leave in the old one that it would be a problem I think as nowhere does it mention the possibility of them killing software support after a year or two with the need to upgrade the software to keep receiving bug fixes.

I think the real issue is it didn't sell well enough to support the upgrades so now to make it viable to keep updating it they have to charge. Its likely if they don't get this, they will just kill the whole thing.

Pangea · 23-09-2010 01:08PM

watty wrote: »

Is PlayTV now pointless?

The DTT dongle costs nearly x2 what DTT USB of PC/Laptop costs online.

It doesn't work very well compared to HD PVR which are dropping in price.

And now firmware upgrade is to be charged extra http://www.reghardware.com/2010/09/21/sony_playtv_update_charge/

Play Tv is certainly not pointless, I want to watch tv on my tv

not on my laptop.
I dont think the firmware upgrade would have any benefit for us in Ireland ,its mainly aimed at freeview customers in the UK.
Offically I dont even think Play Tv has recognised Ireland in its customer base. Probably due to the fact we only have 4 channels on it.

Most people on the UK forums have no problem with their play tv, I wonder would our problems have anything to do with signal strength etc. or something related to that.
My signal strengh is like 32% when i was doing set up, but still looks crystal clear.

watty · 23-09-2010 02:40PM

You will soon get a Setbox as cheap as PlayTV. Only the PVR feature makes sense, for that you need dual tuner.
Dual USB tuners are about €40 to €50

The UK uses a different system. They will be unable to use PlayTV on HD at all as PlayTV is only DVB-T and UK uses DVB-T2 for HD.

By 2013 we will have 5 HD channels and 4 or 5 SD channels + 12 to 14 Radio,

mjsmyth · 24-09-2010 11:05AM

I find the Play TV adapter very handy. It works well, gives good picture and is nice and easy to setup on the PS3. It has dual tuners so in theory should allow me to watch one channel whilst recording another, but I have never tried it out. Has anyone here?

I have my doubts about upgrading to the latest firmware if I have to pay for it, unless it brought something really good to the system. I don't want or need people on facebook to know what I am watching.

thebman · 24-09-2010 11:17AM

mjsmyth wrote: »

I find the Play TV adapter very handy. It works well, gives good picture and is nice and easy to setup on the PS3. It has dual tuners so in theory should allow me to watch one channel whilst recording another, but I have never tried it out. Has anyone here?

I have my doubts about upgrading to the latest firmware if I have to pay for it, unless it brought something really good to the system. I don't want or need people on facebook to know what I am watching.

The only new thing I can see being of any use is series link which isn't important as on the Irish channels there is rarely anything worth series linking and the fact is the programs generally can't even start on time...

I've recorded on one while watching another channel on PlayTV with no issues. It also supports the EPG guide type thing for DTT trial so I fail to see what the paid upgrade could bring that would warrant paying for it.

tlaavtech · 24-09-2010 12:12PM

Pangea wrote: »

Offically I dont even think Play Tv has recognised Ireland in its customer base. Probably due to the fact we only have 4 channels on it.

Then again, officially there is still no DTT service in Ireland, so why/how could Sony support it! The MPEG4 upgrade was of little use to most of the "supported" countries for PlayTV, so in my mind this was a quiet, non-commital way to support the Irish customer base. Having said that, I doubt that there will be any more free updates. (Not sure we will really need them though!)

Another advantaged of PlayTV is the ability to stream to a partner PSP to watch tlive tele or recordingds anywhere in the world wireless network permitting. It' like a mini slingbox! A laptop could do some of the same job, but for rights restricted programmes, this is very handy when abroad

There are lots of other ways to do this, but many houses will have a PS3 & PSP combination for the 2 weeks holiday Corrie update!!

EdRey · 01-11-2010 12:26PM

got my playtv from amazon.co.uk for 42 bucks.

Installed with 120GB PS3 slim, updated firmware, got all channels bar TV3 no problem. Living in Dooradoyle. RTE HD looks very good. I would say that there is a slight drop in the picture quality of RTE1. I'll be getting an attic aerial during the week so that might improve things.

I've got a older 40GB PS3 fat upstairs, I'll try that later to see does it work there too.

JDxtra · 01-11-2010 12:29PM

RTE1 is being broadcast with a lower resolution than RTE2 for some reason.

Pat Gleeson · 01-11-2010 02:28PM

EdRey wrote: »

I've got a older 40GB PS3 fat upstairs, I'll try that later to see does it work there too.

It should work without problems - it's the one I have.

limerick_woody · 01-11-2010 04:07PM

Hi All,
I just stumbled across this thread. Can anyone provide a brief synopsis of what play.tv is from an Irish perspective. I have a ps3 and currently subscribe to sky - generally only for rte,as i don't have a good aerial to pick them up. Is it worth buying the play.tv, what kind of antenna does it need and can all the Irish channels be picked up on it?

Cheers.

neacy69 · 01-11-2010 04:17PM

PlayTV is an HDTV/DVR add on unit for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console. It allows the PS3 to act as an HDTV or DTV receiver as well as a digital video recorder (DVR) for recording television programmes to the hard drive for later viewing. The application will only start up with the DVB-T adaptor connected.

here ya go:

http://www.cnet.com.au/sony-playtv-ps3-339299333.htm

^Decent video description on this site^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayTV

limerick_woody · 01-11-2010 04:20PM

Thanks for the links, but really I just wonder how well it works in Ireland.

Pat Gleeson · 01-11-2010 04:35PM

limerick_woody wrote: »

Thanks for the links, but really I just wonder how well it works in Ireland.

It works perfectly well in Ireland. The current channel line up is:

http://www.saorview.ie/channels.html

The interface you see on the video provided above by neacy69 will look exactly the same, just the channels available are different.

http://www.cnet.com.au/sony-playtv-ps3-339299333.htm

N.B. TV3 has not appeared on DTT / Saorview to date. There is a placeholder channel 'RTENL Test Transmission' where TV3 will eventually appear.

limerick_woody · 01-11-2010 05:05PM

Great - in terms of the signal format - will the playTv be able to decode the Irish signal when it goes fully operational? Also, how well does the record work - i assume it is a memory-hog? Also, will a normal tv aerial be required, and as the signal is digital, i assume you either get the picture or you do not - is this the case?

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

EdRey · 01-11-2010 05:54PM

limerick_woody wrote: »

Also, how well does the record work - i assume it is a memory-hog?

There are some warnings about recording and playing blu-rays/games at the same time. You can enable an option to prevent both occurring at the same time. I'll try it out this evening and see how it looks.

limerick_woody wrote: »

Also, will a normal tv aerial be required, and as the signal is digital, i assume you either get the picture or you do not - is this the case?

Read this excellent site : http://www.techtir.ie/saortv/saorview

My current aerial : http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5347407/c_1/1|category_root|Home%2Bentertainment%2Band%2Bsat%2Bnav|14419512/c_2/2|cat_14419512|Television%2Baerials%2Band%2Bboosters|14573578.htm

limerick_woody · 01-11-2010 06:08PM

If It uses mpeg4 (does it?) - how much hard-drive space does an hour of recording use?

EdRey · 01-11-2010 06:15PM

yes, irish DTT broadcasts in mpeg4

From the CNET link above: "An hour of HD material will take up 10 gigs of space".

lgs 4 · 04-11-2010 11:39AM

play tv is it worth the money and how is its preference over all

EdRey · 04-11-2010 11:57AM

lgs 4 wrote: »

play tv is it worth the money

that depends on how much money you got ;-)
I'm very happy with it, but it fits into my setup very well. You are getting a HD decoder and PVR for 42 euro, so I think that's good value ATM. There are a number of other DTT decoders on the market, but I don't think you'll get the same functionality for the same price. BUT, a PS3 is mandatory of course.

lgs 4 wrote: »

and how is its preference over all

I don't know what you mean. Rephrase.

watty · 04-11-2010 01:52PM

limerick_woody wrote: »

If It uses mpeg4 (does it?) - how much hard-drive space does an hour of recording use?

Depends entirely on the average bit rate of the channel. An SD transmission could be 1GByte and HD could be 4GByte for an hour. But it depends of program content, if it's HE-AAC stereo, MP2 stereo/mono, DD/AC3 stereo or HE-AAC /AC3 surround sound.

It's about €30 for a dual tuner USB stick for a Laptop.

About €80 for a basic non-recording setbox.

You need to want a PS3 anyway and have Full HD HDMI TV (new models will receive directly and some will have HDD PVR).

lgs 4 · 04-11-2010 02:07PM

EdRey wrote: »

that depends on how much money you got ;-)
I'm very happy with it, but it fits into my setup very well. You are getting a HD decoder and PVR for 42 euro, so I think that's good value ATM. There are a number of other DTT decoders on the market, but I don't think you'll get the same functionality for the same price. BUT, a PS3 is mandatory of course.

I don't know what you mean. Rephrase.

[ it should have been preformance] how is the over all preformance on play tv

Sony PS3 PlayTV updated Mpeg4 Support

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