Play tv

Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2004
Posts
4,374
Location
Reigate surrey
Anyone have this?, and is it any good?.Ive seen this a quite a good price and i am very tempted, also does it only run off a normal aerial socket?
 
I have a cheap freeview box and a cheap aerial. I can get a lot of channels, but only when it decides it wants me to have them. Will PlayTV solve that? or will I need a new aerial also?
 
Whats the PQ like on PlayTV? Does it match up to normal Freeview methods (External/Integrated) or is it worse?
 
I have mine running through an 'SLX Amplified High Performance Indoor Aerial', which is sub-£20. I checked it out and it was by far the best budget aerial, my Play Tv is a bit stuttery every now and then, I also have to fiddle with the aerial a tiny bit for some channels, but once I get the main house aerial connected up to my room, it'll be absolutely perfect. It's certainly tolerable as it is tbh, which is pretty commendable to both aerial and Play Tv, as my signal strength is pretty poor.
 
The PQ is slightly worse on my TV. There is much added blockiness which wasn't there on my internal Freeview decoder. But the ability to record programmes outweighs that for me. But I lie about 1-2 feet away from my TV so it won't be noticeable at further distances, I should think.
 
Now that I have the PS3 remote I might look into getting this. I only have the 40gb console though.

Sounds like a good excuse to upgrade to a big hard drive. ;)

I get pretty decent use out of my PlayTV, even considering I'm not usually one for watching telly (don't find the time to watch stuff when it's actually on, so it's perfect for me).

But I lie about 1-2 feet away from my TV so it won't be noticeable at further distances, I should think.

:eek:

What size TV do you have? I sit further than that from my PC monitors.
 
Sounds like a good excuse to upgrade to a big hard drive. ;)

I get pretty decent use out of my PlayTV, even considering I'm not usually one for watching telly (don't find the time to watch stuff when it's actually on, so it's perfect for me).

How long does it take to get running when you want to watch TV?

Turning the PS3 on, then loading PlayTV just seems like it might take a good 30 seconds odd, which would probably get a bit tedious.
 
How long does it take to get running when you want to watch TV?

Turning the PS3 on, then loading PlayTV just seems like it might take a good 30 seconds odd, which would probably get a bit tedious.

30 seconds seems about right. I tend to record whilst I'm playing games or away and then catch up on everything in one session, so it tends not to annoy me. :)

As people have said, once it's loaded it's a really slick, fast UI much faster than Sky or Virgin Media by a long shot.
 
Its one of my favourite things, Picture quality is good, the UI is great and pausing live telly etc works really well. You seem to get the odd stutter on live tv some times but nothing to worry about :)
 
and just to confirm, you can pull recorded programmes off the PS3 with a USB HDD or memory stick?

How do you overcome the 4gb limit?
If you recorded a film on BBC One, which has a higher bitrate than the other channels, does the PS3 break it into smaller files, or can you simply only copy files of less than 4gb off the PS3?

I already have a PVR that I can copy the programmes off (Topfield 5800) via USB, but am also interested in PlayTV, assuming I can pull programmes off as well for archiving.

Vin.
 
and just to confirm, you can pull recorded programmes off the PS3 with a USB HDD or memory stick?

How do you overcome the 4gb limit?
If you recorded a film on BBC One, which has a higher bitrate than the other channels, does the PS3 break it into smaller files, or can you simply only copy files of less than 4gb off the PS3?

I already have a PVR that I can copy the programmes off (Topfield 5800) via USB, but am also interested in PlayTV, assuming I can pull programmes off as well for archiving.

Vin.
You can export recorded shows to the XMB, then I believe you can back them up onto a flash stick or HDD, I've been told it's easy enough to then stick them on the PC and use software (can't recall which one) to convert them to a more common format.
Not sure about the 4GB issue, but it'd have to be well over a 3hr film for that problem to come up I think.
You can pick it up for £50 now btw, I'm going to add it to my PS3 Games Database thread.
 
Although I've never tried it, my theory is that PlayTV will split 4GB+ files when you move them to the XMB. 2 hours of a BBC1 programme should be enough to take you over 4GB. A good test would be the Royal Variety Performance tonight from 1930-2200.
 
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