Sony today announced that their PVR add-on for the PS3 has sold over 100,000 units in Australia since it launched in late November last year. To celebrate, they’re dropping the price by 20 bucks.
As of today, the PlayTV will have an RRP of $150, making it a cost effective option for anyone looking to record Live TV to their PS3′s hard drive. Sony have also promised a live chat feature for PlayTV by the end of the month that will let you text chat to other PlayTV users.
100,000 is a huge milestone for a peripheral like the PlayTV. Considering 75% of the Playstation’s functionality has been added since it launched, if nothing else, the 100,000 figure proves the versatility of Sony’s console.
NacaYoda
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 2:46 PMSome major flaws with the “PS3 for PVR” remain.
- Slow start up
- No access to recordings from XBM (main ps3 menu)
- No Series recording (ie, record same show every week)
Plus the inability of the PS3 to play my international DVD titles (R2 + R1).
Fix these elements and Sony would own the budget Home Theatre market.
matt
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 5:48 PMyeah, I wish they hadn’t region locked the dvd player… wtf… seeing as how EVERY other dvd player isn’t in Aus.
as for play tv?
if you set your region to not aus, you can copy stuff to the XMB (still have to copy though, can’t just access) and then you can copy them to external storage and beyond… but you loose SBS…
as for recurring recordings, I’m pretty sure you can do that? just have to do it as a manual recording in a different menu.
Kit Grose
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 11:48 PMThe worst thing is that the PlayTV is capable of exporting videos to the XMB but it’s been locked out in Australia (along with the 120x FFWD and the skip 1 minute button) in order to receive Freeview certification (which does nothing other than puts a logo on the box): http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/ps3_playtv
Mark Giles
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 3:19 PMThat’s awesome and all, but what about the PAID update that is coming out soon, lacking almost all the functionality that the UK will be getting?
Between Sony and FreeView, we’re getting a little screwed with PlayTV (UK gets Series Link and a number of other features, we do not.)
Dave
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 3:35 PMI use the playtv device as a usb digital tv receiver hanging off the back of my windows 7 pc.
Works better than it ever did on the ps3.
Too controlled on the ps3…go media centre…
matt
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 5:50 PMwow, I didn’t know you could do that! I might try it.
Jive Turkey
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 3:42 PMYou don’t think it’s a coincidence that the PlayTV 2 is coming out before the end of the year?
Joel
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 4:25 PMPlaytv is great but it really needs series link (James Thorpe said they were working on it for Australia – they know we want it) but bring it soon please!
Please also:
- Allow launch into playtv when turning ps3 on i.e you don’t have to wait for ps3 to load, then select playtv.
- Faster start up.
- 7mate EPG was kinda fixed, but now to load it, you have to watch the channel before seeing epg info for 7mate (all other channels show by themselves without having to watch.
Joey
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 5:09 PMHahaha! “Considering 75% of the Playstation’s functionality has been added since it launched” I do love my jailbroken ps3! :D
Ward Paterson
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 5:20 PMI was one of those several thousand that had Play TV in Australia 9 months before it was released here. Got mine from the UK via ebay and it worked just fine..
Yes, its pretty slow starting up, but I’ve got no complaints considering it turns your PS3 into a “basic” PVR.
If they release Play TV 2 this year, I know I’ve at least got my moneys worth out of Play TV 1
Daniel Weaver-Koenigs
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 5:22 PMI’d appreciate a software update that allowed scrolling to the top of the channels to go back to the first channel!
God that Freeview logo on the box deserves some hate, if I wouldn’t lose SBS I’d have mine set up in international mode.
Maybe if the channels dropped the volume of their ads I wouldn’t need the minute ad skip option! If they weren’t so awful I wouldn’t bother skipping them.
Joe
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 12:01 AMOne oUt of every two hundred Australians has a play tv unit for a playstation 3? I cry bullshit
Kit Grose
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 12:06 AMI have one, and I really dislike it. It takes up a USB port on the PS3 (which is a killer on the slim which has no rear ones and only two front-facing ones), and doesn’t work well (or at all) through any of my USB hubs.
It routinely crashes when you start opening it (freezes at the start screen, you press PS button and then Quit PlayTV and it reboots the PS3).
At best it takes a minute before you’re watching TV.
The OTA EPG is rubbish; I get gigantic gaps all through it (in Wollongong). The Freeview EPG looks terrible too, but at least it’s one service for the EPG, not each channel’s broadcast EPG.
The interface for managing (especially deleting) recordings is just horrific. In order to be useful as a DVR I need to feel OK leaving recordings there for a long time. Unfortunately, clearing that list is a very manual one-by-one affair (if I don’t want to remove my scheduled recordings, that is—if I was OK with that I could clear the application data in the XMB).
CEC/HDMI Control/insert manufacturer term here is only marginally supported. I can scroll through the items on the menu but I can’t bring up the guide with my Bravia remote. Once I’ve selected something to watch, I can’t return to the menu either. That means I have to either buy the Bluetooth PS3 remote or use a PS3 controller. Bleargh on both counts.
The website is crap (that’s not a big deal, but it’s all part of a rich tapestry of crap surrounding the product).
They kow-towed to the Freeview guys and so we lost the ability to export our recordings and skip commercials, even though the New Zealanders get that functionality.
I’ll be migrating from the PlayTV to something else soon enough. I’d be surprised if any of its designers or developers use it, especially here in Australia.
NacaYoda
Friday, December 3, 2010 at 1:28 PMUpdate has come… and in Australia the update has killed the PlayTV. Is everyone experiencing failed recordings? FIX PLEASE SONY.