PlayTV Review

Back at the Leipzig Games Convention 2007 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced PlayTV, a digital TV receiver and a personal video recorder in one. The PS3 peripheral is finally hitting stores on Friday and boasts twin tuners, Remote Play support, a seven-day electronic programme guide and the all-important ability to rewind, pause and record TV. The question is, should PS3 owners opt for the £69.99 PlayTV or stump up a little more cash for a standalone PVR?

To get PlayTV working you’ll need to first install the included on-disc software, connect the unit to your PS3 using the supplied USB lead and plug an aerial into the single port on the rear of the device. Once installed – this will happen in the background while you’re forced to watch a brief video about the service – it’ll scan for available channels and then you’re ready to go. You won’t need to use the supplied PlayTV disc again as a handy TV option is now available from the XMB.

The PlayTV interface is one of the slickest we’ve seen and does a good job of providing the user with all the tools they’ll need to plan out their weekly TV viewing. From the main menu you can access live TV, the EPG (7 days of schedule information is available), the recording schedule, the library of recordings, a manual programme search and the PlayTV options.

The image quality is on par with our Sony TV’s built in Freeview tuner and pleasingly the EPG and other such on-screen information is not only clear and easy to read but also very responsive. When you’re watching live TV you can pause the action and resume when you’re ready, rewind to re-watch something you missed and quickly record what you’re viewing by pressing the select button. Sadly, unlike Sky +, it’s not possible to record the current programme from the beginning retroactively.

From live TV it’s possible to scroll up an down the channel list using the d-pad to see what’s on now on other channels and what’s on next by pressing right. In addition to the title of the programme you’re also shown a short summary. For listings beyond what’s on next you’ll need to access the seven-day EPG, either by pressing square or by exiting to the main menu and selecting it from there.

The EPG is where you’ll do most your planning, picking out the shows you want to record by pressing select on the required programme or by entering a more advanced recording option through the X button. Here you can choose how much of a recording buffer (time before the beginning and end of the recording) to set and and whether you want the recording to be a one-off or repeated. There’s no series link here, but you can set PlayTV to set up daily or weekly repeat recordings for the same channel and time – fine for regular broadcasts, but not so hot for shows which find themselves at the mercy of the channel’s scheduling gods.

Recordings are accessible from the Library, which can display programmes in a list or as a series of video thumbnails. You can watch back a recording while recording in the background, but you’re still limited to the single channel record. From the Library it’s also possible to move recordings to the XMB media section, meaning they can be viewed without the need to load up PlayTV. It’s a nifty feature, but one which promised so much more. It had been intended to allow users to move recordings to other devices such as a PC and watch them from there, but this isn’t officially supported.

Despite its dual tuners, PlayTV is only able to record one channel at a time, but does allow another to be watched live. This means you can at least be free to watch whatever you want, while a second tuner is reserved for recordings. If you happen to set two recordings which overlap PlayTV is intelligent enough to work this out and will prompt you to choose which recording you want to keep and which to remove from the schedule.

PlayTV will also operate happily in the background, meaning the PS3 can still be used to play games or watch movies while a recording is taking place. You’re warned that this might have a negative effect on gameplay, but so far we’ve not experienced any issues. The PS3 is also fully able to come out of standby to record and will also go back into standby when the recording is finished.

Another unique feature to PlayTV – although Sky + does offer some remote scheduling functionality – is the ability to access the service using a PSP and Remote Play. This means you can be anywhere with wireless internet access and access live and recorded TV from the PS3 back at home. It’s a great feature and something that really sets it apart from other PVRs on the market. Even if you’re not interested in watching TV on your PSP it can also be used to access the EPG and schedule, meaning you need never miss a programme again. Simply find what you want and set it to record no matter where you are (wireless access required).

Most PS3 users won’t have a remote and thankfully Sony’s done a good job of mapping functions to the controller. It’s certainly preferable to use the Blu-ray remote (PlayTV includes a button function overlay for the official Sony remote), but those that have already been using the controller for movie playback will be right at home.

It’s also worth noting how fast PlayTV is able to access interactive services, far outpacing both our TV and Sky HD’s efforts. It’s a little thing but nevertheless a sign of PlayTV’s quality and a reason to choose the PS3 as your PVR over another product.

For all it does commendably well, PlayTV does have its faults. The biggest, the lack of series links, we’ve already mentioned, but there’s also the lack of a Conditional Access Module (CAM) meaning it’s not possible for users to access premium channels such as Setanta Sports. We’re hoping Sony can resolve this by releasing an additional dongle. There’s also no way to pass the signal from your aerial into another device as the PlayTV has no pass-through option. It’s a problem likely to affect only a minority of users, but for that minority it could prove a deal breaker. It’s also incredibly slow to load, taking a good 20 seconds or more before you reach the PlayTV menu.

We also encountered what could be a major flaw with PlayTV. While the picture and sound quality is great when simply watching live TV, throw in a recording and our live viewing became plagued with stutter and break-up. This was made even worse when also scrolling through the now and next on-screen programme information. Update: Thankfully we’ve been informed by Sony that this is not a problem inherent with PlayTV and will be caused by poor signal strength or the fact our reviewable PlayTV code is two months old.

As PVRs go PlayTV isn’t cheap, by virtue of requiring a PS3 console to make it work, meaning it’s hard to recommend to anyone but current PS3 owners. The PS3’s standard 80GB drive is also quite limiting – especially when you’ve got game installs on there too – meaning a larger capacity upgrade might be required. For this reason most would be better served opting for a larger capacity standalone PVR priced anywhere from £100. PlayTV’s saving grace is its Remote Play functionality, but it remains hard to ignore some of its more serious problems.