PlayTV interface makes XMB look outdated

by Andrew Yoon { Aug 29th 2007 at 11:00AM }

Europe's exclusive PVR service, called PlayTV, looks to be a winner. So much so that Americans (like a majority of the PS3 Fanboy team) are jealous of their friends across the Atlantic. If the features and services provided by PlayTV weren't incredible enough, it utilizes a genuinely sexy interface that (dare we say?) looks better than Sony's XMB. Watch this "leaked" footage from Leipzig to see for yourself.

[Via digg]

Tags: leipzig, lgc07, playtv

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JarOfFlies @ Aug 29th 2007 11:15AM

Wow..

Living in Europe has a plus point!

apease @ Aug 29th 2007 11:15AM

It's Tomb Raider's inventory, sorry. They should at least attempt to sync with the XMB's interface a little more, design consistency and all that. As it is, it's not bad though. The PlayTV stuff really adds to the sense that Sony Europe's President (Reeves?) is competing with the U.S. and Japan, instead of working towards a common goal.

Miltos @ Aug 29th 2007 11:26AM

Finaly something good for us here in Europe!

DownwardMonkey @ Aug 29th 2007 11:32AM

There are reasons that Europe is getting this right now and not the USA and they are not Sony Europe's fault.

chris.westermann @ Aug 29th 2007 11:36AM

They ripped off the FrontRow interface from Apple which is really a shame. Sony went out of their way to create a unique and innovative interface with the XBM but now decided to throw it all away and opted to clone another company's interface. But I am still jealous that Europe gets this and North America will most likely never see it unless all the cable and satellite companies come together and share a common standard that opens up the doors for 3rd parties to bring unique and innovative products into the living room ( ROTFLOL!!!!! ).

gullum @ Aug 29th 2007 11:41AM

As pointed out in the first post, if anything, front row ripped off Tomb Raider's inventory interface. My point being that I bet the devs didn't even know what front row looked like when they came up with the interface.

I still like the XMB better.

Murry @ Aug 29th 2007 12:01PM

I want, badly.

mangs @ Aug 29th 2007 12:13PM

This interface is pretty nice, although the design of the XMB is alot more intuitive.

My main problem with this interface is the same problem I have with Media Center with Windows Vista:

Recording TV shows or keeping videos in your video library usually implies that you have NEVER seen that particular video before. So, instead of listing the videos by text, they use screenshots from a random point in the video. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT A PARTICULAR VIDEO IS IF I HAVE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ITS SCENES LOOK LIKE?

This is a SHITTY UI design decision. Microsoft sucks and so does Sony in this respect.

Rottok @ Aug 29th 2007 12:19PM

I highly doubt that developers at Apple were playing Tomb Raider, and said, wow this interface would be great for multimedia compiling software. I can however see sony developers seeing the advantages of brining Apple's software to a tv set. I must say, this is what the AppleTv should be able to do.

wh1ttle @ Aug 29th 2007 12:25PM

sony will take over the world

Mike @ Aug 29th 2007 12:37PM

Yeah, this looks cool. The interface is just modified from the XMB. They could add this as an option in the settings on both PS3 and PS3, it is just a matter of time, and it does look a lot like the Tomb Raider Inventory menu. I'm more impressed about the live TV on both units, that would be awesome.

drawallday @ Aug 29th 2007 12:38PM

Very nice. Will close captioning still work?

Tim Parsons @ Aug 29th 2007 12:42PM

WOW this is amazing how can any of you say negative stuff about this?

And to those who think this won't make it to NA i dont see any reaosn why not,. I mean sure you probably won't be able to use it in place of your cbale providers Digital Box or Satellite receiver, but it can be connect to the receiver, the problme with North America,. Canda anyway dunno about the states, is companies like ROGERS calbe and STARCHOICE satellite Make you use their Hardware. Like my TV for example it has all the abilites to be able to receiver digital signals from a cbale line or a Satelite dish but Starchoice simply doesnt support it. Guess their afriad they'll lose money cause people with HDTV's likes mine would simple have no need to buy their Hardware and then they lose out ,. go figure,.

Noshino @ Aug 29th 2007 12:57PM

mangs,

They do actually show you a 15 sec sneak peek of the clip/movie...I mean, If you haven't really seen the clip/movie, then why get pictures at random times? the 15 sec skeak peek is a great decision!

Nate @ Aug 29th 2007 1:08PM

The UI is nice, but there's really only one killer app on this thing - watching it on your PSP with remote play.

TiVo works just as well for straight DVR stuff.

Kosmocrisis @ Aug 29th 2007 1:20PM

That looks amazing. I'm so jealous that EU gets this and not the US. Its our shoddy tv networks. We're not up to speed yet. Though we got Warhawk bishes! See ya online on the 30th DolphGB.

Sam @ Aug 29th 2007 1:28PM

Sorry, here i thought i was buying a game console when i bought my ps3.

Xoonaka @ Aug 29th 2007 1:34PM

I prefer the XMB. It allows for more features to be added much more easily, it's faster to navigate, and it's just sleek.

GRANTED @ Aug 29th 2007 1:44PM

i think its a ps3 entertainment system.
the aim is to replace all that crap under your TV with a ps3.

Doug @ Aug 29th 2007 2:28PM

I never cared for the XMB in the first place.

JayD-1K @ Aug 29th 2007 2:40PM

i wish they could link some together using the location free base station here in the US. i love the way LCF works (i travel), and this would really help!

P @ Aug 29th 2007 3:18PM

Maybe im wrong, but i thought that i'd read that the US doesnt currently have a Free to Air/View digital service, which is fairly common within Europe now.
We still have Satellite & Cable broadcast of Digital media just as is the case with the US, but I gathered Digital Freeview either didnt exist or isnt common in homes.

In the UK a few counties lose their anologue TV broadcasting towers, and each year a few more will be terminated (Sept 2007 - Sept 2012 i think) with the Digital version being needed. I think its just getting started in AUS, which was where it was first mentioned, but its been available in the UK for a good 5 years now, but as I say, my understanding for the reason there has been no intention to market this to the US is because there isnt an established service there to make use of it, i doubt it record via another source such as your cable/sat box.

If im wrong, and a Digital freeview service is commonplace, then i have no idea why its not making it over there, i cant see why an import wouldnt work, but if there isnt a service, theres no point customers or Sony importing it.

I'd consider getting one if the pricing was reasonable, picking up a standalone unit with HDD isnt all that expensive, and really this is an external device sourcing from your PS3, both devices need to be powered up, unlike an seperate unit with its own HDD. Its also a shame it cant plug into the back of the PS3 like the old PS2 network adapter did.

nickcps2000 @ Aug 29th 2007 9:14PM

wow what a bunch of losers. iptv for 360 is going to kick even more shit out of sony's already sore and limp corpse. i truly feel sorry for all those suckers who spent $600 or 700 euros on a george foreman grill/spaceheater. dont even start about the RROD. microsoft addressed that and fixes 360's for free now. if only sony would do the same and give you a full refund for the piece of shit known as the PS3.

cheese @ Aug 29th 2007 9:32PM

Mangs, if you took the time to notice, when they show the snapshots, the highlighted snapshot has a description in the bottom pane of the screen. DUUUUHHH. The guy just did not take the time to mention it, geez.

cheese @ Aug 29th 2007 9:35PM

hey, nickcps2000. Wow, you're a retard. Do you really think IPTV is going to be free? It's automatically not free since you have to have Xbox live on top of it. I have a 360 and it died on me and yeah, they replaced it, but I don't go around calling the 360 a POS. Get a life, or at least a girlfriend, if you can, with that attitude.

John @ Aug 29th 2007 9:45PM

WOW, this is so impressive. I especially loved the intuitive interface, and how fast it was. I cannot stand waiting for some dumb-a$$ TIVO think to process the button from my remote while I carefully aim it at the stupid thing. I hate using software that feels like it was written in BASIC.

Of course, this is possible in Europe, because their infrastructure for television viewing is superior to ours.

John @ Aug 29th 2007 9:48PM

@22 (P), over here we're all dependent on money-hungry corporations, "free" enterprise. You're stuck with whoever you pay your $70 bill to. There's no all-encompassing structure, it's all owned by media moguls and they're all separate, like nation-states, with all their own rules, standards, and pricing. Kind of like our cell phone and wi-fi service (any iPhone owners pissed at AT&T, yet?)

Sarlac @ Aug 30th 2007 9:59AM

Oh the USA, and our sadly slow tech-lag. We will probably never see this here, even though starting in 2009 all broadcast television is required to stop analog broadcast.

The only way I see this coming to the states is if they put atsc/qam tuners in it.