PlayTV ships 85,000 units in the UK

by Majed Athab { Sep 28th 2008 at 11:00AM }

The PS3 is an excellent entertainment hub, and adding the freeview box and recorder known as PlayTV only leverages the PS3's profile. Since the initial sale of PlayTV in the UK over 9,000 Britons have pre-ordered the service, while 85,000 units have been shipped.

Again, that's only numbers for the UK. Continental Europe won't be getting the service until December. Can this interest seen in Britain spread eastward to the rest of the continent? Will it bomb; will the response be better? These are question we're interested in seeing answers to.

Tags: play-tv, playtv

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chris @ Sep 28th 2008 11:04AM

I wonder if this will make it's way over to the US once we switch over to digital broadcast?

I hope so, as I would buy this on launch, no doubt!

Gunegune @ Sep 28th 2008 7:39PM

We already have digital broadcast. The only difference is Europe uses DVB-T while we use ATSC.

Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSC_Standards and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T for more information.

MikeDawg @ Sep 28th 2008 8:51PM

Why would you want PlayTV when in the U.S we have something better and its made by Sony.

The Location Free PLayer sends out your cable or dish subscription through the web and you can pick it up through your PSP or mobile phone or a desktop or Notebook.
With the LFB you can...
watch any programs recorded on your DVR
watch any movies that are in your DVD player
schedule to record a program

you cant do all of that with playtv...so why would you want it?

Chris @ Sep 28th 2008 9:55PM

Simply because I don't have cable, satellite or a DVR. And I'm not the only person in the US who doesn't have any of those things, but does have a ps3.

Alun R @ Sep 28th 2008 11:06AM

it's a good idea they have come up with but i personally wont be buying it as all new tvs come with freeview built in them so i just use that and wouldnt want to pay more for this product as i already have dvd/vhs recorder.

Kspraydad @ Sep 28th 2008 11:21AM

Wish NA used the same tech :(

@Chris...no...over the air digital in NA is ATSC not DVBT.

We 'could' get something like this in ATSC format but is there a concentration of over the air digital channels in NA that would make it worthwhile? (ie...in the city I'm in there are only 5 over the air channels) whilst Freeview, for example, has 50+ channels.

1664 @ Sep 28th 2008 11:54AM

Cant even get freeview where i am as the hill behind us blocks the signal, the signal boosters dont make a difference either and we dont get channel 5 as the signal interferes with french tv or something so my town misses out on that, not that i watch tv anyways but maybe i would if we had more choice

Chris @ Sep 28th 2008 12:03PM

In the UK you can't even buy VHS recorders easily anymore, and DVD recorders never really got any traction in the market, as pay tv broadcaster Sky's PVR captured the post-vhs market with it's Sky+ service

Re: Alun R
It's the recording features of PlayTV which make it attractive, not the ability to receive digital signals, as your right, most TV's will have that feature built in and you'd be mad to buy one without.

PlayTV competes with some features of Windows Media Centre, which the 360 can make use of (The PS3 also can but they don't make it easy to set up)

Now if you add remote play into the mix via the PSP, thats when you have a compelling technology.

Whether it will work or not is, is another question, alot of good technologies fail, and whilst 9,000 is a good start I don't think it's that a high a percentage Vs total PS3 sales (a million ?)

Most homes in the UK have either Sky, or it's competitor Virgin, and therefore don't rely on 'Freeview' to get digital TV.

It may build on the promising UK start throughout Europe, but Sony don't advertise things very well.
If they advertise the remote play features better I'm sure they'd sell a lot more

benny boy @ Sep 28th 2008 12:16PM

I'm actually surprised at this as I assumed that people who bought PS3s would have already had a Sky box orsome type of Freeview already.

I supposed its the recording, upconverting and PS3 integration that makes it so appealing.

charlie @ Sep 28th 2008 12:14PM

i bough it but didnt get a signal so i took it back even tho i have sky

Whoppy @ Sep 28th 2008 12:26PM

I wasn't going to buy one initially because of the lack of DVB-T2, but I got one in the end to act as a PVR. Already upgrade my PS3 HDD to 250GB so it worked out cheaper than a stand-alone PVR, and the PS3 looks nicer anyway.

Good signal strength, good picture even when upscaled and a good EPG. Pretty good for £59.99. My only minor niggle is that downloads seem to be paused when you're using it, but hopefully a firmware upgrade can deal with that.

elephant_stone @ Sep 28th 2008 12:44PM

Re: downloads being paused...is this due to the software using the internet to grab the EPG info (rather than over the air), so it pauses PSN downloads (like many online games do).

Personally, Im STILL waiting for Play.com to deliver it (and Star Wars:FU) ...I actually think Royal Mail have lost my order...anyway...Im looking forward to getting it but annoyed that it wont support DVB-T2... although I read a thread on a forum somewhere that the device memory is flashable, and a firmware change to the device could change the encoding it accepts...but im sure its more than just encoding issues that need to be solved in order for DVB-T2 to magically work.

cheers

Whoppy @ Sep 28th 2008 1:03PM

DVB-T2 is a hardware standard so I very much doubt that PlayTV contains the right bits. I didn't know that the EPG was downloaded off the net so thatnks for that. Probably should've read the manual........ but where's the fun in that :P

It's a shame that they can't prioritise the EPG over downloads, but still allow them to go ahead in the background. It's not a big deal though really.

elephant_stone @ Sep 28th 2008 3:47PM

nah i dont know for sure if the EPG is downloaded over the net......i was asking a question, or hinting at the thought

:)

ModeMan101 @ Sep 28th 2008 1:02PM

Does it really only have HDMI and aerial out (which is how it looks from the picture)? I haven't lived in England for a few years now, but I would have thought there would be a SCART connection too.

Whoppy @ Sep 28th 2008 1:04PM

Aerial in and USB out. It connects through your PS3 to the TV.

helmuth.ritzer @ Sep 28th 2008 1:21PM

>Continental Europe won't be getting the service until December

Well I guess Germany is part of Continental Europe and I am watching and recording broadcasts since over a week now.

Guys, you better check the release calendar.

Bokal @ Sep 29th 2008 11:36AM

France is also not in the UK and we got our PlayTV the 19th of September... You guys should edit the article.

chin @ Sep 28th 2008 2:03PM

Right :D Germany is part of Europe and many watch their movies through PlayTV.

JaffaBoy @ Sep 28th 2008 2:58PM

Can anyone who has this comment on the whole (in)ability to play recordings on a PSP?

Not the wifi hotspot streaming stuff... the ability to copy a recording to the video section then copy to PC and convert to PSP (if you have to convert that is????)

I've backed off getting this until I'm sure how well this works (I'm so sure the PS£ could convert a recording to the PSP a hell of a lot quicker than my PC, but thanks for nothing Sony that you kept that function out!!!)

Steve Childs @ Sep 28th 2008 6:24PM

AFAIK, the feature was removed, but then added back in just before release due to massive complaints.

You can transfer any recording to any device which will play the files, which naturally, includes the PSP.

I'll be picking one up at some point, but as I also need to get an aerial installed (new house and only ever had sky), it'll need to wait for a bit.

But its great for recording programs you want to keep and recording stuff if the Sky box is already recording two programs.

JaffaBoy @ Sep 29th 2008 6:30AM

(responding to my own comment!!!)...

I've found some comments about the whole transfer to PSP by someone who has a PlayTV uniy...

Basically when you copy a recording it goes into your video list but as a .m2ts format file which is Sony's own format, and although it plays from XMB it won't play on PSP. For this you will need PSP Media Manager Pro, which comes to about £10 if ordered online and downloaded and does a fantastic job on converting playTV files into .mp4
(note this is the Pro version not the free lite version).

skin.bintin @ Sep 28th 2008 11:37PM

If this launched in New Zealand, at a reasonable price, I'd buy it. I don't have freeview yet, as my TV doesn't have it built in plus I already have Cable/Satellite TV anyway, so paying the $200nz price to get a stand alone Freeview box seems stupid. This however, would tempt me.

Does anyone know if this will launch in New Zealand?

Kspraydad @ Sep 29th 2008 12:16AM

http://www.nzgamer.com/all/news/2723/playtv-coming-to-new-zealand.html

jakoff @ Sep 28th 2008 4:47PM

I have read that in sweden this thing playTv aint gona be released in sweden. thats is sad for me because I live in Sweden.

Kristopher gonzalez @ Sep 28th 2008 5:57PM

My friend that lives in the UK uses Playtv constantly.

I'm so sad that it won't come to Sweden (the fault lies in the swedish network) :(

Twinturbo120 @ Sep 28th 2008 7:16PM

if this comes to NA i'll be getting it in a heart beat.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:51PM

Why can't they just make the device work with basic cable television in the United States or even with HD content from a TV box. Is it the threat of piracy?

This product just makes so much sense since Tivo cost over $200 and requires a monthly fee + Internet connection. The upside is that you own the content. Where as a HD DVR from your local cable company will cost you an extra $10.00/month but you don't own the box or the content and it is not easily transferred even though USB is required. My USB slot is not active.

MikeDawg @ Sep 28th 2008 8:57PM

DUDE!!!!
For the U.S. we something better than PayTV.

Google Location Free Player then get back to me.

its made by Sony so it plays nice with your PSP, and they also have a HD Location Free Player.

For gamers...you guys sure have little knowledge of whats out there as far as technology.

Kspraydad @ Sep 28th 2008 10:47PM

@Dawg...

Don't be condescending...you are recommending a $250 peripheral and comparing it to the PlayTV, which if launched in NA would be under $100.

I already HAVE remote play functionality in the PS3...I shouldn't have to buy another piece of hardware that does the same functions...all SONY needs to do is allow USB Stick Tuners to work within the XMB and provide a software front end...hell, the could even use Open Source EPG software and Zap2it for the US.

Anyway..AFAIK TIVO and SONY will be working together for a NA product (at least those have been the rumours)