PlayTV Is Set To Get Even Better

so will there be any new features to PlayTv boxes in Australia?

@ James answer to #36

Its not that DVB-T broadcasting is very limited here in Norway (As far as I know, the main delivere, RiksTV, is DVB-T), its more that the free, non-encrypted channels are so few. Give us a PlayTV that can take encryption-cards, and we would be all set!

Yo,is Play TV supported in the UAE?

We already get the 8 day EPG feature anyway so does the tvtv addition mean that there will be any change to the existing EPG format for those of us that chose not to pay for the upgrade, i.e. will EPG be ‘dumbed down’ in any way?

James

Where is you market research for the social networking ….. errr feautres I think you call them, I can’t believe there is a great demand for this.
I’m sure your developers will be disappointed when their hard worked code is ignored, kick the project manager.

Series link is a feature that is in pretty much all PVRs, and should have been in a long time ago, so why isn’t this just an update FOC, do you hold back key features like this to dupe you customers into paying yet again.

Looks like I’m in the market for a different one box solution, the PS3 was close for a while now its getting left in the dust. A PC with four dual tuners, free software, as much drive space as I want to install etc etc.

“Hi, the chat feature is designed to work perfectly with your TV viewing. you have 3 choices for the display of the text – full screen as in the image in my post, picture in picture style where the TV and text are in separate windows and then text off if you don’t want to see it for a period of time.
You can also restrict the number of people you have in the chat by having only your friends of inviting specific people. That way you can make sure there aren’t loads of people all chatting in the same room.”

Who cares what features it has NOBODY WANTS IT

> Cesco, if you simply copy the recordings from the PS3
> to an external device and then back again, the recordings
> will be editable using the PS3 video editor.

Thanks for the tip

James

DVB-T2 tuners are available in most modern TVs and PVRS, so this means the chips are available, Oh look even Sony have made one “Sony CXD2820R”!

I can’t understand why they would put it in the TVs and not have one in a box for retro fiting….ahhh now I see, Sony want us to buy new TVs with freeview HD in not some little box. So looks like even the Cambridge guys may have to put some heavy weight arguments to get Sony to buy into this idea. Good luck!

Here’s me not holding my breath for freeviewHD on playtv

I bet I’ve killed the thread again

Hi, I use PlayTV as my main source of viewing.

A few things some mentioned before.

- When is this update available?
- What is the likely cost?
- Roughly when is the HD version coming in the UK? (Main Gripe)
- Recordings take too much space (Mpeg2!!!) 320gig nearly full!
- How come it takes ages to load up to view, but very quick
to record from standby?
- Any way to subscribe to channels as I see ESPN and Sky Sports have
appeared?
- Would be good to be able to beta test some of these features for
proper feedback.

I will probably be back with more when I think of them.

Cheers.
Rob… (Middlesex).

Please, please don’t lower the current bit-rate for PlayTV – it’s fine as it is. Maybe, to please everyone, you could add options to the setup menu for recorded picture quality – dvd quality, high quality and standard quality, all with different bit-rates so that everyone has a choice?

@22 [James Thorpe]:

Yes, just what I needed; thank you, sir.

Hope you had a pleasant extended weekend.

BFN,

fp.

So, have i got this right?

We all bought a sub-standard freeview recorder with less features than stand alone models for lots more money with the promiss of HD, series link and all sorts of other features to come later.

Two years down the road and no HD.

Two years after buying we get offered series link and 14 day EPG and then we have to pay for these on top of the over priced initial purchase.

These are standard features on ALL other freeview recorders so why do you want to rip us off for more money?

Are you trying to upset your loyal customers?

I have put up with the poor functionallity of PlayTV for the last two years because of the previous promisses of more free updates that would at least get it close in spec to a stand alone freeview recored.

I wont be buying your rip off update and will be binning play tv.

Whats the point of keeping an over priced, poor quality, sub-standard divice if its going to take two years of lies and more of my hard earned money to get standard features.

Oh well, time to buy a MICROSOFT Media Centre and XBOX!

Just a few suggestions.

-Place the recorded programs somehere so they can be edited wih the system’s video edit tool.
-Make PlayTV able to tune standard TV channels in order to be able to tune ancient STBs as another channel.

Thanks for PlayTV!

A few questions

1) What features will playtv australia get?
2) besides the social aspects, are there any bug fixes, etc?
3) How about recording 2 shows at the same time?
4) how about plugging 2X playtvs to have 4 tuners?

Thanks

What is the status on being able to record two channels at the same time, surely this is only limited by the software

Posted on 23 August, 2010 at 12:17 pm by James Thorpe

Hi, you can already add 1 – 10mins to any recording with the current PlayTV and with the new update you will be able to add 15, 20 and 30 minutes to the start and end of recordings. This will also work with series link in the UK and you can either do this each time you record or set a default for all recordings of however many minutes you want in the settings menu

hi James
i updated to 01.30 , i saw something about adding to start and finish but i cannot find these settings in play TV settings…
where exactly is the “settings menu”
regards Richard

Well, as long as there isn’t a DVB-C in it, it isn’t worth the hassel, there are so few channels sending in the Terra network, might be a lot in the US or UK, but not in the rest of Europe.

Furthermore anyone living in buildings with cable will usually not be able to put up a Terra-antenna and a small antenna inside your apartment isn’t good enough.

So when will DVB-C be added?

//WhiteWolf

Hi Guys
I’m eager to do a poll to see what the general opinion of this update is. Vote here:
http://host1.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=23302
Hopefully it will show the PlayTV devs what the public are really thinking.
Cheers

Oh, and @yipyipo
Those settings show when you record a show. Select a show from the program guide, choose ‘record’ then scroll down to ‘start time’ and ‘finish time’
It will give you the options there.

I have to admit, the only thing that interests me is HD for the UK version. Updates are nice, especially series link, but most of it is candy-floss. Will probably abandon Play TV now and buy a proper freeview hd recorder. Such a shame, I loved the idea of play tv and would stick with it if there was a date for HD availability. Like some other posters, feel a bit cheated, especially since sony already use the freeview HD chips in their UK TV’s.

Hi,

so when is this playtv 2 update being releasd in the uk?

ALSO – how much will this update cost? reasonable sounds good – but around 10? 20?

also – cant you install the remote recording feature via online somehow?

@DamnBoxes

I’ve voted but i doubt sony will listen. they dont care about their customers, only profit!

MY point is proved by the lack of any responses from a sony rep since negative posts have been made about the update.

They will still roll it out and charge something rediculous like £30 and stupid people will buy it.

Im now making much better use of the playtv hardware by plugging it into a windows laptop and using media centre for my tv viewing. I actually get some decent features now!

@Mike_CJ0

Nice move, fight the power.

I have changed the poll site anyway to include another option.

http://host1.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=23362

You’re right though, Sony wont listen, they didnt listen in the first place, they just assumed that because social networking is quite popular atm, that all of us would want it integrated into our TV viewing.

My poll just aims to see if anyone actually requested these features, or if I was right and they just made up that people wanted them.

Then if need be, we can use it to say “We told you so” when sales of the update turn out bad. And maybe… just maybe… they might listen in the future. (I realise Sony will never listen, but I think this “Cambridge Studios” or whatever they’re called could be different, and may have potential.)

WHAT???? YOU’RE **CHARGING** US FOR SERIES LINK?!?!?!?!

Series Link is a feature which should have been included right from day one! Without series link PlayTV is just a try-hard tv recorder and not a proper PVR.

I think it’s disgusting that you’re cashing in on making the product what it should have been anyway.

I know DVB-C may not be a huge market, but for example here in Finland all major channels in the capital area are broadcast from cable – freeview channels as well, that is. There actually is no choice for most people in apartment houses.

Hardware-wise most TVs like the Bravias etc. have both tuners anyway and it surely isn’t a significant manufacturing cost, so I hope we’ll see a cable or hybrid version sooner than later. I would buy one right away!

i was also wondering – when will we be able to record 2 shows at one time?

@AmazingSpiderMo – That would be in another two years and will cost you £87. By which time an HD set top box will record 10 channels and only cost £60 but sony wont care about ripping you off for the “feature”

@ James Thorpe

Why do we have to pay for this PlayTV update when we have already gone out and bought the PS3 and PlayTV?

I think this is more than a bit unfare…

@ James Thorpe
How can you seriously justify asking people to pay for this update when series link for a start should have been there for free in the first place. Oh well you have more than convinced me now to pick up another alternative that has gives me more than what playtv can without thinking im going to be charged extra for a few simple updates at a later date.

We are still waiting for Play TV and streamed movies here in New Zealand. Sony claim the latter will be made available before the end of the year, but Im seriously worried about overtaxing the ps3′s gutless ram by adding even more features. For example I pay for premium broadband yet since Vidzone updated EMI’s catalogue, the service has taken to pausing whenever that awful unstoppable screen banner appears 3 5imes each song rendering VZ unwatchable. Others over in Oz have noticed this happening too. My ps3 also constantly freezes up. Sony would not honour my ylod caused by them to my 60gb on feb29 psn error code shutdown, & now my new ps3 is aleady in need of a walker. Sony needs to address ps3s near ramless state before trying to peddle us more quik money makers along with helping the victims of its own error codekill on phats instead of greedily running for cover .

Come on James Thorpe, how about actually answering some of the criticisms about this update rather than hiding in the shadows the second negative comments were posted? Your title says you are a manager so you should be paid enough to cope with answering a few negative comments!

We have paid for this product once already!

Please explain how you justify charging us again for for a product we have already bought and paid for when you are only providing unwanted social networking features and standard features that should have been available in the first place?

Can someone from Sony please comment? Your silence just shows complete contempt for your customers!

Yeah c’mon Sony – you can clearly see that a lot of people are (justifiably) unhappy. Why not do the honorable thing and do us the courtesy of a reply? You need to prove that you’re a company whose customers are at the heart of what you do and take on board our opinions. After all, it’s US that pay your mortgages and put food in the mouths of your children!

I dont think any one from sony will every reply, they are to cowardly to resond.

They would just rather take money from kids and guilible people than actually produce a decent product in the first place.

I for one wont every be buying anything more for my PS3!

Before this botched announcment of a rip off update i had planned to purchase Move, LBP2, GT5, the next ratchet and clank and quite a few more titles to. Not any more. If i do decide to buy any more games or hardware i will be getting them second hand. That way sony wont get any of my money ever again.

I was angry enough about them stealing from already by removing the Other OS feature that i had paid for as part of my PS3 now they want to steal more money from all of us by charging for something that is standard on any platform other than a sony one.

Whats the chances that anyone that buys a sony upgrade or product in the future will end up having to spend more money for features they dont want while features they do use are steadilly removed.

I think its a very good chance!

now I know where to come for some piece and quite
Still no comments from Sony

hurry up sony with HD in the UK

its putting me off buying play tv for two reasons

(1) if i buy play tv now you may release HD say next month which will annoy me as i spent money on standard quality

(2) if i do purchase play tv as current, it will be a waste of money as i could get freeview/freesat hd

i use my ps3 allot and having play tv to record tv while playing games etc is a huge gain for me.

HURRY UP WITH UK HD HD HD HD HD HD

Regarding the “Remote Record” feature. I don’t have a PSP, Sony VIAO etc….

Would love to see an iPhone app that could do it.!

Rich.

I get that here in oz, Sony’s hands are tied by Freeview.
Not being able to copy recorded programs off my PS3 is not a big deal, if i wanted to watch tv on my PC i’d go & buy a TV tuner for it. What does give me the [DELETED] is not, at the very least, being able to move my recordings out of the PlayTV software.

The sorting options in PlayTV are a joke, & the software is often flakey & doesn’t load. The XMB is a brillian interface & would make it far easier to sort & group your recording. It would also mean that when the PlayTV software [DELETED] itself (which is fairly regulary since i updated to the 3.41 firmware) i could completely remove & reinstall playTV without loosing all of my recodings.

Would it not be possible to add another entry under TV in the XMB, specifically for PlayTV recordings, that imposes all the Freeview restrictions & yet gives us most of the functioanlity of the XMB?

Cheers
Jay