Play TV

[Lowe]

Picked one up yesterday.

Initial impressions are that the unit itself is pretty small and the setup is nice and easy - one usb connection and the aerial connection, and then the software install. The software creates a new catagory on the XMB, and selecting the new icon on that opens up the TV software itself. The rest of the set up is like any other Freeview box, it scans for channels and then you've got the selection guide for the programs. The Sixaxis is pretty simple to use and lets you select stuff to record or watch. It's intuitive and doesn't take long to figure out.

Downsides - image quality doesn't match up to the scaling found on DVD playback. It's exactly the same quality as my Sony S series TV, which frankly is a bit of a disappointment, since the difference with DVD was quite noticeable. It's also crashed once during the middle of a recording, and the resulting recording wasn't usable.

Still - early days so far, but I'm not currently all that impressed for £70.

[Stringent]

Thanks for the review. I think give it time for Sony to iron out the bugs in firmware releases.

[s_kinton]

Still - early days so far, but I'm not currently all that impressed for £70.

I thought it was generally available for £60? There's definitely a place in the market for Play TV. The people who love the idea of recording TV, but don't want Sky or want a HTPC.

Granted, its basically a USB tuner with some fancy software, but as far as console peripherals go its quite reasonable I think. MS seems to be the worst for rip off peripherals e.g. HDD and wifi adapter.

[Lowe]

£70 is the high street price.

[Barrichello]

£70 is the high street price.

Its £59 in my local high street HMV. Strange. Although they have had a sale on last week or so.

Might well take a look. Currently have Freesat HD (hate sky/virgin deals) but never had a pvr and at this price seems a bargain.

[Stoo]

I'm hoping it'll get updates just as often as the ps3 does - iirc it is firmware updatable..