All Stories FeedPS3 adds iView, Freeview
From today the Playstation3 will offer both the ABC’s iView platform and Freeview channels.
Watching iView through the PS3 will be unmetered ISP’s who are currently in the unmetered iView list.
iView has also recently updated its service. The home page lists the most recently added titles, allows sorting by TV channels (ABC1, ABC2, iView Exclusives, Australia Network and ABC Shop Downloads) and the search function has also be upgraded with series and episode details.
Director of Television, Kim Dalton says 2010 will see even more developments for the internet broadcast service. “ABC iView is arguably the most popular Australian online television viewing service and our partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment to offer it via the PS3 is only the start of a period of intense growth that will see ABC iView extend from computers to mobile and other platforms.”
Meanwhile PS3 also announces PlayTV, a new device that connects to Sony PlayStation3 connects via USB, which offers PVR and twin HD tuner capability to deliver Freeview channels.
Freeview CEO Robin Parkes said: “With PS3 and PlayTV, gamers not only have access to a world of entertainment but also the wonderful world of Freeview free-to-view digital television.”
PlayTV will retail for RRP $169.95.
In 2010 it will also roll out a Video Delivery Service, offering movies on demand.
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Telstra not on the unmetered ISP list… what a surprise.
@nagelixin – everything from Sony is priced at special “Australian markup” prices. It’s the way they’ve always done business here.
PlayTV should be $99. The extra $70 is Sony’s Australia Tax.
@Nathan B – I already have platinum foxtel – so it’s not that much extra
I don’t understand the co$t of the PlayTV here??? I picked up one about 6 weeks ago from a Comet store in London for around $102 (after conversion). Why is there such a huge difference in price.
Good idea, but only 3 years late. I’ll stick to my Apple TV and iQ2
Nice one Auntie, nice one Sony!
iView on the PS3 is woefully blocky, framey and blurry. For it to be useful, the ABC really, really needs to up the encoded frame size and frame rate. Looking at any of the iView material on my PS3 on a 1080p screen is a shocker of an experience. You would have to be desperate to see a show you missed to watch it that way.
They can fix it, they just need the will to do so.
Meanwhile, PlayTV is Australia is a joke. Massively overpriced compared to everywhere else, and – here’s something they don’t tell you before you buy it – crippled in Australia (and only in Australia) by our wonderful paranoid Freeview cabal. Yep, that’s right, features have been removed.
Seriously, you’d be getting better value buying a twin-tuner DVB card for your PC.
I would love to see iView with an Apple TV integration and remote via iPod touch or IPhone, but I guess a partnership with Sony rules out that option.
I would also love to see daily episodes of Play School available on both iView and more specifically, added to the list of available content on the ABC iPhone app. Whilst I am not a fan of having TV everywhere we go, something educational for the pre-school kids to watch while waiting in traffic or at the doctors surgery etc would be a great option.
I’m with wot Cameron says. It’s tricky and tedious but I do still watch Good Game and John Safran on my PS3 when I’ve missed them. Glad they’re taking it seriously though.
@Todd So you’d rather pay hundreds yearly on a subscription service than a one off payment of $170?
I believe they’ve bundled the PlayTV free with the recently released 250GB PS3 bundle. So both the console and the PlayTV for $599. So a relatively decent deal.
iView has been implemented pretty poorly on the PS3 IMO.
It basically just launches the web browser to display iView fullscreen. So it acts just like it does on the desktop browser.
It’s not really set up for using a remote control. In fact the PlayStation 3 bluetooth remote doesn’t even work with iView.
Pretty terrible integration.
I noticed the icon show up on my PS3 a few nights ago, seems to work pretty well!
Definately adding play tv when i get my ps3 for xmas since i dont have TIVO. great move by sony. for value u cant beat PS3 for $669.00 (including play tv) you get a games console, DTV reccorder and a blu ray, dvd and cd player that can use a varied range of online features for around the same price as tvio. The PS3 is a great all in 1 and has to be the home entertainmet equivalnat of what a iPhone is to mobile phones
Cannot Believe the pricing…. was expecting this to cost about $50… now they can forget it, i’m just gonna get iQ.
IMO Freeview with the co-operation of all the channels should set up a service like ABCs iView to allow viewers to catch the latest just aired shows and make it unmetered for all ISPs.