Comments on: PS3 adds iView, Freeview

By: TIm

TIm — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:11:29 +0000

Telstra not on the unmetered ISP list… what a surprise.

By: Neon Kitten

Neon Kitten — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:10:14 +0000

@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.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:54:35 +0000

@Nathan B – I already have platinum foxtel – so it’s not that much extra

By: nagelixin

nagelixin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:31:34 +0000

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

By: mikeys

mikeys — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:14:10 +0000

Nice one Auntie, nice one Sony!

By: Neon Kitten

Neon Kitten — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:12:17 +0000

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.

By: Elise

Elise — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:49:34 +0000

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.

By: Mac

Mac — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:43:37 +0000

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.

By: Nathan B

Nathan B — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:44:44 +0000

@Todd So you’d rather pay hundreds yearly on a subscription service than a one off payment of $170?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:17:40 +0000

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.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:50:54 +0000

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.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:34:59 +0000

I noticed the icon show up on my PS3 a few nights ago, seems to work pretty well!

By: angelsgal

angelsgal — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:20:48 +0000

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

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:16:45 +0000

Cannot Believe the pricing…. was expecting this to cost about $50… now they can forget it, i’m just gonna get iQ.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:15:56 +0000

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.