Play TV
So, you've got your shiny PS3 and 60-foot mega-telly. That probably means you've also got some form of Freeview in your lounge/bedroom/multimedia toilet too. Let's be honest, with a set-up like that it's hard to imagine anyone who won't have access to the lavish blob of pixilation we loving call standard-def digital television. Obviously then, it's the 'R' aspect of Sony's PlayTV PVR we're all likely to be interested in. Still though, in the name of completism, here's IGN's final verdict on PlayTV, from practicality to implementation and everything in between.

Starting at the beginning, as is the norm, the actual PlayTV device isn't going to win any awards for beauty. It's a largely unlovable curved blob of cheap-feeling plastic, with a hole for your aerial cable and an LED which glows red when in use. Thankfully though, at roughly the size of large man's fist, it's fairly easy to tuck away, out of sight meaning it won't tarnish the splendour of your home cinema set-up. Well, that's not entirely true. You see, it's powered entirely via mini-USB, plugged directly into the front of your PS3. What that means is you're forced to have an unsightly wire trailing away to the underside of your TV cabinet which doesn't especially impress with its untidiness.
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Still, it's easy enough to get up and running – simply connect everything up then whack the included software disc into your PS3. While the software is installing, you're treated to a brief overview of PlayTV's features in video form – it's not the most enthralling entertainment ever, but at least it's more interesting than a loading bar. Several minutes later and you're presented with the on-screen set-up guide, ensuring you've not done anything daft like connecting your iron to your Sony's console powerhouse. From there, PlayTV automatically scans through all available channels and stores them for future telly boxing. In total, it'll probably take you five minutes to get the thing up and running and it couldn't be any more painless if it tried. For future use, PlayTV is permanently accessible from the 'TV' menu on your XMB and should take around 45 seconds to initialise.

Firing up PlayTV, you're first presented with its launch menu – not a hundred miles removed away from Apple's Front Row software. From its revolving carousel of icons, you're free to watch TV, browse recordings in the library, check out programme times and search for shows, amongst a variety of other options and settings. Most immediately obvious is the slickness of the interface, with its smooth gradients, transparencies, cross-fades and general all-round HD revelry. Unlike most in-built TV EPGs, PlayTV makes full use of the PS3's hi-def options meaning menus are clear, crisp and able to present plenty of information where needed.
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While it looks nice though, it's not the most intuitive of interfaces, demanding some excessive hoop jumping to perform some basic functions. Mostly, that's down to a lack of option shortcuts – there's no instant programme jump-to or record option, for example – but occasionally the interface can be downright obtuse – you can't stop a current recording from anywhere other than the separate schedule carousel menu, for example, which had us baffled for a good while. It's also worth noting that you'll need a PS3 Blu-ray Remote to make the most of PlayTV too. While Sony's done a reasonable job of mapping functions to the SIXAXIS controller, with plenty of on-screen advice to aid navigation, it's not especially transparent and proved a turn-off to the non-tech-savvy members of our household. Furthermore, certain digital TV features such interactive services aren't accessible via standard controller.

As a digital TV tuner and PVR, offers everything you'd expect to find but little to get especially excited about. That means you can, for instance, organise your channels by favourites and automatically cache live TV so you can pause for toilet breaks or rewind and re-watch the Countdown theme tune as many times as you please – and you can always see exactly how much disk space you've got to mess around with, which is a handy touch. Where things get a little more interesting is in PlayTV's piggy-backing of the PS3's integrated features. For instance, while you're always watching standard-def Freeview TV, the PS3's HDMI/1080p upscaling combo does a good job of making those lo-res images look presentable on a big screen – although, admittedly, not significantly more so than our test television's in-built TV tuner.
Also handy is the ability to play games and record programmes simultaneously – a feature that worked perfectly, despite all manner of on-screen warnings, in our admittedly limited tests. However, we reckon most people are likely to be more excited by PlayTV's Remote Play functionality. Simply, you can watch television, access your recordings and tamper with your schedules from the comfort of your PSP, provided your PS3 back at base is available. Obviously, you'll need to hop on a wi-fi access point to get it going but - technology permitting - it works surprisingly well assuming your signal strength is up to it. Quite when and where you'd want to use the feature is a fair question but one we're sure you can supply your own answers to.
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Perhaps our only real concern with PlayTV is its occasional tendency to crash when attempting to deal with low signal strengths. Although we only experienced the problem a handful of times, things got pretty nasty with several occurrences demanding a hard reset of the PS3. It's irritating when you're trying to watch television but obviously far more cataclysmic if it happens during a recording, particularly if you're attempting to play a game at the same time. Hopefully, we'll see some kind of fix when the inevitable download update arrives.

When all's said and done though, PlayTV is a competent, convenient and attractive package. Certainly, aside from Remote Play and that appealing hi-def interface, there's little here you can't find anywhere else – and probably for cheaper. If you're in the market for a PVR though, you could certainly do worse than PlayTV and, hopefully, the ease of updating software and expanding the feature list means we'll see more interesting additions in the future. Really, that's probably your bottom line when making a purchase decision – what's on offer is perfectly adequate for your TV viewing needs right now and PlayTV comes with its own nifty, if hardly essential, features. Really, what happens down the line with PlayTV is likely to be where the value of your purchase lies.