PlayTV gets social network features
Europe's TV tuner to get Facebook integration and more in new update
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Sony Europe's PlayTV peripheral for the PlayStation 3 is to see the addition of new social network features, including Facebook.
In a brief post made by PlayStation Network product manager James Thorpe on the official PlayStation blog it was indicated that Sony's Cambridge studios have already begun testing some of the new features.
The public update is due "later this year", with Thorpe promising "links to the world's most popular social network site, Facebook" and "other great enhancements to PlayTV and brand new features".
Sony may be attempting to emulate some of the social features present in the Xbox 360 support for Sky digital services, which allow users to watch video content communally and chat via Xbox Live.
The PlayTV hardware add-on is only available in Europe and other regions that use the same television technology. The peripheral acts as a digital television receiver and digital video recorder, with UK sales put at 85,000 units by September 2008.
An equivalent peripheral named torne was revealed for Japan earlier in the year, but despite using similar television technology no release has yet been announced for North America.
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By Dan Pearson
Paul Cardy Programmer, Rebellion9 years ago
It's a great product, but it would be nice if Sony added the few basic features that cheap digiboxes can do (like being able to set reminders for programs) that are currently missing and fixed the features that are currently broken (such as the library view, which is quickly becomes unusable as the number of stored items increases) before jumping on the social networking bandwagon. The product still feels very much like a wasted opportunity.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Paul Cardy on 15th April 2010 4:03pm
Borja De Altolaguirre EMEA Licensing Coordinator, Konami Digital Entertainment9 years ago
I would be more interested on this device if Sony were including it as a built-in element on the last Slim design revision.. The installation of the device is not user-friendly and the remote control is not included as well..
With Xbox 360 having all this already as part of the console, I fear all this would be their last attempt to sell all the units they are maintaining at the stores...
I don't think the 360 has a digital terrestrial tuner, if that's what you were referring to? Also, from my experience the installation of the unit (at least the UK SKU) should be trivial, even for a non-expert. It's just a case of just plugging the aerial into the box, the USB cable from the box into the PS3, and then running the supplied bluray.
I'd agree that it would be nice if they sold a package with the remote, though, as IMO it significantly improves the experience.