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PS3 to Act as Digital Video Recorder?
PS3 Evolution writes "Ars Technica has some new info regarding the PS3 and PSP Connectivity, and explores claims that the console will be a Digital Video Recorder." From the article: "An 'accessory' for the PSP is going to be a device that can connect to the PS3 for interactive gaming, video sharing, and probably music synchronization. Think about it: you're Sony, and you have the PSP. The device is in the same price league as the iPod (although storage is more expensive), and the screen is better. You're also a content owner with fingers in movies, music, and television. Sony's efforts to-date with UMD offerings are only the opening salvos for the company. How do you go after iPod-like success? Like the iPod that is tethered to a computer, the PSP will be tethered to a PS3." Take with the usual recommended amount of salt.
thats it... PS3 just won the console war going to have to get like one of these for each room (after I make a couple million to be able to afford that...)
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
Old news - the technology's called LocationFree, the LocationFree player was already included in PSP firmware 2.5, as was already reported here, with the PS3 as PVR story repeated too many times to even bother pointing you there.
It'll also play PS1 & PS2 games, act as an electronic secretary, automatically sort your socks, render the special effects in LOTR in real time and double your TV resolution. Meanwhile, if you plug in your PSP into the PS3 it'll make it play all of Nintendo's portable games as well as all of the Xbox games available. A software update late next year will allow the PS3 to play Xbox 360 at twice the speed.
Seriously, doesn't anyone remember the hype that surrounded the PS2? How much of that was true? Sony couldn't live up to it's OWN hype, nevermind what the press and fanboys came up with.
Don't be fucking idiots and charge an arm and a leg for storage on a MULTIMEDIA/gaming device. Hello, Sony??
Now, after seeing that the PS3 might be able to be a PVR, I would have to say this would change my mind of whether or not to purchase a gaming console. In the past, they could play DVDs, but I have a home theater system... But this would make me definately want to purchase a PS3. Not only would it play DVDs (with my HT System, but it would record TV for me... and Time Warner wants 415 a month for that... so it pays for itself over time.
The only question is... Will Sony make their PVR software able to understand the guide information coming through? Or would you need to hook the console to the internet to get a directory of whats on much like how my ATI All in Wonder does for when I have it record? Definately something worth while.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
If the PS3 has a DVR, that's no doubt a great thing to many people. If you see TV over regular coax cable or have over-the-air HDTV reception, this will be great. However, there's a ton of people who have subscribers (DirectTV, Comcast, Time-Warner, Dish) where AFAIK the only way to see expanded and/or HD content is through that content provider's digital set-top box.
The two workarounds would be to have inputs and outputs to record the content (analog) or to have a Cable Card slot. But Cable Cards usually have monthly fees attached to them about equal in price to the fees for the content provider's DVR.
What strikes me as interesting is that Sony wants people to believe that you can happily move around movies, music, TV shows to and from your PS3 and your PSP. Yet this same company is the one that doesn't let you rip CDs that you've already bought. What Sony is not saying is that you can move your purchased content around. (See Sony's answer to iTMS). I can't see this being an easy, open way to move around your media. Not with Sony.
Also, if consumers really wanted DVRs with their game machines, the PSX would've been a huge hit that Sony would've brought to territories outside of Japan.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Hypocrisy or just plain ignorance?
Left hand insists on bundling root kits, backing the *IAAs and curtailing purchasers rights wherever possible in the pursuit of profit.
Right hand wants you to freely copy from everyone else - assuming any kind of truth to these rumours. Bear in mind we've seen thus kind of U-turn before with MP3 players.
Either Sony are just too branched out to figure out a consistent stance on digital media and copyright or they're so old and cumbersome that they're beginning to suffer from the corporate equivalent of schizophrenia.
It bothers me only a little since I now boycott Sony thanks to the whole rootkit issue. I can understand the need for "light-touch" DRM (Fairplay etc.) but *any* DRM opens a door that we don't want opened and Sony's antics convinced me of that.
Besides all that, despite the high quality of the screen, I can't really see myself using any kind of handheld to play video on the go. Squinting at a tiny screen on the train seems somewhat pointless to me. Of course, that's just my take on it.
"...So I hung back and lurked. For 18 months. Can't beat a good old-fashioned lurking."
As for stopping a game to record tv. If the system is anythign like the PSX (the PS2 /w DVR that was Japanese only on the original release of the PS1) then the DVR will be a seperate system function and the recording will happen at the same time you play games without any loss of framerate or anything like that.
To date, there is no DVR/PVR available, unless it's TIVO or some box that you must buy directly from the cable company, that is worth buying.
Without built-in ability to access digital cable schedules and HDTV content, 3rd party DVR's are novelty items that find only limited functionality in the home. I bought a DVD-HDD DVR a few months ago and returned it, mostly because the ONLY way I could record content was to plug the video out of my Digital Cable box into the video in on the DVR, and then make sure I hit record when the television show started. There is no way to automatically schedule TV recording on 3rd party DVR boxes. The Cable companies won't allow Open cable standards to flourish, banking on proprietary cable technology to gain the extra $5-$10 a month renting boxes out generates.
Unless Sony builds a Cable Card slot into the PS3 (and US and Canadian cable companies actually start supporting Cable Cards), the DVR capabilities of the PS3 will be a novelty item, like the DVD player support in the PS2. A few people will find it handy, but most people will find it too cumbersome to use or have an existing solution that meets their needs. Without the ability to schedule Digital Cable recordings, or access HDTV content without the blessings of the Cable companies, the PS3's DVR capabilities will be greatly diminished.
Also, I am sure Sony will build in so much DRM protection schemes and other ways to prevent the PS3 from being an adequate DVR solution will make it suck as a DVR.
Sony is one of the few companies that are putting Cable Card slots into their TVs, so perhaps they will build them into the PS3. But this represents more technology to implement and license meaning that the cost of the PS3 will increase because of this feature.
That combined with the necessity of a hard drive means that the PS3 won't be cheap.
The PS3 doesn't, and shouldn't, be an all-in-one device. Playing back video, music, and photo slideshows is alright, these features can be added without any additional cost, but I would prefer if Sony focused on gaming and leave the superfluous features out of the PS3. Keep the price low and let people buy more robust and better implemented solutions elsewhere.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
The PS3 is sounding dangerously vaporous, and adding new vapor features doesn't help. Seriously, the conventional wisdom on this was that we'd see a Spring launch in Japan, and Fall in North America. Well, Spring is getting pretty close, and the only news in the PS3 camp is that blogging on how it's too hard to develop for and not really "next gen" gets you fired.
Whatever the PS3 ends up being, I no longer expect to see it in 2006.
Because tonight I am setting up VLC to send my America's Army video at 320x240 over my lan to my pocket pc, which will transport back wireless controls, allowing me to export my entire AA experience to a portable device. Now I can hide in the cupboard and play AA, while imagining people are looking for me.
.1 seconds lag, I think that would be teh fun.
What has this got to do with the story? Well, I have a PDA that runs a GBA emu, and a PC that runs lots of EMU's, and if I can export them to my PDA with
And I have a PVR in my PC. so ner. seriously, anyone ever done this?
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Streaming content from the PS3 to the PSP is a killer app.
If it's a fully funtioned at the existing Location Free player, you don't even need the PS3 to perform the PVR functions. It can just front-end an existing Tivo. This platform looks to be the living room convergence box that we've all been hearing about for so long...
Game Console - Location Free Base - DVD Player - Blu-ray Player - Front end for Streaming Media
I am so glad I didn't get a 360...
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Let us just briefly analysis this one, shall we: ... that's all I can think of just now, but I'm confident that with a bit more careful analysis we'd be able to put a nail in the coffin of this hype material.
- No confirmed hard-disk - Hard-disk is essential for the PVR functions- ok, maybe it will be sold seperately, but as it stands, we almost certainly won't get out of the box PVR.
- Region Issues- From a technical point of view there are HUNDREDS of TV standards out there, more so if you include analogue and digital based broadcasters all over the world. Sony plans to sell the console in lots of countries- thus you have to create a compatible recording device for various video signals - unless you simply get a bog-standard VCR like device that can't change the channel on your TV, let alone your set-top box (this, friends, seems to me to be the biggest issue and reason why this is almost defintely vapourware). TV Listings over the net would require extensive partnerships across the world to create a worldwide TV Guide...
- Copyright issues- Sony like copyright. Ripping content to a hard-drive is a security risk- they would much rather sell you it in DRM'd format over the net.
- Where's the $$$? - What benefits will Sony get from combining PVR with the PS3- they already sell PVR devices (DVD-recorders, HardDisk recorders, etc.) and locationfree devices - all of these will suffer if they the features are stuffed into one, very popular, device. It'll cost them more money per console and cost them lost sales- where's the business plan?
- HD Content and Hard-disks- HD Content eats up HD space faster than regular content- sony can't afford the extra hard-drive costs if they want to keep the rest of the specs reasonable and not sell the console at a reasonable loss level.
- Sony are a "super-dooper" hype company. They have a habit of going a bit Over the Top (though I do love my VAIO laptop!)
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency (Eugene McCarthy)