The Playstation TV

[TeknoBug]

Picked up a PS TV earlier this week and so far am happy with it after tweaking with it for a while, only quirk about it so far is lack of proper apps and games (hardly any Vita games are compatible with it) and no Netflix app yet.

At first when playing remote play from my PS4, it had issues with some input lag because of the wireless signal to the router, I then connected to the wifi extender which was a little better but still had low framerates then figured out that I can do direct connection and it's perfect now almost as if I'm playing on my PS4 instead of remotely.

Seeing as how tiny the PS TV is, I would love to see a mini PC in that small formfactor (like a Bay Trail N2930 or so) but slightly bigger so it can fit an mSATA SSD too- the little NUC boxes is a good step in that direction.

 

[mmntech]

It's a cool concept but they didn't exactly deliver on what they promised it would be. Why are so many Vita games not compatible with it?

 

[mnewsham]

hardly any Vita games are compatible with it

that's misleading as hell....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Vita_games

Looking at the list and sorting by PS TV compatibility it looks like at least 1/3rd to 1/2 of all vita games are compatible.

 

[TeknoBug]

that's misleading as hell....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Vita_games

Looking at the list and sorting by PS TV compatibility it looks like at least 1/3rd to 1/2 of all vita games are compatible.

OK, try and attempt to install one of those games even listed and it telling you at the end that it's not compatible with the PS TV?

Dangonronpa 2 and FIFA 14 are ones i tried so far, I talked to some others on another site where 1 out of 11 games the guy had worked. Funny though that LEGO movies that came with it along with the 8GB card and DS3 controller also told me it wasn't compatible yet still launched.

 

[Aikouka]

That list is rather inaccurate. Seeing that list months ago is actually why I thought Lumines would work, but guess what... it doesn't. It also isn't on Sony's official list.

 

[cmdrdredd]

If you can't play every Vita game on the TV with this...what exactly is the point of it?

 

[TeknoBug]

Here's a quote from Snowyjakk on PSN forums:

So I got the PS TV on launch day and I absolutely hate it.

A while ago, my PS Vita charger exploded so I haven't been able to use it. Since Sony doesn't make PS Vita chargers anymore, I resorted to getting a PS TV. Not only does it not play any of the games I own, but the games available are either Lego games, indie games, and the "Classics" (mainly PSP) that look absolutely horrible on a big screen. Looking at you Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Overall, the PS TV is just an overglorified portable PS4, granted you got a PS4, a second HD TV, and a stable wired connection. Sadly all of the decent or good games imo, are incompatible with the PS TV.

 

[Aikouka]

I saw people suggest that you should turn off the Direct Connect feature if you're using a PlayStation TV, so I gave it a shot. It definitely helped with the latency problems; however, the Vita is still better... even with Direct Connect turned off!

From some research, it looks like the Vita and PSTV actually use different Wi-Fi chips (Vita (teal outline), PSTV (left)) It appears that both are probably using antennas that are built into the PCB, but the Vita's appears to be far bigger. I believe the dark blue traces at the top of this picture that go nearly all the way across are the Vita's antenna. If I had to guess, the PSTV's antenna is the orange strip at the bottom of this photo. I'm not 100% sure about that last one though, so if anyone with some EE knowledge could chime in, that'd be great.

Anyway, from what it looks like, we've got a smaller antenna and a different Wi-Fi chip, which could explain why it's so bad. It's also a Realtek LAN chip. :\

 

[Bman123]

I was hoping this would be a good product. I wanted to use it for a Netflix box in the bedroom and be able to play the occasional game.
Glad I didn't pick this up at launch

 

[mmntech]

Sony needs to learn that they can't keep halfarsing these mobile devices. Even if it is only $100.

 

[Fox5]

Give me a tiny cheap device like this running SteamOS, with a Netflix app, and streaming from a full PC and I'd be very happy.

 

[sze5003]

I dont care much for vita games but I would definitely use it in the bedroom to play my ps4 games. Although it would be an awkward arrangement having my tv on the floor by the router for the ps tv. I wonder if I can buy a new pc monitor with hdmi but then how would I get sound?

 

[Aikouka]

I wonder if I can buy a new pc monitor with hdmi but then how would I get sound?

Some monitors have speakers built into them. My ASUS gaming monitor has them, which actually surprised me when I hooked up a device via HDMI to test it. Although, as you'd expect, they're usually terrible as they tend to be positioned in the worst spots. On my Acer monitor, they're in the back, and you can tell that they expected people to put it close to a wall as that would direct the sound back at the user. The problem is... mine is facing about 20 feet of open space! I ended up putting some cheap USB speakers at the front as well added some Bluetooth headphones.

 

[sze5003]

Some monitors have speakers built into them. My ASUS gaming monitor has them, which actually surprised me when I hooked up a device via HDMI to test it. Although, as you'd expect, they're usually terrible as they tend to be positioned in the worst spots. On my Acer monitor, they're in the back, and you can tell that they expected people to put it close to a wall as that would direct the sound back at the user. The problem is... mine is facing about 20 feet of open space! I ended up putting some cheap USB speakers at the front as well added some Bluetooth headphones.

Yea I'll need to look up some monitors with speakers. Would help me rather than having to pull my tv from the bedroom closet in and out each time I wanted to use ps tv.

 

[Aikouka]

Yea I'll need to look up some monitors with speakers. Would help me rather than having to pull my tv from the bedroom closet in and out each time I wanted to use ps tv.

Honestly, you could probably even go super cheap with it and get a fairly low-end model. The thing is... while the PSTV can support 1080i output, it's still based upon the Vita's 960 × 544 resolution. So, if you can find a super cheap 720p monitor or a small TV (!!), you might be better of. Although, if you ever think you may want to use the monitor for some other computer-related purpose, going a little "bigger" might not be an awful idea.

As a note, the PSTV supports the following video outputs: 480p, 720p and 1080i.

 

[mmntech]

Give me a tiny cheap device like this running SteamOS, with a Netflix app, and streaming from a full PC and I'd be very happy.

Full Netflix support was just added to the Ubuntu fork, which includes Steam OS. It requires Chrome 37 or higher, but I can't imagine stand alone apps being far off. I saw one already floating around for XBMC (er, I guess it's called Kodi now), but I haven't tried it yet

 

[TeknoBug]

Full Netflix support was just added to the Ubuntu fork, which includes Steam OS. It requires Chrome 37 or higher, but I can't imagine stand alone apps being far off. I saw one already floating around for XBMC (er, I guess it's called Kodi now), but I haven't tried it yet

It's about time Linux got native support for Netflix, got a bit tired of using the "desktop" hackjob which had frame drops even on a GOOD system. And yeah a tiny Steam box like the PS TV would go a long ways for streaming Steam games, I already do that via my laptop from my main PC.

 

[sze5003]

Honestly, you could probably even go super cheap with it and get a fairly low-end model. The thing is... while the PSTV can support 1080i output, it's still based upon the Vita's 960 × 544 resolution. So, if you can find a super cheap 720p monitor or a small TV (!!), you might be better of. Although, if you ever think you may want to use the monitor for some other computer-related purpose, going a little "bigger" might not be an awful idea.

As a note, the PSTV supports the following video outputs: 480p, 720p and 1080i.

I have a 32 inch 1080p in my bedroom closet it's just a pain to pull it out and have wires all over the floor by the modem and pc. I figure I can replace my 22 inch monitor for the pc with one that has hdmi inputs for the ps tv. That way I'll just leave the tv in the closet and everything is hooked up under my desk.

 

[sze5003]

Well I think I will return mine to Wal-Mart today. I have a 50mb connection and have both the ps4 and ps tv wired. Ps4 uses Ethernet wireless adapters and ps tv is plugged directly into my router.

Direct connect is off, even changed scaling on ps tv to 720p. There is lag even in the menu when using remote play. You can hear it in the other room when you change icons vs when it happens on the ps tv.

I live in a one bedroom apartment so the living room is maybe 10 feet from my bedroom. I figured this would be great to have because the living room tv is always in use.

Played resogun and its not like playing on the ps4, moves slower. Destiny is also laggy, pve not pvp. I mean it's playable but in heavy action areas you will have a hard time with the slower reaction speed.

All my tests have been wired and looking on the internet I've seen similar responses on reddit, neogaf, other Google searches. If they improve it later on with an update I may pick it up again since its only $100.

But right now I don't see a way to play my games while someone is using the living room tv, which is what I was hoping for. I figured since I'll be wired I should have no issues.

 

[railven]

So far I'm 50/50 on the PS TV.

For starters, the game I bought to christen it didn't work (HD Neptunia Re:Birth).

But the other game I ended up picking on a whim did (Conceptions 2).

It looks "great" on my monitor (1660p, so 720p upscaled). I wasn't expecting beautiful crisp lines, I knew it would be upscaled (and I don't have a native 720p device to compare with).

I used a wired connection with Cat6E on all ends. I get almost no lag, I've played Resogun/Destiny/Metal Gear without issue. This is basically the only saving grace for this damn thing for me right now since the primary purchase I was looking for (Vita games on my screen so I can recline back) doesn't work as expected.

For people having latency issues, follow the usual network troubleshooting issues. This doesn't use your ISP connection, so any issues are gonna be on your network end, and for the love of Deity, do not use WiFi PS4 and WiFI PS TV. Both units, in my opinion, have shitty controllers.


Idea Factory said they are looking into patching the US version of Re:Birth since the Japanese version works fine according to online reports. But I'm already 32 hours into the game, and my shiny PS TV sits under my monitor unused.

 

[cmdrdredd]

They needed this to play all vita games, and do all network streaming (Netflix, amazon instant etc etc). They failed.

 

[sze5003]

So far I'm 50/50 on the PS TV.

For starters, the game I bought to christen it didn't work (HD Neptunia Re:Birth).

But the other game I ended up picking on a whim did (Conceptions 2).

It looks "great" on my monitor (1660p, so 720p upscaled). I wasn't expecting beautiful crisp lines, I knew it would be upscaled (and I don't have a native 720p device to compare with).

I used a wired connection with Cat6E on all ends. I get almost no lag, I've played Resogun/Destiny/Metal Gear without issue. This is basically the only saving grace for this damn thing for me right now since the primary purchase I was looking for (Vita games on my screen so I can recline back) doesn't work as expected.

For people having latency issues, follow the usual network troubleshooting issues. This doesn't use your ISP connection, so any issues are gonna be on your network end, and for the love of Deity, do not use WiFi PS4 and WiFI PS TV. Both units, in my opinion, have shitty controllers.


Idea Factory said they are looking into patching the US version of Re:Birth since the Japanese version works fine according to online reports. But I'm already 32 hours into the game, and my shiny PS TV sits under my monitor unused.

Yea I'm using wired connection but Destiny is still laggy as if I'm walking in a shallow pool. Not sure what else I can try.

Downscaling to 720p seemed like it helped but that didn't do much for me when playing games. It made response better in the menus.

 

[railven]

They needed this to play all vita games, and do all network streaming (Netflix, amazon instant etc etc). They failed.

Apps angle, someone said it's a Licensing issue. Whatever the issue, I agree - should have been resolved before launch, but then again PS4 barely supports everything PS3 does almost one year out. So /shrug.

Game wise, definitely, that is how they sold the damn thing. There should have been >80% comparability. But reading online, games have to be patched by devs for compatibility. Why? I don't know.

But if you look at the Japanese compatibility list and compare it to the US, you'd be amazed how lazy SCEA was compared to SCEJ in getting compliance from devs.

 

[railven]

Yea I'm using wired connection but Destiny is still laggy as if I'm walking in a shallow pool. Not sure what else I can try.

Downscaling to 720p seemed like it helped but that didn't do much for me when playing games. It made response better in the menus.

Beyond a defective unit, I really can't imagine what else to try. From my experience I can vouch that PS4 runs at 1080p and I have no latency issues, but I'm also using full throughput on my network. (I have both the PS TV and PS4 IPs on manual bandwidth adjustment, no QoS interference), static IPs, and the usual network check list. [EDIT: Resogun is a good game to test for latency due to it's twitch gameplay requirements, also no video degradation which was common on my PS Vita). EDIT #2: Not sure if you're using the Dualshock 3 controller, but I opted to use a Dualshock 4 from the start. Not sure if this would affect anything, but if you believe the marketing from Sony "Dualshock 4 has less latency than Dualshock 3".

I do know when I first tried WiFi the latency was a good second, that was with PS4 wired and PS TV WiFi. I was just setting it up, dropped that WiFi like a bad habit and ran wired. Never looked back. Waiting for PS Vita Game compatibility list, but only reason I'm keeping mine is Best Buy goofed my pre-order. I ordered $100 unit, but got $140 unit (with Lego Game/Controller/8GB card) so swallowing the "loss" haha.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Apps angle, someone said it's a Licensing issue. Whatever the issue, I agree - should have been resolved before launch, but then again PS4 barely supports everything PS3 does almost one year out. So /shrug.

Game wise, definitely, that is how they sold the damn thing. There should have been >80% comparability. But reading online, games have to be patched by devs for compatibility. Why? I don't know.

But if you look at the Japanese compatibility list and compare it to the US, you'd be amazed how lazy SCEA was compared to SCEJ in getting compliance from devs.

I don't see why it should be an issue. It should just play the vita games and instead of outputting to the built in screen, send it over HDMI. They obviously changed something somewhere that requires changes to the game.

They could have easily made it do all the same stuff a pS4 does I think when it comes to apps.