Last week, I wrote a simple review of PlayTV but after using it for a bit more, I’ve decided to write a bit more about it.
In the last post, I mentioned that the picture quality isn’t as good as I thought it would be. These few days, the quality seemed to have been consistent. What I mean is, I think when I first got the PlayTV, the weather was bad for any signal anyway because there had been thunderstorm in Sydney.
Now the weather has stabilised, the picture quality isn’t that bad. 
If you compare a HDMI set top box with PlayTV, unfortunately PlayTV will lose in picture quality. 
The difference is PlayTV uses a USB 2.0 cable to connect to the PS3 and then output through PS3 via HDMI, whereas a HDMI set top connects to the TV directly using a HDMI cable. I think this is where the picture quality is a let down for the PlayTV. The picture loses its quality through such set up. If only the PlayTV connects to the PS3 using a HDMI cable as well. 
Having said that, if I record a TV program using PlayTV, and then replay the program via PS3, the picture quality is superb. 
I think the reason is because the PS3 upscales the picture. My conclusion is: if you want to watch Live TV in high quality using PlayTV, you’re better off recording it and then replay it.
Before I bought the PlayTV, I read many reviews online. All of the reviews criticised PlayTV’s design. I admit, yes, Sony could have spent a little more effort in making the PlayTV box a little more shiny and polished. But, I think Sony made a strategic decision to spend less time in design in order to keep the cost down. Think about it, if Sony makes this little black box a little more shiny and polished, the cost would have increased and therefore increased the price of one unit. Would you pay more than $200 so that you could watch TV on your PS3? I certainly wouldn’t even think about it. The console itself is expensive enough so I guess they’ve taken this into consideration therefore making this add-on cheaper to maximise their sales. This is why, I think, the PlayTV is so simple in design.
To be honest, no matter how the PlayTV looks like, it does its job very well, which is what matters to me. Whether it looks polished like an iPod or dull like a cassette tape, PlayTV is just going to sit there next to my PS3. I don’t care and it would not upset me if it didn’t look like an iPod because I care more in the quality of the picture it projects than how the box looks like. I stare at the TV not at the PlayTV box.
So, PlayTV scores:
4 out of 5 for me. It isn’t perfect but it’s the most economical solution for me. It would have been a perfect solution for me if the live TV picture quality is as good as a HDMI quality. That’s the only let down I can find.
Hope this helps for those who’s considering PlayTV as a PVR option. 