Let me start by saying that as a streaming device (like Fire TV, Apple TV, or Roku) the Playstation TV is by far the worst. It isn't even a close competitor. Months after launch and the Playstation TV still can't even run Netflix. You're pretty much limited to Crunchyroll and the Playstation Network for entertainment titles. 3 days to 2015 and there are companies making media devices that don't play Netflix, or Hulu; for shame. The options are so limited that you might as well not have any.
Playstation TV also boasts the ability to play a large portion of your Vita library on your television. After quite a bit of testing, only a select few games will work on the device; despite allowing you to download any Vita title that may be in your library. Touch My Katamari and Project Diva F are on that list, and while games like Minecraft are advertised to work they have such bad frame rate and texture issues that they are nearly unplayable at any enjoyable level. I was successful in getting Conception II and Final Fantasy X HD, as well as a couple smaller titles like Binding of Isaac and Pinball Arcade to run well enough to be enjoyable. The games that run well make the micro-console shine.
The size of the console is a good selling point, it's tiny, about 1/3 the overall size of the Fire TV, and only about 2X the size of my Fire Stick. It was easy to setup to my wired network, although wireless can be a chore if you have more than a basic network. I don't enable DNS because I manually assign all my IP addresses from the devices to my router, that way if I need to forward ports for a specific device it's easy; the Playstation TV doesn't allow you to set advanced settings for a network before connecting, and the device must connect to the router before it will allow you to change any of the IP address settings or DNS settings. I'm not sure why this is, I never had any issues with connecting my Vita to my home network. That was an issue, but considering the WiFi isn't fast enough to stream PS4 games, which is another advertised feature, keeping it plugged in may be your best option.
I wasn't able to test the PS4 streaming ability, although I would say it works fairly; it seems to be the real push for the Playstation TV. I would have liked to see the same functionality put forth for the PS3 through the Playstation TV, considering the Vita could remote play into a PS3 it just couldn't play any games (except a very select few; Shadow of the Colossus being one of them). It can play PS3 games through Playstation Now streaming service, but that requires a fee to play games and they are rentals; and not your current library. It seems like they are really pushing the Playstation 4 with this device, even allowing you to watch PS4 gameplay from it.
The interface is nothing intuitive, but then again it shares a menu with the Vita. The navigation can be a little strange, but is easy enough to get used to. Home button takes you out of whatever application you are in, then holding the circle button closes that application. It works. I would have liked to see better Playstation 4 controller support since the touchscreen on the controller would make it possible to play those otherwise unplayable games, but what do I know; it's probably better to leave the support sub-par.
Overall, if you don't have a PS4 you want to stream games from you're probably better off stearing clear of the Playstation TV. Playstation 3's are getting cheap enough that they are worth the extra but for the functionality, and if you really want to experience the Vita library you wont want to do it from this. If the majority of games you want to play are JRPG titles, you're in luck since most of those work, and the inclusion of a PS3 controller is pretty nice (considering those are $54 new). It just doesn't have the functionality yet to justify the purchase as a stand alone console, or a streaming device. If it was returnable, I would have taken it back already.
*End of Sunday, December 28, 2014 Review *
The size of the console is a good selling point, it's tiny, about 1/3 the overall size of the Fire TV, and only about 2X the size of my Fire Stick. It was easy to setup to my wired network, although wireless can be a chore if you have more than a basic network. I don't enable DNS because I manually assign all my IP addresses from the devices to my router, that way if I need to forward ports for a specific device it's easy; the Playstation TV doesn't allow you to set advanced settings for a network before connecting, and the device must connect to the router before it will allow you to change any of the IP address settings or DNS settings. I'm not sure why this is, I never had any issues with connecting my Vita to my home network. That was an issue, but considering the WiFi isn't fast enough to stream PS4 games, which is another advertised feature, keeping it plugged in may be your best option.I wasn't able to test the PS4 streaming ability, although I would say it works fairly; it seems to be the real push for the Playstation TV. I would have liked to see the same functionality put forth for the PS3 through the Playstation TV, considering the Vita could remote play into a PS3 it just couldn't play any games (except a very select few; Shadow of the Colossus being one of them). It can play PS3 games through Playstation Now streaming service, but that requires a fee to play games and they are rentals; and not your current library. It seems like they are really pushing the Playstation 4 with this device, even allowing you to watch PS4 gameplay from it.
The interface is nothing intuitive, but then again it shares a menu with the Vita. The navigation can be a little strange, but is easy enough to get used to. Home button takes you out of whatever application you are in, then holding the circle button closes that application. It works. I would have liked to see better Playstation 4 controller support since the touchscreen on the controller would make it possible to play those otherwise unplayable games, but what do I know; it's probably better to leave the support sub-par.Overall, if you don't have a PS4 you want to stream games from you're probably better off stearing clear of the Playstation TV. Playstation 3's are getting cheap enough that they are worth the extra but for the functionality, and if you really want to experience the Vita library you wont want to do it from this. If the majority of games you want to play are JRPG titles, you're in luck since most of those work, and the inclusion of a PS3 controller is pretty nice (considering those are $54 new). It just doesn't have the functionality yet to justify the purchase as a stand alone console, or a streaming device. If it was returnable, I would have taken it back already.
*End of Sunday, December 28, 2014 Review *
*Begin Friday, January 27, 2017 Edit*
I have had two years with the Playstation TV now, one of those years I have also had a Playstation 4; which means I've spent loads of time using the Remote Play feature. Over the last year I have seen some good improvements in remote play, but I think they could eliminate the upload time altogether by having the Bluetooth controller inputs bypass the Playstation Television and go directly to the Playstation 4 if it is in range. Then you are simply downloading the video, which takes much less resources than the way it currently works. Obviously that doesn't work if it's too far away, but that doesn't mean everyone should be punished. I say all of this because it's too slow to play anything competitively the way it is now. You have a very obvious latency between you and your own console, let alone you and other people when also trying to play anything multiplayer. Single player games which don't require lots of immediate input work good, so RPG and Adventure games get played on mine a lot. It satisfies my Playstation 4-from-the-bedroom need, but doesn't woo me into wanting to use it all the time.
The rest of the review stands. It did not serve me better than the Vita to play Vita games, of which I have bought another now and enjoy it all the time compared to this device. The Playstation Television still seems like it has no place, aside from the occasional Minecraft or Tales from the Borderlands over Remote Play; but what is the price on convenience? And convenient things don't always need to be useful all the time; they need to be useful when, well, it's convenient for you. Something this is great at being, convenient when you need it to be.
*End of Friday, January 27, 2017 Edit*
*Begin Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Edit*
Wow, 5 years on with the Playstation TV and the thing has earned its spot on my shelf. As the Vita ages and sinks into obscurity, the library goes with it and the great titles of the console are lost to time. From the beginning the Playstation TV was a doomed project. The lack of game support, the lack of support for major streaming services, proprietary memory, and the extremely slow WiFi, all added to its demise. At the time, when compact media was at its premium, Sony decided to create smaller, console specific memory. This is generally regarded as a bad move now as the media can be nearly impossible to find and anything of decent size is insanely expensive. By comparison to SD cards, a 128GB microSD card now costs less than $20 while a 32GB Vita Memory card costs over $60; and this is bound to get worse as stock dwindles.
I kept my generation 2 Playstation Vita original, making sure to update it and keep my library of digital titles accessible on the Playstation 3 for transfer. However, I modified the Playstation TV to allow install and access to titles deemed unsupported before. Now the entire Vita library is accessible on the television. This is a major improvement to the Playstation TV. While it was nice to access some of the games, the ability to play everything using a PS4 controller is far superior to the old "some titles and a PS3 controller" method from before. On top of this, I solved the storage problem on the Playstation TV by installing a SD2VITA adapter. This adapter goes into your game card slot and allows you to use a microSD card for storage instead of the proprietary media. This, coupled with the ability to play all games has made this device a real game changer. Having access to the entire PS1, PSP, and PSVita libraries puts the device at the top of its game. No more swapping cartridges as the SD card is big enough to hold all my retail titles as well as the majority of my digital titles. The ability to play all these titles in large format on my television really brings a new respect for some of the titles and just how good the Vita really looked for the time.
As for the streaming apps, once modded the Playstation TV can access a plethora of apps that were never officially supported; many of which have been modified by users to maintain some level of support, like Netflix and YouTube. These are not officially supported, however, as I mentioned in my original review, this was a terrible mistake. Sure some people had access to those apps on other devices, but nobody wants to move back and forth from device to device to access one or two specific apps; they want access no matter what device they are on. This is solved by modding the Playstation TV, you are no longer restricted to what Sony wants to offer you.
Imagine going to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and they have all the food lined up to make it look enticing. Now imagine every time you want to get some of that food, a person comes over and tells you that what you are trying to eat is technically included, but that they don't want you to eat it right now and to choose something else. Now imagine that they have 200 items to choose from, but the only ones they want you to eat are the mac and cheese and the mashed potatoes since those are the easiest to make more of. That was what dealing with the Playstation TV was like, and can still be like if you try and play by the rules.
End result of the Playstation TV, it gained value once modding opened up true access. Now is certainly the time to get one if you are on the fence as the cost of the device continues to climb. If you have a Vita collection, or a digital PSP collection, and playing those on the television sounds like a good time then I urge you to pick one of these up.
I kept my generation 2 Playstation Vita original, making sure to update it and keep my library of digital titles accessible on the Playstation 3 for transfer. However, I modified the Playstation TV to allow install and access to titles deemed unsupported before. Now the entire Vita library is accessible on the television. This is a major improvement to the Playstation TV. While it was nice to access some of the games, the ability to play everything using a PS4 controller is far superior to the old "some titles and a PS3 controller" method from before. On top of this, I solved the storage problem on the Playstation TV by installing a SD2VITA adapter. This adapter goes into your game card slot and allows you to use a microSD card for storage instead of the proprietary media. This, coupled with the ability to play all games has made this device a real game changer. Having access to the entire PS1, PSP, and PSVita libraries puts the device at the top of its game. No more swapping cartridges as the SD card is big enough to hold all my retail titles as well as the majority of my digital titles. The ability to play all these titles in large format on my television really brings a new respect for some of the titles and just how good the Vita really looked for the time.
As for the streaming apps, once modded the Playstation TV can access a plethora of apps that were never officially supported; many of which have been modified by users to maintain some level of support, like Netflix and YouTube. These are not officially supported, however, as I mentioned in my original review, this was a terrible mistake. Sure some people had access to those apps on other devices, but nobody wants to move back and forth from device to device to access one or two specific apps; they want access no matter what device they are on. This is solved by modding the Playstation TV, you are no longer restricted to what Sony wants to offer you.
Imagine going to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and they have all the food lined up to make it look enticing. Now imagine every time you want to get some of that food, a person comes over and tells you that what you are trying to eat is technically included, but that they don't want you to eat it right now and to choose something else. Now imagine that they have 200 items to choose from, but the only ones they want you to eat are the mac and cheese and the mashed potatoes since those are the easiest to make more of. That was what dealing with the Playstation TV was like, and can still be like if you try and play by the rules.
End result of the Playstation TV, it gained value once modding opened up true access. Now is certainly the time to get one if you are on the fence as the cost of the device continues to climb. If you have a Vita collection, or a digital PSP collection, and playing those on the television sounds like a good time then I urge you to pick one of these up.
*End of Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Edit*
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