PSVitaAddict

Okay, today I will be reviewing the Sony Playstation TV, formerly known as the PS Vita TV over in Japan when it was released back in November 2013.

The Playstation TV was released mainly as a way to use the PS3 and PS4 remote play functionality for an affordable price. The current price of the PS TV is 79.00 dollars, you can also buy the version that comes bundled with a DualShock 3 controller, Lego The Movie game and 8 gig PS VITA memory card that model usually retails around 99 dollars, and in my opinion is a very good value, if you are just getting into the Playstation Ecosystem, the PS TV bundle is a great way to start. If on the other hand, you already own a vita memory card, or you already own a Dualshock 3 or 4, then I’d recommend going with the base model.

Another thing I have to mention, the PS TV is also compatible with the Playstation 4’s DualShock 4 controller, and it overall works great with the PS TV, it works the same way the Dualshock 3 works. You can use either controller via wired or wireless methods. I also have to note that you can also use the Dualshocks 4’s touch pad for certain games that are touch compatible on the PS TV.

now lets get to the PS TV’s rear ports, the first button you will see on the back is the Power Button, next to that is a slot to insert the Vita memory card, USB 2.0 port, HDMI Port and finally an Ethernet port, which in my opinion is the most exciting feature on the back, many vita owners out there know that the PS vita isn’t the fastest when it comes to downloading via Wifi, most users who have a vita and a fast internet connection know this all too well, I have a pretty fast connection, and the vita never really takes advantage of it. That is not the case anymore though, I have my PS TV connected via Ethernet cable, and the download speeds when downloading content from the Playstation store is blazing fast!

I tested the download speeds of the unit while connected to Ethernet, I went ahead and started downloading Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment, the game is around 6 gigs in size, it finished downloading in around 20-25 minutes, compared to the vita, which took around 2 hours to download via Wifi, now this doesn’t mean that everyone will get the same results, the download speed of my connection is around 50 megs down, so it also isn’t the fastest, but I have downloaded tons of games from my Playstation Plus Library of games, and they have all downloaded quick. So in closing, if you are someone that doesn’t like to wait hours for games to download, I recommend you set the PS TV up via Ethernet, trust me, its worth it.

now let us move on to the actual user interface of the PS TV, if you ever owned a PS Vita, this will immediately look familiar to you. The user interface on the PS TV, is exactly the same as the interface on the PS Vita, for some that will be great, but for others, they may end up disliking the interface since it’s a bit awkward to navigate on a TV, since the interface was designed with touch in mind.

actual navigation of the PS TV’s interface is taken care of with either the Dualshock 3 controller or the Dualshock 4, you can move around the interface freely with the right analog stick. You can select any of the apps on the system by pressing the X button, you can also close them by holding the O button. The user interface is fast, which is great, you can navigate to anywhere on screen quickly. Most people who are getting the PS TV will want to download video streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu. Sadly at this time they do not function on the PS TV, Sony has mentioned a few months ago that they are working on a patch to allow Netflix to be usable on the PS TV itself, but for now you can’t use it. Also, missing from the video lineup is Youtube, though you can access Youtube videos straight from the PS TV’s browser, not ideal. But it’s the only way to do it as of right now.

I will now move on to the most important part of the PS TV, which in my opinion is gaming! I have played many PS Vita games from my collection on the PS TV, and I’m happy to report that everything looked and played wonderfully! I was actually surprised to see that games from the PS Vita Library looked so great on my TV, I have a 55 inch Sony HD TV, and one of the games I was blown away by was Persona 4 Golden, it looks simply amazing on my TV screen. I was honestly amazed at how well the game looked. The PS TV has a max resolution of 1080i, which is fine because the games I ran on the unit itself all looked great.

I had a blast playing my PS Vita Library on my PS TV, I spent 50+ hours playing Persona 4 Golden on my PS TV, since I was so impressed by how great it looked on my TV. If you you’re someone who is interested in the games the PS Vita has to offer, but you aren’t really sure about spending 200 dollars on the handheld itself, then you honestly can’t go wrong with picking up a PS TV. Starting at only 80 dollars, it offers so much value for the money. The PS TV also played PS1 games and PSP games so overall you will have hundreds among hundreds of games at your fingertips all for just 80 dollars.

In closing I give the PS TV a score of 8/10