PS Vita TV

[Jess Ragan]

There are some games- some very GOOD games- on Vita that won't be compatible with P(o)S TV because they require touchscreen, touchpad, and camera input. I just don't see the point in getting one of these if it can't play the Vita's standout releases.

[bojay1997]

There are some games- some very GOOD games- on Vita that won't be compatible with P(o)S TV because they require touchscreen, touchpad, and camera input. I just don't see the point in getting one of these if it can't play the Vita's standout releases.

Well, it's only $100 and it does play quite a bit of the Vita's library. It also acts as a streaming box for Playstation TV and other video and content services. It seems like a bargain to me.

[DaytonaUSA]

I kinda swore off Sony since my disappointment with the ps4. But honestly I might buy this just for grim fandango.

[cimerians]

I'm buying it mainly for the large amount of PSP games (backlog) I have..........

 

I own like three Vita games.

[cimerians]

Going out today to get one...if anyone is curious I'll post some thoughts.

 

Again, main reason for me getting it:

- Would rather play most Vita\PSP games on a TV set.

- Tired of moving the PS4 to another room for local mutliplayer sessions of Diablo.

 

Its got a cartridge slot on the side for Vita games and also an ethernet port which I'll definitely use (it supports wireless though)

 

Here's a compatability list because it wont play touch screen or vita hardware specific games:

 

https://support.us.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5376/~/games-compatible-with-playstation-tv

 

for more in depth gaming stuff this is a nice article:

 

http://kotaku.com/ive-had-the-opening-cinematic-to-persona-4-golden-for-t-1646074753?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow

 

"Vita games that are compatible with the PlayStation TV however, run like a dream. No slowdown, no stuttering — it's the same internals, so why would there be?"

 

Apparently this thing is a Vita without the screen etc.

[WestofHouse]

Going out today to get one...if anyone is curious I'll post some thoughts.

 

 

Definitely! I look forward to your review.

[+Gemintronic]

Dunno if I've already asked this, but, does it require an online account? None of my consoles ever touch the Internets.

[goldenegg]

I picked one up over lunch.

 

I was a little surprised how small the system is. All the cables take more space than the system.

 

 

Dunno if I've already asked this, but, does it require an online account? None of my consoles ever touch the Internets.

 

Yes, the Vita in general requires a PSN account as it's used to secure content on the memory card.

[+Gemintronic]

I picked one up over lunch.

 

I was a little surprised how small the system is. All the cables take more space than the system.

 

 

 

Yes, the Vita in general requires a PSN account as it's used to secure content on the memory card.

 

Thanks for the response. Er, just to be clear: You can't even stick in a physical Vita game and play without a PSN account?

[goldenegg]

I'm fairly certain that you can't play games on the Vita without a memory card, so a PSN account is a firm requirement.

Edited October 14, 2014 by goldenegg

[cimerians]

Holy shit...it's a Vita console. Its an actual Vita handheld turned into a console. LOL

 

Very cool playing TxK on a big screen, it's a blast and it looks wonderful.

 

Talk about complete lack of advertising. They really wanted to make this seem like it's something different maybe a ROKU box or something but its basically a Vita turned into a small console where you can use your PS3\PS4 controller to play Vita\PSP games and of course you can stream stuff if you want from your PS4 or play stuff off of your PSN account.

 

Anyway here's some thoughts:

 

- Unboxing and hooking it up was like hooking up any console you have along with pairing a controller to it.

 

- A firmware update was already required.

 

- Using your Playstation ID seemed to be optional as it gave me a choice. I was able to insert a Vita game cartridge into the console and play a game without logging in or anything. Would NOT allow me to play a downloadable game though that I purchased from the store without signing in first. So carts are ok offline...digital games require a check and system activation.

 

- It comes with 1GB internal memory but I simply pulled my Vita card out of my Vita handheld and used that on the console and all my downloaded games appeared and was able to play off my handheld Vita card.....so no need to buy a seperate memory card just use the one in your Vita handheld.

 

- Its a Vita. So to swipe close programs you hold the circle button down for a sec. The home button on the PS3 controller brings up a screen where you can turn off vibration on the PS3 controller, adjust volume settings, Power off the system etc.

 

- Vita games look wonderful, its amazing how the quality in the games still show even with it being stretched out. I have a 42" HD LED TV and it looks very good. It's not 100% clear there is pixelation in some of the backgrounds but I don't notice it too much and I'm only 5 feet from my TV. It looks great and of course it will look sharper on a Vita but this is very minor.

 

- PSP games though look not so good especially on a huge screen like I have. They are slighlty blurred or pixelated due to the stretched out size plus those games are just older. It basically looks like how a PSP hooked to a TV would look like on some of the PSP models that had video out. Same exact thing. You lose some crispy quality to play it on a TV. (I tried Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins and Persona 3 FES)

 

- Playing\streaming PS4 games on it works well for some games and not as good for others. A PS3 controller for PS4 games also works well. Games like Diablo III work fine with minimal issue and this is a good thing but throw in an FPS like Metro and the screen tearing show's its ugly head. There's a lag you can feel on FPS games and you can see framerate drops plus the resolution takes a slight hit. Racing games will probably suffer the same fate. Any game that is fast or constantly moving will suffer. If your into slower turn based or static looking games like Diablo or RPG's then remote play will work very well. Basically its a remote connection to your PS4 like what you do in the PC world. You navigate the menu's on the PS4 and fire up your game and play it from another TV in your house. (I tried Diablo III and Metro Redux)

 

Overall:

 

It depends on what your looking for. I mainly wanted to play my Vita games on a TV set because I get tired of holding a portable for over an hour on an RPG. This is where this console hits a home run. Vita games look and play great. Grade: A

 

PSP games on the other hand look like they did on PSP's hooked up to TV's. Not that great but still very playable and enjoyable...just very large! Grade: B-

 

PS4 remote play is not quite there for action games. Play slower games or games that are not heavily action oriented and things look good. Grade: C

 

Is it worth it for 100 bucks? For me most definitely...there's nothing quite like playing TxK, Pixeljunk Monsters or Demon Gaze with a PS3 controller on a big ass screen.

 

For anyone else please make sure your not getting this just for the PS4 streaming because it's not quite there yet.

 

Some people won't want to hear this but my Ouya has been replaced by this console. LOL. I will find a spot for the Ouya though at some point, its still a solid emulation machine.

[Atariboy]

Sony needs to patch Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Resistance: Burning Skies to work on this. None of the gimmicky controls are key to either game and could easily be edited out.

 

At least Killzone has a patch. But 2/3's of their big name 1st party exclusives can't be played here.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Atariboy

[cimerians]

Oh yeah not all games are compatible...I posted a link up above somewhere for a list of compatible games.

[WestofHouse]

Thanks for the review, Cimerians. It looks very promising. If/When they add more streaming features it will be even more attractive.

[cimerians]

Thanks for the review, Cimerians. It looks very promising. If/When they add more streaming features it will be even more attractive.

 

No problem...yeah its basically only worth it right now if you really want to play Vita games on a TV that's about it. The streaming is lackluster on FPS games. I'm using a wired connection too and its still rather choppy.

[Tempest]

Just to be clear. There is no PSP slot for the UMD right? To play PSP games you'd have to download them digitally? That's a deal breaker for me because all my PSP games are on discs, I never got into downloading them. There are a handful of Vita games that I want to play, but I have such a backlog already that it will have to wait.

[WestofHouse]

I sold my Vita and all my games recently, but since I'm a Plus subscriber it would be nice to be able to play the freebies. If they add more features and make it something like a Roku it could be huge.

[cimerians]

Just to be clear. There is no PSP slot for the UMD right? To play PSP games you'd have to download them digitally? That's a deal breaker for me because all my PSP games are on discs, I never got into downloading them. There are a handful of Vita games that I want to play, but I have such a backlog already that it will have to wait.

 

No UMD slot. Would have been nice because I have a bunch of UMD games too but I can see why they didn't include it. They could have made it a little bigger if they did....its so small right now its smaller than a PSP or Vita. Probably could palm the whole thing if you have big enough hands, it's basically the size of a cell phone.

 

If you do have a Vita and digital games/PSplus games or whatever....the nice thing is simply using your current memory card and all your stuff is sitting right there ready to play.

[Tempest]

I'll probably pick it up eventually because there are Vita games that I want to play (There are two Tales games that are Vita exclusives I think), but that will have to wait.

 

I wish there was a way to turn your UMD's into digital downloads so you can use them with the PS TV. I wonder how long it will take for this thing to get hacked to play downloaded games?

[cimerians]

 

I wish there was a way to turn your UMD's into digital downloads so you can use them with the PS TV. I wonder how long it will take for this thing to get hacked to play downloaded games?

 

That was my first thought. Hopefully someone is looking into this.

 

I have to admit it's so nice playing Vita games on a TV with a controller and not being hunched over the vita for hours.They should have marketed this as a "Vita Console" and not some TV rubbish.

[Tempest]

 

That was my first thought. Hopefully someone is looking into this.

 

I have to admit it's so nice playing Vita games on a TV with a controller and not being hunched over the vita for hours.They should have marketed this as a "Vita Console" and not some TV rubbish.

Yeah I play my PSP games on my TV since mine has the TV Out port. I hate playing games on a small screen.

[Austin]

Picked one of these up today. Surprisingly, only Target had it--Best Buy nor Wal Mart had any.

 

I'm surprised at how small the unit is. It's not even the size of my hand. The box it comes in is misleading, making you think it's going to house a decently sized system, but nope--it's mostly just there to house the controller and documentation.

 

It is essentially a PS Vita on a TV. No complaints here on that front since I am already familiar with the UI. It really surprises me though how many quality Vita games *aren't* compatible with this thing. I had Wipeout, Lumines and Ys in my hands ready to be bought, but then decided to check a compatibility list just to be safe. Nope, none of them work. Not even some of Sony's own titles work (Uncharted, I'm looking at you). Weaksauce. In the end I doubt I'll be using it much to play actual Vita games due to the compatibility issues. I really hope they get around to patching many of the games.

PS Vita games do look fantastic on the big screen though. TxK and Dragon's Crown both look excellent. PS1 games are nice and sharp too, but unfortunately I can't seem to find an option to stretch the screen, so there are big black borders on the sides.

 

Another thing that, while it doesn't necessarily bug me, is how little fanfare there was in regards to the release of this thing. Stores that should have it don't, Sony hasn't bothered to increase the amount of older PSP and PS1 games compatible on it (I still have several PS1 games in my PSN download history that can't be downloaded to the PS TV, even though some other PS1 games can), and their PSN store is pretty out of date--there are very few new releases out there game-wise and the app section of the store is a ghost town. You would think Sony would have put more effort into pushing this harder and get more content into the store, but it doesn't appear they care that much.

 

Anyone want to bet that this gets quietly swept under the rug like the Vita itself?

 

Still, it's a cool little box. Well worth the money especially if you get the limited packages (console, PS3 controller, 8GB memory stick, and a Lego Movie Game download code).

[Jess Ragan]

Have you tried holding down the Home button for a few seconds? That should bring up a menu that lets you change options in PSP and PSOne games, at least on the original Vita.

[Austin]

Playing around with it more, it seems the biggest problem with the PS TV is the PS Store functionality. One of the annoying issues I ran into is that not all available games appear in the main store listing (i.e., going to the "Classics" section, then going to all games in A - M, N - Z, etc). For instance, if you go to the category for all games that start with "M", you will find five Mega Man games--four PS1 imports, and one for PSP. However, if you go to the search bar and type in "Mega Man", more come up, including Mega Man X4 and X5 for the PS1. Purchasing them and downloading them works and they play fine on the system. I had to do the same thing for Strider 2, which doesn't come up in the main store listing but can be found and purchased by using the search tool. There are a bunch of other titles as well that have to be found through the same means.

 

A potentially bigger issue however is some games showing up in the store through a manual search (like with my Mega Man example above), but aren't actually compatible with the system. The problem is, some of these don't actually tell you about this fact, and if you buy them you end up with a broken product that doesn't work. For instance, I decided to search for Castlevania, and it came up with the Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP. There was no incompatibility message given to me, and I figured since Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins works fine (another PSP game), this one would too, so I bought it. Nope, doesn't work one bit. It installs just fine, but when I go to run it I receive a message stating it's not compatible with my console. Yeah, you know, it really would have been nice if it told me about that before I paid for the thing.

 

 

Have you tried holding down the Home button for a few seconds? That should bring up a menu that lets you change options in PSP and PSOne games, at least on the original Vita.

 

Only allows you to adjust disc speed times. No screen options, surprisingly.

[cimerians]

Playing around with it more, it seems the biggest problem with the PS TV is the PS Store functionality.

 

The PSN store has and perhaps always will.....suck.

 

You must check the compatibility list I posted earlier in this thread before purchasing anything. I would only make purchases on a Vita handheld and not this unit. This is probably the reason Sony didn't market it as a Vita console or anything like that. Also, I believe games are simply blocked and not necessarily incompatible with the Vita or the Vita TV.

 

Something not documented or communicated by Sony that me and my friend discovered: You can download PSP or PS1 games using your PS3 and xfer them to your Vita and play them where they were unavailable to you from the Vita itself. For example: I have a PS1 game called Suikoden which I can't download to the Vita but I can download it to my PS3 and xfer it to the Vita using a PS3 and it works. Pathetic.

 

Having said that I found out that some games (PSP and PS1 games) actually work on this unit that are not listed on the compatibility list, I tried out Suikoden for PS1 and it worked for me without a problem.

 

It's like they just don't give a damn about the Vita itself. Someone needs a serious boot