Wednesday, November 30, 2005
I keep expecting Sony to make some major announcement about the Playstation Portable's LocationFree TV support, but it keeps not coming.
Back at firmware 2.5, Sony released an update that allowed you to watch cable TV, DVDs and DVR from your home entertainment center anywhere you can access a broadband connection. The one (major) downside is that you have to fork out about $350 to buy the LocationFree TV base station.
Despite adding this cool, albeit pricy, option to the PSP, Sony never really said anything about it. Yesterday I started nosing around on the LocationFree TV site, which also supports special portable TVs and other devices, and found that Sony had added PDFs that walk you through the process of using your PSP with LocationFree TV. It looks like they are preparing for some sort of announcement. I just hope to god it include a major price drop.
I've read through all of the documents and summarized how to set-up LocationFree TV and what features it includes on the jump.
Set-up looks fairly easy:
Upgrade PSP
You can do this via USB connection to your net enabled computer or WiFi.
Connect your base station
The base station has one cable in and two other audio/video ins for use with a DVD player, DVR or VCR. There is also an IR blaster so you can change channels or control the various devices connected.
Finally, you have to connect the base station to the internet. It looks like the preferred method is a LAN cable, though you can also use (thank God) your home WiFi network.
Configure the TV channels and on-screen remote control
It looks like TV channel set-up is well put together, supporting both the base stations internal tuner and the tuner of whatever device (cable box, VCR) you happen to plug it into.
Once you decide what tuner you use, you just need to choose what channels you want usable.
Watching TV on Your PSP
To watch TV on the go you just need to make sure you left your base station on and that you can find a hotspot that you can access.
Once you hook-up to your base station via the network there are a variety of things you can do. The PSP's TV watching options let you adjust the video rate, get channel information, remotely switch input from TV to one of the other A/V inputs you set up, switch audio for bilingual broadcasts and, most importantly, bring up the on-screen remote.
On Screen Remote
There are two types of remotes for the PSP, the standard TV remote and the connected device remote.
The standard TV remote lets you change channels and control the volume settings. The connected device remote lets you do a variety of things depending on the device connected. If the connected device is made by Sony you can bring up a remote similar to the one you would use at home, otherwise you may not get full use out of the remote. In general though, it can let you do things like start watching a DVD, access the menu, pause, fast forward, rewind.
Overall this sounds like a great device and something that really adds and cool set of features to your PSP. The only drawbacks I see our the price and the need to have an accessible hotspot for TV viewing outside the home. Of course, this second issue can't be helped, but it does make me wonder if I'd buy this device.
The problem is that anywhere I'd want to be able to watch TV on the go probably doesn't have a hot spot I can access or I have to pay extra to use it.
Despite the drawbacks, I'm still falling on the side of hella sweet. Now Sony just has to figure out a way to deliver cheap, fast episodic TV to memory cards and the PSP will be rocking.
LocationFree TV [Official Site]
