We didn’t have a chance to evaluate the PlayStation TV before its North American release Tuesday, but we have now picked up a retail unit and put it through its paces for a few hours over a couple of days. What we've found so far is a device that's perfectly fine when it works as intended, but quite a few important limitations get in the way of its advertised functionality.

For those who may have missed the previousannouncements, the PlayStation TV can be best thought of as a $100 PlayStation Vita without the screen. The microconsole hooks up to a TV via HDMI to let you play Vita games (originally designed for portable play) on the big screen. In addition, PSTV supports many downloadable PSOne and PSP classics, PS3 games streamed via the PlayStation Now service, and remote play off a PS4 connected to the same network. Basically, it’s the PlayStation ecosystem’s version of the Ouya or a cheap Steam streamer box—a cheap, low-power device designed for smaller titles and remote play of bulkier titles running elsewhere.

Right out of the box, it’s striking just how small the PlayStation TV is. If you have room for a deck of playing cards under your TV, you have room for its tiny, rounded plastic form. Setup was a painless process. Plug the box into the wall and to the TV via HDMI, then sync a Dualshock 3 or Dualshock 4 controller via USB (you can unplug it afterward), and you’re off and running. Going through initial menus to set things like the time, the Wi-Fi connection, and my PSN account took about five minutes.

Use PS Remote Play to access your PS5™ or PS4™ via Wi-Fi wherever you go. With PS Remote Play, you can:. Display the PS5 or PS4 screen on your mobile device. Use the on-screen controller on your mobile device to control your PS5 or PS4. Join voice chats using the mic on your mobile device. PS4 Remote Play functionality for the PS Vita TV gained full support with the release of the 1.70 PS4 firmware update. The device includes the software features of the PS Vita, such as the Web browser and email client. There are future plans for media server and DLNA support for remote video streaming and image/audio file transfer. Remote play is laggy in Wi-Fi mode and PSTV still relies on an expensive flash storage medium. Major streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus are noticeably absent. Open the PS4 Link App. To enable 60 frames-per-second Remote Play, first start up the PS4 Link application on your Vita or PlayStation TV as though you're beginning a normal Remote Play session.

If you already have a Vita, getting content onto your PlayStation TV is as simple as pulling out the proprietary memory card and sticking it in the back of the new unit; the PSTV also reads games from dedicated Vita game cards, if you haven't joined the all-digital future yet. If you don’t want to hotswap, you can buy a pricey new memory card and re-download games from PSN without much hassle. You can even transfer saved games via the online service, if you have PlayStation Plus, or awkwardly copy your saved files to the PSTV's limited internal memory otherwise.

An extra PS4?

Judging by the comments when writing about the PlayStation TV previously, a lot of readers are interested in this device mainly as a cheap way to use a PS4 in another room of the house. Remote play is a pretty great feature, but you'd better have a solid Internet setup in your house if you want to make use of it.

Advertisement

Pstv Remote Play Download

In the PlayStation TV box, Sony includes a card recommending that you “set up a wired connection via Ethernet (LAN) cable to the same network as your PS4 system.” After some testing, we can see why. With both systems connected wirelessly (only mere feet from my 75Mbps symmetric FiOS wireless router, the other directly upstairs), remote play was a frustrating experience.

The image was persistently grainy and full of compression artifacts; the sound dropped out briefly every few seconds; and we ran into constant frame rate juddering and even some dropped inputs. There was a slight but noticeable delay between hitting a button and seeing the results on screen, too—we didn’t measure with a high-speed camera, but the lag ranged roughly from 100 to 300 milliseconds.

Wiring one or the other side of the PS4/PSTV connection to Ethernet helped a bit, especially when the PS4 was the wired side. We didn’t really get the desired 'PS4 on a second TV' experience, though, until hooking both systems up via Ethernet. With that setup, the PlayStation TV delivered a crisp, high-definition view of the PlayStation 4 with no noticeable input lag and only occasional frame shearing. If your house is set up for wired Ethernet next to each TV you plan to use, this is a killer feature.

We also briefly tested the PlayStation Now beta on the PlayStation TV and were surprised at how smooth the experience was, on both wired and wireless connections. If we hadn’t known better, we would have been hard-pressed to tell you whether the version of Infamous was running locally off a PS3 or remotely at some Sony data center miles away (it was the latter, FYI). You still have to put up with PlayStation Now’s insane pricing structure to play these PS3 games, but it seems prices have come down a bit since the closed alpha. Some four-hour rentals are now available for as little as $2.

Limited game selection

Pstv Remote Play Ps5

As far as playing local content, the Vita TV provides an enjoyable experience on a limited selection of games. Despite reservations about how “low-res” 960x544 Vita games would look stretched out on a big HDTV screen, graphics weren't distractingly bad on a 40' 1080p Samsung. Some low-end indie titles and PS One classics look incredibly blocky, of course, but that comes off as an aesthetic choice or a nostalgic throwback in most cases.

Many titles really benefitted from the larger analog sticks and more generously sized buttons of the DualShock 4 controller when compared with the more cramped controls on the Vita itself. Games that rely on the touchscreen or rear touchpad on the Vita can use the Dualshock 4's touchpad or the analog sticks (activated with a quick click) to simulate this touch functionality on the TV screen. It's an imperfect solution for the many Vita games that rely heavily on touch, but it's probably the best way to handle this tricky situation (forget about playing any games that require the Vita camera, though).

Advertisement

Playstation Tv Remote Play

While the PlayStation TV works great for the games it supports, we were shocked by just how many titles that work on my Vita simply wouldn't run on the PlayStation TV. Sony’s official list of games compatible with PlayStation TV seems pretty big, but it has a startling number of omissions. Comparing against a list of Vita releases on Wikipedia, we found that only 145 of the 400 or so native Vita games released in North America so far work on the PlayStation TV. The list of incompatible titles includes high-end games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Oddworld: Strangers Wrath HD, and Wipeout 2048. Smaller, simpler indie titles like Super Crate Box and OlliOlli are also unavailable, just to name a few of the many non-working games.

Ps Tv Remote Play Pc

The PlayStation TV’s compatibility problems extend to the market for downloadable classics, as well. Only 129 of PSN's 179 downloadable PSOne games (in North America) work on the tiny device, so you’re out of luck if you want to replay Metal Gear Solid on your new microconsole. Only 256 of the 389 downloadable PSP classics work on the PlayStation TV, too; no love for Valkyrie Chronicles II, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, or the original DJ Max Portable, to cherrypick a few notable but non-PSTV-compatible PSP games. To make matters worse, apps like Netflix and Flickr can’t be run on the PlayStation TV for some reason, and Sony says it has “no current support plans” for Netflix at least.

For a device that's being marketed as a cheap, compact way to bring the wealth of the PlayStation ecosystem (and the Vita in particular) to your TV, these omissions are pretty large. Sure, the list of hundreds of games that do work on the system includes plenty of varied, quality titles, especially when compared to other $100 microconsoles like the Ouya or Amazon Fire TV. But it's a bit galling that so much of the potential library is only available on the tiny, handheld screen of the Vita.

Some Vita titles require downloadable patches to run on the PlayStation TV, suggesting that some system code adjustments are all that's required to fix the cross-platform compatibility issue. It also suggests that Sony and other developers could expand the list of PSTV-compatible games through future updates.

Lets hope it does, because as it stands the PlayStation TV seems to offer quite a bit less than advertised. If you're looking for a cheap, second-screen PS4 on a wired Ethernet connection or an easy way to try out PlayStation Now, it's worth a look. If you're looking for more native content, be sure to look over the list of available games before you dive in.