PS Vita TV

Goldie

Goldie

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Anyone here with a PS Vita TV or planning to get one? I just saw an ad today and I'm thinking of buying one but I'm not sure whether to do that or just save up some more and buy a PS3 instead. I'm not too concerned about graphics but I do have some games I know I want to play on the PS3 but I'm also open to discovering some new games exclusive to the Vita instead.
 
I love my Vita and was interested in the Vita TV when I first heard about it. But now that it is out it's disappointing. There isn't even a Netflix app on the thing.

Could still easily be worth the cost if you need something to play Vita games and PS1 classics on.
 
I plan on getting a PlayStation TV sooner or later, but I am really in no rush to get one. I know I won't pay its current price when I end up doing so. I would think that if it dropped to $50 I would pick one up when I passed by it in a store. It's my opinion that unless you own a PS4 there isn't a really compelling reason to buy one considering it plays very few Vita games and doesn't have many apps, though I would presume the latter will come quickly enough. All I want the PlayStation TV for is the novelty of trying some games I love playing on my Vita on the big screen and seeing how it goes.
 
I just got mine yesterday. Bought it on sale for $70 from Amazon and I bought a 4GB Vita memory card for $4 on clearance randomly at a K-Mart (remember K-Marts?) several months ago. It isn't much but at least I have a place to start. I basically bought it to play PSP games on my TV with my PS3 controller. Sucks that I just have to re-buy games because my collection is in UMD format, not digital.
 
Er... No. PS Vita TV is, from what I know, at the time, strictly a "PS4 extender" and compatible with SOME PSP and PSOne titles released by Sony. It doesn't have (yet?) access to the full library of those consoles. So, you'd be actually paying to buy "a machine" that a) works in conjuction with another console you don't have (the PS4) and b) has to show as "its gaming library" only one tiny bit of the collections of two older consoles, with decade-old graphics and sound, that in many cases you'll have to re-pay to get them.

If you already have a collection of PSP games you could re-licence on it (I don't know how Sony implemented the "play your PSP games on it" function) OR ultra-fast internet to be able to use Sony's streaming service to get access to some old-but-great PSOne titles, hit it.

I'd go for the PS3 as you can guess. It's got an awesome library of titles, but... But even that makes the choice seem a bit off today. After the PS4 and Xbox One, it was like it became instantly apparent how old the PS3 and Xbox 360 were. So, maybe it would be even better keeping your money for a PC upgrade or a PS4 some time later. Especially since the first PS3 emulator for PCs has also started running some commercial stuff, but let's not talk about it here 'cause "questionable legality" blah-blah-blah.

As for what to expect if you pick a PS3 to a Vita TV, instead of playing 10 year old games on a 480i (but upscaled) resolution you'll be mostly playing 5-year titles on a 720p resolution. It is "a bit" better. A huge "bit". And among the titles you'll be able to play, Uncharted, The Last of Us and, yeah, even Crysis 2 - that I loved on my PS3 even more than on my PC (thanks to its 3D support that was awesome combined with my Panasonic Viera TV).
 
ducklord said:
Er... No. PS Vita TV is, from what I know, at the time, strictly a "PS4 extender" and compatible with SOME PSP and PSOne titles released by Sony. It doesn't have (yet?) access to the full library of those consoles.
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Whatever the Vita can play, it plays. That's a significant amount, something like 90% of the possibilities.

ducklord said:
So, you'd be actually paying to buy "a machine" that a) works in conjuction with another console you don't have (the PS4) and b) has to show as "its gaming library" only one tiny bit of the collections of two older consoles, with decade-old graphics and sound, that in many cases you'll have to re-pay to get them.
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It's not a tiny bit and its not just those consoles. You can also play a variety of Vita games, though not a large amount. Any Vita game with a significant amount of touch controls will likely never be playable since there's little point in investing resources to patch physical controls.

In all cases you have to repay to get them unless you have digital copies on your account in which case there is no need.
 
@TonyMHFan I didn't know that it supported ALL PS Vita titles you'd already bought. So, if you've got a bunch of games on memcards for it, you can use them all on it? I thought it ONLY supported stuff you'd bought "digitally".

Apart from that, I still think the PS3 is the better choice. From a technological standpoint, the Vita is somewhere among PS2 and PS3 as far as specs go, and PS3's graphics would be more impressive on a bigger screen than the Vita's. Just read a review of Vita's God of War "remasters" for the PS3, where every review I saw mentioned how "lesser" they looked compared to the "native" titles, despite any upgrade in res and textures.
 
@TonyMHFan Another question: when you say "supported physical vita cartridges", you mean it can't play all catridges in Vita's collection?

Aaaand another one: was the whole "streaming part" about all other PlayStations, or does it actually have native compatibility for PS1 and PS2 titles? It was rumored that although PS3 and PS4 titles would be playable on it through streaming, it does have enough "juice" hardware-wise to play PS1 and PS2 titles natively.

(...even if that's only doable through an unofficial emulator).
 
ducklord said:
Another question: when you say "supported physical vita cartridges", you mean it can't play all catridges in Vita's collection?
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Correct, the game will only work if it was patched. So something like Killzone: Mercenary and Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time were patched whereas games like Ys: Memories of Celceta and Tales of Hearts R did not.

ducklord said:
Aaaand another one: was the whole "streaming part" about all other PlayStations, or does it actually have native compatibility for PS1 and PS2 titles?
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I don't believe PS1 or PSP titles are native, no.

PS2 would only be through PSNow, so certainly not.

ducklord said:
It was rumored that although PS3 and PS4 titles would be playable on it through streaming, it does have enough "juice" hardware-wise to play PS1 and PS2 titles natively.
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PS3 titles are streamable on the PSTV through PSNow and PS4 games through Remote Play.
 
@TonyMHFan Wait, so, let me get the facts: let's say you've got a Vita TV. You don't have any games. You visit some store and see a section with "normal" Vita games. Is there a way to know if they'll work on your Vita TV? Sorry, don't have a Vita, don't have a Vita TV, so I'm trying to understand how it works - 'cause it looks to me like Sony's got into a bit of a mess regarding compatibility with it.

I mean, if it's not compatible with ALL of Vita's games, and they don't have on them some kind of compatibility label (I guess older titles hadn't foretold the future, knowing that Vita TV would be release to have some kind of label on them), how do you know what you can buy for it? Yeah, through digital you don't have a problem - but physical? Or is there some way to "patch everything physical" to work (even unofficially)?

As for the PS1, are you sure? I'm not saying you don't know what you're talking about, just that it sounds strange since Sony had almost always added PS1 support to all their consoles (ok, I admit I don't know about the PS4). Even when they removed support for PS2 (for other reasons) from the PS3, PS1 support remained, from what I remember. The PSP itself also had support for PS1 titles (through an official emulator).
 
ducklord said:
Wait, so, let me get the facts: let's say you've got a Vita TV. You don't have any games. You visit some store and see a section with "normal" Vita games. Is there a way to know if they'll work on your Vita TV?
Click to expand...

Most, if not all, new, physical Vita games will have a "PlayStation TV Compatible" sticker on them. This seems to be a matter of how lazy employees are or not, as I've seen some stores that simply don't add them while the same brand store across town will.

If you go onto Sony's digital store, the game will tell in the description whether or not it'll work.

You can also find any number of fan-made compatibility lists or consult the official Sony list. Sony has been reticent in updating theirs to the fullest extent, so fan-made are your best bet.


ducklord said:
As for the PS1, are you sure? I'm not saying you don't know what you're talking about, just that it sounds strange since Sony had almost always added PS1 support to all their consoles (ok, I admit I don't know about the PS4).
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The Vita itself does not have native PS1 support. I don't expect the PSTV does either, its the same hardware and I've never seen anyone say it does anything aside from emulation. I didn't guarantee that is how the PSTV works, though. I merely said I don't believe they work. I don't own a PSTV to personally verify and to be honest I couldn't tell the difference between emulation or native if I tried. Not the slightest clue.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Vita_games

Wikipedia is the only place that updates the list. Please don't ask me why. They are, oddly, still working on making everything work on it. There are games that will NEVER work on it because the company that works on the title is so small that they can't afford to put the resources forward to work with Sony to make it work. At this time the list is getting better and better, and there is a chance that Sony may work on some titles even if the companies don't, but don't hold your breath.
 
I'm definitely getting one. $100 for a Vita that I can connect to my monitor is a steal, and I really don't care about the portable aspect of it anyway. So yeah, it's a steal for me. Hopefully they will continue to add support to new games as it goes on.
 
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