PS3 Blog


Tip: BBC iPlayer and YouTube on your PS3
Created: 19-01-2009 07:31

BBC iPlayer and YouTube on your PS3

YouTube have recently created a special version of the site for viewing on the PS3 and Wii. If you haven't seen it yet its worth having a look just to see how it works: http://www.youtube.com/tv
Its basically a very cut down version of the YouTube site. You can still get to all the same videos (as far as I can tell) but the interface is very bare and minimal. Most peoples opinions are positive, but to be honest I am not keen. I am sure its much better visually for people using standard low definition televisions (i.e. everybody with a Wii) but it just doesn't look good on a HD TV. It's huge text, chunky buttons and cut down or overlapping descriptions for videos make the whole thing seem clunky to me. It is still being tested but to be honest, if you have a high definition television you are much better off with the normal version of YouTube which works perfectly in the PS3 browser.

You may remember a while ago people were annoyed that the BBC iPlayer didn't work in the PS3 browser. As was proved by a clever online proxy this wasn't really a technical problem but 'knobbled' by design - possibly until the BBC had fully tested it and probably down to the older Flash player on the PS3 not really being ideal for the job. With updates to the PS3 browser and iPlayer you will be happy to know the BBC iPlayer seems to work perfectly now! You can find it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
I tried it out last night and watched some new episodes of QI and a few other things. It works a treat and even detects you are using a PS3 (although the brief instructions on zooming in aren't very good). As always, if you click with R3 on the video it will zoom to fill the screen as best it can, then use L2 and R2 to zoom in and out if you need to frame it up. R3 will drop you back to full page view. When you have finished watching a programme you can use L1 to go back to the previous pages to choose another video. The quality is surprisingly good with smooth video and fine detail most of the time. Fast moving items can become ever so slightly pixelated and the frame rate can drop but this could be due to normal artifacting and the compression used for streaming the video. Its definitely viewable and great to see it on the big screen in the living room. Well worth bookmarking.

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