Steff.me

You may remember from a previous post that Go!View is an “on-demand” video service for the PlayStation Portable. Well, last time I just introduced the service but after using it I wanted to add a few of my thoughts.

Getting Started

Getting up and running with Go!View is fairly simple. Being new to using a PSP (I hadn’t even played with one before last week), I watched the introductory video on their homepage and just tried to follow the steps. To start off, you’ll need to sign up for an account. Once you’ve gone through the rigmarole you’ve been through a thousand times (another new username and password for you to remember), you’ll have yourself a shiny, new Go!View account. This will allow you to watch all of your favourite TV shows and movies right in the palm of your hands ¹.

Using Go!View

The Go!View software is basically a glorified web browser, which just loads the Go!View website in a standalone application ². The first piece of advice I can offer is to make sure you have javascript and flash enabled on your actual, default web browser; I had mine disabled for some web testing and couldn’t for the life of me work out why the Go!View software wasn’t working. As it was a stand-alone application, separate from my browser, it didn’t occur to me that this would be an issue.

Once you have the Go!View app open, simply log in and browse around their media library. When you’ve found something you like, say Top Gear, simply hit the Download button and the video will begin downloading to your library in the background. The videos range in price, based on whether they are in the subscription model or the pay-as-you-go model and how new the video is:

Subscription packs are priced at £5 (€7) for 1 pack, £8 (€11) for 2 packs and £10 (€14) for all three packs and users can trial all three packs free for a month. Rental TV is available from £1.50 (€2.00) per episode and a range of movies is available from £2.50 (€3.20) each.

If you subscribe to one of the packs, Entertainment, Comedy or Sport, the videos that you download within that category are completely free; obviously you’ll still have to pay for movies and rental TV. It doesn’t take much time to complete a file download as they use the Kontiki peer-to-peer, file-sharing client.

The “My Library” tab shows you a list of your media, this includes information on a selected video, such as when it will expire and the file size. It is also from here that you can select videos for transfer to your PSP. The video files expire after 29 days sitting on your computer, or 14 days on your PSP — of course, if you’re signed up to one of the monthly subscriptions, you can just download that video again. Although it’s not the purpose of Go!View, the inability to play these videos on your computer is irritating.

Transferring a video to your PSP requires you to use a USB cable. Firstly, put your PSP in USB mode and connect it to your PC.

Poor quality iPhone picture.

You then have to use the Go!View software to select which files you wish to transfer over.

Last but not least (because it’s the entire point): watching the videos. The resolution of the videos are 480 x 272, which is fine for the PSP but if you wanted to plug your PSP into a TV for output, you’re going to end up with a rather blocky picture. I’ve been watching a lot of Top Gear on the PSP and the resolution really is just fine for the portable device.

Poor quality iPhone picture.

Final Verdict

Overall, the Go!View service is worth checking out if you’re a PSP owner. Remember that once you’ve signed up, you can sign up for a free month of Comedy, Sport and Entertainment shows; it’s worth a look just to get something for nothing. Just remember to cancel before the month is up, otherwise you’ll be charged for how many subscription packs you signed up for.

I have a slight issue with the transfer process, in that it won’t allow you access to your library while a transferring media.

Also, like I mentioned in my previous post, Go!View requires you to use Windows — something that I very rarely do!

All in all, if you’re looking for a way to get portable media this seems like a really good option. The library is quite small at the moment (in my opinion), however they claim to be increasing it all the time.

Thank you to the people at Immediate Future for the loan of the PlayStation Portable.

Footnotes
1. on a PSP. Not actually in your palm.
2. much like the site specific applications that Fluid creates.