After my first sitting with PlayOn (see video below), I was quite pleased with the easy setup. I signed up for a free trial of NetFlix and was on my way. As I sat down to watch some programming, I was upset that there was no control of any of the queues from the ps3, only the ability to watch. I suppose this makes sense, as with my WMP11 server I can’t control content, but shouldn’t software that you pay for be able to add a little bit more functionality?

Hulu was disappointing, there was no option for high def video which resulted in poor audio quality. Regular use was fine until after a few days it stopped working altogether. Hulu was just hanging up and saying the data was corrupted. I was quite pissed off. Everything else was working, but not what I wanted to watch, regardless of what show I picked, none of it worked for at least three days. Then out of nowhere it started working again. My final problem is with the queue. After watching a video(1), going down to the next video(2) will not actually play that video and instead restarts the first video(1). Going to yet another video (3) may or may not play the correct video (3) but usually plays the wrong video also (1). That’s where I lost it a couple times and wanted to smash my television.

Netflix is alright, the quality isn’t terrible and it’s nice having the movies in full screen. My problem isn’t with PlayOn here, its with NetFlix. Their online selection is crap at best, the few movies I picked that were even worth actually watching were documentaries and a couple of blockbuster hits that I neglected to watch (read: Man On Wire and Pirates of the Caribbean 3). NetFlix loses a customer on their own accord this time.

The rest of the channels are pretty decent. CBS shows just plain suck, so I didn’t watch any of them. I liked CNN and ESPN the best. It was nice seeing pretty recent sports updates/highlights on my HDTV and the quality of the CNN feed was quite remarkable, considering the quality of the web clips I normally see of theirs. Still, this is not enough to overcome the crap fest that was my Hulu experience.
A final note, the updated flash player on the PS3 shows superior quality video than the media server. Check out the example in the video below. Note on the video, it is a bit long, but it’s extensive and shows the real wait times.

PlayOn Digital Media Server by MediaMall Technologies: 2.5/10

Sunday’s announcement from MediaMall Technologies regarding the latest ’stable’ release of its PlayOn media server caught my attention. Hulu, Netflix, CBS, ESPN streaming media all on my PS3 in one solution? First question: Is that ESPN 360? Second question: does it really work?
While you can muck about and try to get all of these things working one way or another, they usually don’t come packaged nicely in one solution for you, nor do they work in a stable fashion. I need answers to some important questions, like will Hulu also work in HD? Will it all be in full screen? Am I going to see some lag? I suppose the only way to find out is to try it on my own. I’ll be utilizing the free 14 day trial period to experiment and torment this service, with the hopes of some decent sort of conclusion for the masses.
I also find it pointless to test this without Netflix, so I’ll be signing up for a trial account. While the plans vary, I’m not interested in physical DVD’s, so I’ll be signing up for the cheapest ($8.99) option that offers unlimited streaming media from Netflix. If all goes well, Netflix can thank PlayOn for my subscription rather than TiVo or Roku.