Hardware Vita TV better than Playstation Classic?

[MrMrMr]

Have a Vita TV which has got the emulators etc on. Works fine.

Just wondering if getting a Playstation Classic is any different and/or better in anyway now they are on special.

Thanks

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The Vita TV is probably the better option if you already own one, the PSOne Classic won't give you much more (and, in some cases, less) than you can already do on your Vita TV. Since it's easy to hack, can use external storage without issues, and supports Vita/PSP/PS1 games without issues, the Vita TV is the better choice.

 

[MrMrMr]

Thanks. Just it's on offer and I thought as easy to mod maybe get it, but if doesn't do anything else then suppose pointless.

Anyone got both? Any pro's/con's of either?

Thanks

 

[jellybeangreen2]

Errr yes!

 

[LuigiXL]

I have Vita TV and was considering the Classic for the retroarch capabilities. As far as I know that is the key difference, capable of Dreamcast etc on the Classic.. unless Vita TV can do that too.

Classic cons:
Wired controllers need to spend more for wireless dongle.
Think external storage isn’t plug and play unless it’s PS1 roms but maybe wrong.

 

[MrMrMr]

Retroarch is on Vita TV though, works ok.

Suppose correct have to buy a wireless dongle as wouldn't want to use the wired really as restrictive.

Just wondered if the hardware was better and/or the classic could do anything over the Vita TV?

 

[fvig2001]

I own both. I like the Vita TV more just because it can play Vita games. The Playstation Classic is like $30 now but it really needs specific USB drives to work well. Unfortunately, I don't have an large drives that work with it. I think the Playstation Classic plays games better graphically but the Vita TV has more save states and is easier to mod. If I wanted Vita with a side of PS1 games then I'd get a Vita TV (if you can get it at a cheap price). The classic is better if you're just after the retroarch and native ps1 stuff.

 

[MrMrMr]

So the classic plays better PS1 games you say? The Vita TV does play them though.

Classic can't play Vita games either? Didn't know that thanks.

Apart from that nothing the Vita TV can't do that the Classic can then?

If so think I'll just stick with my Vita TV then, was just tempted as you say it's really really cheap now and the look of it is great.

 

[GrapheneCt]

Actually from a technical standpoint Vita should emulate PS1 games more accurately since it uses MIPS processor for hardware emulation.

 

[TesseractStorm]

I'd go with Vita TV. I certainly enjoyed mine.

 

[notimp]

Intelligence of the masses back in action again.

Vita TV: Better emulation quality for PS1 games. Although only at stock resolution. Probably a little less input lag.

Playstation Classic: Better for everything else. Better price/performance ratio as well (as in unbeatable right now.. )

Vita TV has network connectivity out of the box - thats also a plus I could think of.


For the Playstation Classic to "compete" you should install the OTG kernel, and buy a 3USD OTG adapter (left angle or as part of a cable) and a 8USD (used) 8bit do USB adapter. That way you can use PS3 or PS4 controllers wirelessly - which is a huge part of enjoying the experience.

The PS Classic struggles at PSP 2x resolution, Dreamcast games, and a few N64 titles at 2x resolution (probably a minority) - speed/speck wise. Everything else basically runs without an issue.

That said 90% of the problems people report lie with them being unable to pick the correct cores, settings, or getting clean roms - so thats the biggest issue overall.

Because of double resolution on PSX games alone - I would pick the PS Classic all day. You think you dont want it - until you see what a difference it makes on todays solid state TVs - even on text textures - and then you quickly default to wanting it enabled for every game.


Theres also something to the saying "it is what you make of it". My Playstation Classic currently runs

- NES fullset
- SNES fullset
- Sega Genesis fullset
- N64 fullset
- GBA fullset
- Sega CD basically fullset
- MSX2 fullset
- PCEngine fullset
- PCEngine CD basically fullset
- Mame 2003 fullset
- NeoGeo fullset
- CPS 1, 2, 3 fullset (separated from MAME for easier browsing)
- Scummvm basically fullset (Gabriel Knight 2 is where it gets unplayable - Riven is perfectly playable with threaded video, on Bladerunner the jury is still out (its not in the builds yet). This basically means - almost everything plays perfectly.. )
- PSX select titles
- NDS select titles
- PSP select titles
- Dreamcast select titles

Which are all platforms "late enough", that I would be interested in them. (No earlier Games, no handhelds except the GBA, NDS and the PSP) And they all basically run flawlessly (With the exception of the last two platforms in the list above as well as N64 (emulation issue - only in few select instances performance issues).

Now that said - to get it to this level you need knowledge of Retroarch (and preferably ouse Retroboot(/for Autobleem) on the PS Classic (after you installed the OTG core with Bleemsync)). To set everything up with manual playlists and thumbnails (.pngs compressed further down to load faster - see https://pngquant.org/) - I probably spent close to 30 hours in total. Regex parsing, matching naming schemes, filtering out duplicates in hirachies. There is no single software solution that "just works" to do that.

And I have still 50 GB spare on a 250GB USB stick, which cost 40 USD.



The only question you should ask really ist -- do I want to play Dreamcast games, PSP games and Saturn games. And if yes - you should wait for the nVidia Shield TV reboot to be released, very likely at a lower pricepoint. Once it releases this year, it will be the best thing of that sort. It also should support PS4 controllers wirelessly out of the box.

If you are very price focused there is nothing that would beat the Playstation Classic out there currently. And it has charm and high usability. It will not be a Retropie, that you set up - and then never touch again.

If you need better emulation quality for your PSX games (no sound issues whatsoever, less/no grafic hickups here and there), and are into f.e. playing Parappa (rhythm games) - go for the Vita TV. But only if you are a purist. Or a tournament level Beat em Up enthusiast. (Lag on the PS Classic is low enough for Beat em Ups, that you can "adapt". Less would still be better.)


What is best? Currently the Playstation Classic, that everyone loved to hate for no reason other than License agreements, and that its stock software wasnt built by nerds. (The Snes Minis basically was. ) So everyone hated and brought the price down. Great.

 

[notimp]

And here is what you do if you are the usual user.

Which did you like?
I like the one I bought.
Great! Was it easy?
It was super easy!
Great. Should I buy one?
You should totally buy what I bought!
Thanks all around.

Or the other way around.
Does it work great for all N64 and PS emulation, if I just buy it, and turn it on?
No, nothing does. Except for Mednafen on a current top of the line PC - that then has usability issues.
Well - I then wont buy it - and wait for well, not ecxactly sure what - but have fun waiting.


And here is why the PS Vita has so much appeal. It has easy brandable as 'good' PSX emulation - out of the box. Because it has some of the original hardware on a chip. Great. Thats what makes this an on demand system people try to get 200 USD for.

You would be surprised to what lenght people go - just so they dont have to read. The issues with PSX rom quality are real as well.There are entire popular rom platforms that distribute roms that have repackaged bins - missing bins, an top of which people want to be lazy, so they download .pbp files - they know even less about... And from there on it spirals into a hearsay fest where half of the userbase demands useless compatibility sheets. Basically. So thats the issue you are really up against - at least if the development of the PS Classic scene has been an indicator.

Also Retroarch can play all copyprotected PSX discs, if you supply it with sbi file. Even the stock emulator on the PS Classic (which isnt so bad (in fact its pretty much the same codebase), but by now - retroarch cores just are more featurerich and 'better') - something that also about 80% of people fail at.

 

[MrMrMr]

Well on Prime day the PS classic was £16, so was rude not to buy it!

Not sure what I'll do but at that price even if don't and use for MGS is worth it I think.

Unless I sell my Vita TV and use this?

 

[RedL]

Well on Prime day the PS classic was £16, so was rude not to buy it!

Not sure what I'll do but at that pride even if don't and use for MGS is worth it I think.

Unless I sell my Vita TV and use this?

You can use it as an emulation device, it's got two controllers, so it's fun for co-op. Keep the PSTV for your regular PSV/PSP/PS1 gaming.

 

[Nazuna]

I find it a million times better to play on the portable version than the TV version, PS TV is so cheap

 

[KiiWii]

Is there a decent way to stream movies on the PSTV? (not VLC/DLNA etc)

 

[duwen]

And here is what you do if you are the usual user.

Which did you like?
I like the one I bought.
Great! Was it easy?
It was super easy!
Great. Should I buy one?
You should totally buy what I bought!
Thanks all around.

You made it pretty obvious you bought a PS Classic... probably at full price given how hard you're trying to justify it.

And here is why the PS Vita has so much appeal. It has easy brandable as 'good' PSX emulation - out of the box. Because it has some of the original hardware on a chip. Great. Thats what makes this an on demand system people try to get 200 USD for.

...and it plays Vita games, has a thriving homebrew community (not just an emu scene), not too mention online play and integration with PSN and crossplay with PS3/PS4.
The PS Classic is just a low-end emulation device, albeit an attractive one at it's current reduced price - certainly worth it if you have no other means of emulating on your TV, but a lot of hacked consoles (Xbox, X360, PS3, WiiU, etc) do a much better job.

 

[notimp]

You made it pretty obvious you bought a PS Classic... probably at full price given how hard you're trying to justify it.

I bought 4, and in another thread recommended against it, if you can wait for the nVidia Shield TV refresh release these year and can justify paying rasp4 prices (because its expected to be cheaper than the Shield TV in the past (same soc - so probably price reduction incoming.))

At the current pricepoint of 20 USD the PS Classic is damn near a no brainer - if you have the time and smarts to mod it properly (mostly timesink - its not hard). Which most people dont.

There are a few trends that are converging here.

USB storage prices dropping. Cheap socs being able to emulate PSX games at double resolution - which on its own, pretty much outclasses PS Vita performance on anything but accuracy, and (low) latency. 8bit do creating a cheap dongle that allows the use of a Dual Shock 4 wirelessly on the system... (And also to use it as an analog controller (in Xbox 360 Controller mode) in Games that require analogue sticks)).

And even more accuracy isn't that much of a selling point, as the PSP level emulation (I have enjoyed) is still emulation and not always accurate.


What people really want to buy - is not to have to learn things like what retroarch core options do. Something that "just works". For that the PS Vita TV should still be better. For most informed users, in most game cases - it shoudl turn out be far worse.

Lets do a few comparisons.

Here is my 20 USD PS Classic (comes with 2 controllers), running 30k games:


Here it is running Final Fantasy 8 (with graphical glitches, fading in and out of FMVs) - but in double resolution - which is worth the tradeoff:



Now the best argument you can possibly bring against that is - that on the PS Vita TV Parappa the Rapper would work (due to low input lag), and on most emulation based systems - it would not. (2 frames of input lag on the PS Classic.)

I'm not interested in Vita games so much - I have to say. And for homebrew needs - Switch currently is at a pretty good spot already - and its the better portable device. At this point - if you are into portable emulation, an unpatched Switch becomes more and more the thing to consider - bare other factors, as again - the price drops.

(NVidia Shield TV refresh settop box with the same SOC - this year at probably a considerably lower price point available as well. (most likely))

Paying a premium for PS TV, only makes sense - if you already are unsatisfied with PCSXReamed emulation on a certain title in general (which pretty much no one is... considering the feedback from the reddit community on the PS Classic), or need less input lag.

 

[notimp]

Difference between single and double resolution on PCSXRearmed on the default emulator on the PS Classic (Retroarch is the same - using the same emulation codebase, only a bit more optimized and more setting options).



Oh - and FF8 in the example above? PAL version, running at NTSC speed, with black borders removed, and a slightly higher CPU speed to increase textbox speed without breaking framecap, rendered at double resolution. Thats the advantage of software emulation thats not Sonys approach of buidling in certain harware subsystems in silicone. Dont like the reverb effect you hear in the sound emulation - just turn it off.

On the PS Vita? None of that.

 

[notimp]

If you are of the opinion, that the PS Classic must be a horrible device, because all them youtubers said so, then let me introduce you to the idea, that the entire public on any issue, pretty much never knows what it is talking about.

This is called 'public sentiment', or forming public opinion, or simply - marketing.

All those youtubers where presented with PAL speed games, pretty much for the first time, with a sub par title selection and a video output at 1x rersolutions, with no filter options - in the stock product. Thats all they had to hear. Fewer features, worse games, PAL (slower) run speeds. Then everyone was up in arms. Once you fix all of that - different story. Same device. Thats how the public sentiment is formed.

I don't care - I enjoyed the consoles price drop and bought more of them.

Those are the same youtubers, that praised the SNES Classic for its "emulation capability of different systems" (not understanding, that all the 'better emulation' laurels were exclusive to Nintendos SNES emulator (Canoe)), the same youtubers, that were very eager to wait for "better versions of PCSXRearmed - even though core development was halted years ago", the same youtubers that argued, that their PSX games would run better on the SNES Classic (same base, same emulation cores, slower SOC) - they simply dind't know what the heck they were talking about - for many of their statements.

As far as emulation quality is concerned - people complain more about stuff like the main menu in Gran Tourismo not rendering correctly, than about the entire rest of that games emulation (hint that performance isnt the issue here), and about some issue with CTR, that I have still no clue, what the hack it could be, because I played through the entire game already - and havent quite cought anything that struck me as an emulation issue. But then I know what all the retroarch core settings do - so maybe its just me.