Possible to Record While in Japan, and Then Earn Trophies Outside of Japan?

[Shintetsuken]

I have questions about this device!

 

1) If I were visiting Japan, and had a Nasne/torne and a PS3, would I be able to record programs while I'm there, and then watch the saved programs while I am no longer in Japan and still earn trophies?

 

2) Approximately how many GB does an average torne recorded program take? How many recordings would I be able to fit on the 250GB?

 

3) It seems I can move recordings onto an external hard drive via USB. Can it be put onto USB sticks, or does it have to be a hard drive? If I put the recordings back onto the PS3/torne, can I still earn trophies off of those?

 

Thank you to anyone who can answer these questions!

[HuntingFever]

AFAIK, Torne only works with Japanese TVs and broadcast signals so is completely useless outside of Japan, since it won't work with Western TVs from I've read elsewhere: https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/topic/87758-torne-road-map-and-trophy-guide/

Edited January 5, 2023 by HuntingFever
Update.

[Shintetsuken]

If I do the recording in Japan, it will be using Japanese TVs and Broadcast signals. I'm trying to find out if watching the recording outside of Japan will work to unlock the trophies.

[HuntingFever]

11 minutes ago, Shintetsuken said:

If I do the recording in Japan, it will be using Japanese TVs and Broadcast signals. I'm trying to find out if watching the recording outside of Japan will work to unlock the trophies.

According to the Guide I linked above, that's not possible:

 

Quote

Introduction

Torne is a digital tuner and application used for viewing/recording digital broadcasting in Japan. Torne does not include a HDD. All recorded footage can be saved on your PS3 HDD or any external HDD.

Trophies for torne cannot be earned outside of Japan (the trophy list can be added to your account outside of Japan).

 

Also, I seriously doubt you will fit the required 100hrs of programming on a 250gb Hard Drive, especially if it's in HD.

Edited January 5, 2023 by HuntingFever
Update.

[Shintetsuken]

17 minutes ago, HuntingFever said:

According to the Guide I linked above, that's not possible:

 

 

Also, I seriously doubt you will fit the required 100hrs of programming on a 250gb Hard Drive, especially if it's in HD.

 

The guide doesn't specify if it's just the recording that needs to be done in Japan, or the watching, as well.

 

If you are guessing, this does not help: I can do that, too. I would like to know if someone has attempted viewing a recording from Japan, outside of Japan, and received trophies. Someone who actually used the torne.

[Walt the Dog]

Seeing as the content is stored on the HDD, it might be worth testing this out. Since I'm assuming you don't frequent Japan, it might be a good idea to try going for the 100% if at all possible during the trip just in case, but then test if programming can be watched back at home for the sake of any other lucky trophy hunters who get the opportunity to earn some torne trophies abroad. The guide says you can't earn the trophies outside of Japan, but given this is a guide from 2011, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume this wasn't tested this thoroughly and that the warning is mostly referring to the fact that you need to be in Japan to do any recordings in the first place.

 

As far as space, 1 hour of programming does take up roughly 3.6 GB of space in HD, which means even with giving your PS3 a beefy 1TB HDD, hoarding all the necessary content is going to be an issue. As such, assuming your trip is long enough to do so, I would recommend watching at least some of the content during the trip to make progress on the trophy. Since the guide mentions that you can track how long you've spent watching content, it might also be a good idea to see if rewatching old content fills up the counter since if that is the case, that would completely trivialize the trophy.

 

Also even if you do end up bailing out of this due to time/space concerns, it might be worth at least loading the game up on an alternate account or something just to do some testing, mainly with regards to whether content can be watched back at home and whether watching content you already watched also increments the "hours spent watching" counter.

 

EDIT: Also worth mentioning that it seems like the sub-genre trophy could be a massive pain in the ass depending on how long your trip is and how often certain sub-genres air. I unfortunately can't even so much as guess at this since I have no experience trying to do this, but I'd wager that getting all of the content required for 100% abroad is going to be a tough ask unless you're going to Japan for literal months.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Walt the Dog

[Helyx]

Getting the content on a HDD shouldn't be an issue.

 

The real question would be how does the PS3 recognize the content? Is it using an analog watermark system similar to Cinavia?

[DaivRules]

torne should be using the same codec to doing the recording as the playback, meaning that as long as it's validly recording something compatible, there is no reason that it shouldn't be able to be viewed wherever and whenever you want afterward. I would almost guarantee you'll be able to watch it back outside of Japan.

A 250Gb HDD should hold about 30 hours of HD content with a decent bitrate encoder. My Tivo Series 3 HD has a 250 Gb drive and does 32 hours of HD (720p/1080i) content or 300 hours of SD (480i) content and that had a pretty decent bitrate.

 

[Walt the Dog]

1 hour ago, DaivRules said:

torne should be using the same codec to doing the recording as the playback, meaning that as long as it's validly recording something compatible, there is no reason that it shouldn't be able to be viewed wherever and whenever you want afterward. I would almost guarantee you'll be able to watch it back outside of Japan.

A 250Gb HDD should hold about 30 hours of HD content with a decent bitrate encoder. My Tivo Series 3 HD has a 250 Gb drive and does 32 hours of HD (720p/1080i) content or 300 hours of SD (480i) content and that had a pretty decent bitrate.

 

 

Given this, I would highly recommend upgrading the PS3's storage to the maximum of 1TB. Finding a compatible 2.5" HDD shouldn't be too expensive (no need to spring for an SSHD or SSD unless you plan to use the storage for normal gaming afterwards), replacing the HDD on pretty much any PS3 is simple enough to the point that the fat and slim models have bay doors for it so you don't have to disassemble the console, and the roughly 900+ GB that this gives you after the OS is installed on it should be enough to fit all 100 hours of content without needing to worry about deleting anything.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Walt the Dog

[HuntingFever]

2 hours ago, Walt the Dog said:

Seeing as the content is stored on the HDD, it might be worth testing this out. Since I'm assuming you don't frequent Japan, it might be a good idea to try going for the 100% if at all possible during the trip just in case, but then test if programming can be watched back at home for the sake of any other lucky trophy hunters who get the opportunity to earn some torne trophies abroad. The guide says you can't earn the trophies outside of Japan, but given this is a guide from 2011, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume this wasn't tested this thoroughly and that the warning is mostly referring to the fact that you need to be in Japan to do any recordings in the first place.

 

As far as space, 1 hour of programming does take up roughly 3.6 GB of space in HD, which means even with giving your PS3 a beefy 1TB HDD, hoarding all the necessary content is going to be an issue. As such, assuming your trip is long enough to do so, I would recommend watching at least some of the content during the trip to make progress on the trophy. Since the guide mentions that you can track how long you've spent watching content, it might also be a good idea to see if rewatching old content fills up the counter since if that is the case, that would completely trivialize the trophy.

 

Also even if you do end up bailing out of this due to time/space concerns, it might be worth at least loading the game up on an alternate account or something just to do some testing, mainly with regards to whether content can be watched back at home and whether watching content you already watched also increments the "hours spent watching" counter.

 

EDIT: Also worth mentioning that it seems like the sub-genre trophy could be a massive pain in the ass depending on how long your trip is and how often certain sub-genres air. I unfortunately can't even so much as guess at this since I have no experience trying to do this, but I'd wager that getting all of the content required for 100% abroad is going to be a tough ask unless you're going to Japan for literal months.

If it turns out the .org Guide (and by turns myself as well, for which I will apologise) is incorrect/outdated and the trophies can be obtained outside of Japan if you have a hard drive containing sufficient content to earn them, I'll have a word with the GT and get it updated ASAP .

Edited January 5, 2023 by HuntingFever
Update.

[Shintetsuken]

On 2023-01-06 at 3:26 AM, Walt the Dog said:

Since the guide mentions that you can track how long you've spent watching content, it might also be a good idea to see if rewatching old content fills up the counter since if that is the case, that would completely trivialize the trophy.

 

…

 

whether watching content you already watched also increments the "hours spent watching" counter.

 

I’m currently in Japan and trying to get the 100%. It looks like I’ll be missing three sub genres, unfortunately, as I wasn’t able to find a torne with a B-CAS card until partway through my trip, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be airing before my flight home.

 

I can currently confirm that rewatching old content does indeed seem to increase the counter.

 

I plan to make a full report sometime after I return: the guide is definitely outdated as you can just search for the subgenres through the torne app now, which is way easy.

[HuntingFever]

1 minute ago, Shintetsuken said:

 

I’m currently in Japan and trying to get the 100%. It looks like I’ll be missing three sub genres, unfortunately, as I wasn’t able to find a torne with a B-CAS card until partway through my trip, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be airing before my flight home.

 

I can currently confirm that rewatching old content does indeed seem to increase the counter.

 

I plan to make a full report sometime after I return: the guide is definitely outdated as you can just search for the subgenres through the torne app now, which is way easy.

Please keep me updated so I can get the .org Guide updated ASAP !

[Shintetsuken]

First, I will answer the original three questions I had:

 

Quote

 1) If I were visiting Japan, and had a Nasne/torne and a PS3, would I be able to record programs while I'm there, and then watch the saved programs while I am no longer in Japan and still earn trophies?

 

Drumroll please…This is confirmed YES. If you record the programs in Japan, and then watch them outside of Japan, you can still earn the trophies. You will still need the torne hardware plugged into USB, or you can't open the app.

 

Important to note, however, is only the profile that has recorded the programs can earn trophies from those programs. I made a dummy account and recorded 10 anime episodes, and then played them on that account once I was back home and the “Viewed 10 anime programs” trophy popped. Trying to view the other recordings from my main account did not pop anything.

 

However, it is also important to note, that:

 

A.   Earning the actual trophies does not need to take a lot of active time. You only need to view one second of a program for it to register the genre for the genre/episode-related trophies.

B.   And the viewing time trophy? It doesn’t need to be viewing the recordings: simply leave the torne app on TV mode (that lets you watch TV), and the time spent “watching” (even while recording!) still counts for the trophy. I simply left the PS3 on (which I think I had to do for recording the programs anyway), and went into the TV mode through torne, and the trophy popped on the 5^th day.

 

Quote

2) Approximately how many GB does an average torne recorded program take? How many recordings would I be able to fit on the 250GB?

This depends largely on the length of the program: many programs are only 5 minutes long! But, of course, a movie will be significantly longer. It was rare that a recorded program was over 1 GB, since it doesn’t actually seem to be recording in 1080p, but at a lower quality, instead. I did not have any space issues with my PS3’s built-in hard drive (which I guess was 160GB?) Note that if you’re worried about space, just view a program for a few seconds and then delete it (but this makes keeping track of your genres slightly more difficult).

 

Quote

3) It seems I can move recordings onto an external hard drive via USB. Can it be put onto USB sticks, or does it have to be a hard drive? If I put the recordings back onto the PS3/torne, can I still earn trophies off of those?

I brought an external hard drive with me, but couldn’t manage to get it to work. Again, this was largely unnecessary, I had the torne recording for just over a week and had about 10% hard drive space left (the torne lets you know on the top of the screen how much % you have left!).

 

I'll write in another post a quick-guide on how to get the trophies significantly easier with the new updated features, as well as the method I used to get a working torne and everything needed for it while in Japan (I used it in a hotel).

[Shintetsuken]

Instead of typing out long forum posts that maybe not a lot of people will see, I decided to instead just make a guide on this site, which I submitted. Hopefully it will get approved shortly!

[HuntingFever]

4 minutes ago, Shintetsuken said:

Instead of typing out long forum posts that maybe not a lot of people will see, I decided to instead just make a guide on this site, which I submitted. Hopefully it will get approved shortly!

Nice !

[Shintetsuken]

Guide has been posted!

 

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/16890-torne-trophy-guide

[HuntingFever]

3 hours ago, Shintetsuken said:

Guide has been posted!

 

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/16890-torne-trophy-guide

Nice one! I'm glad there's finally an up-to-date Guide for this game, which dispels all the myths about Torne and how it actually works .

[Bizzy_Montana_]

@Shintetsuken Thank you so much for your guide!

 

One aspect I wasn't able to understand in full is your statement regarding the requirement that you can only earn trophies with the profile which recorded the programs. 

 

I was thinking about the the following method:

 

- person living in Japan would record all required programs on an external HDD on his / her PS3

 

- recording process would take place on a new user profile, meaning that the profile the programs are recorded on hasn't been linked to an existing PSN account 

 

- person would send the HDD (and maybe Torne / Nasne as I don't own these yet) to for example me, I would delete my main account from my main ps3 or use one of my consoles on which I didn't set up my account 

 

- I connect the HDD and Torne / Nasne to said console, create an unlinked user there and watch the programs with this blank user, hopefully earning the trophies as I could imagine that it's maybe the "same" user (by same I mean the same empty user without linked PSN ID from the console's perspective) 

 

- (edited point) I'd unplug Torne / Nasne and the HDD so there wouldn't be a chance of linking the recordings to my profile

 

- I'd link the blank user with my PSN ID which would add the trophies to my account 

 

- I'd send the HDD + Torne / Nasne to my friends who could use the recordings the same way without the need to travel to Japan / contact someone there, therefore being able to "multiply" the use of the recordings 

 

Could this approach possibly work? I'd highly appreciate if you would let me know whether I fell prey to a fallacy when thinking about an easier way to get those trophies. 

 

Thank you for dealing with my question! 

Edited March 16 by Bizzy_Montana_

[Shintetsuken]

On 3/16/2024 at 12:50 PM, Bizzy_Montana_ said:

- person living in Japan would record all required programs on an external HDD on his / her PS3

- recording process would take place on a new user profile, meaning that the profile the programs are recorded on hasn't been linked to an existing PSN account 

- person would send the HDD (and maybe Torne / Nasne as I don't own these yet) to for example me, I would delete my main account from my main ps3 or use one of my consoles on which I didn't set up my account 

- I connect the HDD and Torne / Nasne to said console, create an unlinked user there and watch the programs with this blank user, hopefully earning the trophies as I could imagine that it's maybe the "same" user (by same I mean the same empty user without linked PSN ID from the console's perspective) 

 

...

 

- I'd link the blank user with my PSN ID which would add the trophies to my account 

 

This is an extremely interesting thing to try out, but I have no idea if this would work. I unfortunately do not have the ability to make new recordings and test it out as I'm not in Japan. It depends on how the torne links the programs to users, but I would say it might be worth a try.

 

Quote

- (edited point) I'd unplug Torne / Nasne and the HDD so there wouldn't be a chance of linking the recordings to my profile

- I'd send the HDD + Torne / Nasne to my friends who could use the recordings the same way without the need to travel to Japan / contact someone there, therefore being able to "multiply" the use of the recordings 

 

I'm not 100% sure how the torne/nasne tracks this. It's possible that it doesn't matter, but it also might only consider NEW recordings, and watching the program once might no longer make it NEW, so you might be able to only do this once. Again, no idea, but it's something that could use some experimenting.

 

Quote

Could this approach possibly work? I'd highly appreciate if you would let me know whether I fell prey to a fallacy when thinking about an easier way to get those trophies. 

 

I think the logic is sound, but I don't know enough about how the torne app is programmed to comment on whether this would work or not. The only way to know would be to try it: if you do, please update the thread (or if anyone else can test this out, please let us know)!

[Bizzy_Montana_]

Thanks a lot for responding, unfortunately I'm also not familiar with the intricacies of how Torne / Nasne works in detail but it's good that you brought up the aspect regarding the recordings possibly being registered as "new" only once. 

 

I'll see whether I can get in touch with someone living in Japan who would be willing to run a few tests and of course I'll post any relevant findings here.