Closer Look at PlayTV for Playstation 3
Filed under: Gaming, Sony Playstation 3 | By: Daniel
Posted on: July 20, 2008 | 14 Comments
Yesterday we announced the release date of PlayTV in the UK to be September 10 and the rest of Europe will be getting this new Playstation 3 hardware between September and December.
Today we take a closer look at Sony PS3’s new dual digital tuner, we take a brief look at what it can and cannot do, some more photos and we welcome your feedback about PlayTV.
The new PlayTV is not wireless and you will have to connect to one of the USB sockets in the Playstation 3, as far as PC or Mac support we’ll have to wait and see.
Its not coming to North America as their digital terrestrial is different to the UK and Europe. (The Americans use ATSC Standards. Europeans and British people use Digital Video Broadcasting DVB standard)
TV shows / content recorded from the Freeview is not protected and you can move it where you want as long as it is in a suitable format, that includes the media server function.
To receive TV through Play TV you will need a good TV aerial, the one you normally use for analog TV will do or an existing aerial if you’ve already got Freeview. Just connect the standard TV aerial cable into the Play TV aerial socket and tune it and it should work.
The price should be EUR 99 (£79.99), although you should not bank on that, as it’s not official yet and we may have to wait until PlayTV hits the shops.
Thanks to PR readers for information they sent in and if you want to share, then just leave a comment. You can read all news on Product Reviews for PlayTV Here.
What’s even more strange is the fact that Amazon still have an incorrect release date of 31 Oct 2008 on their website.
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I think Sony have missed the boat on this one. The PS3 is supposed to be all about High Definition.
So why isn’t PlayTV a FreeSat decoder?
I’m all for convergence and would love for my 60Gb PS3 to do everything but for now I’ll keep the second box under my TV.
A Sky+ HD box…
I called their press office in London.
It’s the same at the 40gb model, with 80gb.
Shame.
Si.
@jonathon - you can only record one program at once (at least in the initial firmware).
Can’t wait.. The price for a 2 tuner DVR for 80 quid is very good value for money..
My current setup box cost 95 quid (and the quality of the playback makes it worth every penny). However I can’t pause or rewind live TV or record programs on a schedule (A fully fledged dual tuner DVR will cost you 180 quid easy (Recommend Humax 9200T)).
I’ve already upgraded my PS3’s hardrive to 320gb (Still no sign of the 500gb drive) so roll on September.