And what about the largest game market, the USA?

So how does it work?

@LosDaddie: Wondering the same thing. I could really use an HD tuner in my house

I dunno £80 is not bad..... only other options for HDTV are skyHD and virgin - both subscription services...... now i just would need a bigger hardrive

for those in the US try dtv2009.gov

@LosDaddie: I remember someone else stating how this wouldnt work in the US due to how we recieve our HD signals... Course I dont remember specifics but looks like we wont see anything this cool.

@Ichidou: Screw them, this is for the europeans. Good job Sony, doing something for Europe for once. This is one thing that makes me want a PS3 quite badly but I am still going to hold out till they announce backwards compatibility or a few more games I really want come out.

@Llost: the BC compatibilty is completely gone on PS3 european models now its sucks....

Also what channels can we tune into that are HD??

It might just be worth it for the HD part, if you've got Sky but no PVR. Otherwise it seems a bit pointless. You can pick up dedicated PVRs with much more storage for less money.

Geez. For that price I'd rather pick up a TiVo, the software component of which I can rely on to be fantastic. I like the idea of making the PS3 into a DVR but that's just too expensive to be worthwhile.

The PS3 is becoming a more tempting bit of kit. Though until PS3 gets Divx support or support a codec that the 360 can't/won't then ill sit tight.

@excel_excel: I know it's been removed, I just hope that they reintroduce it once they've managed to drive costs down. Otherwise I'm not too interested.

If this is just for OTA it's kind of pricey.

Does it take cablecard 2.0?

@Llost: ah yeah me too, heres hoping

There are no Freeview HD channels at the moment. They haven't even committed to there being any at all. How PlayTV can be touted as a HD tuner when they haven't even decided upon a standard for the signal to be broadcast in seems a bit odd. Kotaku transciption SNAFU?

I could have sworn the TV recording feature used to be marketed as an already built in feature, what changed to make us need to pay £80 for it?

I dont know if Europe has any HD broadcasts, but in the UK free to air HD is a very long way away.

This may be capable of HD support, but for now it is merely another bullet point on a seemingly misguided product.

There will be no free to air HD broadcast until after the digital switch on 09, and currently the only way to recieve HD broadcast is through buying into SKY or Virgin Media, both of which include PVR functionality which much better intergration.

@GingerMohawk: The PS3 supports DivX/xvid since December. Also WMA, H.264 (but not in .mkv or .mov containers) and MPEG-2.

@excel_excel: It can pick up non-HD television channels too. I watched the video posted a while back to refresh myself and answer my own question and from what I can tell the HD part is somewhat of a 'future-proof' feature.

I don't get why you would want a DVR that can't record your favorite TV show while you are playing a game or watching a Blu-Ray. Seems pointless to me.

Agreed that whoever is calling this an "HDTV" should shush immediately. It's a Freeview TV tuner that allows PS3 to record to the internal HDD. Only a few channels will be available on Freeview in HD.

Best thing about it though, in my opinion, will be the ability to log into my PS3 while away from home using the PSP (over a wi-fi connection) and tell it what programs to record. That's pretty cool.

However, £80 for a box that is powered from the PS3's USB slot and uses the PS3's HDD... hmmm, that's a bit of a rip-off. What exactly are we paying for? Considering a stand-alone HD tuner can be picked up for £20, and this does not contain much more. Methinks someone is pulling a fast one...

"excel_excel: It can pick up non-HD television channels too."

Yeah, but so can any PVR. Unless you have a large spare hard drive lying around, why pay £80 to share storage with your installed games and other media for this when you can get an 80GB PVR for less money? Remote Play is the only thing it has going for it, and you can achieve similar results using Orb or SlingPlayer. I can't see this being more than a niche product until HD broadcasts take off.

I really don't see any use this would have in the US.

If you have WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER.....whats the point?

@cdammers: To be fair, it was me that said that.

And I'm not really in the know with all things tech,, but I'd assume that set up and installation will be easier with a Sony branded device and I can see the remote play feature being worth the price alone.

PVRs are a doddle to set up. Most of them will autotune the channels with the press of a button.

@Ungruntled: "Best thing about it though, in my opinion, will be the ability to log into my PS3 while away from home using the PSP (over a wi-fi connection) and tell it what programs to record. That's pretty cool."

Most DVRs already have this feature, but it isn't tied to just one portable device. I can do this with my DirecTV DVR using a web page interface. Hell, I can even set up a recording using my mobile phone, which doesn't even require a wifi connection. Firewalls also won't get in the way with a web interface.

If you forget to bring your PSP with you (who totes their honkin' PSP everywhere, anyway?), or can't find a wifi access point, you're sunk.

I am interested in this, even though i already have a 160 GB Humax Freeview PVR, The interface of Play TV is very cool and the ability to 'dial' into my PS3 via my PSP from anywhere in the world and watch live TV or recorded programs over the net on my PSP or schedule it to record something whilst at work. Very cool especially if you never want to miss Eastenders when on that business trip to the US.
This will only recieve Freeview Digital Terrestrial TV though, FreeSAT HD was launched yestreday in the UK, but i doubt this unit will support that, but if it does or if version 2 of the hardware did then SKY and Virgin would have some serious competition.

It's a neat gadget, but I suspect it won't sell in great volumes.

Between Sky+, V+, BTVision, HDD-DVD Recorders and Freeview boxes with HDDs in them, there isn't a lot of room left for this.

Especially as you can get a simple single tuner HDD recorder for about the same price. Pay a little more, and you can get a dual tuner device.

The current lack of free to air HD isn't going to help it sell either.

@Rectangle: But it can...

I'll be getting one. You will start to see more and more HD channels popping up. there are already 3 on there. Don't forget all the regular channels you can pick up also.

It's a win win for me.

@GOD: Where have you seen that it can record while playing a game or watching a Blu-Ray?

Last report I saw said that it could not.

And wow, 3 whole HD channels. :)

£80 for a TV Tuner that just jacks in the PS3 for most stuff is a bit OTT.

Plus in the UK there will never be any free HD channels over the airwaves that use MPEG2. So unless this has MPEG4 support from the get go, or as a free update....

Can someone point me towards where this was specified as an HD tuner?

Last time I looked it was a dual DVB-T tuner.

@f0cus:

[www.scee.presscentre.com]

Operating on the widely available Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T) format, PlayTV uses an incredibly quick and easy to use 7-day Electronic Programme Guide EPG2. that provides the navigation for programming the PVR features of PlayTV.

· PlayTV's two TV tuners are High Definition ready and are able to view, record and play back High Definition signals in full HD1080P to fully complement PS3's already impressive High Definition credentials.

Interpret as you will.

I hope they bring this to the US when we "finally" go digital next year. Then I could finally ditch my media center PC for good.

I think a good question nobody has asked is how much space is going to be taken up on the hard drive when recording an hours worth of HD content?

Dont know about the rest of europe, but germanys "free to air" television isn't great at all. works only in few parts of the country, with around 8 stations. nothing compared to digital cable with more than 100 channels. so its an interesting but useless gadget :S

I have to jump of the bandwagon with this one. With all the talk by Sir Stringer about "breaking down silos," how does he expect unity when each territory is coming out with their own specialized gadgets? It's fragmenting the audience, and really getting me pissed off that the US doesn't get the stuff that Japan and Europe are getting.

Most cable (and satellite) providers in the US use a card that is synced with your account so that people can use third-party boxes and still get the cable signal/channels they pay for. Would it be possible for Sony to implement a card-reader with coaxial input in the PS3 for the US in the future?

British free-to-air HDTV will start early next year: [www.freeview.co.uk]

Dunno about the rest of Europe, this is a must buy for me.