Sony's second digital recording peripheral, torne, has a release date in Japan. Sony's first go was PlayTV which is Sony Europe's HDTV tuner & recorder and which has been available in Europe since fall 2008.
Sony's PSX console also had digital recording capabilities.
On March 18, torne will go on sale in The Land of the Rising Sun. Previously, the release date was listed simply as "March". The torne is a terrestrial digital tuner that connects to the PS3 via USB cable. Torne offers players an easy and colorful interface that lists programs. It's possible to look up programs and search the menu by genre or keyword.
Using a timer, it's also possible to record in advance, and torne automatically records when the console is on stand-by or even while games/DVDs/Blu-rays are running. Besides recording directly to the PS3's hard drive, the torne can be used to record to an external hard drive as well.
Torne is priced at ¥9,980 (US$109) and bundled with the 250GB PlayStation 3 and available for ¥42,800 (US$467).