Sony UK have confirmed that Play TV - the rather nifty Freeview TV tuner for the PS3 - will be released in the UK on Sept 19th. Play TV - which will cost 69.99 GBP - allows users to record Freeview TV onto their PS3 and will offer most of the standard PVR facilities that users of Sky + and Freeview equivalents from the likes of Humax will be used to. Think pausing, scheduling etc. PlayTV has two tuners, meaning you can record one channel while watching another, and games can apparently be played at the same time. Of course you have to think that most people who have a PS3 are early-ish adopters who are likely to already have a digital TV service of some sort. For me the clincher is the ability to easily transfer your recordings onto PSP* Anyone who tried this with standard PVRs will know how fiddly this can be. So PlayTV should make the morning commute a little more bearable. Expect more details from Sony at next week's Leipzig Game Convention. PS3 owners - tempted by PlayTV?
*Sony have told me that the only way to watch on your PSP is via Remote Play and not via direct transfer. Hmm. Remote Play is fine - and rather impressive - when you have a wifi connection but will be pretty useless for catching up with Eastenders on the bus or train to work. I'm hoping to get a PlayTV demo in the next couple of weeks but clearly the lack of direct transfer is a big big blow.
By Greg Howson
