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PS3 PlayTV due September 10th
Ben Parfitt Jul 18 2008, 11:06am
Comments (3)
Sony’s Freeview PVR device dated for UK release, including major functionality update
SCEE president David Reeves has confirmed that Sony’s highly anticipated Freeview TV add-on PlayTV will launch in the UK on September 10th, and will roll out to the rest of Europe by the end of December.
PlayTV turns a PS3 into a fully-functional PVR – a device that allows users to not only watch Freeview digital TV through their console but also record programming on the hard drive.
It was also confirmed that ability to record TV whilst playing games has been successfully introduced – something that was lacking when PlayTV was put through its paces by the BBC in February.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Reeves stated: “It was very difficult for some of the techguys but we had to include it in the firmware upgrade 2.41, but it’s done now.”
Sony had previously pegged the device at €99, with Amazon claiming this translated to £59.99 in the UK, though no new pricing information has been confirmed at this time.
The announcement ties in nicely with Sony’s new movie download service for PS3 and PSP, though there’s no word yet on when that will arrive in Europe.
Comments
“game licences”
Posted by: ryan - Jul 18, 12:31pm
what stopped sega's game gear from free tv was tv licences, is sony's tv a good thing for us, another way to get into our living rooms?
“DVB-T2?”
Posted by: SvenOf9 - Jul 18, 7:20pm
One question though - is part of the reason for the delay to allow them to integrate the new DVB-T2 standard into the device so that BBC HD can be received....? Without it, its a bit pointless!
“Re: DVB-T2?”
Posted by: LordVader - Jul 21, 11:21am
It's not going to support HD freeview - but seeing as that's many years off, and aimed at currently a very limited number of users, I'd say labelling it as pointless is pretty stupid. NOTE - this is not a Freesat receiver.