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PlayTV To Launch In Oz 4th Quarter 08, Sub-$200
Posted by Nick Broughall at 1:36 PM on April 29, 2008
There's been a few rumblings recently about the PlayTV's European launch, but at a briefing today in Sydney, Sony announced that Australia will be getting the PlayTV in the fourth quarter this year, for less than $200, although official pricing and release dates are still to be confirmed.
They also stated that we'll be seeing it roughly a month after the Europe market gets it. So if the latest Amazon listing of October 31 in the UK is correct, that means the hottest gaming peripheral for Christmas this year could actually be a PVR attachment for the PS3.
Other interesting tidbits include that there's only an input for your aerial, no output, which means you won't be able to connect your antenna to your TV through the PlayTV. And while you can only record TV programs to the PS3's internal hard drive, you can backup the contents to an external drive. It isn't finalised, but it looks like the EPG will be supplied by the rumoured FreeView collection of free-to-air networks as well
And although the US has recently announced its Video-On-Demand service for the PS3, don't expect anything local for a few years. Chatting with SCEA Michael Ephraim, he says that there are quite a few issues in the way, not least of which is broadband speeds, plus the costs of setting up against the potential profit for such a relatively small population in Australia. But he's still confident that it will come.
With TiVo and Foxtel iQ2 launching mid-year, the PVR space looks set to actually take off in Australia this year. Finally.
[PlayTV on Giz]
Tags: au | dvr | entertainment | gadgets | gaming | home entertainment | playstation 3 | playtv | ps3 | pvr
Comments
Attila
Posted April 29, 2008 3:18 PM
I am really suprised that they are missing the Olympics - I would have thought that would have been a goldmine for a decent, bug free PVR (aka no PVR on the market currently).
No aerial output is no biggie really, a splitter is a couple of dollars.
dokworm
Posted April 30, 2008 2:41 PM
This will be the final nail in my 360 for me.
The thought of only having ONE box under the TV for Hidef playback (blu-ray), recording TV and playing games is attractive enough to make me sell up my 360 and go over to the darkside.
Douh
Posted April 30, 2008 5:21 PM
Way too late and seems to be way too pricey when it will be released. Also the fact that it doesn't support conax isn't going to help either.
Cral42
Posted May 1, 2008 10:10 AM
When it comes out with 3 tuners and NAS capability i'm sold. Oh a keyboard mouse for shooters too.
Then and only then will my HTPC be laid to rest.
HesDeadJim
Posted May 1, 2008 9:24 PM
Unreal Tournament 3 supports keyboard and mouse on the PS3. It's up to each game to implement suport for them.
Google-eyes
Posted May 15, 2008 3:28 PM
Sony originally suggested this would be out early this year... their track record on delivering on time is pretty lame... just look at the Singstar debacle.
As for playing with mouse and keyboard - you can get the FragFX - which is essentially a mouse and hand controller specifically for the ps3. This was one of my essential add-ons as I'm a pc gamer at heart. My HTPC barely gets switched on anymore.