Sony PS3 PVR Ready to Play on NZ TVs
November 15, 2010 
1 Comment
Sony at last is coming out to play with its PlayStation 3 PVR in NZ.
PlayTV will go on sale here for $200 from November 25 – two years after its launch in Europe and a year after its Australian release.
The nondescript HD module connects via USB to the PS3 and has twin digital TV tuners for watching, pausing and recording Freeview|HD, watching one programme while recording another, and recording TV at the same time as playing a game or a Blu-ray movie.
“PlayTV delivers all the features other premium PVR devices do and more, at a fraction of the cost,” Sony Computer Entertainment NZ’s David Hine says.
It has a 13-day electronic programming guide, is Freeview-approved, and can transfer content to the PSP, Sony Vaio laptops and Sony Ericsson’s AINO mobile phone.
To mark PlayTV’s NZ launch, Sony will bundle it free with a PS3 320GB console for $730.
Anyone with a My Sky HDi or TiVo knows how quickly even a hard drive of this size fills up with HD content but with the PS3, the hard drive can be upgraded.
PlayTV is the fourth such PS3 initiative this year, following the launch of TVNZ Ondemand, Vidzone (free music video service) and MUBI (ondemand festival movie service).
Software snags stopped its release earlier, and with My Sky HDi already in a quarter of Sky subscribers’ homes, Telecom aggressively discounting its TiVo device and TelstraClear rolling out its T-Box service, you might wonder who would be left to bother with a PlayTV.
But for PS3 households it’s a versatile and affordable way of adding PVR functionality for far less than a stand-alone HD PVR.
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November 16, 2010 at 9:50 pm
The Sony Aino phone is now end of line and can only be purchased by import. Shame on Sony not getting it together two years ago!
I imported my PlayTV more than a year ago and its been working fine appart from the EPG only showing a few hours ahead. Moreover .. PlayTV can be imported for under $100 so I’m surprised the RRP is $200!!
Having said that it is still a lot cheaper than most Freeview recievers and makes for a great PVR. I would not like to be without my PlayTV now. So for those who do not wish to import and are happy to pay the extra dollars will still enjoy a fantastic addon for their ps3!