PS3 to receive tuner, DVR capabilities before March 2008
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Aug 1st 2007 5:53AM
posted Aug 1st 2007 5:53AM
It's been rumored before, now Sony's marketing manager for Computer Entertainment in New Zealand has apparently, and likely pre-emptively, unveiled Sony's intentions to turn the PS3 into a digital video recorder. Sony's Warwick Light is quoted in an interview with New Zealand's The Press as saying, "We're also hoping next year – about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service (expected to be in March) – to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder." Sure, why not, but we're going to need a hell of a lot more than 80GB or 120GB of storage to make that thing useful for HD recordings.[Via gi]
Who cares?
Exactly. I don't think they'll last that long (j/k) with Best Buy offering HD DVD add-on for $149.99 + 5 HD DVD movies + 1 HD DVD with the drive itself (so 6 if you're lucky).
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8132095&st=360+hd-dvd&type=product&id=1158321865239
How much will this one cost, $800? HA ha ha..I had to troll just a bit. :) Sorry.
Btw, the HD DVD X360 is real, just bought one.
why don't you ask engadget to make you a special RSS feed for a special person like yourself so that you don't feel the need to post useless comments when you don't like a post?
tosser
btw that was a reply to ross not the one about hd dvd
I care, xbox fanboy.
will this mean upgrade the file system for external storage from FAT32 to something else by next year cause of the 4GB limit
its pointless but sony pr have to do somthing as its failing as a game machine because their are no games worth the high price of the ps3 atm and with exclusives drying up or just being timed exclusives what exactly is the point of a ps3?
i know.
blu-ray = drm lock down from the media mafia which is why most of the members back blu-ray and why rupert murdoch's fox and co wouldn't release any movies in hi-def until BD+ was finalised.
now that bd+ is their & sending your details back to the mafia via the "none intrusive" usage and, "security" updates giving movie and whoever else your film usage, ip address and unique serial number of your machine just waiting for you to get hold of a multi region hack so they can remote disable you player permanently.
yes i think i'll rush out now and purchase a blu-ray drive (sarcasm for the neocons)
For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table
FAT32 can do up to 2TB, not 4GB.
They don't use ext3 for the filesystem?
And Sony keeps making this less and less a game console... maybe that's their goal.. make a media player that plays a couple games to pull their fan base into buying one just to get some traction on their real goal. I feel sorry for those who dumped $600 to play 2 or 3 games.
Oops! I thought you meant partition-size limit, which is 2GB for FAT16, but I now presume you meant file-size limit, which is of course 4GB for FAT32. Which, as you say, sucks. Workarounds would be possible, but ugly.
Of course, if they "upgrade" from FAT32, where would they go? If they choose NTFS, it's a bit of a hassle to get Linux working with it, plus it's a dreaded Microsoft taint. If they choose ext2 or ext3, it's a hassle to use the drive with a Windows box. I don't think there's One True Filesystem that they can fall back on other than FAT32...
@James
Yeah, pretty sure he meant file allocation space. And ZFS would be nice, but I know I'm dreaming. Keep in mind that FAT has far more "limitations" (see: faults) than just a small file size cap.
@pigfister (wtf!?): learn to spell
Hey pigfister, are you wearing a tin foil hat?
Well, this is exciting news for me. The PS3 is a nice little multimedia unit and can be used as a PC, all for for less than the price of a Blu-Ray drive. Seems like I'm the only one who thinks this is a nifty little unit though.
I know everyone keeps bashing the PS3 and saying it has "no" games. Well, you can say the same about all new Consoles right now. I made the mistake of buying a Wii--it's a nice paperweight. The only advantage I got from that was a smaller GC which I can use to play the only 2 good games ever realeased for GC.
How about XBox you say? OK, it's got a new Halo for a bit until it gets released for PC. But am I the only one that sees Halo as just another shooter except you have to use a limiting console controller instead of keyboard/mouse? FPS's will always be a PC thing for me.
I could've sworn this thing was supposed to be a gaming console...
It's a "Play" station. It plays games, movies, music, etc. It's controlled by Sony Computer Entertainment. Entertainment can be in the form of games, movies, music, etc.
Stop complaining about posts that endgadget makes. If you don't what to read it then continue scrolling down the page and read another topic.
Damn u guys piss me off. You give no useful information at all with your posts.
@pkilla: I'm not complaining at all about Engadget. I love reading these types of posts as they are always informative
I guess you could say I'm complaining more towards Sony. :)
Oh, and useful information? This isn't Slashdot you know...
What's wrong with it doing more than purely gaming? You can use the 360 as media streamer, so what's the difference? This is a new generation of consoles, of course they're going to go above and beyond purely gaming. For me, it made the purchase much easier because I knew I could do so much beyond games with it as well.
Sweet! NZ got something first (even if it was only information) for once! Hoo-ray!
Sony might go further with adding washing machine and microwave capability....so that you wont need to venture far into the laundry room and kitchen for fresh clothes and pizza..
If this is true. I'm 110% in. I've been waiting for the sodding X360 to include a digital tuner since day one. If the PS3 does it, I'll swing that way instead.
It's not a case of 'why?', and more a case of 'why not?!'... since the device has got a built-in HDD and Wi-Fi, and resides underneath the gogglebox in the lounge anyway... it makes perfect sense to incorporate a digital tuner into the package too.
This is a fantastic development as far as this Brit is concerned.
The Xbox 360 won't have a cable or satellite tuner, it's going to have an IPTV upgrade. It's supposed to be coming later this year.
I think it is a good add-on. Regarding the 4 GB limit, PS3 can just
split them up, and view the recording as one file!Freeview, does that
mean DVB-T? So it isn't just UK? Also Denmark and the rest of Europe,
who is using DVB-T?
And if that is going to happening I will buy a 250 GB HDD!!
IT is so easy to upgrade the HD in the PS3, so I'm not worried. I upgraded the HD in my TIVO to 400 hours and it took 30 minutes, the PS3 is easier than that! but I'm not so crazy about an external tuner. It would have to be an OTA or cable, I can't see Dish or DirecTV working with them for a box.
IMHO, game consoles are meant to be an extenstion of your media, not a media server. I think Microsoft's strategy of using the 360 as a media center extender makes much more sense. I don't want to have to leave my console running all the time in order to record TV. PC's, sitting in an office or a closet somewhere are much better suited for this type of thing.I'm also not much of a fan for the 360 IPTV thing.
Actually, I think it would be really cool if they could do it without actually storing anything on the HDD locally. Rather, everything should just live in the cloud so when I want to go watch the latest American Idol it can just stream it down live instead of having to record it to my console first. Let the big companies invest in server side storage so every customer doesn't have to invest in hard drives locally.
Yup, this is awesome for our gradual transition to widespread DVB-T in Europe. I hope that this gets incorporated IN the box at some point though. I get the impression it's going to be a 'tacked on' plug-in jobby to start with.
Wonder when will we get the ATSC tuner here in NA.. hmmm... hope is a low cost add-on...
Nfinity, HD DVD is more expensive than BD... do U know what is cheap and what is expensive? We r totally not talking about Affordability here...
The cost to make BD is more than HDDVD, in short HDDVD has a higher profit margin.. so U r buying a more expensive product when U go HDDVD...
Actually Engadget, unlike the 360, the PS3 allows you to put in your own hard drive. It's very easy to do, well explained in the manual, so you can upgrade the storage to whatever size drive you can find.
As for the FAT limit, that's imposed on external drives. NTFS (the majority filesystem) is closed-source. There are open-source efforts to try and create a filesystem driver for linux (NTFS-3G), but it has severe limitations and isn't of production quality just yet.
I very much like this idea. It's funny how people flame the effort to add a tuner, yet those same people applauded the 360's media center extender functionality. Media Centers are awesome devices, and I'm glad to see them proliferating.
HD Freeview. Maybe you fancy Americans get that, but over in Europe HD Satelite is a premium service and offers very few Channels.
Maybe by 2012 Europe will have few channels offering Free HD programming. BBC HD for example hopes to exist in the UK on Freeview when the analogue signal is turned off. But for now any PVR will merely be SD so 80Gb will be fine for around 40 hours of recording, maybe more depending on the compression.
@ATT
the 4GB limit is nothing that can stop, i mean you know winRar, it can make everything in parts, so something similar can happen with the PS3.
@Ross & Nfinity
Microsoft - The Xbox 360 = $399.99
Microsoft HD DVD Player for Xbox 360 = $149.99
Total = $549.68
PS3 (60GB) + BluRay (which is winning from HD DVD) = $499.99
now tell me what would you have rather bought? the PS3 or 360.. also think of it as ps3 getting more exclusive games than the 360!!
oh i got these prices from you bestbuy.com website!!
@John
You're right, but you got the ability, and i would do the same just make the sales go up, wouldn't you??
I am not sure what the "Windows Media Center Extender built in" feature of the 360 is but knowing Windows XP Media Center i think that is similar to Media Center, so the only thing needed i think is the receiver!! but then again i am not a 360 user yet (i will be shortly) so i might be wrong about this!!
anyways, my self i've got a Freeview and a PS3 and i'd rather sell my freeview on Ebay and watch tv on my PS3 than have two seperate devices, though that's me, and i like to have as less of devices as possible but still having whatever the device does, but people are different!!
greetzz
Going to update the pricing due to the 360 price drop.
Microsoft - The Xbox 360 = $349.99 (price drop in CC ad)
Microsoft HD DVD Player for Xbox 360 = $149.99
360 (which is winning the console sales) + HD DVD = $499.98 ( OMGz! you save a penny too!)
PS3 (60GB) + BluRay (which is winning from HD DVD) = $499.99
I think both are good systems, but for now Xbox 360 has the superior games.
Unfortunately it's the Wii that's winning the "console war" not the 360 OR the PS3.
nope your wrong, its the PS2 thats winning at the moment, dont know with howmany sales but its kicking the but out of the 360, ps3 and the wii.. and knowing that only the games and the controllers between them are different, id say PS2 shud actually be a nextgen console as everybody is calling the wii nextgen (though if either one is not called nextgen the other one shouldn't be called a nextgen console either!!
I dont have the exact list of exclusive games, but its not the quantity, its the quality. As far as that goes, the PS3 is finally coming out with some intriguing games, ie Lair and Warhawk, but the few games that there are wont justify my purchase of a second system. I think the more features EACH console adds, the better for all of us.
I actually think Sony could have a winner on it's hands here, Sony fanboys do like brand coordination (I am one). I think I will wait a little now for my PS3 purchase and wouldn't actually mind paying £425 for the device. Lets just hope it doesn't go the way of the PSX!
I presume this is to tackle Microsoft with it's IPTV service for the X360 which it is promising for some time now. I would imagine a Japanese version would be imminent, but I hear terrestrial TV in America is so crap, you buy cable or satellite... Cable Card enabled PS3?
In the UK HD-DVD is cheaper for players and discs. In fact, you could be looking to pay £10-£15 more for the same title in HMV stores. However there seems to be more shelf space for Blu-Ray in my local HMV store.
I think U mean HD DVD is more affordable?
An object is not expensive or cheap based on the price tag, rather its based on the cost to produce the object and the profit margin. The whole talk about PS3 being the most expensive console is based on real lack of economic knowledge.
Well the Wii is actually the same price of the PS3 or the XBOX since they juz make the entrance price low but make you buy new peripherals year after year. Juz watch that's nintendo's strategy.
For the XBOX, its juz a money burner with its live service, making you pay for online play.
While the PS3, its a package which packs in the most functions and you only pay your fees once.
This is such a good idea, especially since Sony has already released some quality DVRs and could easily integrate this new functionality without extra research or whatever.
I hope they do dual HD tuner though
well i guess that explains the push for larger HDD in PS3s.
SCEJ and SCEA are probably gonna smack the shit out of Sony NZ for letting the cat out of the bag so early.
I'm in on this one.
So, let's hope that the additional hardware is not too expensive.
great this will go well with the 2 HDMI ports, Rumble, 100% backward compatability and the including HDMI cable in every PS3 box....
more promises from sony, didnt we all learn something from E3 that Sony talks before it knows if its possible
Well you're really just FINDING things to argue about. They don't even go hand in hand.
Sony never promised rumble from the beginning. NOW they're looking at it AFTER they settled the deal with Immersion. Rumblaxis announcement should be there at TGS this year.
I don't believe they promised an HDMI Cable - but I could be wrong. In any case, go to some freaking deal store, and buy the cheapest one, because you don't need extra expensive shielded cables for an HDMI cable.
True on the 2 HDMIs, and well, they DID have strong BC on the 20/60GB PS3. Besides, even the EE-less 60GB has over 70% backwards compatibility.
And whats even worse, THIS ISN'T A PROMISE. It's not an official announcement!
You forgot the several ethernet ports. And the USB charging cable with each (rumbling boomerang) controller.
But, I will say this, I own one, and it is amazing.
I am pretty psyched (as much as one can be at an announcement made by Sony) about this, and it would be sweet. Until it becomes apparent that Sony isnt going to deliver (a month or two), My plans for a tivo purchase are officially on hold.
Why did my post get added as a reply to a random post. I didn't click REPLY.
Engadget, your new posting system has been buggy for weeks now.
Or I'll just save time and effort and stick to my PC.
this is great, it will be a complete media hub with this add on
wait a minute I've forgotten to bash sony in this comment, maybe I don't belong here..
I don't get this at all. And I'm the KING of DVR's. And a PS3 owner.
I've owned Tivo, I've used Cablevision's and Verizon's HD-DVR's, I've built my own MythTV box *and* my own Windows Media Center box. I've even tried Snapstream.
I can't see how *anything* Sony does with an HD tuner would be worthwhile here with all of these other options. What, they're going to give it an OTA tuner? Well, that's great if you don't have *any* other DVR, I guess. Have fun with those five channels. Meanwhile, *any* existing cable or satellite customer can get 40 or more HD channels and 150 more SD channels with a DVR for like $5 extra per month. Most people aren't even going to feel that on their bill.
I can understand this being useful in countries like New Zealand or parts of Europe where HD and DVR's are a lot less pervasive. And bear in mind, it has *only* been mentioned so far as a New Zealand upgrade. I would seriously doubt it will ever be released in the US.
What would be more useful in the US would be to vastly expand the PS3's media playing, streaming and hosting options. The PS3 already has some almost-useful streaming capabilities, but they're so neutered that I usually never bother. It only supports a few formats and you can't natively transfer any files to the system itself (you can with a third-party app). If Sony really beefed this up, they'd have something that could compete with the 360's Media Center Extender functionality (and if they'd allow file transfer back and forth, they'd beat the 360's functionality). And they could do it with a simple software upgrade to existing systems.
The other thing that would be great in the US - though it will never happen - would be CableCard support. It would be quite awesome to see a CC attachment for the PS3 - that *would* make it a really competitive DVR, provided the accompanying software wasn't completely f'd up. I will not be holding my breath, though.
Onec they've got the DVR software done, I can't see a reason not to release a cable or DVB-S tuner.
Besides, if you're in the UK (and I imagine it's a similar story elsewhere), Freeview offers loads of channels. Check it out, it's actually pretty decent. And there's BBC-HD int esting (alas no OFCOM spectrum allocation for HDTV)
I don't own a Tivo or any other DVR, so if the PS3 can handle gaming and DVR capabilities, I'm definitely in, especially if they keep the service free.
Unless MS gives us more details about IPTV, a PS3 is going into my living room this fall.
you mean paying £5 per month and then later on being ripped off like they did to me? i was paying £5 for away to NTL, and sudden on my bill appeared £15, when i called them: "the packets are changed and thus is the price"!!
so id rather have something that has only one payment!!
If it had cable card, I would def buy!
You NAILED it Andrew!
I've been doing this with my 360 ever since Vista Beta came out. Unless the PS3 has two digital tuners and one analog, a 500GB hard drive for media, and it can record 3 sources at once without slowing gameplay, then it won't do me any good.
So, what you're saying is using both your computer and your 360 and the latest OS from Microsoft, you can do these things. It's a little unfair to compare that to an all in one solution. To be fair, you could do what you're doing now, with the PS3 and the media streaming it's had for several firmware revisions. What the PS3 is adding is the ability to do this without a computer - something your example can't do.
What I'm saying is why would anyone want to do it on the PS3, instead of a PC. It's just not practical, my PC is constantly working, I don't want my game system to be constantly recording shows and not able to play games. However, if they put extender ability in the PS3 then that would be great. I'm getting a PS3 soon, I want them to concentrate on the games.
yeah, but it has the Cell processor. which has something like 9 cores i believe. so, it can work several times harder than your PC. Unless you have a rig with two quad cores on a single board, and even then, the Cell has that beat.
I can already record shows on my computers hard drive and then stream them to my xbox 360 - in effect giving me IPTV functionality.
dammit man............
are they TRYING to make me NOT buy one this year!?!!
I keep putting off waiting for better features and they just making me wait longer..........bitches
I'm sure you're *totally* pissed that you had to buy a car that *didn't* fly - I mean they've been promising flying cars since the 40's...
Get over the "waiting for the ultimate features" business. If it has what you want today and you can afford it, BUY IT. If not, don't buy. Its really that simple.
bah.........I could care less about flying cars..........insurance is high enough with them just being on the ground........
I mean hell I bought the PS2 when it FIRST came out.......that was only $300 and then turned around and bought t2o more when then shrunk them and cut the price in half.........(one for the house, one for the car).........
but this is a LITTLE different........$500 for something that will be even better for the same price in less than a year!?!?! hell I got the money but if I have to choose between getting what is offered now and what will be offered later then dammit I'm going to wait.........and I'm willing to bet that there are a few million other people thinking the same way, which cant possibly help Sony with sales........I mean they DID say that Americans where TOO cheap.......lol....when it comes to spending $500 now JUST to be upstaged a year later for the same price you might as well call me cheap too......but what do I know......I only make around $55/k a year......I'm sure their are millionaires on here that threw away a few thousand on faulty first gen plasmas........I simply waited for LCD prices to somewhat bottom out and got a 40" Samsung for what some people paid for a 26" with a crappy contrast ratio and less HDMI ports a year before.......
not waiting for ULTIMATE features.......just don't want to feel like the people who bought a PS3 on July 6th(ad day before the official drop)
@ Aggie
If you havent bought one yet, it would seem that there are no games or not enough games available on it yet that would justify the $500 price tag. If that is the case, why not just wait until they do have the games you want? You will save money and not have a console sitting collecting dust. And you'll get more features to boot. It makes no sense to buy *now* unless there are enough games to make it worth while *today*, which does not seem to be the case.
I don't get why people buy today to play games they think will come out in a year or 2, instead of waiting for those games to come out and get the console at a lower price. It makes no sense. So Aggie, just wait. You'll be happier.
It really wouldn't be too much trouble for them to release an attachable digital tuner. Meaning if you bought a PS3 now, I'm sure you'd be able to buy the DVR functionality through a peripheral when it's released. After all, the article says "release a digital tuner for the PS3". I don't think that implies a new SKU for the console itself.
Wait Wait is this an Add-on or is it going to actually be inside the PS3.
Hopefully its an add-on so I don't have to return my PS3 and get a new one later.
You guys are missing one important (probably the most important) problem with this idea:
With the PS3 acting as DVR, it won't be recording shows while you are playing video games on it. Thats a pretty big issue if you ask me. The whole reason I got a DVR is so I didn't have to worry about scheduling my life around TV. This is just too limiting.
This is one time that I think Microsoft got it right - with the 360 acting just as a media center *extender*, you dont have to worry about what should be recording while you are using your xbox - because your PC is doing all the work.
(Im not a microsoft fanboi - in fact the only consoles I own right now are a PS2 and a Wii. Im waiting out the next few months to decide which next gen console I get).
You raise a very interesing point there Frank. That limitation would indeed cripple the entire premise before it even left the drawing board.
Couldn't the Cell processors handle both gaming and SDTV recording in tandem? It's not as if it'll be recording HDTV until the next iteration of the Playstation marque around the majoriy of Europe anyway.
I'm not big on the stats of these two gaming goliaths, but is it not within the realm of possibility for the Sony hardware to do both?
Actually, if the tuner in the PS3 is going to be an ATSC, it technically COULD record OTA HD programming while you were playing a game. Recording the .ts stream from an OTA HD channel requires only as much processing power as it takes to copy the file from the tuner to the hard drive. The MPEG2 transport stream doesn't actually need any significant processor overhead until you actually WATCH it.
Yes, Frank is right. I have a PS3 and a 360 and I wouldn't really want either of them to act as a DVR. If I'm playing Gears of War or Resistance:FOM, I don't want to miss my shows. I do see how this could be a nice add-on for people without a DVR, but unless I can play and record at the same time, I'm not too interested. Still, it's nice to see Sony is always trying to improve the PS3.
Yes, it would be possible for the PS3 to record shows while playing a game - but certainly not just any game. I would say that anything that would tax the machine would at the very least cause hiccups in the recording stream. At any rate - the outcome would be uncertain at best. Who wants a DVR that *might not* record that show?
At any rate, I think that while its possible that the PS3 could record shows while you are playing a game, IMO its not likely.
The way it was phrased implied an accessory, not a new all singing all dancing PS3 unit. It's reasonable to assume the heavy lifting would be taken care of in the dvr device itself (MPEG4 encoding is becoming ubiquitous) or have the PS3 take care of it. If I remember the Cell hype correctly, the processor was designed specifically with this kind of streaming video processing in mind.
I'm looking forward to it. Here in NZ at least there are very few PVRs on the market.
If GTA:IV doesn't sell me into PS3 land, a DVR very probably would.
over the air signals are useless, i would buy if it had a cablecard tuner for sure...
HD-DVD is dead.
WTF would that have to do with this article (even if it were true)?
looks like im waiting even longer to buy a POS. woops i mean PS3. Just come out with a final version sony. i was thinking about getting an 80 gig but now with DVR possibilities , 80 gigs wont be enough. theyll need atleast 250-300 gigs, especially if people want to record high def. 80 gigs just wont cut it.
*cough*
You can always swap out the HD...
http://www.gamersreports.com/article/43/
Sounds like an updated/revived PSX?
If existing ps3 owners can't use this, big big big mistake on Sony's part.
Otherwise this seems like a decent idea. I dont think I'd bother with it but the option is nice.
I don't see why anyone cares...
This machine does a lot of great things, but think about it, you can get 2 things that do those jobs better, and better yet, you don't have to wait for some update or some add on to do those things, and its probably cheaper at that. Tivo and Xbox.
Games are what sell a system, not features, and at that, Xbox does a very good job at both for it's intended purpose.
Sony should have built a PlayStation and sold some consoles rather than striving for the biggest and baddest console there is, because they just aren't good at that. Leave hardware innovation to the PCs so it can be adopted to consoles, because then in PCs, you can show their true potential, and not have to water it down to a weak, worthless chip.
Dear Sony,
You tried this with the PSX (PS2) in japan. It failed. Isn't this a video game machine? We bought this to play games. Not record movies/tv with. My box from Comcast does that just fine. We want GAMES.
Why is OTA-HD useless? That is all I have and I am happy as a clam. I hate cable and satellite. I used to have those and all the channels had shit and just wasted time surfing through channels. Now, I have a Sony DHG-HDD250 to record OTA-HD to watch when it is convenient. I also have the PS3 to watch BD and DVD. I have Blockbuster online and I get all my movies from there. So, with no monthly payments to cable/satellite, it frees up my time to play some games, watch OTA-HD without insane compression and watch BD/DVD and spend time with family.
so would this be used by a usb hdtv tuner? other than that how else could this be implemented?
Not excited. Still waiting for a real price cut.
I don't agree that 80-120GB makes a PVR useless. Most PVRs shipping by Rogers here in Canada have 80GB standard and they store something like 30 hours of HiDef content. Certainly useful enough for normal PVR usage where you record and watch shows weekly and don't store everything. Either way, it's way easy to upgrade the internal HDD or connect a USB external drive. I have one now with 300GB. Works a treat. As for file system, since the PS3 supports Linux does it not also support the Linux file system (ext3 or 4) that does not suffer from the 4GB file size limitation? Maybe the PS3 OS is FAT32 only however and you need Linux installed to access the other. I haven't gotten around to attempting a Linux + Myth TV install yet but I will soon. That will ROCK if Myth supports this TV tuner. The PS3 is a fantastic do it all entertainment device and with Linux+Myth+TV Tuner... drool.
finally something i could do with the thing especially since i'm not getting any games
Getting cable programming on it is nice but don't hold your breath on cable card being added. Cable cards are pretty much dead in terms of new devices. They don't even make them on newer tv's anymore. Supposedly cable card 1.0 is getting replaced by 2.0, which has yet to catch on. Lets just hope it has hdmi in or component in for those wanting cable or satellite dvr abilities. It would be awesome if sony implement real time h264 compression. I wouldn't doubt the cell processor being able to do that. Without it, much many hours of 1080i programming do you expect with mpeg2 on a 60 gig harddrive or even the 20 gig ones?
I'm not opposed to DVR on my games console. I'd just hold it up to the same standards as my current console + tivo situation. I'd want multiple tuners, to not miss shows if I'm playing games, to be able to ship shows off to network storage, to have an awesome idiot-proof interface with season passes, wishlists, pivot searching, etc.
I just don't see anyone building a real DVR with a real interface into a real games console and there not being limitations that leave two separate boxes the superior alternative. Particularly when you can score a 360 and a series 3 tivo for $650, it's going to be hard for Sony to offer a compelling PS3 solution that doesn't wind up like the PSX debacle. (overpriced _and_ underfeatured)
The PS3 is a much better value as an overall entertainment device. Xbox charges 99 dollars for an adaptor that Sony has built in. When robust games come out regularly, it will be curtains for the red ring machine.
Actually, as long as they let us save recorded programs to an external HDD, I'd rather them leave their paltry 80 or 120 gig internal drive. It's cheaper for the consumer to buy their own external; if we leave it to Sony to up the capacity of their internal drive, the price will skyrocket. Just look at Microsoft's price for their larger capacity drive!
Lets not make this article bigger than it is. Simply its an upgrade...so if u have a ps3 and u need it cool, if not ok just move on. Its nothing negative about it. For some it will be positive and for others it would mean absolutely nothing.
For me this is positive news b/c it allows me to own a dvr. I want to quit leasing my box for $5/month so Sony thx again.
Dice, plz take this for what its worth, just buy a PC tuner for your PC (about $100 US) and have DVR functionality for with no monthly fee. Most if not all of you own a PC otherwise you couldnt post here. I have a Media Center PC and a XBOX 360 and I have been doing everything mentioned here and more for over 3 years now. The beauty of the PC is that there are so many software workarounds and programs that "developers" write. Microsoft or Sony will never give you exactly what you want, and as much as I hate to say it, its not all their fault. The Movie studios and TV networks are tying their hands on a lot of this as far as content and recording are concerned. If you have a Media Center PC and a XBOX 360 you must go to this website www.thegreenbutton.com and you'll see that the options and configurations for Movies, Music, Pics, and even TV are almost limitless. I stream all of the above all over my house with the PC and 2 360s and to add additional HDD space I just add external drives when needed. BTW, I use my XBOX more for media than for gameplay, even though I love Oblivion, Gears of War, and old-school Galaga and Ms Pac Man off live.
Sweet, this is the clincher for me. I have sold my 360 on the back of this.
I was already swaying with the price but, and seeing my mates PS3 playing some nice looking games, this was the deciding factor.
Three things I'd really like to see from the PS3 before any sort of DVR support.
1) Support for Samba, NFS, and AFP. DLNA via UPnP sucks ass.
2) Support for some sort of 5.1 audio in mpeg4's. AAC 5.1 would be nice, so would AC3. Supposedly it's on Sony's radar:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/06/26/firmware-182-coming-soon/ (mentions comments about additional audio support)
3) Support for ext3 or other file system that can support files larger than 4GB on external drive. Though this wouldn't matter if they supported additional network shares.
if they work with silicondust and make this based off of the HDHomerun they could easily add cable card support and you could even have more than just 2 tuners. All without them needing to be connected directly to the PS3.
Interesting
What's it going to tune?! Unless it has an ATSC/QAM tuner add-on, I'm not seeing the whole picture.
No games for the PS3? hahahahahahahaaa. Get out more.
if you don't want it don't buy it
I want to see a really tight integration with DirecTV satellite DVR capability with this so us suckers that didn't realize they needed the hd dvr to get on demand content from DirecTV can finally get it with their PS3... It would save me from having to buy another box and extend my contract again...
Man you all are a bunch of D-riders! especially you 360 fanboys(you know who you are). You talk all this smack about the ps3 having unnecessary hardware but drool over the fact that your other devices aren't even capable of half of the ps3 upgrades!
And as a little FYI to all, Sony is making and molding this system for THEIR users and how do I know this? why dont one of you haters google " gamer advisory panel ".
Real out
Who cares
Good, it will just in time to replace my current PVR with GB-PVR since Zap2it is closing the doors...
PS3 replaced my PS2 and my upscaling Sony DVD player. Now it will soon replace my homemade PVR... nice! I love gadgets that serve more than one purpose!
Finally! Hello Microsoft! - are you hearing this? Time to finally deliver teh dream you've been teasig us with for years (the "home media centre"). Disconnect that stupid parasite idea (Media Centre PC) and make the XBox 360 the DVR it always threatend to be.
At $US500 to $US600, with a DVR the XBox 360 would finally have the all functionality, the power and the connectors to justify the price.
If Microsoft don't step up, Sony will get my money. Come on XBox!