Sony's PlayTV turns your PS3 into a TV tuner / DVR, plus VoIP on PSP, DualShock 3 rumors

The PS3 rumor mill is working overtime today, delivering not one, not two, but three whoppers that should have fans and foes alike feeling alive with pleasure. The first top-secret super-rumor comes direct from the BBC, a small, but fairly trustworthy news organization, who is reporting that Sony's game box will be getting a digital TV tuner (at least in the UK) which allows you to record your favorite shows à la TiVo, called PlayTV, which will also let you transfer those shows onto your PSP. Of course, this news was announced by Sony at their not-so-secret Leipzig Game Convention keynote, so you can probably bank on this one. Additionally, Sony has partnered with Britain's BT Group to bring video and voice telephony to the PSP via the Go!Messenger software, which is set to launch in January of 2008. In other, less official PS3 news, word on the street is that the DualShock 3 -- not the infamous SIXAXIS -- will be compatible with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, at least based on a second-hand report from the Japanese game magazine Dengeki PlayStation. The report has fueled suspicion that the new controller pictured in silhouette in recent GT5 ads is actually the DualShock 3, and that the controller will be made available coupled with a GT5 demo. We'll have to wait and see on this one, so try and stay tuned.

Read -- LGC07: SCEE announces PlayTV for PS3, "watch, record and replay TV shows"
Read -- BT, Sony unveil PlayStation with video calling
Read -- DualShock 3 rumbles with GT5 Prologue, Japanese gaming mag claims

[NelsB @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:04PM]

What, "PS3-vo" was already taken?

:)

[Kevo @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:04PM]

For the first time in since the PS3 was announced... I am interested in the PS3.

[Manuel @ Aug 23rd 2007 10:18AM]

WHERE ARE THE FREAKING GAMES !!!!!!

[Anonymous @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:05PM]

The BBC - a fairly small news organization? Lawl.

[me @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:08PM]

were they serious about that?

[Detox @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:16PM]

Lawl. What a tard.

[Xavier Gill @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:24PM]

pretty sure that was a joke

[Joshua Topolsky @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:38PM]

Good-old sarcasm, folks!

[me @ Aug 22nd 2007 3:01PM]

OK!

[just some guy @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:10PM]

wait....can it still play games?? ha

[JPQsat @ Aug 23rd 2007 11:21PM]

Do they make games for the PS3? That would be a great idea !

[Joe @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:11PM]

Id much rather stick to my Sky HD.

[jamma @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:29PM]

according to that "small organisation" over here in the UK, sky customers are also getting a video download service for the psp, with shows like lost, 24 and the simpsons being part of it

[shaun @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:12PM]

Wooo that rocks!
I'm going off to uni in 3 weeks and I'm gonna miss the DVR capabilities I have at home, so now I don't have to cos I'm taking my ps3 with me

[Ethan Duffy @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:16PM]

It's not going to be like a tivo though, it's just going to be a standard dvr. That press release is just dressing up a whole lot of normal. If it could encode to other devices, it might take off. But as we have it, a piece of unneccesary vertical integration that stifles the device. Why can't we just output video files to a memory card? Other boxes have been doing it for years.

[triple x @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:20PM]

how come theres no usb ports in the back of the ps3??
i hate to add the ext drive with wires exposed in the front.

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:54PM]

http://www.usbgear.com/USB-Extension.html

Here you go... for about $2 you can move your device anywhere you want!!

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:55PM]

http://www.usbgear.com/USB-Extension.html

Here you go... for about $2 you can move your device anywhere you want!!

[Brian @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:34AM]

Did you even read his statement andir3.0? He said he doesn't want wires coming out of the front.

[Jake @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:25PM]

Sony could just buy Tivo and it would really be interesting.

[Taylor @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:26PM]

Good thing you have a link to posts tagged with "dualshock", because this is the only one...
-Taylor

[Hernan Paredes @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:28PM]

my god what are they doing?

[Roberto @ Sep 17th 2007 12:42PM]

going in the right direction.

[dxchase @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:39PM]

Dear Sony,

Just concentrate on releasing more quality games and lower the price back down to $499 already. Otherwise you can kiss this generation goodbye. Not even Metal Gear or FF will save your butts.

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:49PM]

I understand that you may be in a cave or something, but Sony has several studios and divisions. They have people that make software and people that make hardware. The people that make hardware might just suck at making software, so asking them to make a game that YOU want to play is like asking Microsoft to play nice or IBM to get into the catering business. Since you seem so depressed for games and place the sole responsibility of this on Sony, maybe they should just stop producing TVs, Radios, Gadgets, Cameras, etc. and fire everyone to hire a bunch of game programmers for your pleasure.

It's not Sony's responsibility (solely) for games. They can (and are) creating games as we speak, but it's going to take more than one studio/company to do it. Grow up. You should be crying to EA, MS, F5, SE, etc as much as you are crying to Sony about your precious games.

[ferry @ Aug 22nd 2007 2:57PM]

All the functionality of a 50 quid freeview box, great. Note that in the UK we don't have the likes of cablecard

[db26 @ Aug 22nd 2007 3:29PM]

GT5, eh? What ever happened to GT4 for PSP?

[SimbaDogg @ Aug 22nd 2007 7:07PM]

uhhh....have you ever seen any GT for PSP?

[db26 @ Aug 22nd 2007 11:07PM]

Uhm... Yeah. GT4 Mobile was probably the most hyped and anticipated title when the PSP was _first_announced_. Couple years later, still nothing...

[roc ingersol @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:14PM]

PSX redux?

do you really need an add-on OTA HD tuner for your PS3? what happens when you want to play a game or watch a BDR while it's recording? and who wants to maintain a seperate PVR that can only handle OTA HD?

I'll take my more-flexible and powerful (and idiot-proof) HD tivo and let my game console stick to playing games, thanks.

[Setan @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:29PM]

And I'd take the added PS3 functionality over spending an additional $600 for the latest HD Tivo. I'm sure many other would as well.

[wowzorz @ Aug 22nd 2007 4:45PM]

but there are no fricken USB ports in the BACK. this crappy thing is going to be messing up the look of my console if I have it plugged in. and generally to get any use out of it, you would want to have it plugged in 24/7. no usb ports in the back means that i will probably get tired of looking at it/it getting in the way and ill unplug it.

Nice call on removing those USB ports from the back sony.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:11PM]

Looks like the logo has a drooling problem and explosive diarrhea. I think I'll stay away.

[paulmjoyce @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:51PM]

All well and good but my PS3 runs hot = noisy. Now that's alright for games and action flicks but it's way too distracting for Last of the Summer Wine.

[Dave Roz @ Aug 22nd 2007 7:44PM]

why is that logo spraying poo out of its backside?

[dxchase @ Aug 22nd 2007 8:54PM]

@Andir3.0

I did not mean to pin this on Sony alone. My main point was that the current library of games is pretty poor so obviously I am including the 3rd parties there as well. But as you said "they are creating games as we speak" and we have yet to see these games, you proved my point anyway. One has to be an idiot to not see that the Wii360 is running away with this.

[Techman @ Aug 22nd 2007 10:56PM]

This might justify the price a bit more...

[Brian @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:46AM]

It's nice to see that Sony isn't above itself to steal ideas from Microsoft as well. Sure, they did improve the idea of watching recorded television by having it recorded straight to your system, but that's going to fill up that 80GB HDD pretty fast. That's where Microsoft thought maybe it'd be better to just stream the HD television people record on their Media Center PCs. After all, you can but a much larger HDD on a computer than you can fit in a PS3 or 360, and streaming does work well enough over a home network.

[Tyson @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:23AM]

honestly i like this I never use my PS3 this would be a serious value added that its needs

[scott @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:28AM]

@ all the people complaining about the usb ports:

WOULD YOU LIKE SOME FRENCH CRIES TO GO WITH THAT WAHHHHMBURGER?
YOU PURCASED THE PS3
YOU DISHED OUT THE MONEY
GET USED TO IT
MAYBE DO SOMETHING INSTEAD OF COMPLAIN.

[Slvrgun @ Aug 24th 2007 12:42AM]

Will it make games too?

[James @ Aug 27th 2007 2:10PM]

My question is, will it have listings (like a Tivo) or just allow you to schedule time/channel recordings (like a VCR)? If the former, will it have a paid subscription? If the latter, who the hell is going to buy it?

Will it let you edit your recordings to cut commercials? Will it transcode to a higher compression like h.264/AVC, xvid, divx, etc.? Is it HD?

Lots of questions... I hope it turns out to be a good product -- if I could replace my aging MythTV box with comparable functionality *and* get a game console at the same time, I might shell out a few bucks for this.