Sony — Tag

The FreeView Consortium has announced some details about the PVR system they have approved for use with FreeView|HD.

Of interest,

It will run a system with features like American TiVo, which suggests similar content for viewers and features series link technology similar to that employed by Sky’s new HDi decoders.

and

Browning explained that - using Shortland Street as an example, if the receiver has a programming clash for a weeknight episode, it will look forward and choose between rescreenings on other digital channels, or pick the episode out of the weekend ‘Omnibus’.

The device will include two tuners, but an unspecified hard drive size.

Meanwhile, the Sony PlayTV for PlayStation 3 has been dated for Europe, to be released on September 10th this year. Major technical challenges were to blame for the delay, as the device was supposed to be released around March… at least, that’s what the SCENZ chief had said late last year. They snuck in some PlayTV-required code in the latest firmware update, 2.41. New Zealand and Australia are looking at a January/February release next year, “because on their digital terrestrial they haven’t actually set the standards yet.” Ummm, Australia hasn’t, but New Zealand has.

While on the topic of FreeView, I got a FV|HD box the other week and was somewhat impressed by the quality. You wouldn’t of thought that upscaled content would look better, but it certainly does.

It’s official, we are a PlayStation nation. In November, it seems that the console line is at the top of people’s wish lists for Christmas with the PlayStation 2 still leading console sales, followed by the PSP and then the PlayStation 3. This after it was revealed by GeekPulp.co.nz last month that in New Zealand Xbox 360 sales beat the PS3 and Wii sales combined. That’s quite the turn-around.

New Zealand joins Australia and Europe to be “PlayStation-nations” yet these territories seem to be the last on Sony’s mind. With the PS3 trailing in Japan and the US, why does it put more effort into those nations when they are clawing back in the SCEE area. The European PlayStation Network Store is generally the last to get any updates, to get the game demos and to get game add-ons. The reason is apparently due to “localisation,” but then how can Microsoft’s Xbox Live Store publish world-wide? And people aren’t caring if the game is in American English or Japanese – people purposefully create accounts on PSN Japan and US to get the treats along with those areas.

Sony has taken an interesting approach to the PlayStation, push out the new while still supporting the old. It’s a common practice with software, but not so much with game consoles. For instance, the moment the Xbox 360 was released, the Xbox was practically dropped off the Microsoft radar (much the disgrace of my mum where my family had purchased an Xbox about a year before the 360 came out, only to find that now they cannot buy any peripherals easily).

Yet Sony would tell you that they are sticking to the “10 year plan.” It’s all in the 10 year plan, and we’ve been hearing about the 10 year plan a lot recently especially when Sony announces a price cut and they try to convince everyone that it was in the 10 year plan the whole time.

The PlayStation 2 was released in 2000, so there is still a bit of time left on its 10 year plan. So what do you do? You release a newer, cheaper version. If it is the same as the Japanese one, the differences are less components, even lighter, and the power supply is now inside the PS2 rather than an external brick. It also looks like the external design has changed, with the removal of the grooves on the front and having the PS2 strip on the side of the unit take up the bottom half.

So to get backwards compatibility with your 40gb PlayStation 3, you spend an extra $150 (est.) on this. I guess it has better support

More pictures of the black, white and silver ones at ThreeSpeech.

The guys at Insomniac have been busy working hard on the next chapter of Ratchet and Clank, exclusively for the PS3. This game perhaps has some of the most detailed graphics out there yet, and looks like a must have and a console seller – exactly what Sony needs for its platform.

• Watch the trailers and footage at GameTrailers (make sure you pick the HD versions!)
• Especially the one demonstrating the Groovitron (HD)