Sony Adding TV Tuner To PS3

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Since the Playstation 2 and later, Sony has always envisioned the PlayStation (2 and 3) as being at the centerpiece of your home multimedia setup, with its Blu-Ray/DVD capabilities, as well as the other digital media playing abilities it has. Following Sony Europe’s lead, Sony Japan is releasing a TV tuner add-on peripheral for Japanese PlayStation 3s.

The Sony Torne will offer Japanese gamers the chance to record and timeshift (think DVR) TV programming. It’ll be able to record TV content directly to either the PS3′s internal HDD or to an external HDD attached via USB. It will be able to record TV shows at any time – even if the PS3 is being used for gaming, watching Blu-Rays, or even turned off.

The PSP has been big for Sony, and they’ve included that with their plans. If you save the video files from the Torne onto a Sony Media Stick, you can view it on a PSP. Likewise, if your PS3 and PSP are on the same network, you can wirelessly stream content from the Torne to your PSP for wireless viewing. Obviously, this is a well-developed product. Sony hasn’t missed any steps here.

A similar add-on called PlayTV was launched in the UK in 2008 and Australia in 2009. Like the Torne, it provided DVR like functionality to the PS3, and has been fairly popular with the PS3 crowd. The PlayTV also allowed you to stream content to the PSP, and even, a few Sony Ericsson phones.

While the Sony Torne will be released in Japan in March 2010, North America has been strangely left out of any such DVR add-ons. TV Tuner add-ons have been rumored for the Xbox 360 for some time, but so far, no such devices have come to fruition.