I refrained against posting this in the swamp/ahto because of the assortment of characters who can potentially turn this into an unsavoury console debate.

This shouldnt be about
*what is better
*what nintendo or ms does
*what you have that is so much better or worse

But merely a news report :D

Those who know me a bit better will know that I am a big htpc(home theater pc) fan and am currently running two vista based media center pcs. A media center pc is basically a souped up tivo or pvr - (personal video recorder). You can record/watch/timeshift tv. But because it is also a pc, there are a huge amount of things that you can do that a tivo cant, from on the fly editing and converting to h264(etc), lavish .net MCML apps, music, pics, video calling, to home automation.

A few years back, sony tried to launch the psx, a pvr based on the ps2. It wasnt a success, largely due to its price. Since then, pvr has taken off in a huge way, with tivo units, htpcs and standalone pvrs being more common.

Many longtime windows(and linux) based htpc fans are quite excited about sony's recent announcement and demonstration of Play TV, which will give Pvr functionality to the Ps3, and enable the PSP as a mobile media center including live TV.

see this vid
http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/play-tv-on-ps3-explained-292541.php)

One caveat - the US may not be getting it anytime soon, due to its poor DVB-T(Terrestrial digital TV) coverage. It will be initially rolled out in Europe(PAL) nations - which means it can work in Oz to as we share the same standard :)

Add to this the recent firmware upgrades that allow a ps3 to link to a pc as a media server(ie.eliminating the concerns for storage size on internal drives) and the ps3 becomes a fully functional media hub.

To build a similar specd hi end gaming pc/htpc with a bluray drive will cost more than a ps3 with this capability.... so the ps3 is looking like a good buy for those into that type of thing.

The thought of a a mediacenter with no drivers or tweaking involved is quite an unusual one for me :D

mtfbwya

*slaps forehead* Oh, of course... why didn't it occur to me before that consoles would merge with pvrs? :doh: It seems so obvious in retrospect and I probably would've seen it coming if I was a console dork. :p Looks like this will put Blu-Ray a step closer to becoming the standard for high density disc storage. Thanks for the news Astro.

I wonder if Sony will be offering downloadable movies/television services like iTV and Xbox Live. I'm actually surprised Microsoft hasn't launched pvr capabilities already given the fact that they offer downloadable content for Xbox Live.

*slaps forehead* Oh, of course... why didn't it occur to me before that consoles would merge with pvrs? :doh: It's seems so obvious in retrospect and I probably would've seen it coming if I was a console dork. :p Looks like this will put Blu-Ray a step closer to becoming the standard for high density disc storage. Thanks for the news Astro.

I wonder if Sony will be offering downloadable movies/television services like iTV and Xbox Live. I'm actually surprised Microsoft hasn't launched pvr capabilities already given the fact that they offer downloadable content for Xbox Live.

The x360 is hardwired to be a media center extender, so is extremely unlikely to have a pvr add on. Maybe the next gen of the xb may.

mtfbwya

I probably would've seen it coming if I was a console dork. :p
If it's any consolation, I think you're a much higher caliber of dork than the lowly 'console' ones :xp: (I keeeed joo bro.. no nuking!) :D

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Not really sure if this is good news or bad. Good in a sense that this is definitely something grand to look forward to, and seemingly trying to integrate the console in to a centerpiece for entertainment room.

Bad news in a sense that the PS3 is even looking tempting to me, an avid anti-consoler, to think about a future purchase :fist: hehehe..

I bought one for my parents a couple of months ago, maybe I need to "visit" and see if I like what I see ;) (yes, my parents are gamers, they reek of much more awesome than I do :( .. hehehe)

Purely from a cost point of view HD PVR + Blu ray + HD gaming + network device (+linux box!) for that price is unbeatable value :) Fanboy or no... its a bargain, relatively speaking ;)

In most places, most standalone BR players cost more than a ps3.

mtfbwya