New PS3 PVR gets Japanese date

By Ellie Gibson Published 16 February, 2010

Torne to hit Tokyo shops next month.

Sony has announced a Japanese release date for Torne, the new PS3-compatible digital video recorder.

Torne is a bit like PlayTV, the Hrecorder released in Europe back in 2008. Once hooked up to the PS3 with a USB cable, it allows the user to view a programme guide and search for shows via genre or keyword.

You can also pre-programme the unit to record at certain times and it will do so regardless of whether the console is on standby, or being used to play a game or watch a film. Torne can record to either the PS3's internal hard drive or an external device.

Torne will launch in Japan on 18th March, priced at ¥9980 (£70) or as part of a 250GB PS3 bundle for ¥42,800 (£300).

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • erp #1 2 years ago

    Is it any different to PlayTV specs-wise - HD compatible, etc.? - or is it simply PlayTV being released in Japan? (Had PlayTV been released in Japan already? I honestly have no idea.)

  • X201 #2 2 years ago

    Ellie, get Rich at Digital Foundry to dig up the specs, DVB-T2 etc

  • X201 #3 2 years ago

    @EarlBassett

    That wasn't Sony's fault. They could have waited a year for OFCOM to make the decision and then wait another year for DVB-T2 decoders to become available.

    Sony took the best guess, it just turned out wrong for them.

  • Murton #4 2 years ago

    @Earlbasset: I could be wrong but didn't they say PlayTV would upscale to HD rather than actually receive HD?

    I mean at the time that PlayTV launched no country (that I'm aware of) was offering HD resolution freeview so I very much doubt they'd have promised a device that could receive it.

  • TILT #5 2 years ago

    Concerning HD... Yep, "full Hi-Vision Viewing and Recording", according to the press release. Considering most programmes here are HD anyway, it would be rather pointless to introduce a non-HD-recorder.

    http://ww w.jp.playstation.com/info/relea...

    EDIT: It has support for trophies?! What the heck?
    Edited by 1 at 16/02/10 @ 11:40

  • IneptPercy #6 2 years ago

    I believe Play TV can receive HD if its broadcast over DVB-T, but here int he UK its been decided all HD will be over DVB-T2, not all countries are doing the same.

  • samaran #7 2 years ago

    i am totally buying this. most free-to-air TV here is in HD, so presumably there won't be any issues with torne.

  • X201 #8 2 years ago

    @Murton
    "I mean at the time that PlayTV launched no country (that I'm aware of) was offering HD resolution freeview so I very much doubt they'd have promised a device that could receive it. "

    Sony did promise HD.

    At that time it looked like the whole of Europe was going to use DVB-T for Freeview HD. So Sony took the plunge and built PlayTV with DVB-T Tuners.

    OFCOM decided that the UK would use (the better) DVB-T2 standard. By that time PlayTV was all-but in the shops and so Sony stopped making the claim that it would receive Freeview HD in the UK.


  • White_Westie #9 2 years ago

    No series link still then.... Whats the point with nolinks...

  • 3william56 #10 2 years ago

    The only difference seems to be the abiluty to record to external media - PlayTV can't do that, right???

  • X201 #11 2 years ago

    @3william56

    PlayTV records to the PS3 drive and can then be exported to external drives.