You’d be forgiven for thinking that Sony’s upcoming dual-digital TV receiver accessory for PS3 would come loaded to the gunnels with all kinds of inhibiting DRM systems. Not so! (Apparently no one told me it wasn’t 2006 anymore). In fact, you’ll be able to do exactly what you like with your recording just as long as it isn’t illegal – but even then that’s between you and the coppers, not Sony.

The MPEG-2 format video files you record can be transferred from the PlayTV menu directly into your Home menu and from there you can copy them across to pretty much anything – external storage devices, PCs, personal media players, anything. It should be a pretty fair assumption that copying files to a PS3 is a given, certainly as a more practical alternative to streaming files wirelessly.

Sony’s Cambridge studio is working on the PlayTV software and producer Mark Bunting admitted that there was nothing stopping the PS3 from becoming a source for generated pirated TV recordings fro distribution on certain naughty Bit Torrent websites. But he also points out that it’s not really fair to penalise the legitimate users with restrictive DRM handcuffs just to prevent a minority from mischief.

"If I'm prohibited from getting the recording off and storing it somewhere else because some other dude is making money out of selling it, then I'd rather they brought the law in to catch those people," Bunting said.

Details like prices and release dates are supposed to be very much under wraps at the moment, but it seems that retailer HMV might have spilled the beans early – they say March 29th for £99.99. Of course this isn’t an official announcement but the date seems about right. I have to say that one hundred squid seems a little steep though - for that kind of money I might just stick to the DRM-laden BBC iPlayer.

Source
Eurogamerand VideoGamer

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