5 things you didn’t know about Sony PlayTV

It can play Freeview in 1080p
While HD freeview is so 2009, you can watch the likes of Dave and BBC Four in full 1080p hi–def using PlayTV. All you need to is set your TV and PS3 to 1080p and away you go. Still, upscaling low grade pictures means poor quality, so we’d say this one’s best avoided for now.

It can’t record HD – yet
When Sony initially trumpeted PlayTV, they said it would be able to record programmes in 1080i. Alas, this hasn’t come to pass and Sony says we’ll need to wait an unspecified age for a downloadable upgrade so you can. Mind you, Freeview isn’t in HD yet, so we can’t gripe too much.

You can transfer shows to your PSP, but it’s not easy
Sadly, the easiest way to watch what you’ve stashed on your PS3 on your PSP is to use Remote Play over Wi–Fi. However, transfer shows into your XMB video library, download PSP Video 9 and you can get them on your handheld without going online. They could have made it easier, mind.

Recording shows will eat up your hard drive
An hour of TV will gobble up about 1.5GB of storage on your PS3. So if you’re partial to every episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, it looks like that new 160GB PS3 is the way forward. That or change the hard drive yourself.

It’s got two tuners
This is great news if you want to watch a shark doc on Channel 5 while recording Battlefield Earth on the other side. Sony might have hamstrung PlayTv in loads of ways, but this feature is a real winner.

Read our full in–depth review, check out our hands–on video and see our unboxing blog for tons more info.