KEY POINTS:
We don't get to say this often about game-changing technology developments but, this time you heard it first in New Zealand.
When Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand boss Warwick Light let slip to a newspaper reporter a few weeks ago that Sony was turning its PlayStation 3 games
console into a digital TV recorder - the equivalent of the hugely popular Tivo box the Americans have enjoyed for years - his comments spread around the world like wildfire.
Light had been talking out of school, his comment an offhand remark he expected to be overlooked. But after weeks of uneasy silence from the electronics giant, Sony last week confirmed Light's awkward revelation - the PlayStation 3 is to become a digital recorder with the addition of a small hardware device and a software upgrade.
That's significant for several reasons. Apart from Sky's My Sky digital recorder, which is available only to Sky subscribers and comes with a hefty $600 sign-up fee, we haven't had a decent option for recording live TV through an easy-to-use electronic programming guide.
The Freeview satellite free-to-air digital TV service launched with much fanfare in May but the set-top boxes that have been made available to receive the service are dowdy and expensive in comparison to the PS3. Now the PS3, which already plays games, Blu-ray movies, allows you to surf the internet and store music and videos, will record live TV with the addition of two high-definition TV tuners that let you watch one Freeview channel while recording another.
Play TV, as it's called, will launch in Europe early next year. Other countries using the PAL TV format, such as New Zealand, will receive the service "in due course" says Sony.
Play TV will support the DVB-T (digital video broadcasting - terrestrial) standard, which the local Freeview consortium will use when it begins broadcasting its channels from transmission towers in March next year in addition to the existing satellite feed.
An electronic programming guide on the PS3 will give seven-day programme information and allow viewers to schedule Freeview recordings.
The PS3 digital recorder is a significant development and a clever move by Sony which, facing stiff competition from other games consoles and media PC devices, is struggling to achieve its goal of making the PS3 the central device of living rooms.
A digital recorder could well be the killer application that gives the PS3 universal appeal. If the add-on tuner card is competitively priced - say it is bundled with new PS3 consoles for a total price of $1000 - it could be the best-featured, best-value consumer electronics device for all the family.
Then you've got the other clever feature of Play TV - live TV recorded to the PS3's hard drive can be sent to Sony's PSP hand-held gaming device via wi-fi or transferred via a USB cable.
Won't be home to see this week's episode of Outrageous Fortune? That's okay - use your PSP to remotely schedule a recording which will copy the show to the PS3's hard drive. Then watch it either on your home TV or the PSP's portable screen.
All of this appears as though it will come without the sort of sign-on fee Sky has been gathering with My Sky.
Play TV could prove to be a very attractive option for New Zealand families who don't want just a gaming console. The options and level of integration between PS3 and PSP look impressive.
Finally, there's also the feature of one box being able to handle all the functions you want in an entertainment device.
In Britain, where already there are millions of Freeview watchers, news of Play TV has drawn intense interest, sentiment likely to be mirrored here when it goes on sale next year.
