This is an entertainment box

Here's one that'll surprise you. I'm not buying an Xbox 360 anymore. Yes, it's a cool system. But since we already have one, I've decided it's probably more important to broaden our platform set.

So I'm going to buy a PS3.

Alright, you got me, that's not the only reason. Sony has been showing off a DVB tuner for the PS3 called PlayTV. With it, the console becomes a full-blown FreeView PVR. That's rad.

Currently, my PC serves as my TV and PVR. It's far from a perfect setup. For one thing, the software the Dazzle Stick which forms my tuner came with is kind of crap. For another, with it being a single tuner setup, I can only record one channel at a time and if I want to watch while recording, it has to be the channel I'm recording.

Worst part is, if I schedule a recording (Which is not easy with the software's sub-par EPG), it will strt up and basically high-jack all my system resources, making the PC unresponsive. This usually necesitates stopping what I'm doing and going off to do something else.

PlayTV has two tuners, eliminating the first problems. It would be a PVR seperate from my PC, so it couldn't highjack my resources. And Sony has plans to update the software down the line so that you can play a game whilst recording a show. That is cool.

What makes it supersweet is all of these features (Live and recorded TV) can be accessed remotely from any Wi-Fi connection by a PSP. So I could be in a Starbucks in London watching TV. Badass? I think so.

I, of course, also need the PS3 for some of the games it has as exclusives (Metal Gear, the last F1 game - though I expect new ones will be made by EA cross-platform, Warhawk, a timed exclusve in the form of UT3 and I'm sure there are others).

So there it is, I'm buying a PS3 in late March. Flame if you will.

Jens Out