PS3 TV tuner finally gets HD!

Sony PlayTV MARCHANDS €     Magma  449.00  Pixmania.com  469.00  Ubaldi  474.00  Mistergooddeal  483.99  Fnac  499.00  Numeriworld  502.00  Compare prices

Sony announced the launch of version 1.21 of the firmware for its PlayTV extension, which finally allows users to access HD TV channels.

You might remember the controversy that surrounded the news that the PlayTV, despite its billing as a HD compatible model, actually wasn't.  In the meantime, Sony offered to reimburse any disappointed customers that had hoped to watch HD channels.

There's now a better solution though, and it won't require more hardware.  All you need to do is update the firmware to access free-to-air HD channels.  You can install it using the PlayTV's onscreen interface.

The arrival of version 1.21 comes after version 1.10, which unofficially included HD support.  Sony had announced the new features in previous versions, even though they did work.