In spite of the persistent negative buzz around the Playstation 3, I have long maintained that its value as a consumer item lies in much more than gaming. And at least in Europe, it seems that Sony agrees, as today they officially announced PlayTV, their TV Tuner/DVR add-on for the Playstation 3. Although less exciting for us North Americans (it’s only available in Europe), PlayTV essentially acts as a digital over-the-air tuner and DVR combo that piggybacks on the PS3′s storage and processing power.

Surpisingly, for a product made by Sony, PlayTV seems to do a lot of things right: it has 2 independent tuners, both of which are capable of Full HD; it automatically downloads updates from the Playstation Network, meaning that features can be added or refined down the line; unlike many DVR’s, the use of the PS3′s processor means that the on-screen guide will be fast and responsive; and perhaps most importantly, you can transfer shows to the PSP via USB, or just stream content – even live TV – over the internet. I don’t know if it’s just me, but that seems pretty close to drool-worthy and a seriously compelling reason to consider a PS3/PSP purchase.

This is the precisely the sort of comprehensive, consolidated vision that Sony has lacked for years. Previous attempts at integration – like adding a PSP section to Connect.com – were about as successful as Lindsay Lohan’s stays in rehab: it was often a step forward followed by about twenty steps back. PlayTV, on the other hand, uses the Playstation architecture to do things that no-one else offers. AppleTV doesn’t stream to portables, transfer or have a TV tuner, while Tivo cannot transcode and transfer to a portable device directly without the use of a PC. All of a sudden, the six or seven hundred dollar cost of a PSP and PS3 seems a lot easier to take, as in addition to, ya’ know, those game thingys, there is some solid entertainment value there as well.

Of course, this being a Sony product announcement, not all is peaches and cream: if you want in, you have to buy Sony. You cannot, for example, stream this content to a PC wirelessly, or plug an iPod into your PS3 and download shows – just like iPod/iTunes, Xbox Live Marketplace or many other digital models, this is yet another walled garden where a service is restrictively tied to hardware in order to drive hardware sales. That’s not to say it isn’t a smart business move – it just feels oh-so-typically ‘Sony’. And while no-one should really be surprised Sony is trying to get you to buy a PS3, it doesn’t make their dogged insistence on the proprietary any easier to swallow. It simply reinforces that the protection of business models often happens at the consumer’s expense, particularly in the transition period we exist in now.

‘Course, as everyone has mentioned, Sony’s North American division is only ‘researching’ this phase – the lack of a unified digital broadcast system here means that PlayTV won’t be quite as easy to release here, as there is no universal architecture to pin it to. I for one can’t help but chuckle a bit – in this case, the European insistence on government interference has left them with more consumer choice… Governments may not do free markets very well, but they can do infrastructure.