Sony turns PlayStation 3 into video recorder

Sony Corp. has introduced a TV tuner add-on for the PlayStation 3 in Europe, which turns the games console into a personal video recorder.

At an industry show in Leipzig, Germany, on Wednesday, the company saidPlayTV,a combined tuner and recorder,will be available in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain early next year. Console owners will be able to pause and record live televisionusing the PlayStation's hard drive.

They will also be able to stream the recordingswirelessly from the PS3 toa handheld PlayStation portable, or transfer to the device through a USB cable.

Sony did not announce a price for PlayTV. A spokesman for Sony Canada said there were no immediate plans to launch the TV software in North America.

Sony has lagged its chief competitors, Nintendo Corp. and Microsoft Corp., in next-generation video game console sales. The PS3 has sold 4.3 million units worldwide as of June, since its debut last November, comparedwith about twice as manyfor Nintendo's Wii, which launched at the same time. Microsoft's Xbox 360, which had a year head start on both consoles, has sold 11.6 million units.

Analysts have blamed the PS3's struggles on a lack of appealing games.