Sony is having a second go at releasing a digital recording device. Torne which will be released in March in Japan is the second time that Sony has released a digital recording device.

The first was PlayTV which is Sony Europe's HDTV tuner & recorder and which has been available in Europe since fall 2008. The torne is a terrestrial digital tuner that connects to the PS3 via USB cable.

It offers players an easy and colourful interface that lists programs. It's possible to look up programs and search the menu by genre or keyword. It has a time and can record in advance, even when the console is on stand-by or even while games/DVDs/Blu-rays are running.

Besides recording directly to the PS3's hard drive, the torne can be used to record to an external hard drive as well. Torne is priced at $109 and bundled with the 250GB PlayStation 3 and available for $467.