Today we took the day off from doing anything unimportant like school or work and made a road trip to Auckland to catch up with some people. Our first appointment was with David Hine from Sony and we chatted about what has happened so far in the year and what to expect for the rest of 2009. There was of course the good news about the titles that we know about which we are probably all looking forward to, and then there was the mixed news when we asked for an update on Play TV heading to NZ.

I say mixed news because while some of it is obviously less than ideal, there is a glimmer of hope in what we learnt.

While the full interview will be in Wednesday’s podcast but here is the crux of what we talked about.

Brian: Play TV, what’s happening with that?
Wugga: Yeah, is it still coming out?

David Hine: Ahhh, Play TV. Yeah, it is still coming. The answer though is the same that I gave you last time, is that we have to get programming for NZ and we would like to get HD because the UK version doesn’t have HD Recording. NZ has more HD content than most places in PAL (regions) and we’d like that (HD Recording) as well. Those are the sorts of things that we are trying to work in. We are still hoping for the end of the year.

So there we have it, no freeview at least until the end of the year but perhaps with added functionality, which is what I would prefer to wait for anyway. This should also comfort those that already have the device overseas as Sony is still working on adding HD recording functionality.

Source: http://buttonmasher.co.nz/2009/03/30/no-play-tv-until-late-2009/ and http://www.engadgethd.com/