Review: Sony Bravia

It was a dozen years ago that Gateway first offered a Web-surfing TV-computer combo, the bulked-up Destination. And, for almost as long, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been predicting that Internet-delivered content would soon rule in the living room, displacing cable and satellite TV, DVD and even Blu-ray discs.

But it’s only today, with Internet-ready Sony Bravia flat panel LCD TVs like the 40 inch KDL-40W4100 ($1,900 list, $1,500 “street”) and complimentary content services from Sony software divisions and willing partners, that this promise of a living room-friendly TV set packed with hidden web-access features is starting to be delivered in a neatly bundled, easy-to use fashion.

When one of these mid- to high-end series Bravia sets gets linked to a small, plug-in device called the Bravia Internet Video link (DMX-NV1, $299) and to a broadband connection of AT LEAST two Mbps, the wonderful world of internet video becomes yours to enjoy from the “comfort of your easy chair,” as the old cliché goes.

Content is accessed through Sony’s on-screen XMB (cross media bar) menu system.

One good place to start the quest – the thousands of on-demand movies and TV shows accessible in a snap, priced $1.99 to $3.99, from Sony’s new pals at Amazon.com. (Think Unbox, without the PC.) And to show off the high quality of Amazon’s digital encoding – more efficient and stable, I’ve found, than at some other Bravia Internet-connected sites – Amazon tosses out a few “Special Deal” items for free. Currently you can catch the Fall premiere episodes of USA Network’s “The Starter Wife” and Comedy Central’s “Chocolate News.”

Come Oct. 28 (and then available through November 10), these Bravia Internet TVs sets will celebrate an interesting “first access” – the high definition pay-per-view debut of Will Smith’s reluctant superhero flick “Hancock” streamable in 720p HD for $9.99 (Cautionary notes: Once you start watching, the movie is viewable for just the next 24 hours. And for HD viewing that doesn’t freeze up and re-buffer every couple of minutes, a broadband connection running in the 5 to 10 Mpbs range is a must.)

Here’s a deal sweetener – if newly buying an Internet Video Link accessory for your Bravia TV as well as renting “Hancock,” Sony will also send a Blu-ray copy of the movie your way, too, when it comes out Nov. 25.

For free, Bravia TVs with Internet Video Link offer up the riches of YouTube, easily searched with key words. (Prior to interviewing the reunited comedy duo Cheech & Chong, I went hunting for their old bits at YouTube on Bravia – and quickly came up with several movie clips in multiple languages! Who knew those goofballs were an international thing!)

Also in the free-to-enjoy column is a broad but shallow pool of first-toe-in-the-water offerings from a variety of sources – say, the sprinkling of horror movies from Fearnet.com and old TV shows from the Sony studio archives shown in full or abbreviated “minisode” fashion. And while this system operates as a “closed garden” – meaning you can’t just roam anywhere on the internet – the Bravia sets also can hook you up with short-form content from Yahoo (movie trailers, sports highlights and AP video news clips), Sports Illustrated, (swim suit model shoots), Wired (tech), Epicurious.com (food), Concierge.com (travel) and, Style.com (fashion) plus CBS Television’s tri-fecta of news, sports and entertainment divisions ( including music clips from their last.fm.com site.)

Certainly the most quirky stuff is found at Blip.TV and Crackle. These content aggregators offer a pretty deep plunge into the fresh waters of DIY Net TV, where geeks and freaks reign supreme and podcasts range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Some of this stuff is even in high definition.

Oh, and when you find content you want to revisit, save the address on the TV’s menu at “My Video Links.”

Sony is hardly the only set maker offering an Internet-connectable TV today. Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp all have high end TVs with Ethernet ports ready for wiring to a home broadband network. But while Sony’s system feels like your first two- wheel bike (albeit with the training wheels still on), those competitors’ Internet TVs offerings harken to your first tricycle. The latter bunch will help you get around the block by serving up a few RSS feeds – news briefs, sports scores and localized weather data that can pop up as screen overlays while you’re watching conventional TV. (Similar stuff is available on the Sonys, too, though you can’t combine the streaming and broadcast sources on one screen.)

Panasonic’s Vieracast TV solution also offers YouTube and access to photos stored on the Picassa site, while Sharp AquosNet will download fine art images and, curiously, allow company technicians to remotely tweak your set’s performance. But t-t-t-that’s all, folks. The modest internet circuitry stashed inside these sets can’t dish out more than what’s currently being delivered. If the makers evolve a grander notion of what downloadable content should be, they’ll need to build and sell you a next generation Internet TV product. By comparison, Sony’s “walled garden” seems relatively huge and can be expanded as other deals are made. (Suggestion: a pact with www.hulu.com would be most welcome.) And if/when a smarter video digitizing codec or faster access to the Internet becomes available, you should be able to swap out that first generation DMX-NV1 Internet Video Link for another, better box.

In fact,Sony has already announced a couple of other outboard modules that can be bolted to the back of its better Bravias (two boxes can be accommodated simultaneously, linked to the ports labeled DMxe. That’s the connectivity feature you’ve got to look for on the sets).

One of the new options is the receiving end of a wireless 1080i TV signal transmission system. This rig will let you hang the Bravia set on the wall in a very clean fashion and with less hassle, with just one power line cable to hide away. Stash the rest of your a/v gear – and the wireless signal transmitter – elsewhere in the room or even in another.

Also on the way is a slim-line, hang-on back DVD player (standard definition but upconverting; its slot accessible from the side of the TV.) And if Sony and Microsoft can ever come to terms, a Windows Media Center Extender module would be another natural addition, too.

When viewing internet content, it certainly helps that the KDL-40W4100 offers decent up-conversion of even low res stuff. With my relatively slow DSL service, claimed to deliver “up to 3 Mbps” but really coming in around 2.1 at best, even amateur-on line videos look okay, so long as you step back a few feet from the set. And when feeding this TV true high def content – in my case Blu-ray movies and concerts from a PlayStation 3 and HD content from a DirecTV satellite receiver – this Bravia’s 1080p resolution and 120 Hz over-scanning produce really spectacular pictures. In fact, the closer you stand/sit to the set, the better!

I must also single out the sound quality coming out of the KDL-40W4100’s slim line speaker bar, which appears to be (but really isn’t) “floating” under the screen in this attractively designed product. This sound rig is definitely a cut above what I’ve been hearing lately out of most other flat panel TVs boasting “invisible” speakers – a bad trend, if you ask me.