Internet TV, Sony Style
By Shane C. Buettner January 28, 2007 — One of the stories of CES 2007 that didn't make it into UAV's Blogs is Sony's Internet TV, which is a two-part concept that includes an add-on module for its BRAVIA TVs and streaming broadband content provided by Sony's music and movie arms and partners like AOL, Yahoo, and Grouper. The BRAVIA Internet Video Link requires an Ethernet connection and is compact enough that the BRAVIA LCD flat panels can still be wall-mounted with the module in place.

The BRAVIA Internet Video Link was demonstrated at CES, and the video quality of the HD movie trailers we saw might have provided the strongest argument yet in favor of Blu-ray and HD DVD. With many unknown variables admittedly involved, the image quality as viewed on a big screen in high-def didn't appear comparable to the HD feeds I see on DirecTV, let alone Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Still, the service will be free and continues the bait and switch trend that's popular in today's version of convergencve between PCs and traditional consumer electronics systems. Now that you're hooked on downloaded content from the Internet, here they come with a lot of clever ways to get your content into your living room so you don't have to try and huddle the family around your PC monitor to watch your favorite Internet show.

Pricing wasn't established, and it isn't clear if this is an open system that allows streaming of any Internet content, or if access is limited to Sony's broadband content.