Picked up the Sony Blu-ray with Google TV yesterday

[nerdninja]

So far I've been enjoying the experience. The universal search is very cool. I typed in "The Office" and was presented with streaming choices, both free and paid, an episode that was on TV at the moment and links to information about the show. Clicked on the entry for the episode that was airing currently and my cable box went right to it.

Flash video on websites works very well. I was watching a few web shows that I've mostly been squinting at on a laptop or phone all this time. They looked good, even on a 55" TV.

Setup was moderately difficult due to Comcast's DRM on their HDMI-equipped boxes, but I knew it was going to be an issue going in. The IR blasters (there are two on one cable, in a "Y" formation starting at the plug so they can be pretty far apart, were easy to set up, and the keyboard/remote works the cable box, amp and television nicely. I wasn't too sure about the form factor of the remote compared to the Logitech, but after I got used to it I think it like it better than the idea of a keyboard on my lap. It has an optical trackpad that you operate with your right thumb.

Right now, I would say that the price is a little high, but I have yet to play with it enough to find a lot of content. Once I started digging in I found a lot of good streaming radio and some great podcasts that I've downloaded as audio in the past, but hadn't watched as video podcasts.

I found that it really was like using my computer to consume media, except that i was really enjoying the experience of sitting back and watching everything on a big screen. Chrome works very well, by the way, and was rendering heavy websites quickly. Any Flash content on the sites was working exactly as it should, with the exception of NBC's videos, which were causing errors in Chrome.

 

[generous]

So far I've been enjoying the experience. The universal search is very cool. I typed in "The Office" and was presented with streaming choices, both free and paid, an episode that was on TV at the moment and links to information about the show. Clicked on the entry for the episode that was airing currently and my cable box went right to it.

Flash video on websites works very well. I was watching a few web shows that I've mostly been squinting at on a laptop or phone all this time. They looked good, even on a 55" TV.

Setup was moderately difficult due to Comcast's DRM on their HDMI-equipped boxes, but I knew it was going to be an issue going in. The IR blasters (there are two on one cable, in a "Y" formation starting at the plug so they can be pretty far apart, were easy to set up, and the keyboard/remote works the cable box, amp and television nicely. I wasn't too sure about the form factor of the remote compared to the Logitech, but after I got used to it I think it like it better than the idea of a keyboard on my lap. It has an optical trackpad that you operate with your right thumb.

Right now, I would say that the price is a little high, but I have yet to play with it enough to find a lot of content. Once I started digging in I found a lot of good streaming radio and some great podcasts that I've downloaded as audio in the past, but hadn't watched as video podcasts.

I found that it really was like using my computer to consume media, except that i was really enjoying the experience of sitting back and watching everything on a big screen. Chrome works very well, by the way, and was rendering heavy websites quickly. Any Flash content on the sites was working exactly as it should, with the exception of NBC's videos, which were causing errors in Chrome.

Thanks so much for this post! It answered a few questions I had. I had a couple more if you dont mind.

I posted another thread a little while ago, asking about netflix integration. When you perform that 'universal search', is netflix items part of the result?

Also, you mentioned that it had no issues finding 'the office' that was airing on your cable during your search query. What about shows that will air in the future? Are there any results showing me that 'its not on now, but will be on tomorrow at 8pm' or a remind feature? Anything like that?

Thanks again.

 

[nerdninja]

I saw your question about the Netflix and didn't answer it because I hadn't tried looking for film titles. I was fixated on the "TV" experience. I forget if Nexflix has episodes of the Office. If it does, then they didn't come up. Amazon Video did come up though.

If I remember correctly, future airings did come up. Since I'm not on Dish Network, though, I can't set the DVR to record them from there.

I'll have to play with it a little more and get back to you for sure on these. I was trying to play around without annoying my wife who was watching stuff on the DVR

HD shows on Netflix looked good, by the way. I streamed an episode of Archer (which is animated and was in HD) and I thought it looked as good, if not better, than when it aired on FX HD

 

[ldudiaz]

One question I would like to ask maybe you could try and see. This is very important for me.

Can you use the it without connecting it to your cable provider? Basically just use the internet feature with your TV, or do you really have to have a cable provider like Comcast, Dish or DTV?

-- Sent from my Palm Pr

 

[packerbacker]

I went a Google TV so bad. Can't justify it when I'm a full time student borrowing 100% of my expenses with 2 VERY old, but working TVs. Someday, hopefully.

 

[nerdninja]

I'll see if I can do that tonight. I don't see why you couldn't. You may have to fake your way through the setup wizard and tell it you have a box so you can get through all the steps. Most of my surfing last night didn't involve the cable box at all. Cable/Satellite seems to just be another source of video and is not necessary.

I'm thinking of bringing it into work Wednesday (I work in New Media and we're all interested in the box!) and we probably won't have a way to integrate it, so I will know then for sure. Right now I am 90% sure you don't need cable.

Also, if anyone has the free Napster account that comes with Best Buy Reward Zone Silver silver status, the napster app works perfectly with it.

 

[generous]

One question I would like to ask maybe you could try and see. This is very important for me.

Can you use the it without connecting it to your cable provider? Basically just use the internet feature with your TV, or do you really have to have a cable provider like Comcast, Dish or DTV?

-- Sent from my Palm Pr

sony documentation says you can use the box as a standalone device.

 

[generous]

I'm seriously considering picking this up. But man, that price!

 

[nerdninja]

Agreed on the price. I think it's a little much for what it does out of the box (The Sony felt a little better since we're still using our PS3 for Blu-rays and I wanted a nice player anyway) but once the Marketplace is set up I can see some seriously cool potential. By then there will probably be better-priced alternatives. I'm admittedly a streaming media geek (by hobby and profession) and needed a fun distraction from the stress of selling my home, so I bit the bullet and paid the early adaptor tax on it.

 

[nerdninja]

Also, I'm looking forward to getting home tonight and changing the user agent on the browser to access Hulu:

Playing Hulu on Google TV is as easy as changing one setting -- Engadget

 

[majortom1981]

new

i just picked up the sony blu-ray device also. in fact i am posting from it now. the first time setup allowed you to skip through the setup if u did not have a cablebox. this should pass through any device that has an hdmi port.

i also can confirm that a regular usb keyboard and mouse works with this box also.

the sony remote thing is similiar to using a cell phones hardware keyboard. gets easier to use once you get used to it.

the hulu work around does also work. i watched the glee rocky horror preview with no problems.

i can answer any more questions if needed.

 

[elbaso]

I'm curious if and how Amazon Video on Demand works with the Sony TV.
I didn't see a special App for Amazon in any of the videos online. Can you purchase videos from Amazon, and then just watch them from the Amazon Video page? How does it look?

 

[generous]

Just got it, set it all up and started using it. First impression? It's a bit more browser oriented then I would like. The multitasking needs some serious work. It's running android 2.1. It's a little sluggish in the menu department. More to come...

 

[generous]

Update: I REALLY hope netflix gets some sort of app update, because this is terrible. It's a horizontal scroll bar of your instant queue. No way to search. No way to browse.

 

[ldudiaz]

sony documentation says you can use the box as a standalone device.

Thank you

-- Sent from my Palm Pr

 

[soundwave809]

Does it play MKV, WMV and AVI files? I have read mixed information from Sony's site. Wanted to know from someone who has one.

 

[Raptor3861]

I have had no luck with .mkv, I am not able to see the files in my folders while browsing the media player. I cannot recall the other formats off the top of my head, I can test and let you know later.

What kind of bums me out (I may just be doing it wrong) but universal search does not search the media player aka my PC. Any ideas of ways to get google to search your media or am I in over my head?

 

[soundwave809]

After checking Sony's website and a couple reviews it seems that the Sony player is really limited to what it can stream and play from your computer or usb drive. The Logitech device has many more codecs supported, might be the better one to go with right now. I ordered the Logitech device today from Best Buy should be here next tues.

The Logitech Media Player supports many different file types, including:

Music: AAC (.aac), FLAC (.flac), MP3 (.mp3), OGG (.ogg),WMA (.wma)
Photos: JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg), BMP (.bmp) PNG (.png), TIFF (.tiff)
Videos: WMV (VC-1) (.asf .wma .wmv), WMV (VC-1) + WMA (.asf .wma .wmv), WMV + WMA (.avi), Xvid (H-264) + AAC (.avi),
Xvid (H-264) + AAC (.mp4), Xvid (H-264) + AAC (.mt2s .mt2), Xvid (MPEG4part2) + AAC (.avi), Xvid (MPEG4part2) + MP3 (.avi)

 

[simplygoogletv]

Can you go to Whats My User Agent? and tell us what the full user agent string is? This would be useful for those of us with websites that want to set a custom theme for Google TV visitors.

 

[kamtsa]

Can you go to Whats My User Agent? and tell us what the full user agent string is? This would be useful for those of us with websites that want to set a custom theme for Google TV visitors.

Google TV - Google Code