View YouTube videos on Sony Bravia TVs
At a posh Sony media event in Manhattan on Thursday night, Sony announced they had solidified an agreement with the biggest web video site of them all.
At a posh Sony media event in Manhattan on Thursday night, Sony announced they had solidified an agreement with the biggest web video site of them all.
In addition to the new line up of XBR8 Bravia televisions and some crazy-small strawberry-sized home theatre speakers, Sony just announced their new content partner: YouTube, whose content will now be available through the Bravia Internet Video Link module ($300). You know, that accessory that attaches to the back of some Bravia TVs from 2007 and 2008, and gives couch potatoes access to online content from more than 20 providers.
YouTube is now the first icon on the Internet Video Link menu (accessible from the Xross Media Bar), offering television viewers 100 percent of the website’s video database of many millions of titles.
We tried the service ourselves, and though you need to use a remote to patiently type a query in the search field, you can easy tag your favourite videos to view from a bookmarked list. Video and audio quality varies depending on the content your viewing, but it’s recommended to watch grainier videos in a small window opposed to viewing fullscreen.
Wired.com and C-Spot have also joined YouTube, both offering original episodic short comedy series.
Filed Under: Home Entertainment
Interesting concept, but released to the market too soon. At best, this is a Beta release. Functionality is there, but not working properly. When using the My Account feature, it is hit or miss that the Barvia Link browser will correctly display selections in favorites.
The use case is that the Barvia Link has no keyboard. This makes searching for videos painful. Since the Bravia Link has the ability to "Log In" to "My Account" on You Tube, I should be able to see all of the favorites I have added to my account. But the Bravia browser has a mind of its own, and more often than not will not pick up a video added to favorites on my account through a PC.
Promising product, but not ready for the market.
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