Tested.com Looks at the Sony Internet TV with Google TV

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=583r1oE-Z3A' target='_blank'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=583r1oE-Z3A</a><br /><br /></div><p><object width="600" height="360" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/583r1oE-Z3A&amp;ap=%26fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/583r1oE-Z3A&amp;ap=%26fmt=18" /></object></p><p>Curious about the new Sony Blu-ray player with Google TV? There's 15 minutes of video goodness here waiting for you.</p>

[ptyork]

I still have some hope for Google TV (v2.0 or v3.0), but Sony's two attempts here are plain silly. They are 100% geared towards 20-something bachelors...the same market that is already saturated with XBoxes and PlayStations, both of which are both tons better than this thing as media boxes, and both of which have offerings that are cheaper.

I mean seriously, if I gave my wife that remote and told her that this was the new way to surf channels, I'd end up with a VERY big remote up my arse. Perhaps the only thing worse would be to hand her a PlayStation controller to use as a DVD remote. :)

Sony is in a REALLY bad way right now in terms of vision, strategy, and common sense. :(

[Jon Childs]

I stopped by the Sony store the other day when I happenned to be in the mall and saw their big sign for google tv. My initial impression was.. this is pretty cool, but in no way is it worth the $200-250 premium on the TV or bluray player. If I was deciding between two TVs and one had it and one didn't I would probably choose the one with it even maybe playing a less than $50 premium for it. My second impression was that the remote would totally stink for actually watching TV. I couldn't use it with one hand and it didn't appear to be backlit so I couldn't use it at night. I came away thinking I will wait for version 2.0.

[Deslock]

Talk about disappointing:
The Netflix GUI is crap (to be fair, that's also true on the Roku, iPad, iPhone, and most TVs and bluray players).
It shows live stuff that you can't watch.
No Hulu.
That remote is a mess.
Having written all that, the "mostly" universal search is useful. When it matures, Google TV has the potential to be awesome.

I look forward to trying the Boxee Box. But for now I think Xbox or an actual PC or Mac mini are still the best choices.

Apple TV gets an honorable mention. It's too limited as a living room media center for us geeks, but at that size and price-point is great for a second TV (especially if you have an iOS device you can use as a remote or if you have a machine storing content in iTunes on your network). We have one in our kitchen and the Netflix GUI blows away our old Roku.