Sony Bravia Internet Video review

Sony's new IPTV platform is a bit hit and miss

Bravia Internet Video: LoveFilm
The LoveFilm interface is excellent, making it easy to browse the movies on offer

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Anyone who bought a top-spec Bravia last year ought to be gutted. Those sets were saddled with Sony's first attempt at an internet video platform, and the feature-less Applicast was a flop.

From the ashes of Applicast, Sony has somehow produced a silky, stylish and content-packed version that is near to being the industry's only 'must-have' web video platform.

We liked:

The interface is excellent, everything loads in a reasonably short time, and picture quality – even some HD content – streams stably even when using a 2MB broadband connection. The FIFA World Cup, YouTube and NPR widgets are quite superb in both presentation and content.

We disliked:

The lack of social media and on-demand services such as iPlayer is a worry, though the former, at least, should be present on the platform before too long. A lot of the 'other' widgets are so US-centric as to be meaningless to most Brits, while the Eurosport service is incoherent and light on engaging content. And Demand Five over BBC iPlayer?

Verdict:

If you're not into football or willing to pay for films, there's little of interest on Sony's Bravia Internet Video platform for now. If you're into both, it's a must-have. With a largely brilliant base, we expect it to very soon develop into a genuinely engaging service relevant to almost anyone – it's just a few widgets away from greatness.

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Jamie Carter

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),