"Sony Electronics today announced the first of its kind TV feature called "BRAVIA Internet Video Link" that will allow most of its new televisions to access free Internet video content, including high-definition, from providers including AOL, Yahoo! and Grouper, as well as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music," says a Sony press release.
The Internet Video Link connects to your broadband system, after which you get an Xross Media Bar interface (off the PlayStation Portable) for navigation. It works with the Bravia "KDL-46S3000, KDL-40S3000, KDL-32S3000 and KDL-26S3000 units - all shipping this spring." No word on when the Internet Video Link will ship, or at what price -- it's still a prototype, so who knows?
As as EE Times points out, the content deals with AOL, Yahoo and Grouper Networks suggest this is essentially a walled garden approach.
For nostalgia buffs, Sony was one of the companies that sold a set-top box using Web TV, which Microsoft bought in 1997. Here's a review of the Sony INT-W100 WebTV Internet Terminal, which put the Web on your TV set a decade ago.
That puts the Bravia "first of its kind TV feature" in context, doesn't it?
