Sony duly brought its Google TV devices to the US market this week, introducing a Blu-ray player, the NSZ-GT1 for $400 and four LCD HDTVs with prices from $600 to $1,400, starting as low as 24 inch screens with the NSX-24GT1 and topped by the 46 inch NSX-46GT1.
The devices will be on sale at the end of this week from Sony Style online and then at Best Buy from October 24th onwards. Sony made great play of being able to split the screen in two (called Dual View) and use the internet for things like Twittering, while watching the TV.
‘Sony Internet TV is the world’s first HDTV that combines the big-screen impact of television and full Internet search to deliver an unrivalled entertainment experience,’ said Mike Abary, senior vice president of Sony’s Home Division. ‘Finally, you can seamlessly search your favorite TV programs and web sites on the same screen, at the same time.’
The device runs Android Apps and sits on an Intel Atom chip and comes with the Google Chrome browser pre-installed. Other programs pre-installed include Sony’s premium streaming service ‘Qriocity’ and CNBC, Napster, NBA, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, and YouTube. Android Market devices will be in play by early 2011on the devices.
One of the surprises of the launch (apart from the low price) is the hand-held RF QWERTY keypad remote which looks like a supercharged PlayStation game controller, complete with a qwerty keypad. Android mobile devices will also act as a TV controller, with a free App which will be downloadable later this year. The TVs and the Blu-ray player both have to have built in WiFi and the TVs also come with four HDMI connectors, the Blu-ray player with two.
Sony says that its Internet TV connects to select HD DVR devices from Dish Network, so that previously recorded content is listed in search results. Dish has been the one major pay TV operator in the US which has so far embraced Google TV to the point where it has integrated its DRM with the system.