Did you know you can cook bread with steam?
© 2026 Appliancenews. All Rights Reserved.
As Sony Australia jack up prices one minute then offer retailers discounts on current model Bravia TVs, the next the future for the company in 2009 lies in content with the Company expected to launch a major content network spanning Playstation 3 consoles, Bravia TVs, Blu ray players and Home Theatre kits next year in Australia.
The move will see them take on the likes of Blockbuster who are currently teaming up with Seven Media and their TiVo device as well as the likes of Telstra and Microsoft and Sanity whose music offering seems to be going nowhere.
At the upcoming CES show in Las Vegas Sony is expected to show a new generation of HD Bravia LCD TV’s that directly integrate Internet connectivity into the TV set, eliminating the need for a separate device like their current Video Link or PlayStation in order to watch movies through the Internet.
Such products might also incorporate the tru2way software specification, developed by the cable industry and supported by Sony and other major TV-set makers, which eliminates the need for a cable set-top box in order to watch premium cable programming.
A major owner of movie and music content Sony is also testing several ways of delivering content with US consumers being lured to the Internet to download Sony content via their PC or via a web enabled device that connects to a Bravia LCD TV.
Insiders at Sony in Europe have told SmartHouse that the Japanese Company is concerned that Blu ray has not taken off to the levels that they anticipated and that they are currently rethinking their Blu ray and content strategy.
At a Sony function in Sydney the Managing Director of Sony computer Entertainment Michael Ephraim admitted that the Company was working on a brand new service called the Sony Network that will significantly expand the content capability of both the PS3 and the Sony PSP.
At a press briefing in New York last month, Sony executives admitted that Blu-ray sales have lagged behind their own projections, but said they expected significant growth for the format during the holiday sales period despite economic downturn concerns.
They have also said that a new generation of DVD up-scalar’s that up-convert standard-def DVD to Full HD are starting to eat into Blu ray sales with consumers choosing devices similar to the new Toshiba up-scalar over Blu ray because of price.
“If it was about formats last year, this year it’s about up scaling DVD vs. Blu-ray,” says Sony Consumer Sales President Jay Vandenbree, referring to the up converting standard-def DVD players that Toshiba recently launched after losing the HD DVD Vs Blu ray war earlier this year.
Sony have also admitted that Blu-ray is also getting fresh competition from file-based Internet movie services like Apple iTunes, which have figured out how to facilitate on-demand viewing of movies and TV shows on the living room TV without the clunky workarounds that have historically been required to connect a computer to a TV in order to view Web video.
This in part is due to the fact that many vendors including Apple and Sony are integrating DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standards into their products that allow devices to seamlessly talk to each other.
Such services deliver high-definition movies through the Internet to big-screen sets using dedicated set-top boxes, TiVo digital video recorders or high-end game consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox. It is also tipped that Foxtel will launch an Internet based capability in 2009 that will allow consumers to access web based services via their Foxtel box.
Not to be outdone by the likes of Apple Sony in the USA has responded to the demand for Internet movie on-demand services by starting its own movie download service for its popular PlayStation 3 console, which already had the ability to play back Blu-ray discs.
“We’re going to continue to develop that said a senior Sony executive. They have also admitted that they are currently talking to other Hollywood studios in an effort to expand their content offerings on the new Sony Network.
Besides the online movie download capability of the PlayStation 3, Sony is also pushing the delivery of streaming content to the TV through the Bravia Internet Video Link, a $300 add-on module that connects to a home network through an Ethernet link.
In addition to delivering Web video content from partners like Yahoo and YouTube, the Bravia Internet Video Link was used by Sony in late October in the USA to deliver a streaming version of its own Sony Pictures movie Hancock in advance of the Blu-ray release. The streaming version of Hancock sold for $9.99; consumers who bought it will also get a hard copy of the movie on Blu-ray.
Stan Glasgow the President of Sony Consumer Operations in the USA acknowledges that Internet movie delivery might be competitive with Blu-ray but says the two distribution methods can coexist in the long run.
“I don’t think everybody is going to move to downloads,” he says. “I don’t think there is enough bandwidth for everyone.” He also believes that many consumers will still prefer purchasing their movies in the physical form of a Blu-ray disc.
