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Sony Provides Details on Apple TV Competitor

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 4:50 PM - by

Sony has disclosed that its Bravia Internet Video Link (BIVL) devices will sell for about US$300 and be available in July according to Digital Trends on Tuesday.

The BIVL device connects to a Sony Bravia TV via USB and connects to the user's home network. The idea is to make it simple for customers to connect to Internet TV without having to use a computer. It uses the Sony Xross Media Bar interface which has won a Technical Emmy.

"Content for the BIVL will initially be provided by AOL, Yahoo, and Grouper, along with in-house content from Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG Music, including some high-definition content," according to the story.

Sony appears to be doing something Apple is very good at. They're leveraging their very popular Bravia LCD TVs and adding a device with an award winning user interface that gets their content directly and easily to the customer. Only, in this case, no home computer is necessary.

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Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 413 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:28 pm

BIVL. That's a catchy name.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Feb 28, 2007 12:28 am

Will HD work over a USB connection?

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:37 am

Guest wrote:
Will HD work over a USB connection?
No, guest. I'm sure the thought had never occured to them.

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mahuti said:

member since 09 Jan 2003 with 377 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Feb 28, 2007 6:03 pm

Guest, as far as I know, HD can run over USB 2.0, whether or not Sony will support that is another story, but I'd be surprised if they didn't. As for the BIVL being a catchy name... Sony is notorious for having uninspiring names, or groupings of initials for productions. I don't know if it's "worked" for them, but they use this strategy over and over and over.

I used to work for an ad agency that had Sony as a client. We were tasked with helping name some Sony drawing tablet. We sat in a room for 2 days and came up with thousands of names, and at least 20 pretty amazing names. They ended up naming it something romantic like PCV-LX.

The drawing tablet was great, but boring & gray, so my personal favorite name for it was the Sony Drablet.

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