We have had our Bravia for about 2 months now and I am quite impressed by what it has to offer. I originally purchased it because I have been very pleased with the reliability of Sony products over the years. I selected this particular television because of the internet connectivity option and the USB recording capability. The price for the size was also excellent.



On the plus side:

(1) The interface for the "built-in" BRAVIA Internet Video sites (e.g., to BBC, Demand 5, Sony (sorta), YouTube and LoveFilm) works quite well and we use them often. There is actually some good content out there worth watching (and a lot of garbage - set your parental controls). The playback is controlled well through the Sony remote - acts like a standard DVD player (pause, FF, REW, etc). Very nice.

(2) The USB recording is brilliant and easy to use. No need to purchase a DVR! I connected a hard drive from an old laptop and it has worked like a champ! I am very pleased with this feature. It is very easy to set up shows to record. Playback is also controlled very well through the remote.

(3) It connects very nicely to my PCs to view pictures and videos as well as play music. This was not something I picked it for but is a great and simple to use feature. I connected it to my home network for internet access and it recognized the PCs which I had configured to share media. This is really nice when my wife wants to see the latest pictures we have taken - no need to connect something else to the tele to do it. The only problem now is that I want to purchase a much better sound system to be able to use it to play back music from my PCs (ah, but it is a good problem to have).

(4) Of couse, the picture is great for everything, including web surfing (see comment 1 below). I love having a 40" monitor! The built-in speakers are good to get you going.

(5) Very easy to move around, but that may be true of all flat panel televisions. I just remember it taking 2 people to safely move a 32" television of the CRT variety. I can easily move this unit by myself. However, most people will not be moving their set around much.



On the minus side:

(1) I am very much less pleased with the general internet surfing capability provided by Sony. On the surface, it has an excessively tedious interface for entering text. However, the big minus here is that for some unknown reason Sony has followed the error of Apple and has not included Flash support (duh!). I'm sure that there are some legal reasons blah blah blah - but the problem remains that 90% of the world uses Flash on their web sites, especially for video content. Sure, a very few can be accessed via the Bravia Internet Video page ... but only a very few. I have compensated for this by connecting an old PC running Ubuntu to the PC input and surf on the big screen using a wireless keyboard and mouse - this is infinitely superior to the Sony interface and web capability.

(2) It really needs a second SCART connection. Yes, you can buy a SCART switch ...

(3) The online manual does not work for me. I personally did not find the information detailed enough for the level of capability that this television provides. I would like a more conventional manual. This is just my opinion ...



Overall, I am really happy I purchased this television and would do it again - even given the warts.