Sony NSZ-GT1 Wi-Fi-Enabled 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Featuring Google TV

• Google TV brings TV and Internet together, and seamlessly searches your device, the entire web & apps
• Blu-ray Disc playback capability, along with DVDs, CDs, and digital files via USB or network devices
• Intel Atom Processor (1.66GHz) for world-class HD video, audio, and advanced graphics
• Surf the web while watching TV using Dual View, stay up to date with an upgradeable OS
• It has full HD, 24fps playback. Upconversion of lower-resolution sources and 3d compatible

I don't normally write reviews for products. However, in the case of the Sony NSZ-GT1 GoogleTV Blu Ray player, I decided to do so. The many one-star, bad reviews for this device almost convinced me to not buy it in favor of the Logitech REVUE which I would have purchased instead. I saw the GT1 at Best Buy but bought it from Amazon because of a better price. At my local Best Buy, no one knew how to make the device on display work. That too almost changed my mind. I went to another bigger Best Buy across town where they had a working GT1 which the sales guy demonstrated and then let me play.

So, to the review. The Geek Squad guy came and installed it along with a new Yamaha receiver and 55" Sony TV. I already had a home theater set ufrom when we built our house so the Geek guy was just replacing old equipment. While this is not a review of the Geek Squad, the guy did do an excellent job and gave my wife and I instruction on how to use all the new devices. When he left we stumbled around a bit following our notes and after an hour or so began to get the hang of it. While the GT1 is not without some warts. It does take some getting used to after which it is a pretty slick little device.

The PROs for me are it is a Blu Ray player (not my primary goal). While my new SONY TV is "internet connectable", I need a Blu Ray player to get Netflix etc. The GT1 allows this plus being a DVD/Blu Ray player. The real bonus is it allows me to surf the net. All in all it fits well into my surround-sound home theater. [Actually, the Geek guy got my sound system working better than it has ever been.]

The CONs for the GT1 are: small size of the controller and keys on the key pad; my 70 year old finger tips are big and blunt. The manual that came with it is practically non-existent. It would have been a real chore without the Geek guy's kick start. Even after he left, I had some questions he didn't touch on and not explained in the "manual". I went to the SONY online "help guide" where I got a phone number that put me in contact with a guy to easily explained the solution. There is an FN key on the controller that needs to be used in combination with other keys; this is not labeled or explained in the manual. Once I saw that, I understood more about the controller. The SONY help guy was excellent.

So, I am giving this device a four plus rating to counter the very negative reviews. It seems that some of these folks had a SONY axe to grind or were too impatient to try to work through the bugs. I like the device and have no trouble recommending it. It will no doubt get better as it evolves.

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Wow, I was so surprised to see the 6 negative reviews of this product. Seems like they focused on one negative topic and just got stuck on that without really looking at what this product CAN do. So I will give you all MY pros and cons, then you can decide what is right for you.

First of all, I went to purchase a Blu-ray player with wireless internet. Why? I wanted to get Netflix in my bedroom and I wanted to be able to play DVDs too. I knew I was looking at spending around $200.

I walked by this in the store and gave it a whirl and was already impressed. The menus are not confusing if you have a smart phone with apps. It is pretty much set up like that. Even the keyboard is reminds me of my android cell phone. Then I found out it wasn't that much more money for this than a decent internet blu-ray.

I bought it and took it home. I wanted to wait for my hubby to come home and hook it up, but I was too excited so I gave it a go. I followed the easy start up guide in the box and I had everything set up and running in about 15 minutes. Now this was impressive. It was easy to follow instructions, great on screen commands, super duper easy remote set up. I was set to go. The remote that comes with the unit flawlessly controls my TV/Cable box DVR and this unit.

Now for the best parts of this unit. I can get my Netflixs with no problem. I can even read, send, recieve emails. I can look at my facebook and post and do anything else I normally do. I got an email from my dad that had a photo attached and I was able to pull up the photo on my 37" tv. I love being able to search the internet right in my bedroom on a very nice 37" monitor. It also has a pic-in-pic feature so I can watch my show and google at the same time. I also have a chat forum I am fond of and go there and post. Don't forget Youtube. This is a prime feature of this also. I store my family videos on youtube so now I can view all the family videos in the comfort of my bedroom. I love the optical thumb mouse thing. It is just cool! So easy to use.

My kids also love this unit. While one is on the laptop, the other can still be on the internet if they want to be. My kids are 7 and almost 9. My daugther loves to go to Barbie.com and play the games online there. She wants to go InnerStarU.com but it says that it 'cannot support it'. My son likes to Lego Star Wars and play games there. But he wants to go to some Clone wars thing and it says the same thing, 'cannot support'. Forunately for me I did not buy this unit for them to play video games in MY room. This unit is not really a 'gaming' type of unit. I do not think this is a con. Some people might. Not me.

Okay, so the cons for this unit. I can't seem to figure out if I can 'print' to our wireless printer, but it looks like we may not be able to. I say this because I was googling a recipe the other day and wanted to print it out and nothing happened. Not a big deal, but it would be nice. Another con is that the menus are a bit different than what I am familiar with. It will take some time getting used to.

The biggest CON I can see right now is this: I can't wait to get sick and stay in bed!

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At first, I was pretty skeptical with all the negative reviews but I decided to give it a try. I am very pleased with what I am seeing so far.

Right out of the box I notice there wasn't any in-depth user manuals, just a few Quick Start setup guides. I wasn't afraid of this knowing that the OS in the unit shares much with Google's Android and if you own an Android smartphone then you are already half-way to understanding how this works.

Looking at the back I ran into my chills... only HDMI ports and an optical audio connector. Uh oh. I own an older Hitachi projector HDTV that does not have HDMI, it has DVI and RGB component hookups. I had to figure out a way to get sound into my TV since my HDMI-DVI adapter on the back of my TV won't channel sound through (DVI ONLY supports video, no audio). I ran a RCA connector cord directly between my cable box and my TV so when I'm watching cable I get sound just fine. All other sound comes through the optical connection to my Sony AV receiver. I could have knocked off 1 star for the lack of any other audio connections, but in reality I'm dealing with a 7 year old TV, HDMI is the defacto these days, so it's not Sony's fault.

With that one bump dealt with, now I became a very happy camper.

Seeing previous months-old reviews I was a little scared that it wouldn't support any TV source other than satellite. Nope we're good here. After an initial update, it found my cable box and was able to control it just fine using the IR blasters. It integrates itself very well with my Time Warner Cable set top box. The setup for controlling my cable box, Hitachi TV, and Sony AV receiver was fast and simple. Even easier was the wireless configuration to my Netgear router with support for both G and N wireless.

Once setup was complete, I spent a few hours getting down and dirty with this marvelous little invention. The search functionality was amazing it gives results for both what's on TV and what's on the Internet. I can turn on the Picture-in-picture feature to scoot my TV viewing to the side while I quickly surf. The PIP allows two different window sizes and can be moved to any corner of the screen. I was watching recorded shows on my Cable DVR in the PIP and surfing the same program or updating my Facebook status on the web at the same time.

I was a little scared at the little amount of apps at first, but I did not find any lacking for them as of yet. Besides, Google announced at its last convention that it will open an app store within the next month or so based on Android's Honeycomb release, so just when I think I will have discovered everything with this device Google will add more to play with.

My two favorite online TV watching sources were found with no problem: Amazon Video on Demand and Revision TV. Both came through with flying colors with a special hat-tip to Amazon's VOD that automatically switched to full-screen upon playing a video in my video library.

As for the remote, I love the fact that very little is IR, rather it's mostly RF transmitted. The IR blasters connected to both the cable box and the AV receiver take care of that. You can have the IR blasters control your TV too, but I found that to be cumbersome in my particular setup and just let the remote remain IR-based for my TV only. The only thing I was a tad disappointed about the remote was no special buttons for my Time Warner Cable box. This isn't Sony's fault, it's TWC for choosing remotes using special buttons over the years that NO universal remote manufacturer has ever put on their remotes. Until I find a work-around, Time Warner still has me reaching for their inferior stock cable box remotes. Maybe Sony will one day add an upgrade for TWC's lack of perception? Probably not, but it's wishful thinking.

Turning to Blu-Ray... again, no problems here. Some have knocked a star or two off their reviews here because the price was a little high. I don't think so at all. Logitech's Google TV unit retails at $200 and for a nice Sony Blu-Ray player you'll spend another $200, so combined those two into one unit and the price is very fair. The BD playback was good, straight-forward, no hiccups, and performed as it should.

A final fun spot: controlling this guy with my HTC G2 phone. A novelty at best, but in case the kids run down the batteries on the remote, I will have my phone as a backup. In case you're wondering: no, you cannot control your Google TV from your phone while sitting at the beach (at least not yet at the time of this writing...). Your phone must have the Google TV Remote app installed and it has to be connected to the same WiFi network connection as your Google TV unit. However, I still find this intriguing and will likely expand from novelty to useful option if/when Google incorporates more to the phone app.

Overall, does one really need this device seeing how so many already own a computer? I think this adds a fourth dimension to TV viewing. It's really nice to not have to drag out a laptop or go to the home office to jump online. I find it to be a great product and in all fairness to my own out-dated TV's lack of inputs and my cable company's persistence to keep using specialized buttons, I cannot find any reason not to give this product 5 stars. Recommended with much enthusiasm.

9/8/11 UPDATE -

I am still very pleased with the unit. It still works just as great as when I first set it up. I am eagerly awaiting the upgrade I have been reading about that will allow GoogleTV to install apps. When that happens, I will update my review here.

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I researched a number of Blue-Ray devices and narrowed my search to the Sony NSZ-GT1. I purchased mine just over a week ago and I have no regrets whatsoever. Prior to purchasing it, I read some of the negative reviews here on Amazon and trade websites such as CNET, etc. I typically don't give CNET a lot of praise for their technical reviews as I often find them to be inaccurate. I suggest reading the negative reviews with skepticism as there is always the possibility of someone simply grinding an axe or in the case of sites like CNET, brand bias. With that said, and without further delay, on with my review ...

First, this device is primarily designed to play Blue-Ray DVDs. Second, it is also designed to utilize Wi-Fi (or LAN) to access the internet and display it on your TV much like a PC. It does both reliably.

SETUP: Easy. You must have a TV that accepts HDMI connections. If not, you cannot use this device. I have DIRECTV (and obviously the required receiver box), so the connection was simple: [TV]-to -[Sony Blue-Ray]-to-[Receiver]. Once the connections were made and I powered everything up it was ready to go! It automatically requested access to my wireless home network; after I entered the security code, it was off and running. The device accessed the internet instantly and began [snore] a long update sequence. Now, I'm forced to rely on a DSL internet connection, so your experience may be different; however, after about 30 minutes it was updated and ready to play.

HAND CONTROL: Unconventional. But I think it's intuitive. Maybe that's because I use a Blackberry all day and I type text messages and emails using the teeny-tiny QWERTY keyboard provided on it. You need some type of interface to utilize the internet functions, and Sony consolidated the TV remote and necessary internet controls (aka mouse, keyboard) all into one item. It does take two hands, but it's a great design. I had it all figured out in less than ten minutes and it operates my TV, DIRECTV box and of course, the Blue-Ray player. Some of the controls are small, so if you have large fingers or have difficulty seeing small print it might be a problem for you. Not so in my case.

FUNCTIONALITY: Awesome. I really like the Picture-In-Picture feature which allows you to continue watching TV while you access the internet. The menu is straight forward if you have a device running Android you'll have no problem with this. It uses Google Chrome as a web browser and it functions much like IE or Firefox, so web surfing is just like sitting in front of a PC. Finally it actually plays DVDs in the Blue-Ray format! I found the playback to be excellent. Mind you, I upgraded from a standard DVD player, so I suppose I was easily impressed. However, I thought the picture on my 50" 1080p Sony television was great.

Overall, this is an excellent product that does exactly what it is marketed to do. I did not experience any of the issues reported in some of the negative reviews and I purchased it for $249, which is $150 less than what CNET reports. If you are looking for a Blue-Ray player with internet functionality, I highly recommend the Sony NSZ-GT1.

I never considered buying one of these things, but recently received it as a gift. Overall, it's a step up from the Roku box I've been using for the past few years--you can use it to web surf and watch many online videos, in addition to easily run apps like Netflix, Amazon video on-demand, and Pandora. Even though most of this was available on the Roku, the menu structures are way better on Sony Internet TV and they provide a lot more information much more quickly. On the other hand, the menu structure of the internet TV box itself is insane. The current version takes a shotgun approach, doing lots of things, but not doing any of them particularly well. Somebody needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out what this thing exists for and set up its content accordingly.

Specific annoyances that may improve over time include Comcast DVR compatibility (now I need to revert to my old controller for anything DVR related), accessibility of web content (practically every network prevents you from watching web material that's freely available to users of laptops and ipads), and the complete absence of an "On Soon" complement to the "On Now" feature, which is actually pretty awesome--no more fishing in the Comcast on-screen guide, which is slow, clunky, and foolishly segregated into completely separate HD/SD sections.

There's a lot of potential for greatness here, though, and if Google continues to refine its offerings, as Roku has done, I think I'll be very glad to have the box.