Sony NSZ-GT1 Blu-Ray Player with Google TV Review

Offering unprecedented content aggregation via a consumer oriented federated search experience, the Google TV (GTV) platform is a fascinating product with incredible promise. Subsequent to its launch amidst high expectations, users have slowly come to terms with the capabilities of the software as well as the underlying hardware platform.

Without doubt, the Logitech Revue was the flagship product for Google TV at launch. However, many of its users are finding it hard to justify a dedicated device for just the functionality provided by Google TV. A detailed review of the Revue will follow in the coming weeks. However, the unanimous opinion amongst the editors at AnandTech is that Google TV could only be justified as a bundled value add-on for already existing CE devices in a HT setup. Consumers would probably be willing to pay for Google TV on devices such as TVs, Blu-Ray players, media streamers, STBs or even AV receivers.

Sony was one of the first companies to jump onto the Google TV bandwagon, and they debuted some TVs and even a Blu-Ray player with Google TV inbuilt around the same time as the launch of the Logitech Revue. Today, we’re evaluating the Sony NSZ-GT1 Blu-ray player as a consumer electronics (CE) device and as an example of the GTV platform.

Specifications of the Sony NSZ-GT1 Blu-Ray Player
Dimensions	13” (W) x 2.3” (H) x 9.8" (D)
Processor	Intel CE4100
Network	Ethernet (10/100/1000) and 802.11.a/b/g/n (2.4GHz / 5GHz)
Internal Storage	8 GB (3.76 GB available)
Media Player Photo Formats	GIF, JPEG, PNG
Media Player Video Formats	MKV/MP4 (AVC)
Media Player Audio Formats	MP3, M4A (AAC)
Optical Formats	Blu-ray (Profile 2.0), DVD, CD
Inputs	4 USB (1 x front, 3 x rear), HDMI (only accepts stereo PCM audio)
Outputs	HDMI, S/PDIF (TOSLINK), IR

Our test environment consisted of the following components.

Sony NSZ-GT1 Blu-Ray Player Testbed Setup
Display	Panasonic TC-P58VT25
Audio-Video Receiver (AVR)	Denon AVR-1909
Cable Set Top Box (STB)	Pace RNG110