Review on Sony NSZ GT1 Blu Ray Player Featuring by Adam French

I've been using this Sony box for a few weeks now and I really like it, especially like it works It integrates with my Dish TV and DVR programming. For a new price of $199, this thing is worth the money for what you're getting. I chose this GTV box over the Logitech Revue mainly because of the remote control. I just thought it would be inconvenient to hold a full-size keyboard all the time while watching TV. Here are the pros and cons: Pros: 1. Integration with set-top boxes. Finding a TV show or movie and setting up a recording schedule has never been easier! Google deserves credit here, not Sony. I also like the convenience of watching what's on TV Netflix-style. NSZ-GT1 lists live shows and movies in thumbnails and allows you to filter out non-HD content. You can even use Picture-in-Picture while browsing.2. The Blu-ray playback and controls are also very smooth and responsive, unlike the Blu-ray player I had before.3. The Chrome browser is suitable for everyday web browsing, although not as good as the desktop version.4. Runs very cool. I have it on my TV box along with my PS3 in the very limited space of my TV stand. But the top of the case is always very cool during operation. There isn't much hot air in the back either.5. The remote control is very easy to use, except for the optical finger sensor (OFS or "mouse"). You can use it to control almost everything: the nsz-gt1 itself, your TV, your set-top box and your AV receiver if you have one. Cons: 1. The optical finger sensor is a joke. It takes away almost half of the good experience you should have with an internet TV box, especially when browsing the internet. This is a mouse pointer controlled with the thumb of the right hand. Good idea, but very bad implementation. It's really hard to control and sometimes unresponsive. It looks like Sony's design team invented this thing but forgot about it and didn't make it work smoothly. I would have preferred Sony to use a joystick like the PS3.2 controller. The Google TV software interface is still confusing at times, even though I've already updated to version 2.0 (Honeycomb). Some menu settings make you think someone needs to go back to the drawing board.3. The instructions are too easy. It only teaches you how to set up the device, but offers little to no user interface instructions, as if Sony thinks this should be Google's work. For example, even now I still can't figure out how to stream media over my wireless network and Sony's support site has very limited information on the subject.4. The app market still has a very limited number of TV-centric apps. But it will grow over time.5. Google TV still doesn't have offline online movie and TV streaming services. Only Netflix has its own app. Access to HBO Go always expires. You can only access Revain Instant Videos from Chrome web browser, which is quite inconvenient. 6. The integrated Youtube app is very disappointing. When you search for something, you get a list of matches. But after you finish watching one of the video clips and go back, the search results list disappears and the search box doesn't perform the same search again unless you change or repeat the keywords. Overall, despite all the shortcomings, I really like this device. This is definitely a big step forward for just watching TV. I refrained from doing this when the price was over $300 and using old software. But at $199 new and after the Honeycomb update, I'd say that's not a problem.