Smart TV slugfest - Sony vs Samsung
Not so long ago Smart TV merely meant "Internet Video TV", perhaps with a dollop of social networking thrown in. Sony's "content is king" approach saw its Smart TVs and Blu-ray players offer Australians far more to watch than any of its rivals. Unfortunately, Sony has let that lead slip as rivals like Samsung have expanded the concept of Smart TV to incorporate a while lot more.
When I look at a television my primary concern is picture quality, and in this department I think Sony's $3999 55-inch KDL-55W900A still has a slight advantage over Samsung's $4199 55-inch Series 8 F8000. But here I want to look at Sony's Smart TV platform, as I did a few weeks ago with Samsung's Smart Hub. In my long write-up I barely mentioned Samsung's access to Australian Catch Up TV services -- Seven's Plus7, ABC iView and SBS On Demand -- because the television has so many other impressive tricks up its sleeve.
Unfortunately, Catch Up TV and movie rentals are about all this Sony model has got going for it in the Smart TV department.
Sony's 55-inch KDL-55W900A abandons the XrossMediaBar interface first introduced on the PlayStation and later ported to Sony televisions and Blu-ray players. Some people won't mourn its passing, although you'll find it jarring if you own other XrossMediaBar gear. In its place is a far more conservative Home screen offering access to TV, Applications, Connected Devices, Featured, Settings and History.
The TV menu lets you call up the free-to-air Electronic Program Guide as well as access programs you've recorded to USB storage. Connected Devices lets you switch through the various video inputs as well as view DLNA media servers on your home network and screen mirroring from mobile devices.
All eyes on Applications
Applications is the menu of particular interest here as it taps into Sony's internet video offerings. At first glance there's very little to get excited about; Sony Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited, YouTube and Crackle for free access to a handful of old movies and TV shows. Watching movies on Crackle is painful because it drops in advertisements in the middle of scenes and when the movie resumes you've missed some of the action.
I'd rather pay a few dollars to watch a movie than let Crackle butcher it. You'll also find the social networking usual suspects - Facebook, Twitter and Skype - with the latter able to take advantage of an optional USB webcam.
Sony Music Unlimited is an all-you-can-eat streaming music service, with $4.99 per month for the Basic Pandora-style service which lets you listen to channels or $12.99 per month for the Premium Spotify-style service which also lets you listen to entire albums. Meanwhile, the deceptively-named Sony Video Unlimited doesn't actually offer unlimited access to a movie back catalogue like Quickflix. Sony Video Unlimited is merely a movie rental service. Both Sony Music and Video Unlimited are also compatible with Windows computers, the PlayStation 3 and some Android mobile devices.
It's when you click on "Sony Entertainment Network - All Channels" that things become more interesting. You're presented with about 150 channels -- mostly internet video services but also a handful of audio services, websites and games. It sounds like you're spoiled for choice, but you're unlikely to find much to tempt you.
Playing catch up on Catch Up TV
When it comes to Australian Catch Up TV you'll find ABC iView, SBS On Demand, Plus7 and Ten. Sony offers a slick, consistent user interface for all four apps -- allocating each TV show its own row to make it easy to find what you're looking for. Unfortunately, there's not nearly as much to watch on Plus7 as there is on Samsung's Smart TVs, but that's not Sony's fault.
Samsung has an exclusive deal with Seven which currently gives it access to 26 programs -- including the likes of Home & Away and Packed to the Rafters. Meanwhile, Sony gets a handful of the dregs such as Nanny 911 and World's Strictest Parents. Samsung is working hard to lock in similar deals with other content providers, which will make matters even worse for non-Samsung owners in the next few years.
Other content services of note include Quickflix, Mubi, Pandora, NPR, The Wiggles and Vimeo, along with easy access to Picasa and eBay. The rest is generally rubbish that you wouldn't' look at twice. To be fair, Samsung's App store is also overflowing with crap, but there a lot more hidden gems.
Even if you don't care about the novelty of playing Angry Birds with Samsung's gesture recognition, Samsung offers Plex for tapping into your home media server and TuneIn for listening to internet radio. Samsung also offers a range of extra premium content services such as Bigpond TV, Bigpond Movies, Quickflix, BBC News, TED and of course Foxtel Play for signing up to Pay TV channels without a set-top box. Foxtel alone could seal the deal for some people.
Quickflix access not the same
I mentioned Quickflix again, but that's because there's a major difference between Samsung and Sony's Quickflix access. On a Samsung TV you can hire movies from Quickflix or enjoy $14.99 per month all-you-can eat access to the Play back catalogue (formerly known as WatchNow). Movies from Quickflix even show up in Samsung's cross-platform content search, which also draws on Samsung's video service.
On a Sony TV you can't hire movies from Quickflix, you can only watch the Play back catalogue. There's no cross-platform search, because the only platform which Sony seems to care about is its own. That's great for Sony, which wants to discourage you from spending your money elsewhere, but it's not so great for you. If you want the best the internet has to offer, including a genuine choice of content providers, you'd certainly opt for a Samsung television over this Sony.
It's a rather underwhelming effort from Sony although, to be fair, I should pay some attention to Sony's tight integration with mobile devices -- which is becoming an important part of the Smart TV concept. Interacting with handheld devices is Sony's strength, while Samsung's focus is more on interacting with you and your favourite third-party content. Yet even here it seems Samsung can match Sony punch for punch.
Both Sony and Samsung support MHL for connecting your mobile device to the television via a microUSB-to-HDMI cable. There's also support for wireless Screen Mirroring, letting you view the screen of your computer or Android device over your home network. Both TVs have the ability to see DLNA servers on your home network, so you can browse the contents of your computer or network drive. They can also both act as DLNA renderers, letting you stream video from iOS and Android apps directly to the screen.
More novelty than stand-out
Sony does have a few tricks to offer, but some rely on you also owning Sony Xperia Android devices. There's one-touch mirroring via NFC-assisted pairing with the Bluetooth-enabled remote control Sony includes with the TV. Just tap them together and you can see the Android device's screen on the television. Sony calls it "one-touch" and it's a trick that the company is building into its other gadgets. It sounds like a neat trick if you're heavily invested in the Sony ecosystem, although I didn't have an Xperia device on hand to test it with. I'm sure I'd find myself using it, as I sometimes do between my iPhone and Apple TV.
However, considering that Sony includes easy access to Screen Mirroring in the TV's main menus I'd say one-touch NFC pairing is more of a novelty than a stand-out feature.
There's also Sony's TV SideView app, available for iOS and Android, which lets you control the TV over your home network from your handheld gadgets. It also lets you view the TV guide, send online content to the TV and tap into social media. It's surprisingly slick, although once again Samsung offers something similar with its SmartView app.
So what's the verdict? Sony offers a respectable spread of features, but Samsung matches it at every turn while adding a wealth of extra premium content like Quickflix, Bigpond and Foxtel. Even if you write-off Samsung's voice and gesture recognition as novelties, the richer app store and openness to third-party content puts Sony to shame.
If you're a slave to picture quality you might look at the Sony in a different light, but if you're more concerned with Smart TV features then Samsung is certainly the smarter choice.