Sony NSX-32GT1I purchased this for my main TV in the living room to replace a 4 year old Visio LCD TV. I liked having the TV with easy access to the web and free movies. The remote with the full Qwerty Key pad is nice and gives you control to browse the web and enter text. To use the Google TV you must have a Gmail account this is part of the startup setup. It’s easiest if you already have an account or set this up from a regular PC first. You’ll also need an account with online movie sites to rent online movies. You can view trailers for many movies but as for free movies, other than YouTube there arn’t any. Using the remote takes some practice. It takes two hands for many commands. The Google TV menus give you many shortcuts to find TV Channels and related online content, My Channels, Bookmark channels of sites, Movie serices. There is a search button to get quick access to web and channel search. This was one of the better features. There is a Guide to access the Cannel list which requires a subscription I didn’t set up, so the guide was useless to me.
Cons:
The user menus are hard to access and follow. The channel info that displays when changing channels and selecting info is very small and uses light gray text so its very difficult to see. The Now Playing Channel list information shows the Network name, a description of the show and time remaining, but not the Channel numbers. Good information but its hard to tell what channel you were going to until you select the show. The screen settings and volume varied considerably from TV to internet viewing and even when changing from one channel to the next, so much so I was adjusting the settings every time I changed the channel. The picture was either too dull or too saturated. To change the screen settings you have to go through a multi step menu selection first selecting setting using 2 keys [fn]+[Settings], then go to screen setting using a nav menu about 5 – 6 lines down, then select from the items on the screen dialog, Then change the setting. The dialogs are in the center of the screen and cover most of the screen so you can’t easily see the effects of changes until closing the menu. There is not an Exit menu command you have to use several steps to access the menu then use the ‘Esc’ key to back out of the menu the same way you entered it. The buttons on the remote are small. On the 32″ monitor text on web pages is very difficult to read without zooming in, if more than 6 feet away from the TV. The viewing angle is minimal the screen does not look good if you are more than 20 degrees to either side.
Bottom Line, It’s an alright TV to get on the internet. It’s not the best TV for a main room. I returned it to the store after using it for two days and bought a different model, larger 37″ screen that does not have internet. I liked the internet access and may purchase the Sony Blueray Web TV box later if I find a deal on one.
Reviewed by: William D Miller, dated: 5 September 2011
