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Introduction
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01.Tour & Design
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02.Blacks & Whites
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03.Color Accuracy
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04.Motion
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05.Viewing Effects
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06.Calibration
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07.Connectivity
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08.Remote Control
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09.Audio & Menus
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10.Multimedia & Internet
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11.Power Consumption
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12.Samsung UN46B8500 Comparison
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13.Vizio SV470XVT1A Comparison
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14.LG 47LH90 Comparison
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15.Conclusion
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16.Series Comparison
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17.Photo Gallery
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18.Ratings & Specs
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19.Comments
Sony Bravia KDL-46EX700
Previous: Page 9
Audio & MenusNext: Page 11
Power ConsumptionMultimedia & Internet
USB and LAN provide excellent extensibility.
Internet Features (11.00)
In 2009, we gave Sony an award for having the best set of online features. Sony currently has the best, widest array of online content providers. Even though other manufacturers are getting in on the online game, Sony still leads the pack. There are over 30 different providers, each of which are packed to the gills with content. Some of the bigger names include YouTube, Netflix, Yahoo!, Blip.tv, Wired, and NPR. The complete breakdown of every app is listed below.
| Service | Our Description |
| Qriocity | This is Sony’s soon-to-be-released streaming video service meant to compete with Netflix. Not available at time of review. |
| Michael Jackson | No joke. There’s a Michael Jackson app on this TV. It includes 10 music videos, plus the trailer for This Is It and that video with the Filipino prisoners dancing to Thriller that everyone has seen a hundred times. |
| Netflix | The gold standard of streaming video. The library isn’t quite perfect yet, but it’s generally considered the best and new movies are added regularly. |
| Amazon on Demand | Another top-tier streaming video service, Amazon works on a pay-per-view basis rather than Netflix’s subscription service. A large library of movies and TV shows. |
| YouTube | Do we really need to explain YouTube? Repository of tears and scars for the look-at-me generation. |
| Yahoo | Yahoo is like the America Online of internet video. They would call it ‘edited.’ We call sanitized |
| Blip.tv | Mostly quality, recurring series of internet ‘TV’ shows. |
| Crackle | What a completely random collection of content! It’s like your uncle’s DVD collection collided with your nephew’s YouTube Favorites page. Dozens of episodes of original web programming, then full episodes of three TV series (What’s Happening, Fantasy Island, and Action: The Series) and nine movies. Plus trailers for Sony movies. |
| FEARnet | A lackluster collection of ‘scary’ content. |
| Wired | Wired magazine generally has cool content. This is a collection of video. No, you can’t read articles on your TV. |
| Epicurious | Food tips. This would be more useful if they organized it like an actual cookbook (sauces, meat, fish, etc) than this randomized order. |
| Concierge.com | Travel ‘tips.’ The average clip length is 48 seconds, including titles. This is completely useless content for the average traveler. |
| Style.com | You like fashion? Here you go. |
| Sony Digital Cinema Concert Series | Either someone at Sony loves irony, or they have some serious 90s nostalgia. This feature has concert footage from just three bands, but it’s ok because it’s the most amazing line-up of all time: ThirdEyeBlind, Creed, and Chickenfoot. We can only hope Sony expands this app later. |
| MyPlay Music Network | Music videos from acts likely signed with Sony music. |
| Inside Sony Pictures | Completely self-serving ‘backstage pass’ content from Sony Motion Pictures features. Note to Sony: a movie trailer is not really ‘backstage pass’ material. |
| Ford Models | The big name in modeling has its own channel. Light on content, heavy on branding. |
| DailyMotion | There are over 28,000 video in the non-HD category, and unlike the YouTube app, you can’t type in text for keywords and titles. Just use your computer and don’t bother with this. |
| Howcast.com | How to clean an iron. How to hold a baby. How to get someone to kiss you. Yes, all of life’s mysteries answered here. |
| On Networks | Three random series of videos: Beautiful places in HD, Play Value (video game culture), and Golf Tips |
| GolfLinks.com | More golf stuff. Actually, it’s well organized by topic. Epicurious would do well to take a look at this. |
| Livestrong.com | Physical health, mental health, and… beginner’s guide to marriage? |
| eHow.com | Have a question you’d normally type into Google, like ‘How to Remove Car Wax’ or ‘How do I choose my first stock.’ Skip Google and choose this awkward, cursory series of instructionals instead. |
| Video Detective | Movie trailers, and not just Sony Pictures. |
| Singing Fool | Music videos. |
| Podcasts | A bunch of popular video podcasts, you can’t add your own favorites to the list. |
| Videocast.com | More podcasts. |
| CBS | Do you like shows on CBS? Do you like to watch tiny clips from those shows rather than the whole episode? You’ll love this brand-heavy, content-poor app. |
| Slacker | Streaming music service. Sort by genre then listen to whatever songs the service chooses to put on that channel. Great liner notes on each track, btw, if you’re a music fact junkie. |
| National Public Radio | Tons of content from one of the great news organizations, but the organization here is scattershot. |
Local Media Playback (7.00)
Photo Playback (3.00)
The Sony KDL-46EX700 can play photos stored on USB devices. The TV will let you access the photos via the Photo option on the main menu, which we thought was a bit confusing: we expected the USB device to be listed as a separate entity. Further, it’s not entirely clear that you can access additional options via the TV’s Options button. Once you have all that down, however, the photo viewer has some pretty good options (the 3.00 score isn’t out of ten, but rather like bonus points the TV wouldn’t get without its feature set).
The photo player has just about everything you’d want from such a feature: you can create photo playlists, add music, and create different transition effects.
Music & Video Playback (4.00)
Like the photo interface, to play music from a USB device, you need to go to the appropriate submenu (Music, in this case), and select USB. Again, you can press the Options key to gain access to a handful of additional features, but you can’t create a playlist on the device: you can simply opt to play a single track or all of them. Make sure you organize your playlist into a folder ahead of time.
Other Media (0.00)
There are no other media features.
| Other Models in the KDL-xxEX700 Series | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| For more information on other models in this series, check our Series Comparison Page. | |||
 Sony Bravia KDL-32EX700 32 in. |
 Sony Bravia KDL-40EX700 40 in. |
 Sony Bravia KDL-52EX700 52 in. |
 Sony Bravia KDL-60EX700 60 in. |
Shop for the Sony KDL-46EX700
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