BRAVIA

BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions as well as front and rear projection TVs. The LCD panel itself is manufactured by Samsung. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture". All new Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America now carry the BRAVIA logo. The name BRAVIA replaces the "LCD WEGA" brand name which Sony used for their LCD TVs until Summer 2005 (early promotional photos exist of the first BRAVIA TVs still bearing the WEGA name).

The BRAVIA brand is also used on mobile phones in the Japanese market [cite web | url=http://www.nttdocomo.com/features/fomaspring2007gallery/so903itv.html | title=FOMA Spring 2007 Gallery: SO903iTV | publisher=NTT DoCoMo | accessdate=2007-08-09] [cite web | url=http://www.symbian.com/phones/foma_so903itv.html | title=Symbian OS phones: FOMA SO903iTV | publisher=Symbian | accessdate=2007-08-09] .

Usage and capabilities

Like other high definition television lines the various Bravia models differ in capability as well as screen size. Display capability depends on which high definition outputs are supported, and the input signal supplied to the television. Bravia televisions can display video from a variety of sources. The quality of the picture depends on the quality of the input.

The coax connector can receive regular television broadcasts, cable and VCR/DVD output and will also receive and decode whatever high definition content is available on broadcast or cable television. Most high definition television which is broadcast is in the lower resolution high-definition formats.

Other traditional VCR/DVD outputs such as S-Video or Composite video deliver the traditional television resolution that is no better than the resolution displayed by traditional television.

The HDMI input delivers the highest quality signal to the television and produces the highest quality high definition television picture, to the limits of the capabilities of the television.

A VGA style computer connection is available, however the resolution of the video signal received from a computer may be limited to resolutions below the capability of the television depending on the capabilities of the computer's graphics card.

Purists will want to adjust the display on installation. The default configuration artificially enhances the color and contrast of the image to produce a more eye-catching, "vivid", display. This is easily done via a menu selection.

Some of the higher end XBR models include MotionFlow 120 Hz, Sony's name for frame interpolation.

Advertising campaign

The BRAVIA brand uses the slogan "Colour like.no.other.".

Launch, 'Balls'

The launch of the BRAVIA brand was supported by an advertising campaign featuring 250,000 brightly-colored rubber balls (real, not computer-generated) bouncing down a San Francisco street. The advertisement was made by former Danish photographer Nicolai Fuglsig. The idea was originally a segment of The Late Show with David Letterman in 1996, in which bouncy balls rolled down the same street. Fallon, the advertising agency involved with the commercial, denied ever having watched the episode and claimed the similarity was a coincidence. Their idea was brought to life by director Nicolai Fuglsig with the help of Los Angeles-based special effects guru Barry Conner. In addition to the 12 air mortars, Conner deployed three giant skips, each lifted 50 feet into the air and containing 35,000 coloured bouncy balls.

The first shot required 50,000 balls to be sent cascading down a hill, colliding at a road junction with a further 50,000 that had been fired along a side street. A team of 50 interns was on hand to gather up the balls for the six takes it took over four days. Golf nets were erected at the sides of the street and every drain was blocked.

This television and cinema advertisement is accompanied by the song "Heartbeats", written by Swedish duo The Knife and performed by José González. The track became very popular on radio stations in the UK after it was released by Peacefrog Records. The advert helped his debut album "Veneer" reach number 7 in the UK albums chart.

The soundtrack used in the beginning of the backstage video, "Making of Sony Bravia Commercial", is "Everything Is Alright" by Four Tet.

Parodies

A parody of this advert was run in the UK by Tango, a brand of soft drink. The advert was filmed in Swansea, Wales and featured fruit in place of bouncing balls. Fact|date=March 2008

Circulating only throughout the internet, a video filmed by a clan features 64 players simultaneously hopping down a slope and over Humvees on the Sharqi Peninsula, a map in "Battlefield 2". Instead of "BRAVIA - Colour like no other" at the end of the original Bouncy Balls commercial, the clan's video read "Bunny hopping - Like no other". [cite web | url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4396069753768297433 | title=Mine 2 Trailer | publisher=Google Videos | accessdate=2007-04-15]

On Belgian television, channel "VT4" showed a commercial for a soccer event, using soccer balls and the same music as the Sony commercial.

At the Game Developers Conference of 2008, video game developer Crytek reproduced the commercial to demonstrate its CryEngine 2 game engine. Instead of multi-colored bouncy balls, Crytek used bouncing teapots. At the end of the demonstration, the video reads "Realtime - Like no other." [cite web | url=http://www.gametrailers.com/player/30966.html?type=flv | title=CryEngine 2 GDC 2008 demonstration | publisher=Gametrailers.com | accessdate=2008-02-23]

Siana, a World of Warcraft player on the Kazzak(EU)realm made a parody replacing the bouncing balls with gnomes jumping down the Ironforge hill.The video ends with all the gnomes formed like a heart around Siana and the text "Gnomes - like no other" is shown. The video then fades off, and the World of Warcraft logo is shown. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W63WG-KuoqE | The video on Youtube] and [http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=2405328841&sid=1&pageNo=1|the planing of the movie on WoW-europe forum] ]

'Paint'

Following on from the original advert, Jonathan Glazer directed the second in which a tower block in Toryglen in Glasgow, Scotland was covered in 70,000 litres of environmentally friendly paint with the help of over 1400 separate explosions featured as imitation fireworks. This was filmed with a crew of 250 people over a 10 day period in July 2006.

'Play-Doh (Rabbit)'

The accompanying soundtrack is 'She's a Rainbow' by the Rolling Stones. The commercial was filmed in New York City´s places.

'Pyramid'

The latest advert, filmed in Egypt features thousands of coloured cotton reels tumbling down a pyramid.

India

Advertisement in India features thousands of square anthropomorphic pixels. A Kathakali dancer's green face turns into pixels which run away from him. He finds his face later in a Sony Bravia television.

Alternate advertising

In the JDM advert, many people went to a carnival dancing in special clothes. The background music's genre was Salsa.

Product line

The Sony Bravia product line includes the following television sets.

Japanese models

These models are available or announced as of April 2008.

*X7000 Series - This model supports native 1080p resolution via HDMI.::KDL-70X7000

*X5050 Series - All models support native 1080p resolution via HDMI.::KDL-52X5050::KDL-46X5050::KDL-40X5050

*X5000 Series - All models support native 1080p resolution via HDMI.::KDL-52X5000::KDL-46X5000::KDL-40X5000

*W5000 Series - All models support native 1080p resolution via HDMI.::KDL-52W5000::KDL-46W5000::KDL-40W5000

*X2550 Series - All models support native 1080p resolution via HDMI.::KDL-52X2550::KDL-46X2550::KDL-40X2550

*X2500 Series - All models support native 1080p resolution via HDMI.::KDL-52X2500::KDL-46X2500::KDL-40X2500

*V2500 Series - All models support 720p resolution via HDMI but 40 & 46 models support 1080p.::KDL-46V2500::KDL-40V2500::KDL-32V2500

*S2500 Series - All models support 720p resolution using a WXGA panel.::KDL-46S2500::KDL-40S2500::KDL-32S2500::KDL-20S2500

*A2500 Series - All models are Rear projection TV that support true 1080p via HDMI.::KDS-60A2500::KDS-50A2500

Green TV

For sale in Japan on July 30, Sony's green product, new flat-panel 32-inch TV 150,000 yen (US$ 1,400; € 900) Bravia KDL-32JE1 offers ecological consumers advantages of less energy consumption (70% less a year) than regular models with same image quality. For consumers who rely on electricity generated from carbon dioxide emitting sources, it reduces carbon dioxide emissions totaling 79 kilograms (174 pounds) a year. [ [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/17/business/AS-TEC-Japan-Sony-Green-TV.php www.iht.com, Sony develops green flat-panel TV to woo ecological consumers] ] [ [http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101569/Sony-woos-ecological-consumers-with-new-flat-panel-TV gmanews.tv/story, Sony woos ecological consumers with new flat-panel TV] ]

Mobile phones

BRAVIA brand phones produced by Sony Ericsson Japan. BRAVIA brand phones are able to watch 1seg terrestrial television.
*For NTT DoCoMo:: [http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/product/foma/903i/so903itv/index.html FOMA SO903iTV] ::FOMA SO906i

Discontinued models

*E1000 Series::KDF-50E1000::KDF-42E1000

USA models

* KDF-46E3000
* KDF-50E3000
* KLV-S19A10
* KLV-S26A10
* KLV-S32A10
* KLV-S40A10
* KLV-V32A10
* KLV-V40A10
* KDL-S32A12
* KDL-S40A12
* KDL-V26A12
* KDL-V32A12
* KDL-V40A12
* KDL-32S2000
* KDL-32S2010
* KDL-40S2000
* KDL-40V2000
* KDL-40V2500
* KDL-40S2010
* KDL-40S3000
* KDL-46S2000
* KDL-46S2010
* KDL-46V2500
* KDL-46X2000
* KDL-46XBR3
* KDL-40XBR3
* KDL-46XBR2
* KDL-40XBR2
* KDL-52XBR2
* KDL-52XBR3
* KDL-70XBR3
* KDL-V32XBR1 (Carried both the Bravia and the WEGA labels)
* KDL-V32XBR2
* KDL-52W3000
* KDL-46W3000
* KDL-46V3000
* KDL-40W3000
* KDL-40V3000
* KDL-32XBR4
* KDL-40XBR4
* KDL-46XBR4
* KDL-52XBR4
* KDL-40XBR5
* KDL-46XBR5
* KDL-52XBR5
* KDL-37XBR6
* KDL-40XBR6
* KDL-40XBR7(releasing 09/30/08)
* KDL-40Z4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-46Z4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-52W4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-46W4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-40W4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-52V4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-46V4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)
* KDL-40V4100 (Announced for Spring, 2008)

International Series Names

As on May, 2008 the Sony website displays the following LCD series

* X series
* W series
* D series
* V series
* S series
* U series
* G series

Sony releases equivalent series in Japan, the United States, and Europe, often under different names. The following table shows the equivalent series for each region.

Accessories

In April 2007, Sony launched the Bravia TDM-IP1, [cite web | url=http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/03/sony-introduces-bravia-tdm-ip1-ipod-dock/ | title=Sony introduces Bravia TDM-IP1 iPod dock | publisher=Engadget | accessdate=2007-04-15] a docking cradle to permit playback of audio and video hosted on an Apple iPod on a Bravia model television.

Internals

According to the licenses supplied with the Bravia (model KDL-40V2500 and presumably other models) the device runs at least partially on embedded Linux and utilizes other free software and publicly available software components.

GPL and LGPL software components

* MontaVista Linux Kernel
* busybox
* freetype (with derivative work)
* insmod
* portmap
* bash
* login
* agetty
* terminfo
* e2fsprogs (partial)
* procps
* libKlib
* libuClibc.so
* ld.so
* libc.so
* libgpm.so.1.19.6 (console mouse server)
* libwrap.so.0.7.6
* libuuid.so
* libm.so
* libpthread.so
* libgcc_s.so
* libstdc++.so

Software used in the BRAVIA varies from model to model, depending upon the features of the set. A separate insert accompanying the set documentation lists the GPL and LGPL software contained within the set's firmware. Source code for the above can be obtained from [http://www.sony.com/linux within Sony's web site] .

Other software components

* libjpg.so
* OpenSSL (or portions thereof)

Upgrading and maintenance

The software can be upgraded via a USB type A interface labeled "DME^x / service only".

2006–2007 models may be updated using an MS -Memory Stick, or USB.Depending upon the country and TV standard the Tuner may need a Service Device to update it.

It appears that units manufactured through November 2005 for sale in Asia and North America containeda software bug that prevented the device from powering up/down after 1200 hours (2^32 milliseconds). [cite web | url=http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=803&ref=y | title=Over 400,000 Sony Bravia TVs Found To Be Defective | publisher=Daily Tech | author=Brandon Hill | accessdate=2007-04-15] A free upgrade is available. [cite web | url=http://www.updatemytv.com/ | publisher=Sony | title=Update My TV | accessdate=2007-04-15]

References

External links

* [http://www.bravia-advert.com/ Sony Bravia - Most Recent Advert]
* [http://www.sony.co.uk/ Sony UK Site]
* [http://www.sony.co.in/productcategory/tvp-lcd-tv BRAVIA TV Listing at Sony India]
* [http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/ Sony Bravia Advert - Behind the scenes]
* [http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/news/Sony-Bravia-Whats-It-Mean/281947.html Sony Bravia - What’s It Mean?]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL0gdEPCtU Paint advert clip]
* [http://www.bravia-advert.com/ny_downloads/downloads.html Play-doh advert clip]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=FbbLT05Oe-8 Pyramid Advert clip]
* [http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/sony_bravia_pyramid Pyramid Advert Directions]