Today Sony announced the Bravia Internet Video Link. A hardware device that connects to the Internet using Ethernet and via HDMI to 2007 Sony Bravia HDTVs. It provides a proprietary interface to specific content designed for the device.

Offering content only from partners, not from the Internet at-large or local devices, the Bravia Internet Video Link is expected to deliver content from AOL, Yahoo!, Grouper, Sony Pictures (currently only movie trailers) and music videos from Sony BMG. Sony says there is no service fee and content will always be free. Price is not yet announced, but they assured us it was under $500. Gee, ya think? It should be available in the Summer.

This announcement further illustrates disturbing trends from Sony:

1. Sony still doesn't get the problems with walled gardens. Isolating your customers from content, including content that is on devices like a PS3, makes no sense.
2. Sony is so worried about their customers ripping them off that they won't offer cool solutions, such as allowing customers to watch videos stored on their home network drives that could very well be coming from Sony camcorders.
3. While we don't agree or like it, we understand why Sony would create this device just for Bravia as opposed to a device that could be used with other HDTVs. They believe that by offering something exclusive to Sony customers it'll drive business and help their customers. The reality is that it hurts their customers by not giving them a real solution. By limiting the potential users to just the Bravia user-base, why would more content providers sign on?
4. With Sony Pictures, why miss the golden opportunity to offer pay-per-view movies using the service. Movie trailers only makes no sense.

This announcement depresses the weary CES attendee instead of inspiring through innovation. I actually felt sorry for the guy demoing it. Compared to the Microsoft announcement Sunday, this pales in comparison. Sadly, Sony just doesn't get it.

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