Sony Google TV Box In Australia

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ThePoss81
Android 1.0
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2012 1:38 am

Sony Google TV Box In Australia

Post by ThePoss81 »

I've been using a US version of the Google TV box for two weeks now and I can answer a questions that is being asked by a few people in this and other forums. Yes the US version that I have just plugged into the wall with an Australian figure 8 power cord. No problems.

On the other hand, I would rather spend the extra and get the Australian version when it comes out, why?

Reason 1:
Well you can't tell it what country you are in so when you set the US box up it only allows you to enter a US post code. This defeats half the features on the box, when you do a word search on the box, it will tell you what's on TV in your area at that very point in time, yeah. Well this doesn't work with the US box and Australian TV content.

Reason 2:
All the apps that come on the box are for US TV stations, there isn't any Australian built-in catch up TV apps which I assume will come with the Australian version. There also aren't any Australian catch-up TV apps that will work with the Sony Google TV box in the app store either, I'm assuming that since Sony just signed a deal with CH10 about 2 months ago that a CH10 app may be included with the Australian box (just a guess though). I know you can go to the website and view them all that way, but it's a pain in the [fish-sticks], not easy like it should be.

These are my main beef with the US version of the box, I know they aren't a deal breakers for some people, but when you lose a big feature on the box like location aware content and TV searching, for some people this will cause some grief. For these people they should stick to buying the Australian version, plus you'll also get a warranty, surly that's worth a few bucks.

I have made a short video of my favourite features on the Sony Googles box, I hope you enjoy. http://youtu.be/zQiVLs-qag0

If anyone has any questions they would like to ask me about the Sony Google TV box, please feel free to ask.
ThePoss81
Android 1.0
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2012 1:38 am

Re: Sony Google TV Box In Australia

Post by ThePoss81 »

Sony Australia had 50 normal people in Australia trial the Sony Google TV box in the Australian market before it hit the shelf. I was one of the lucky people selected to trial the box, we were all asked to make a short video for Sony showing off what we most liked about the Sony Google TV box.Sony Australia have taken all these videos and mashed them all into one short clip showing these features being used by normal people in a normal home situation, here is the link to Sony's video

http://youtu.be/wSKSPjXywXk


If anyone is interested in seeing my favourite features I have included a link to my video

http://youtu.be/zQiVLs-qag0

If anyone has any questions they would like answered or would like to ask me about the Sony Google TV box please feel free to ask.
theslydog
Android 1.0
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:37 am

Re: Sony Google TV Box In Australia

Post by theslydog »

ThePoss81 wrote: On the other hand, I would rather spend the extra and get the Australian version when it comes out, why?

Reason 1:
Well you can't tell it what country you are in so when you set the US box up it only allows you to enter a US post code. This defeats half the features on the box, when you do a word search on the box, it will tell you what's on TV in your area at that very point in time, yeah. Well this doesn't work with the US box and Australian TV content.

Reason 2:
All the apps that come on the box are for US TV stations, there isn't any Australian built-in catch up TV apps which I assume will come with the Australian version...

These are my main beef with the US version of the box, I know they aren't a deal breakers for some people, but when you lose a big feature on the box like location aware content and TV searching, for some people this will cause some grief...buying the Australian version, plus you'll also get a warranty, surly that's worth a few bucks...
LOL

Not to rain on your parade but...

Reason 1: There is nothing on Australian FTA TV worth watching so it doesn't matter about the Zip code.

Reason 2: The US apps are most likely the reason people want the box in the first place as anything from Oz is likely to be crippled anyway.

The warranty is not really a problem because the US box is 1/2 the price of the RRP they are trying to flog then to Aussies. Thus you could buy 2 US ones for the price on one Au one.
Undisputed1
Android 1.0
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 10:12 am
GTV Device Owned: NSZ-GT1 (Bluray Player)

Re: Sony Google TV Box In Australia

Post by Undisputed1 »

All NSZ-GS7 boxes are manufactured identically, there internals are all the exact same. Most, if not all, electronics are made like this these days to cut down on manufacturing costs.

The only difference is in software, most importantly the build.prop file. In this file there is an identifier, "ro.product.locale.region=XXX" once this is changed to the country you desire, there will be no difference to the unit whatsoever. This will tell the Android update service what country to download firmware updates for. Subsequently this will cause your firmware to be updated to whatever country you specified. Obviously this will only work in; Canada, Australia, UK and USA.

The problem is that this is a protected system file and is not editable ... That is, of course, until Root access is available. Then we can do whatever we want with the system, and changing the build.prop file is really quite easy to do, it can even be done over your local network so you don't have to plug a laptop into the USB.

DISCLAIMER: If you don’t know what you are doing with stuff like this don’t be the first to try wait for someone else to do it and provide a tutorial. I take no responsibility if you brick or otherwise damage your system.
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