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Hey, I'll get my geek on. I purchased a Sony LCD tv a few month ago for the very reason of doing a combination of web based programming in combination with my Comcast HD DVR. The Sony came with a WIFI dongle (don't you like those names) that allowed it to use the Sony applets that came on the Bravia TV. I thought this was my ticket. Needless to say, I was underwhelmed. The wifi isn't fast enough to watch an HD programming without incessant buffering. No Skype either which is one of the reason we got the tv for. I did some research and found about Google TV but really didn't see how it is much better then a CPU hooked up to the TV.
Fast forward to what we ended up doing. I was able to hardwire my phone line in the area (fortunately it was a Cat5 cable used) and connect with some serious fishing to my present router. I then got a Dell small form factor 580s maxed out for graphics for about $700. The router I use has gigabit ports along with the cpu so bye bye buffering. I just route the hdmi cable to the tv along with the cable box hdmi and use the TV for switching in between. If you use a VGA cable, the Sony will let you do PIP, but I don't see the need. I use a keyboard trackball combo to run everything and thats it. YouTube HD can be watched like its cable programming. Hard to tell the difference.
I know it is a couple of $100 more the the Google may be whenever it comes out. But I doubt it will have as much flexibility as what I am using now.
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