Sony Internet TV as an internet Hub

Recently I came across this post. And now believe that my Sony Internet TV NSX-40GT1 or in other words my 40" Sony Google TV is the best TV I could have ever wanted while owning a raspberry pi, or any other kid of media server. The CEC is amazing, but here is something else. If you are connected to WiFi over you TV, you can use the LAN connection in the back to plug something else in, and the TV forwards the internet on. You just makre sure under Internet Status you have Private network Enabled, and wallah you now have internet on the device plugged into your TV without another wireless card or stringing a cable from your router.

This is also awesome if you have an XBOX that needs a network cable!

Rasberry Pi, XBMC, and CEC

The only thing that Google has given me to work with on here is the new guide from like 2 months ago. That was great. It makes cable watching super easy, but beside that I am still waiting for something good from them. In the mean time I have a Raspberry Pi at home so I got xbmc running on it.

Anyone who doesn't know what xbmc is, it is a media player operating system. This is cool because I can now watch Hulu, and not just Hulu Plus on my TV full screen. That is great news!

Now I want to mention my favorite part that most people would not even think about, CEC or Consumer Electronics Control over HDMI. CEC has been my favorite feature of my Sony Google TV that add is for the set top box, but I have the TV with it built in. I think my TV is beautiful if anyone is wondering.  What it does is it sends signals back and forth between the TV and other things using the HDMI. I already had it working on my Blu-ray Player, which means that I only need my TV remote to control my blu-ray, or it even works the the Google TV Remote app or even Chromote.

CEC on xbmc means that I can control my Raspberry Pi without needed a keyboard or mouse connected, it just works over the HDMI cable already plugged into the TV. That is good news. Currently the CEC is very limited, meaning only the arrows and enter work, the mouse doesn't, and the rest of the keyboard just brings up Google searches, but it is a good start that I hope someone finishes!

CEC is my favorite. Thanks xbmc for bing awesome!