Will Bravia browser be upgraded to support Flash Player?

[hesley35]

After much thrashing around we're 99% decided on a new EX723 model for Christmas, when by chance we found on this forum that Bravia's browser doesn't support Flash Player,  We found a similar problem on our iPad and it's a pain.  Smart TVs from other manufacturers don't have this shortcoming.  We'll still buy Sony if we feel confident that a future firmware upgrade will add this feature.  What are the chances?  Thanks.

[Thalamus. · Accepted solution]

Hi Hesley35,

welcome to Questions & Answers..:smileyhappy:

I do not think Sony will be adding Abobe flash to the Bravia, especially after reading reports that Adobe, along with a mobile devices, will be abandoning Flash Player for TV..

If you want to read more check out reports yourself by googleing Adobe abandoning Flash Player for TV..

[Catmambo]

I'd actually look at it a slightly different way. As Thalamus has pointed out adobe's withdrawal and flash  is already being superseded by HTML5 which the TV does support.

Secondly, and this has been covered in a number of other threads, but TV's do not make great web browsing devices, with or without flash. Navigation and text input takes twice if not three times as long as it would on a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Big screen devices are best for big screen social entertainment rather than personal browsing..

This is a cracking panel and I'd definitely go and check it out in a store.

Thanks

[hesley35]

Thanks Catmambo and Thalamus for those quick responses.  Perhaps we are looking at the issue from the wrong direction bt we have favourite websites and we thought how nice it would be to converge the technologies and flick from TV channel to website and back again wiithout chnaging chairs!

Perhaps video miirroring from the iPad to TV is the way to go for us (given the reported clunky nature of browser manipulation in Bravia) but then again we hit this flash issue, which seems as much to do with licensing and money as technology challenges.  Might be wrong in saying that but that's the impression we get.

Looks like the only reliable way to achieve what we want is a Windows laptop and a cable...  Disappointing, but not the end of the world, as using the TV as a big monitor is a very small part of our viewing needs, and we can live with a knife and fork approach.

Just disappointing that we couldn't have everything we want out of the  box . Thanks again.

[Catmambo]

Yup, that's a pragmatic way of doing it. This is still very early days for connected tv's from every manufacturer, so tech and experiences will of course improve over the next couple of years.

Flash issue is probably partly down to money, but Steve Jobs was always very clear about flash as a technology not being particularly robust. Furthermore it puts an incredible load on processors and current TV's aren't multi-core etc...

Thanks