Owners of modern Sony Bravia TVs that come with the Bravia Core streaming application can now buy and rent movies in what is promised to be UHD Blu-ray-like quality, the company has announced.
Sony launched the Bravia Core streaming service in 2021. It’s exclusive to the company’s Bravia XR model TVs from 2021 and 2022, and delivers over 300 movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment in what’s said to be the highest bandwidth and quality of any streaming service.
When the service was launched, Sony issued “movie credits” that could be redeemed by TV owners to watch new studio releases or access its catalogue of older movies. However there was no option to buy or rent further movies once those credits were used up, meaning that the service very quickly became redundant for some of Sony’s most avid film fanatics.
That is now changing for users in select countries - namely the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Sweden. The company explained that those who have exhausted their credits now have the option to get their credit cards out to access more.
Sony said Bravia Core has now opened up the possibility to buy and rent selected movies, allowing users to continue to enjoy watching “some of the best blockbusters and classics” in the highest possible streaming picture quality, enabled by its Pure Stream technology. According to the company, this ensures near lossless UDH BD equivalent quality with streaming at up to 80 Mbps. The service also offers movies with the IMAX Enhanced aspect ratio and DTS audio surround sound.
The six lucky countries were recently given access to new studio releases such as Morbius, Uncharted, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Cinderella. Some users may well have been frustrated, having already used up their Bravia Core credits, that they couldn’t watch these new titles. Now, they can finally get their fix, as long as they’re willing to pay.
While Sony claims Bravia Core streams movies in up to 80 Mbps bitrates, there is a caveat to that. The thing is that Sony’s TVs are equipped with a 100 Mbps Ethernet port that will sometimes not allow full streaming quality due to overheads and pre-buffering. So to enjoy the full streaming quality it’s necessary to use a WiFi connection or purchase a separate USB Gigabit Ethernet hub for the TV.
Sony has promised to open up Bravia Core purchases and rentals in more countries at a later date, but didn’t say where or when that will happen.
