Gracenote TrackID on Sony TVs (photos)

A look at the Gracenote TrackID service on Sony TVs.

David Katzmaier

March 9, 2011 2:46 p.m. PT

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Remote detail

In 2011 Internet-connected TVs from Sony have a new feature similar to Shazam found on smartphones. The service, which Sony is branding TrackID, relies on a "fingerprinting" technology powered by Gracenote--a company formerly known as CDDB and bought by Sony in 2008. The way it works is simple: anytime you hear a song, or snippet of music, on your TV, you can hit the "TrackID" button to attempt to identify it.

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Searching status indicator

After hitting the button, the service will search for about five seconds and then indicate the results. Positive searches can have more than one result.

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Search results

After a positive search, you can launch the full app, which brings up the results. Previous searches can be added to bookmarks and the app also keeps a search history.

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Detail view

Drilling down into a search result gives you artist, album, and other information. You can also initiate a search within the Sony TV's apps.

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Apps search

Choosing to search within apps leads to a choice of searching across Sony's Bravia Video services (excluding Netflix, Amazon VOD, YouTube, and Hulu Plus) or a "video search," which at the moment provides only text-based results like biographical information--a sort of "IMDB lite."