BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions as well as front and rear projection TVs. The LCD panel itself is manufactured by Samsung. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture". All new Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America now carry the BRAVIA logo. The name BRAVIA replaces the "LCD WEGA" brand name which Sony used for their LCD TVs until Summer 2005 (early promotional photos exist of the first BRAVIA TVs still bearing the WEGA name).

The BRAVIA brand is also used on mobile phones in the Japanese market.

Usage and capabilities

Like other high definition television lines the various Bravia models differ in capability as well as screen size. Display capability depends on which high definition outputs are supported, and the input signal supplied to the television. Bravia televisions can display video from a variety of sources. The quality of the picture depends on the quality of the input.

The coax connector can receive regular television broadcasts, cable and VCR/DVD output and will also receive and decode whatever high definition content is available on broadcast or cable television. Most high definition television which is broadcast is in the lower resolution high-definition formats.

Other traditional VCR/DVD outputs such as S-Video or Composite video deliver the traditional television resolution that is no better than the resolution displayed by traditional television.

The HDMI input delivers the highest quality signal to the television and produces the highest quality high definition television picture, to the limits of the capabilities of the television.

A VGA style computer connection is available, however the resolution of the video signal received from a computer may be limited to resolutions below the capability of the television depending on the capabilities of the computer's graphics card.

Purists will want to adjust the display on installation. The default configuration artificially enhances the color and contrast of the image to produce a more eye-catching, "vivid", display. This is easily done via a menu selection.

Some of the higher end XBR models include MotionFlow 120 Hz, Sony's name for frame interpolation.

Advertising campaign

The BRAVIA brand uses the slogan "Colour like.no.other.".

Launch, 'Balls'

The launch of the BRAVIA brand was supported by an advertising campaign featuring 250,000 brightly-colored rubber balls (real, not computer-generated) bouncing down a San Francisco street. The advertisement was made by former Danish photographer Nicolai Fuglsig. The idea was originally a segment of The Late Show with David Letterman in 1996, in which bouncy balls rolled down the same street. Fallon, the advertising agency involved with the commercial, denied ever having watched the episode and claimed the similarity was a coincidence. Their idea was brought to life by director Nicolai Fuglsig with the help of Los Angeles-based special effects guru Barry Conner. In addition to the 12 air mortars, Conner deployed three giant skips, each lifted 50 feet into the air and containing 35,000 coloured bouncy balls.