In it, I rant against service providers trying to lock their customers into a monoculture. Companies are always looking for the edge which will make them stand out - they think that restricting what their users can do is the answer. It is not.

Openness and network effects are the biggest drivers of usage - an MP3 bought from Amazon works on an iPod bought from Apple, and an MP3 bought from iTunes works perfectly on a Kindle Fire bought from Amazon. Customers and businesses both win when open standards are embraced and lock-in is eschewed.

I started my blog post by asking for something I thought to be quite reasonable, but some high-priests of Brand Synergy took to be treason:

I want to watch Nokia movies on my Samsung hardware running Google's Android, and then back them up to DropBox.

Today I've rubbed up against the annoying side of proprietary unreasonableness. Amazon Instant Video.

For reasons best know to themselves, the geniuses at Amazon have decided to put up the cost of Prime membership by 60%. As well as getting next day delivery on thousands of items, I can now also watch Amazon Instant Video - previously known as LoveFilm.

Deep joy.

This has gone down like a lead balloon among many erstwhile Prime customers. Not everyone likes watching TV, or even has the broadband to support this.

But, hey, I thought I'd give it a go before deciding if it wasn't for me.

Panasonic

I have a fairly new Panasonic TX-L37E5B (as sold on Amazon). Barely 18 months old. It's a "Smart" TV - with access to BBC iPlayer and a host of other services.

But not LoveFilm.

For over a year Panasonic has been refusing to update their app store to include Amazon's LoveFilm. Or 40D, ITV Player, Demand 5, etc. I wonder if they've done a deal with Netflix to keep competing services off their TVs? Or if Panasonic's SDK is so hideous that Amazon simply can't deliver a competent service using them?

This is what Panasonic's ecosystem looks like. How many names there do you recognise?

I repeatedly contacted Panasonic for a comment about this, but each time I received the same bland reply.

Panasonic Service UK

@PanaService_UK

Replying to @edent@edent We are looking into the possibility of adding services but cannot make any guarantee as to whether it will be possible at the moment

---

Panasonic, it seems, are quite happy to ignore customer demand. Once they have your money, they cease to care.

I spoke to Amazon about this and asked which TVs they support:

I have checked into this, and I can see that the eligible models for the televisions are:

LG Smart TV (2012 or newer)

Samsung Smart TV (2012 or newer)

and Sony Smart TV (2010 or newer)

Ah well, I thought, I can just use Panasonic's Web Browser to access LoveFilm, eh?

You need Silverlight software version 4.0 or higher to watch this title.

It looks like rival Netflix are abandoning Silverlight. Even Microsoft, the technology's creator, sees no future in the decrepit software - it's not much of a surprise to see that it's not available in TV browsers. But, perhaps, the browser will work with Flash sites?

The web browser does not support Adobe Flashplayer, and therefore, is unable to display catch-up services such as ITV player and 4oD. There are no current plans to upgrade the browser's compatibility.

Panasonic's FAQ

Now, in fairness, Panasonic just about supports some HTML5 video.

So it's theoretically possible that Amazon could decide to use open standards for its new video service, and Panasonic TV owners would be able to watch via their browsers rather than having a dedicated app.

Android

There's no Android App for Amazon Instant Video either. Just let that sink in for a moment. Amazon produce the Android powered Kindle Fire - and yet can't be bothered to produce a video streaming app for the millions of Android devices out there.

Madness! Or, a pathetic attempt to get people to buy Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets - seemingly the only Android devices allowed to access their streaming service.

"Ecosystems" Can Go To Hell

Amazon - for reasons best known to them - have decided to bundle a physical-goods delivery system and a video-streaming platform. I'm sure an MBA somewhere can explain why this multiplay service is destined to win hearts and minds.

Because Amazon have chosen to go down a locked and proprietary route, they've missed out on the interoperability which makes the world wonderful.

I'm not a Luddite. I have a modern TV, smartphones, tablets, and games consoles - none of which Amazon have chosen to support.

Actually, my Xbox 360 will support it - after I pay £40 per year for Xbox Live Gold Membership.

Here's an idea... Amazon could use open standards, develop apps which work on the majority of available platforms, and gather millions of customers who actually want their service.

Instead, they've gone with the rent-seeking approach of strong-arming their customers into paying more for a service they cannot use and do not want.

I've no doubt some folk will cancel their Prime membership - but enough will put up with the price rise to make this quarter's numbers look just swell!

Customers get screwed and Amazon gets to artificially inflate the numbers on its moribund streaming service.

This will not do.

I do not want services which only run on specially blessed devices. No one wants that! Companies which artificially restrict access in order to prop up their business models don't deserve to survive in the modern, interconnected world.

The true meaning of "ecosystem" is a bunch of independent organisms competing and co-operating. Symbiosis - not synergy.

I went for the cumbersomely named Panasonic TX-L37ET5B 37-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 3D LED TV with Freeview HD.

Looking at the TX-L37ET5B's specs it's a close to perfect TV.

• Four HDMI ports
• Enough miscellaneous ports (PC, scart, component, composite) to be able to plug in just about anything.
• Freeview HD
• Passive 3D

I'll start with the negative points - because that's usually what people look for in a review.

Let's Get Physical

The screen has a rather thick bezel, so if you need to squeeze it into a tight space, check your measurements.

There is a bright green LED under the screen - to show you that the display is on. There's no way to turn it off (short of a bit of masking tape). Worse, it's off centre. It's not terribly annoying - but I wish there were a software option to switch it off.

There's no Kensington Lock slot - so you'll have to screw the stand onto something (or place the unit on to a wall.

The screen is quite reflective - so make sure you don't have any lights behind your head when you're watching TV.

"Smart" TV

Despite being connected over fast WiFi to a fast Internet connection, the Viera Connect service is really slow. To be fair, this is the same on every "smart" TV I've tried. The UI is laggy and doesn't look great. Once it starts streaming, it's fine. The Web Browser is comically bad. It does a good enough job of rendering pages, but navigating with the remote is tiresome.

Turn Ons

It took me a surprisingly long while to work out how to turn on the TV! I'm used to pressing the on button once and having the set spring to life - that doesn't happen on the Panasonic. You have to hold down the on button for a second before the TV wakes up. It's not onerous - just weird.

Sound As A Pound

DTS? This TV is a stranger to it. If you're pumping DTS through HDMI, the TV will ignore it - it won't play through the speakers and it won't pass the bitstream through optical out. Luckily, I have an optical cable running from my media centre to my amp - so it's not a hardship.

The manual mentions it supports DTS 2.0 - but I didn't have any discs with that to test with.

There doesn't appear to be any way to adjust the delay of the optical output.

Minor Niggles

There's no USB recording. Not a huge burden, although the Australian version of the hardware does support it.

So, that was the bad - now onto the good.

333333333DDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!

The 3D was a bit of a gamble for me. I was really disappointed with the 3D in Tron Legacy (see my review of Tron). I figured that the 3D set wasn't that much more expensive and, hey, Piranha 3DD sounds like a cinematic masterpiece...

What really swung it for me was the fact that the set uses passive 3D. You don't need to buy expensive BlueTooth glasses which need to be recharged, flicker wildly in front of your eyes, and - more likely than not - are incompatible with any other TV. The Panasonic came with 4 passive glasses - enough for a family or small gathering. If you need more glasses, you can "borrow" them from a cinema - or buy more for around £1 each.

Playing some side-by-side (HSBS) content and the TV automatically converted into 3D mode. Worked on Blu-Ray and Xbox 360 content. Really quite impressive. Perhaps it was the size of the screen - but I found the 3D much more impressive than I did in the cinema.

For a laugh, I tried out the 2D-3D conversion. It attempts to turn any normal video source into 3D. I tried it out on the 1938 film of Robin Hood. I was gobsmacked - it wasn't flawless, but by golly it worked!

The 3D is flicker-free, does not suffer from banding, and is really effective.

Tinker Tailor

There are loads of options to fiddle with. Colour, contrast, white balance, gamma, individual colour gain and limits. I followed this calibration guide and twiddled with all the knobs until everything looked satisfactory.

Android Remote

Panasonic provides an Android Remote Control app - it's actually really useful. Not only can you change channel etc, you can select videos and music from your phone and "fling" them to the TV where they start to play (after a delay - depending on your Wi-Fi).

Shake the remote, and the "power off" button appears. Nifty!

Although the UI is a bit confusing, the only real down side is the inability to turn on the TV from the remote.

Sound

The optical-out works flawlessly - unlike the piece of crap LG I had.

When watching BBC HD, the TV automatically detected the change between stereo and 5.1 and sent the correct bitstream to my decoder.

As mentioned above, there's no DTS.

Overall

A really good telly. Tweak the picture to suit your preferences, plug in anything, have fun with the 3D

Buy the Panasonic TX-L37ET5B from Amazon.