2015 Bravia Android TV Issues

[NickCo1979]

I thought I'd create a generic thread to cover off the issues being encountered on the 2015 Bravia Android TVs. I've listed my issues below with fixes / workarounds and responses from support. All comments and solutions welcome!

1) Hot Swap HDMI doesn't work - manifested by no input on HDMI channels 2, 3 and 4 on the KD-49X8305C. Workaround - reset the TV, either by holding down the remote power button for 5 seconds or by switching the TV off at the wall and then back on again. Further details on this thread: https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/televisions/kd-49x8305c-hdmi-2-3-4-inputs-not-working/td-p/1944435

2) HDD Recording doesn't work - error message states a system update is required but none is available when checking. Hopefully this will be fixed soon by a firmware update.

3) Netflix App doesn't work - this seems like the app has been deliberately disabled. So far a support case has only recommended that a factory reset be performed (took two days to get to that cracking piece of advice.....), with no improvement as a result. A temporary (albeit for advanced users only) workaround is provided by MikeLothian on this thread - https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/televisions/netflix-support-for-kd55x8509c-android-tv/td-p/1945360 

4) Sound lag and performance issues after the TV (KD-49X8305C) has been on standby for a while - manifested for me as stuttering and sound / picture sync issues in all apps (youtube, amazon instant video etc) and HDMI sources (PS4, seperate YouView box etc). Hopefully this will be fixed in a firmware update, at the moment workarounds involve either changing channels to get the sync to work or in my case having to turn the TV off and then on again at the socket.

As stated previously, all comments welcome. Personally I'm willing to give Sony a couple of weeks to fix this, but if it's not done soon I'll be sending my new TV back for a refund as it's not really fit for purpose.

[royabrown]

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@Caledonian_TV wrote:

Same update... One of the first things I did with the set was power it, hook it in to the network temporarily and pull down the latest firmware.  As you suggest; virtually anything you buy will have been sitting in its box for months before it gets to the end user...

This was tried with the Onkyo 606 which it's destined to 'live' with - tried on both TV output and just as an input...  Also on a more modern (months old) sound bar borrowed from a neighbour. And just for the hell of it a 'piggyback' recorder used in certain circumstances on TV cameras... The latter just got confused and saw it as a null output ( i.e. it thought itself plugged into an HDMI-IN port)

Life being to short to stuff the proverbial mushroom I just pulled an optical cable from a box of such things I have lying around... 

This is a 49x8305C incidentally  - I've decided 'dealing' with the satellite tuning list is a long term ambition. 

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Stupid question perhaps - although the only really stupid question is the one you don't ask - you did use HDMI 4, which is the one and only ARC-enabled HDMI socket on these sets?

[royabrown]

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@Quinnicus wrote:

@frogger38 - i did ask, but to be honest, i failed to follow this up.  My appologies.  Im going to add it to the current list too.  My feeling is that YouView need to address this one.

To all

Im regards to the reviews that you have posted, i have been assured that improvements are on the way - specifically to address the reasons why it was rejected.  Bad reviews are not rejected simply because they are bad, but as no real reason is given - this therefore becomes the assumption.

In regards to adyjay33 review, this has been followed up with Sony and I believe there is a satisfactory resolution.

If any of you feel really strongly that your review was rejected unfairly, i am happy to take this further with Sony - and if possible give you a real reason why.

Cheers

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Sony majorly underestimate just how critical this is. Everyone they ask to post a review has one of these sets, and has given an honest opinion about it.

And to reject any review - no matter what the grounds - lays Sony open to serious accusations of fraud, if any new customer bases their purchase, or even has it affected in any way at all, on reading them.

And it is simply not good enough for Sony to reject any review, or even to ask for anyone to change it in any way at all, if these are to be published anywhere they may affect any new purchase decisions.

The clear and auditable redaction of obscenities should be the very most that Sony is allowed to apply to any review.

Of course, they may wish to reply to any reviews that in their opinion contain errors of fact - but it should be clear what the original poster said, unchanged.

[Caledonian_TV]

Funnily enough that was one of my old Gaffer's favourite sayings...  Yes; I used the right socket... 

I'm now routing the Blu-Ray and DVR through the TV rather than the amp - easier for my better half to access as she's not all that 'techie'  ...I HAD hoped to use the built-in sat tuner for everything; but will just put the 'common' national channels on it now.  And what I'd hoped would be a 'spare' hdmi on the TV  is occupied by my old sat tuner. 

[Caledonian_TV]

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@royabrown wrote:

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Sony majorly underestimate just how critical this is. Everyone they ask to post a review has one of these sets, and has given an honest opinion about it.

And to reject any review - no matter what the grounds - lays Sony open to serious accusations of fraud, if any new customer bases their purchase, or even has it affected in any way at all, on reading them.

And it is simply not good enough for Sony to reject any review, or even to ask for anyone to change it in any way at all, if these are to be published anywhere they may affect any new purchase decisions.

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100% agree... 

Unfortunately finding ways of abdicating responsibility ; be it through frustrating complainers into giving up, censoring complaints or just plain trying to deflect them, seems to be (as a general trend) part and parcel of the mentality that makes up modern 'customer (dis)service'...  

Beyond blocking profane language and redacting potentially defamatory comment against individuals, there is NO excuse for even so much as the hint of censorship to have emerged from this (or any other) issue.  And I'm afraid it's just another nail in Sony's coffin as far as I'm concerned...

The UI issue I have is a matter of gross and I do mean GROSS incompetence at a very basic level; and that is just one of many serious issues with these sets!  - I'm shocked for instance as to just how sparse user instructions are!  - Even if you dig for them there simply is no detailed manual!   - The inability to set individual satellite reception parameters doesn't bode well for future 4K transmissions!  The inability to PROPERLY customise the 'home page... Or what those stupid 'discover' and 'Netflix' buttons do... 

These are all matters of shoddy design...  And contempt for the customer is illustrated by the fact that they released this product - not just with a few bugs - but with front end systems that are just so poor as to render them unusable. It's bad enough that people who bought these things for their advanced functions are let down... But I'm trying to use the thing as pretty much a basic telly!  And even that is a trial...

Sony need to do more than make these sets useable...  They need to be reaching out to owners and making some gesture that makes this disaster right! 

[royabrown]

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@Caledonian_TV wrote:

Funnily enough that was one of my old Gaffer's favourite sayings...  Yes; I used the right socket... 

I'm now routing the Blu-Ray and DVR through the TV rather than the amp - easier for my better half to access as she's not all that 'techie'  ...I HAD hoped to use the built-in sat tuner for everything; but will just put the 'common' national channels on it now.  And what I'd hoped would be a 'spare' hdmi on the TV  is occupied by my old sat tuner. 

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Respect to your old Gaffer then, as he knew a thing or two, including how to ask quite impertinent questions tactfully 🙂

And respect to you, as all setups need to be operable by a better half straightforwardly, or they fail a complexity test. And it is not what such a one could deal with if she put her mind to it, it is what such a one is prepared to deal with 🙂

I'm pleased with how my setup with Bluray player and PVR run through the Yamaha soundbar and up to the TV work, as this setup passes the SWMBO test without 3 pages of handcrafted A4, though this does very much depend on the ARC working properly,

[Caledonian_TV]

Mine is rather used to it after these nearly 24 years...  I had a 'surround' system long before we met. Early versions included home-built decoders and bits of surplus/obsolete kit from work!  She's never got entirely used to the more convoluted bits of kit though...   Though she's now no more 'tolerant' of 'bad' TV sound than I am.  

This way I can leave the amp on 'TV' and all she has to do is switch it on...  

The optical feed is 'ok' - there are a couple of surround modes it won't pass to the amp, but they're probably moot...  I can us the amps analogue inputs now to feed some older machines I have into the system...

[EggDublin]

Old but good...some familiar similarities maybe? 

http://www.theonion.com/search?q=sony&feature-type=video-tech-trends

[royabrown]

@Caledonian_TV

TX-SR606 from Onkyo? According to my researches, that's of 2008 vintage, the year before HDMI 1.4, the version that introduced ARC, came out. So finding ARC on the Onkyo might be a bit of a tall order 😞

Unless they managed to put it in an upgrade? But neither 'ARC' nor 'audio return channel' come up in a caseless search of the manual (except in words like 'search' 🙂 ).

I know that even today, there is only one HDMI port on the TV out of 4 that supports ARC, and only one on the Yamaha soundbar out of three, so I have to run my cable between these exact two, or no ARC.

i don't know if that might have been a consideration on that neighbour's soundbar you tried?

The HDMI cable situation is a bit of an odd one. My 2006 cable perfectly well supports ARC, even though at the time the pins the relevant wire runs between were just Reserved, with no particular task specified. But as cable makers wired them together even then, and as cables are dumb, they happily do ARC now there is something flowing on that wire.

Regarding sound formats, I think there are some even the TV does not support, so I am pleased to have my devices wired to the soundbar, not the TV, and so ARC is purely for sound originating on the TV.

Before buying the Yamaha, though, I had a brief flirtation with the Orbitsound A70.

Its much-vaunted AIRSound is from the two end-mounted speakers, which are wired in....wait for it....Hafler mode. Even forty years ago, my  'Haflers' were at the back of the room:-)

[Caledonian_TV]

Mine hails from 2011...  And it's been used before with ARC displays... Actually; although it was never advertised, some very early sets seemed to have audio return...  But the Onkyo being of that 'vintage' was actually why I borrowed the soundbar and, yes the correct sockets were used...

Onkyo had - HAVE - troubles with their HDMI boards... The electrolytics they use go flakey; mine will have the later version of the board in it.  - Not that's that's obviated the need to get inside and upgrade the caps; but that's another story!

'Hafler mode' - Two spare speakers wired across the + terminals of the amp to extract the antiphase information...  I think the most sophisticated implementation of that I recall was a device called the 'Scan Dyna'... A metal box with a large orange ***** on the front ( no sniggering at the back there!) which placed the extra pair ( NO sniggering I said!) in series with a resistor chain...  

I think I paid a quid for mine out a surplus store called RME in Glasgow...  :smileylaugh::smileylaugh::smileylaugh:  Later experiments with op-amps to extract the 'rear channel' were much more satisfying...

I think I'll stick to my 'colony' of Gale IIs though... 

[Caledonian_TV]

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@EggDublin wrote:

Old but good...some familiar similarities maybe? 

http://www.theonion.com/search?q=sony&feature-type=video-tech-trends

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Quote from the side of the box in the video...

"Makes tthe most irritating beeping noise you've ever heard in your gaddam life"

...Yup! At least I found the menu item to turn THAT off and it worked!