Cannot access iPlayer while also recording tv

[Mikej62]

Hi.

We have recently bought a Bravia 4K UR3 v9 (KE-75XH8096), which overall I'm very happy with. (Bluetooth headset pairing would have been good, but apparently it can't do that).

Anyway the question is does anyone know a fix for not being able to access the iPlayer app when the TV has started recording a Freeview program?

iPlayer works fine if the TV is not recording, also works fine if we start it and while watching it, the TV begins a scheduled recording.

The block only occurs if iPlayer is launched while recording has already commenced.

Apologies if this has already been covered. I've searched, but it's a bit of a complex search string.

Thanks in anticipation

Mike

[Mikej62]

Thank you royabrown2

[Kenbmwman]

HI Royabrown2,

Thanks for the comment. Several people have suggested the Firestick approach and I agree it is a valid one.

It just naffs me off to spend £1500 on arguably the best TV this year and then you have to buy an addon, plus the associated complexity  for aged relatives to learn how to use it, when the set should do this anyway. 

I hate intrasigence from vendors in these situations.   Why they cannot accept they have done a poor job and fix it defeats me. Why also don't they communicate these situations to their support staff. Save them all going through the same useless diagnostics, time after time.

Sony are not on their own in this regard, but I will think twice before I buy Sony again.

I don't ever buy from Currys or Panasonic for this reason.

Regards

Ken 

[royabrown2]

@Kenbmwman 

Best picture, maybe. 

But best TV? Issue after niggling issue like the above, and many others raised in this Community, put that accolade out of Sony’s reach.

[Mikej62]

Thanks Ken.

I agree with everything you've said. The TV is mostly great, but this flawed implementation does detract from it.

Best wishes, Mike 

[HannahEd01]

Hey Mikej62 and Kenbmwman, since it's not Sony who decided not to allow recording from catchup apps, I believe it's respectful of them to offer Kenbmwman a refund at all. 

Anyway, since it works if you set a timer Mikej62, I would use this free workaround and enjoy. 

[royabrown2]

Hey @HannahEd01 we aren’t talking about recording catchup apps, we are talking about trying to watch a catchup app while a recording is taking place.

If what you are saying is that this bar is a consequence of not being able to record catchup apps, then the ability to start a recording while a catchup app is being watched must be a bug - either the recording should fail, or the process should terminate the catchup app.

But as ever, we note that LG TVs do not suffer from this limitation - while still preventing the recording of catchup apps, they have no problem allowing users to start them while recording something.

But I wonder if it is truly all catchup apps, or just the YouView-supplied ones? 

Since you say this issue isn’t Sony’s fault, whose is it? YouView’s? Google’s?

Or is it, like the energy-saving message that came up even if you just dimmed the set, a flawed interpretation of the rules, or a flawed implementation of a correct interpretation of them?

AAMOI, anybody know, or checked, if having a recording on the go stops you using, say, Netflix, which also can’t be recorded? Or any other catchup app not supplied via YouView?

[Kenbmwman]

It denies access when recording to all catch-up apps on my YouView section.

You can still run Amazon Prime, Netflix, NOW etc.

Makes no difference if you are recording broadcast program on aerial or satellite tuner.

[royabrown2]

Sony TV’s enduring love affair with YouView is a greater mystery to me than the Riddle of the Sphinx 🥴

[SkyNet404]

Then it confirms the fact that even if they are in the form of applications. 
Since they work through the same signal provider and get signals through the aerial as well on older TVs you wouldn't be able to browse them while recording if you have a single tuner. 
Basically on 2020 and older models you couldn't access catch up apps with no aerial inserted as well, which also clarify why you're unable to access such apps while recording. 
To us they're applications, to the TV they're the same as BBC1, just another TV channel.

[royabrown2]

@SkyNet404 

Or maybe not…

On 2020 models and earlier, you couldn’t access the catchup apps without previously having inserted an aerial and tuned in the associated main channel for each (1, 3, 4, 5).

But once having done this you could disconnect the aerial, and not need it again unless you reset the TV. Thus proving that once the channel had been tuned, the information the associated app needed was held in local storage to be re-read on demand without further reference to the terrestrial channel or to the tuner(s).

Though with the great divide between the Freeview side and the YouView side on these sets, you needed to be on the YouView side to get access to the apps, and on the Freeview side to be able to record.

So no chance of both at once, unless you used the Hoshsadiq workaround. With which, you could hardly complain about not being able to start an app while recording - you were grateful that it worked at all 😛

On 2020 sets and later (and  @Kenbmwman is talking about a recently-bought TV above), the information to be stored (it’s the TV region) can now be obtained a different way, by the app requesting the input of a postcode, and the set need never have a terrestrial aerial attached, or any channel tuned in. Ever.

But at least there’s no longer the great Freeview/YouView divide, and you can use the apps on the Freeview side without the Hoshsadiq workaround. Except for this one limitation under discussion here, which looks like a hangover from the old rules.

Also note from the descriptions earlier in the thread that if you were watching an on-demand channel, and the recording of a channel started, then both could continue simultaneously. This would be impossible on a single-tuner TV.

Accordingly, I am expressing great scepticism that the TV thinks an app is just another TV channel.

And expressing the firm conviction that whatever the tuners on the set may or may not be doing (including being recorded from), this should have no bearing on whether an app, catchup player or not, will run or not. if this is happening, it’s either abominably bad design, or a bug. And probably the latter.