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.

[Scallygally]

I've had it up to here with this TV. Takes an age to change channels, constantly rebooting, Android TV that performs worse than a £20 android box from China. £999 down the drain. The wife is going spare because it won't do the simplest of tasks which is change TV channels. I can't knock the picture, as that is superb but come on Sony, at least get the basics right.

[angelacr]

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stillymanj wrote: 

For such a smart device, it seems to have many floors in it.   

This is true on so many levels.

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[Bufohunter]

What a relief - I'm finally  free of the heap of rubbish at last. Took it back to Currys yesterday with just two days of the 30 day period remaining. They were reluctant to take it back at first (as you might expect), but when I mentioned lip sync on Freeview HD to the store's Sony Expert (it said so on the back of his T shirt) things changed very quickly and I was offered a refund. They didn't even open the box to check it. It could have been filled with a pile of bricks for all they knew. Of course I wouldn't do something so dishonest...after all a pile of bricks would be more useful.

The set (50W809) had spent nearly three weeks back in its box, only coming out briefly on the 10th for the update which seemed to make no difference.

The final straw came when Sony Support finally got back to me, not within the 48 hours as promised, but after two further phone calls, an email and 16 days, with a truly inspired way of curing the lip sync fault. One of the suggestions was to try tuning the TV without an antenna connected! You couldn't make it up.

What a pity the picture was so good. It's going to be hard to find another set with equal picture quality for that sort of price.

My set suffered from many of the problems listed in this thread plus one rather alarming one that I haven't seen mentioned here. I had a Sony 100W subwoofer connected to the audio out socket to augment the tinny speakers and it sounded rather good. That was until I settled down one evening to hopefully enjoy some relaxing TV. On pressing the on button on the remote I was blasted out of the chair by the full 100 watts of bass.

I've never leaped out of a chair so fast in my life. Goodness knows what the neighbours thought. Only a mains power cycle restored normal operation. One to watch out for.

I wish all of you long suffering Sony owners success with your endeavours, and of course a very merry Christmas to all.

[lgcebr]

Peter_S, can you tell us about the fixes that Sony doesn't mention in its latest email?  Such as:

1). Getting 5.1 sound on the Amazon Video app

2). Implementing the red / green buttons as page up/ down on Freeview EPG 

3). Fixing when the TV simply refuses to turn on for a while

4). The random "video format" message popping up on screens

5). Ensuring apps don't hog memory;

6). The extended time it takes for the TV to turn on and show selected source

7). The muting kicking in every time the TV is switched on

8). ITV and C4 catch up apps not working on the home screen.

These surely count as basic stability and function.

Your Technical Support rang me a few weeks ago following me asking about 5.1 sound on Amazon and said it would be in a December update.  Is this true or yet more misinformation, smoke and mirrors to mislead and string along paying customers?  Surely Amazon 5.1 is standard and not a new thing for Sony to implement.

Sony's latest email (today) was astonishing in what it didn't mention.  Can you get some answers for us from Sony please.  I assume someone at Sony is actually managing this post-sale "repair" job.  Sony are lucky that customers so far have been restrained about going public about this fiasco.  How much longer you can rely on goodwill is questionable.

So, as always, thanks for your participation but can we get answers to the above please?  After all I have only been waiting 7 months for the "stability" Sony says it is committed to.

[nodrog47]

sony quality

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/quality/management/

seems 4k android tv,s do not come under this

[AndersRask]

Does anyone else have problems detecting receiver over ARC after latest (dec 2015) firmware update?

My X90C refuses to detect my STR-DN860. This worked fine before updating -nothing else changed! 😞

[stillymanj]

This is my email to support re my TV not connecting to my Sony BDP-S370: Has anyone else had issues with connecting this TV to a HD YouView (BT TV) box or Sony Blu-Ray player? 

Thanks for your email.

I have reset the TV and this has made no difference. It actually caused me more issues as the TV was displaying "No signal" when connecting to my YouView box. After a few resets of both the TV and YouView box, they finally started talking. I had the same issue when I first installed the TV just over 3 weeks ago.

The BD player still displays no signal, after briefly displaying the Sony Blu-Ray on the screen. The Toshiba BD player connects fine over the same HDMI cable.

I am getting increasing concerned about this TV and in particular the flakey Android OS. I have also joined the Sony community and the thread about the Android TV's is huge and very concerning. It appears that there are several issues with this OS.

I look forward to your response and next troubleshooting steps. It seems crazy that Sony to Sony devices can't talk.

Ps the BD players firmware is on the latest as well.

Thanks

[baz4096]

@stillymanj I have the exact same model of blu-ray player BDP-S370 with no issues at all. Mine's hooked up with a standard hdmi cable (Asda own brand I suspect) into hdmi 1. I've manually set the input label and the blu-ray is able to power the TV up/control volume etc. The only issue I get is occasionally the input doubles up on the home screen (Player_1 shows as well as Blu-Ray)

Chris

[adyjay33]

Yea blah blah blah.... they can write all they want about how they have done this and done that but if its not working then it means nothing.

Sony are a company that in my opinion is near the end of its life, I am sure that many of the TV's in Tesco's etc... are probably better than the ones Sony sells, I am concerned about the longevity of these TV,s and that fact that they are now so out of date that they will stop supporting them soon.

Where does that leave the customer who has waited and waited for an update to come only to find Sony keeps putting it back thus as has been mentioned it eats into the return periods and warranties which will make it almost impossible to return the item without a fight on your hands.

Sony know of these problems and thus should address them and compensate those that have had the issues these TV.s have given to others.

Words are meaning less in this situation, action is everything. I expect its delayed as the one person doing the programing is on leave or mummy has picked them up from the Sony nursery.

Do you buy a car then find out after you bought it that the engine will arrive in 6 months?

No you don't so don't expect to buy a TV that has none of the features it was advertised to have and if they are coming then just throw a dice and hope it lands on the number you think of as its basically a lottery!

Sony come and talk to us properly and give out a statement about these TV.s and what you intend to do and apologise to the many people who have put up with your poor quality control in putting out a TV that is not fit for purpose!

This morning again I went to watch the TV, a simple thing to do, my old Samsung just did the job it was designed to do, however my 1K TV refused to come on after several attempts, then eventually woke up, got stuck with a black screen and no sound, tired to reboot it and it kept going back to the black screen, eventually got it going only for it to lock up on the wrong channel as it refused all commands from the remote, somehow after ten minutes trying and a reboot later it came on.... great I thought, tried to change from the channel it started back up on again and it locked up once more, another reboot later and I finally got onto the channel I wanted, the lip sync was out on HD so I decided I had run out of time and had to go to work.

Should anyone put up with these problems?

No and that's why this is going back after Xmas!

Sony your TV's are rubbish!

Premium brand?

Piece of junk brand, even my mobile phone can show live streaming and that's far more reliable!

Why is my question, in this day and age have you produced a lemon of a TV and expect the public to beta test it for you?

Useless... I'm gonna stop now as I feel so let down, disappointed, ripped off, sad, angry and many other negative feelings towards Sony that my reviews will not hesitate to display the contempt you have shown your customers, and yes we are customers and that's how Sony grew, sadly treat them like this and watch Sony shrink! 

[kimboman84]

Finally registered after weeks of reading this thread with great interest. I own a 43x8309c and on a daily basis have to put up with the common issues listed here such as Optical output lag, slow remote response, random restarts etc.

It seems to me that everyone on this forum, to your credit, has been more than patient with Sony and has allowed way way way more than enough time for them to formally comment on these issues, and more importantly to fix the issues and implement features that were advertised at the time of sale. To not have these features at the time of sale is bad....to still not have these features or even a stable TV months later is purely unacceptable. Yet still no formal response from Sony.

I have tried to remain level headed as my frustration grew in the hope that Sony would address these issues/missing features promptly and I don't want to go off an a random rant asking for employees to be fired or other similar statements which won't help the matter. A level head is a far better response I feel.

However I do feel that purely using this forum allows Sony to ignore us. In today's world, public Social Media seems to be the way to draw attention to a company who refuse to provide an acceptable level of Customer Service. There are many examples online of airlines, food chains, hotels etc. who are forced into providing a response and solution once details of their bad customer service start to appear online and damage their Social Media presence.

My suggestion is to start Tweeting (and Facebooking) Sony's social media profiles using a common hashtag. Sending tweets with the details of the issues we are having and ensuring to tag Sony's online accounts in the tweet or Facebook post. For maximum effectiveness we should all use a common hashtag such as...

#fixMyTvSony

For example....

"@sonyuk many months & still no Android Bravia HDD recording #fixMyTvSony"

"@sonyuk still waiting on a fix for HDMI optical lip sync issues on my Android Bravia TV #fixMyTvSony"

If we all use a common hashtag then you can easily search Twitter to see how many people are trying to get Sony to fix these issues.

I still think we should continue to use this forum as the community support between members has been fantastic along with the great help from Quinnicus and Peter which has been massively helpful, however I feel that Twitter/Facebook can be an additional tool at our disposal and will maybe help to bring our frustrations into a more public domain which may force a Sony response and hopefully resolution.

Anyway it's just a suggestion and I for one will be doing the above, however feel free to shoot the idea down