Android TV - why Youview has lead us into limited Catch up TV and poor Programme Guides

[CRFX22]

Yes, Sony boasts about how slim the slimmest point in the new Android 2015/16 TVs and the design marvels. I purchased my first Sony TV in 1987 and has been a Sony fan ever since because I love the built quality and ease of use that comes with it. 

What I cannot understand is why and how Sony has got the user interface of new Android 2015/16 TVs so wrong? I do not deny the new TVs look amazing but what is the point if it doesn’t deliver what it is supported to do. Who the hell decided to deeply integrate Youview without giving due consideration to the Catch up TV apps or the Programme Guide. Luckily, the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 operate independently of Youview. However, the ITV Hub and 4OD do not. Please do not make us buy an Amazon Fire Stick to watch the Catch up TV on Sony.

Then come the Programme Guides which are often blank without any information and half-finished coding. Forget about your favourite channel lists because you cannot access them! Even to set a programme timer (if you are lucky) or set the sleep timer, you are required to spare several clicks.

This is a disaster. Please sack the team who are responsible for this utter failure. Please make this is a pure Android TV with improved satellite and Freeview TV guides and most importantly get rid of Youview and Opera as core apps or browser. Your unfit, unskilled and unqualified team has tried to integrate too many things to cover up their own weaknesses and as a result has left us, the customers in a mess! Please keep us updated with when the new updates are due and what improvements are likely to be achieved.

[royabrown]

There is a fond belief that YouView has somehow taken the ITV Hub and All4 apps for itself, and thus deprived these Sony TVs of having them independently.

This belief is mistaken.

Look across the entire Sony range - there isn't a TV, BluRay player or what-have-you with these Players, except for the Android TVs where these Players are brought to you by the good offices of YouView.

And I don't understand your beef about the Programme Guides. Whether Freeview or YouView, mine populate just fine. Are you sure your aerial and internet connection are up to snuff?

Finally, there is no need to buy an Amazon Firestick, as Amazon is built in.

What is missing, and is worth buying a separate box for, is NowTV, the one principal service missing from these TVs. This will also bring with it a full panoply of Players.

Or you can just cast these services from a tablet or smartphone, if you have one handy, via the inbuilt virtual ChromeCast device.

Your choice....

[djmickey83]

Hi!

I have a kdl-50w809C. I use only Freewiev (non UK Model). I am having the same problem with partiali populated Program Guide. If I select that ype of channel it will populate the Guide.

Or if I restart the Guide or the complete TV, the Guide will be populated for some time.

[CRFX22]

Thank you for your response. Hope you are not working for Youview! It only shows your lack of first hand experience with the new Sony 2016 XD94 / XD93 4K HDR with Android TV range and the feature that come with it. The activation of Youview disables "NOTE: HDD recording (REC) and Satellite features are not available if the YouView functionality is enabled." Source: http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-hn/prd-tvhc/youview-launch-4-November You cannot open the ITV Hub and 4OD without activating Youview. There is no Amazon TV or a Fire Stick app to download but an Amazon Video App! The point is not being able to cast catch up TV from your mobile phone which I already do but the convenience of having all in one yet run independently. I mainly use Freesat and Freeview for local channels. Why would I want to loose Freesat in favour of Youview that offers a limited number of channels ??? The problem is people who think like you get jobs in programming and user interface designing at Sony!

[CRFX22]

I use both Freesat and Freeview. Freesat is almost blank but you get few listings with details on Freeview. Digital means you either get signals or not so it is not a problem with your satellite or aerial reception but the actual TV guides and the coding behind it! 

[Anonymous]

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@CRFX22 wrote:
Thank you for your response. Hope you are not working for Youview! It only shows your lack of first hand experience with the new Sony 2016 XD94 / XD93 4K HDR with Android TV range and the feature that come with it. !

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Hi there

That is a rather passive/agressive negative response.  Royabrown, like myself and everyone else on this forum are not employees and dedicate our freetime in order to help or answer your questions.  Im not too sure on your intentions, but 'attacking' people will not encourage others to answer your questions.

Anyhow, seeing how you have the XD93 or XD94 model, it matters not in regards to your questions.  All Android TVs whether from 2015 or 2016 function the same way.  It has been no secret that disabling YouView enables HDD recording via the other EPG but also disables ITV Hub and 4OD and vice versa.

None of Sonys TVs, whether its android based or not has FreeSat even though they have an internal satellite tuner.  So the EPG will only be very basic.

Im not too sure about your beef about a lack of Amazon TV/Fire Stick app.  The TV and Firestick are totally different products.  Anyhow, it is up to individual companies whether they wish to have an app on these TVs, not Sony.

Cheers

[MiCal1967]

Hi

The problems with the GUIDE is a known issue. It happens only after a soft reboot of the TV or after a power loss(unplug from mains or electricity problem).

The only way to access GUIDE information is to select your channel and then this channel and all channels that use the same TP frequency will show up information. This is a little bit silly but this is how it works. THERE IS NO option to dowload all TP's guide at once and there is no Cached Information stored for GUIDE after a reboot.

We have not yet figured out who is responsible for all those problems with these televisions, Sony or Android programmers, but most of them are reported daily or:

https://community.sony.gr/t5/televisions/2015-android-tv-bugs-and-issues/td-p/2040020

and we wait for solutions. If there will ever be solutions for all of them.

There are no professionals or Sony employees inside this forum. Just people that give some help because of their experience.

Professionals or Programmers from Sony are Unfortunately Missing. Could be Japanese or US, but not EU or UK.

The truth of course, is that there are problems. None can say the opposite

[royabrown]

Thank you Quinnicus for that stout defence.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should perhaps state that I am a long-time user of YouView in PVR form, and I have an affection for YouView accordingly. But I am just a user of YouView - not even a Champion on their Community, as I wish to be free to criticise YouView whenever I think fit. And I do.

And this carries over to Youzview on these Sony TVs, of which I have a 43in UHD non-3D model since its introduction in 2015, so perhaps just a little more practical  experience of these sets than you, @CRFX22.

And you will find, CRFX22, if you read my past posts, that I make no secret either of my disappointments with these sets, or of the experience of YouView on them, while still recognising their good points.

Of which the demotion, last Xmas, of the Sony from the lounge to my study, in favour of a Samsung, since my family politely but firmly declined to put up with the idiosyncrasies (for which read 'bugs and unreliability') of the Sony during our Xmas viewing, is a most tangible example.

However, I am not going to let you, or anybody else, traduce YouView on these sets on incorrect or spurious grounds, and I have replied accordingly.

Perhaps when you have done your homework thoroughly enough to know that these sets do not possess FreeSat, you will also have done it well enough to know what is really wrong with these sets, In and out of YouView, and can write some things that I will be unable to disagree with.

Until then, grasshopper, I should value it if you would kindly stop insulting me from your current position of unassailable ignorance.