Vtuner not working

[Rbell2010]

Hi

I have not been able to access vtuner since Friday 5th September, I reported it to sony yesterday and the reply was "Unfortunately, our systems are currently down for maintenance and will be up and running within 24 hours, Please feel free to contact us again at that time.". 

Has anyone else not been able to access vtuner for 4days, it seems that being reliant on just one internet radio supplier may be like putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Having not had the internet radio service for 4 days I feel this is unacceptable, does anyone feel the same?

[BollyDave]

I've just spent a little while trawling the net for other cases where users are running into problems. In an effort to consolidate our frustrations and increase awareness I've provided info based on our experiences and shared a link to this page. Amongst them is issitedownrightnow.com at Is It Down Right Now vTuner and Community.Sony.Com

[BollyDave]

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@SoKneeVictim wrote:

I've written to Kaz Hirai, CEO of Sony, on this issue. In case anyone wants to follow suit, his email addy is xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Whilst I'm not expecting him to come flying back with a response, I've often found its better to start at the top and work down rather than the reverse. If I were Kaz I'd be sacking half of the inept customer service muppets for a start. That should help Sony save a few yen and improve thier bottom line.

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I've done the same, asking why it is that a company as large as Sony, with the resources at its disposal seems defeated by this issue.

[SoKneeVictim]

Thanks to ictagtoo and Pascale_F regarding the email addy. Good advice.

Just so as the spam bots don't pick up on it the address is kazuo dot hirai at jp dot sony dot com.

[aja007]

Hi BollyDave,

I've emailed him, or rather forwarded him my email to John Anderson, Sony UK's Head of Country, which Mr Anderson ha decided to ignore.

Hopefully Kaz is an honourable Japanese gentleman and resolves this matter asap!

[Olivier-Moreau]

I purchased the amp for that feature and it was working very well!

It stops all the suden (5 sept) and after searching for more than a week what was wrong (network connection, upgrade firmware, full reset, etc..) I found the news published the 16th that :

As of September 5, 2014, the vTuner Internet Radio application is not currently available on Sony products.

https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/50266/c/65,66/p/41901,43145,76516/

This is not correct at all. There is not even the possibility to choose other DNLA source on that equipment.

The product is still under waranty and I should return it to the supplier because the blue button "SEN" is no longer working.

[Technaudio]

Same problem with SA-NS410 speaker. As this is the only Internet radio service this device can use, it's bad that it's stopped working. It would be nice if while sony are apparently working on a fix, if they could allow us to use an alternative service, or better still, allow me to throw audio from my Sony phone to the speaker.

[wilsonmfw]

Do you use your speaker with a Sony amp like the str dn 1040?

[drdeej]

You should be able to throw audio onto your SA-NS410 Speaker as that is
what I am having to do at the moment. You have 3 options.

1. Using the Sony Throw add-on (when it works) inside the Android Walkman
app select your speaker and audio will stream to the speaker. Requires WiFi.
2. Use a third party uPNP app like Neutron. You can stream custom stored
radio direct to the speaker.
3. Use Line-In on the back of the speaker to connect an analog source.

I know we shouldn't have to do this but its a workaround for now.

Sent via my Sony Xperia™ Tablet Z running Android 4.4.2

[BollyDave]

Whilst it's interesting to read of the creativity some are applying to the issue, I'm asking myself why the hell we should have to do this in the first place. In my case, there is no workaround, and I'm now getting really hacked off at the poor handling of the issue by Sony. Their handling demonstrates a complete lack of customer care.

I'm giving this until mid next week, and if there's no input from Sony, will be approaching my retailer for refund or upgrade to something that actually works.

What has really pushed me to the edge is assessing how much time I've put into this, and got precisely nowhere.

If someone can tell me which part of that is right I'm all ears, but it seems we are all being ignored and that's just offensive.

[Technaudio]

@Wilson @deej @dave

It's a standalone network speaker, I bought it specifically for the Internet radio feature. I don't keep music on my phone, and the throw function on Walkman is a bit hit and miss, seems to work a little better in 4.4.4 but still, as other people have said, we shouldn't have to work around a feature that was native to the product. Also, the alternative apps available that I've tried so far, all seem a bit clunky, not tried neutron yet.

Finally, I'm not one of those people that cries I'll never buy sony again, as I do actually like the products, I have quite a few, but again, as this is the only inbuilt function to play radio on this, and many other devices, sony really should put it quite high on their priority list.

And, as I bought mine second hand from amazon, as the SA-NS410 seems quite hard to get hold of in UK, I don't have the option of returning it to sony.