topic Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J in Android TV

Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 19:49:12 GMT

I have a USB hard drive plugged in to my XR55A80J for recording programmes on FreeSat. I set a recording up as being for the whole series by going to the programme guide, selecting the programme, choosing Record and selecting the option for the series.

The first episode records correctly. However, subsequent episodes in the series fail to record. In the Timer List, the title for subsequent episodes gets replaces with "Searching for next episode" and the date is shown as a non-existent date (Sat 2 Jan, whereas 2nd Jan was a Sunday).

Anyone else had this? Is there a fix for it?

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

E61DRC — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:02:39 GMT

I have the same problem and posted about it (but received no useful replies)

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/usb-series-recording/td-p/3822580

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 19:22:30 GMT

That's a shame. I've filled in a support form with Sony too, so I'll see if anything comes from that.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

HannahEd01 — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 11:16:17 GMT

Hey guys, as far as I know, recording satellite channels isn't supported in Sony TVs. Do let us know what comes from the Sony escalation.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 19:04:50 GMT

Sony says it records digital television and radio, which covers both FreeSat and FreeView. It doesn't differentiate between the two when it comes to recording.

Unfortunately it's still complete silence from Sony.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

HannahEd01 — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 15:14:14 GMT

Hey CinnamonJalapeno, I'm pretty sure that digital means Freview only.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

angelacr — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 15:39:10 GMT

I have a satellite box (Dreambox with openATV image) as my tuner and can record satellite(s) without problem. And clearly if the guy is trying record a series and gets only a single program Sony TV can record from satellite too. It just appears a bit messed up with scheduling.

Recommend getting a NON-SKY satellite box it makes life easier and you can put a 4 Tb drive inside most boxes these days. Change your LNB to a twin and run two cables. One to the satellite box and one to the TV, then you can record one channel and watch another, if need be, for very little extra cost.

Although having said all that I really don't record that much these days. Fast forwarding through adverts is doable but I prefer uninterrupted viewing so resort to downloading BBC and ITV content directly with yt-dlp. No adverts is brilliant for watching the likes of Vera

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 18:09:07 GMT

Analogue satellite broadcasts in the UK ended 20 years ago. FreeSat is most definitely, without any doubt whatsoever, digital television! Sony makes no distinction between FreeSat and FreeView in its documentation. Both are digital. It's also worth pointing out Sony doesn't specifically say it can record FreeView - it just says digital, which covers both.

As angelacr points out, the Sony can record FreeSat. It just fails to set the next episode in a series, meaning you have to remember to manually set every episode.

I have ended up purchasing a 2nd hand Humax FreeSat recorder which very reliably records FreeSat programmes, including whole series', and will record two channels simultaneously. It's disappointing that Sony has implemented it so badly.

The hardware seems to be excellent, and the third party software (from Google, and the apps from various companies including Apple, Amazon and Disney) are all good. However, the bits of software that Sony wrote are terrible. It's as if they are an afterthought to which they paid very little attention.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 18:11:39 GMT

@angelacr yt-dlp sounds interesting. Can you point me to some more information?

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

angelacr — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 13:34:07 GMT

Certainly; I find google.com the best of the search engine bunch.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 15:02:28 GMT

Or, you could just help the man, you know!

But, am glad he was able to find a workaround though by relying on that Humax recorder.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

angelacr — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 14:08:54 GMT

@Anonymous The problem with open-ended questions is, whilst wishing to be helpful, one has no idea of the starting level of the person asking the question. Self help, and if needed, follow-up questions from a position of some awareness, really is the only way to deal with the complexity of t'internet. IMHO

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 16:55:41 GMT

I mean sure, but you can also lead him on where to look exactly as a starting point, and not just Google, as this is a very general answer.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

angelacr — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 09:13:42 GMT

No. Google search is the way to go. There is no one website.

However I see your handle contains 404. That number signals a 'not found error' in http(s) responses, so maybe you're trying to tell us something?

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

HannahEd01 — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 14:30:26 GMT

Hey CinnamonJalapeno, I've contacted Sony to check and they said recording FreeSat is possible but not through the app. So which one are you using?

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 19:39:18 GMT

I’m not using any downloaded apps for recording, just the built-in native Sony functionality accessed from the Guide, as per the Sony User Manual.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

M1ck-65 — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 09:14:44 GMT

Where is the Freesat app, I cannot find it on the TV and the play store says it's not available for this TV.

Yet it states on Sony's own help pages that the a80j is compatible with the Freesat app.

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00183238

So what is going on.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

E61DRC — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 13:20:39 GMT

I have tried recording using the terrestrial tuner (Freeview) and get the same problem with series recordings.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

CinnamonJalapeno — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 19:15:36 GMT

Remarkable. It really is beginning to look like Sony didn't actually test their software to see if it did what it is supposed to do.

Re: Series recordings fail on XR55A80J

HannahEd01 — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 16:52:02 GMT

Hi guys, i think that it works only through the built in SAT not the app as it's working just fine here on my device.https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00183238
@M1ck-65 i found this article on their website that you might wanna check, it has the compatible models for the app: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00183238
i have the x85J with the software package version 6.4314, you guys might wanna check that you are on the latest software version.