You View or Not Viewing

[Carl13]

Ok so I was having problems with my Sony XR65A80JU which I bought from Costco first identified in first year of purchase but Sony engineers only work when people are at work so by the time I was able to get it fixed, new main board, it was past the one year.

After having the new main board fitted and re installing my apps and off loading the unwanted ones I thought things were all good. 
But there began the problem.

Originally I when I first bought the TV we had full use of all the U.K. catch up services, BBC iplayer and the others, without having to have You View forced upon us.

Now I can’t use these apps and some functions on the remote control have stopped working, unless I use You view which I choose not to but the Sony Communist Corporation Dictate that there is no choice. 
Why after buying MY TV am I, and I’m sure many others, want to use THEIR TV as they choose, and not be blackmailed into using something they don’t want to use to have the full function we paid for.

So comrades at Sony I await your response.

[royabrown2]

@Carl13 

Look in Sony Select for the ‘missing’ apps, and run them from there.

Which remote functions work only with YouView (Live & Catchup TV)?

If still no go, consider that the major repair may have been incomplete, or carried out incorrectly, and proceed accordingly.

Don't worry that the year is over - the repair must have come with its own guarantee, and even if less than a year, it shouldn’t have run out yet,

[Carl13]

The apps are still on the tv but do not work unless I use you view which out of personal choice I don’t want to and being that I am a U.K. tv licence holder I pay for this service which the SCC are dictating how I use this and taking away my personal choice of how I can use things I have paid for.If Sony wish to pay the U.K. Licence fee then they can dictate but they don’t so they should stop dictating, maybe there is some legal breach that could be looked into.

On first purchasing the tv and with You View disabled, by me, all apps work and all remote functions worked, so we can only assume that either the new main board is at fault or the software driving the board is stopping them, either way it is a SonyCommunistCorporation issue, that after trawling the internet I am finding this a widespread problem.

You View should be a stand alone choice not a forced only choice.

[LightFoot]

Hi @Carl13 

Lets be very clear here, on Google TV (XR-65A80J) there is absolutely no need to use or disable YouView to use the iPlayers.

You simply change your default TV App by going to Settings -> Channels & Inputs -> TV button shortcut-> Digital -> Select your default TV app for Digital -> TV (not Live TV & Catch Up).

If that option is not available, then they have put in the wrong main board and you have been downgraded to Android TV.

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00200248

[Carl13]

Hello @LightFoot 

First of when restarting tv Google TV logo comes on and it says Google tv in top right of Home Screen.

Next, TV button is assigned TV and still can’t us any of the iPlayers or use the red and green buttons unless I enable Youview then they all work.

So why does your info differ from my reality?

strange also that the SCC don’t allow Freeview Play on this tv again forcing product purchasers down their Youview path?

[LightFoot]

Hi @Carl13 

I have two Google TVs, a KD-43X49J and a XR-55A93K. I use the iPlayers all the time. On mine, there is absolutely no requirement to use Live TV & Catchup to view the iPlayers. I have both set to TV.

I suspect that something is wrong with your TV, if it does not do the same. What is your software version, it should be v6.7240? Does it say Live TV & Catchup or YouView?

I recommend that you contact Sony Support, because something is just not right.

https://services.sony.co.uk/supportmvc/en/Contact/Email?cat=televisions-projectors2&tab=Tips

Reading your original post it appears that Google TV used to work as expected. The new main board has changed something.

[royabrown2]

@Carl13 @LightFoot 

Sony can supply a TV with any features present, or absent, that they like, as long as they accurately describe them as such. Then it’s up to the buyer to evaluate whether they want that TV, with those features, or not. And if not, they can choose from a plethora of other makes and models. Last time I looked, anyway.

(I know you have an issue with lost features, which I will come back to in a bit, but first we need to lay out the ground rules for a working TV).

So initially, Sony Android TVs were sold with the clear understanding that the All4 and itv Hub apps only ran on the YouView side, and also that channels 3 and 4 on the TV needed to have been tuned in on a terrestrial aerial before they would work.

Since 2015, it’s been a long, slow, walk back to the sensible arrangement that these two apps will work, terrestrial aerial or not, YouView side or Freeview side.

Including a lacuna on the 2021 models until just short of Xmas, when they wouldn’t work/weren’t provided at all.

At least it isn’t like Freeview Play, where either the TV comes with it or it doesn’t, and user, or even manufacturer, installation  after purchase simply isn’t possible.

But if you want Freeview Play, then Sony can sell you a set with that on. Only their 32-incher, but the option is there.

Now, apropos of the lost features, you say the Players “don’t work”. But that can cover a multitude of possibilities; how, exactly, don’t they work? Error message? No response? Endless buffering? Or what?

[Carl13]

Hi @royabrown2 @LightFoot 

For sure I know that buyer beware and due diligence was done, I store confirmed all would run as stand alone, no you view required.

So for over 1 year we have used the TV and all the iPlayer, ITV, C4 & 5 with Youview disabled.

The problems with the tv started with an unrelated problem which ended in a new main board being fitted that is when it started to be Youview or your not viewing the players.

so as @LightFoot rightly says, something as changed from the main board replacement and I now have a TV I didn’t buy so to speak.

What is happening with the players? We see the app logo and select it then nothing, just stays on the Home Screen, if we select the green or red button from BBC iPlayer we get the live sound and a full screen logo of iPlayer and to go back to home then tv as pressing back yields no response.

But if I enable Youview everything works, but that is not the TV I would have originally purchased 

[royabrown2]

@Carl13 @LightFoot 

Thanks for the extra detail on what happens when you try to use the players. It does confirm that the TV is faulty, and came back from the repair not working like it did when you bought it, and nor how it should if repaired properly.  It sounds like some mismatch between the players, which are present, and whatever is enforcing the YouView rules, an apparent throwback to the pre-2020 setup.

And you are certainly entitled to have this fixed properly, at no expense to yourself, so get on to whoever ‘fixed’ it - Sony? Costco? - and complain.

But some of your other comments, as to what features a TV should or shouldn’t have as sold, or should or shouldn’t be able to be post-installed, were, I thought, a little wide of the mark, as I explained 😢