[Discussion] Sony TVs (2016) software update PKG6.0614
Philip Trott
Posts: 1,040Administrator admin
Hi all,
Please feel free to discuss the new Sony TV software update PKG6.0614 in this discussion thread.
Please feel free to discuss the new Sony TV software update PKG6.0614 in this discussion thread.
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A direct link to the update would be:-
https://support.youview.com/youview-o...
I'm told the 2016s are selling very well, but it would be interesting to know, if figures are available, what percentage of owners of these and the 2015 sets are using the YouView EPG rather than the Freeview one.
I monitor the Android TV threads on the Sony UK forum, with a particular focus on mentions of YouView - which nobody from YouView seems to do, at least not visibly, black mark there, and I seem to be a lone voice...
But YouView doesn't come up much any more, except for the occasional person reporting that it killed his satellite tunings. And people blaming YouView for being the only home for the ITV Hub and All4 on these sets, as if YouView was somehow preventing Sony doing a deal to licence them on the Freeview side :-(
Nor does it update much; Phil, when was the last time there was any YouView content in a Sony update for these sets?
They are much more stable than they used to be though. Not quite so many howls of protest these days, which is good, though juddering on 4K has been a big issue until recently.
But even though the Sony Android platform is largely stable, the YouView impetus seems to me to have entirely petered out; and nobody even talks about YouView being able to record on these sets any more.
So do we have a misfire here, or are better days still to come?
If it had Freesat I'd use that (probably)(maybe)
If the recording features were unlocked for Freesat or YouView I'd use those
Software updates could make this a much better TV than it is.
I guess all the attention will be on 4K capable sets.
My set will be slowly in decline as Sony & YouView will not see it as a viable use of time updating.
The 1st step has begun with updates to the 2016 sets. Leaving us with inferior software and a gap which may only widen.
And lots of the 2015 sets are 4K capable (mine is) so if attention is paid to 4K, then attention is paid to the 2K sets as well, as there has not yet been a release aimed at some 2015 sets, but not others.
And even if there were, it would still not necessarily be the writing on the wall..
But at the moment, these sets are slightly better than the combination of a regular TV with a YouView zapper box, whereas I think the original target, hopefully still a target, was for them, when a hard disc is plugged in, to be slightly different from the combination of a regular TV and a YouView box; better in some respects, perhaps unavoidably slightly worse in others.
But the whole project seems to have just stalled :-(
But if you have anything in particular you'd like to compare feel free to ask.
Looking forward to getting the NG release on my retail T2000 even if it has niggles.
No, as both Sony & YouView have given a commitment to keep updates coming for the life of the TV. Another first for YouView. Because no other smart TV will.
And Roy, theres another update available if you want it...
For which, as we have seen here and many times on YouView, there does not actually need to have been a recent update for the claim to be made :-)
https://community.youview.com/youview...
for how to access the Freeview EPG on these Sony TVs.
The whole piece there compares YouView on a box with YouView on these TVs; I wrote it shortly after the 2015 sets were launched to the public, and updated it about four months ago, and I believe it is still current, even for the 2016 sets.
But if you spot any errors, omissions or discrepancies, please let me know and I will tweak it further.
The HD upscaling is very good, but SD not so much. But the set only has to invent 3 out of 4 pixels for HD, whereas on SD it needs to invent 15 out of 16, which is a slightly bigger ask:-)
Some of the YouTube stuff looks quite good, some not so, but none of it compares with the Astra demo you can get over satellite, if you have it, which is the real deal.
'Niggles' is a good word for the current state of NextGen; despite the apocalyptic doom-laden negative comments you see on here, most of the people making these comments don't actually have NextGen to try out, and so they are extrapolating '15 out of 16 pixels' from online reviews and a few screenshots.
In practice, it's perfectly workable and remarkably stable, but not as streamlined yet as it will get to be, nor even as full-featured as CurrentGen.
But my wife, who thinks that YouView is for watching stuff instead of playing about with, has never once asked for CurrentGen back (which is fortunate, as you can't go back), though she has hit some of the niggles, like drilling down about three levels to find a recording of an episode in a series to watch, and then being shot out of the cannon at the end of the recording back to live TV, and then having to drill back down to delete that episode and watch the next.
Which is doable, but not as seamless as it should be, and no doubt soon will be :-)
I think my KDL43W809CBU, will hopefully have a useful and interesting update, not that stability isn't welcome.
I just see my set as lower priority than others, rightly or wrongly and some others may feel the same.
4K TV users of YouView from Sony I feel will be better off.
Time will tell....