Is the satellite tuner on the Sony XH85 range any good?

championc

Or invest in noise cancelling headphones !!!

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118193416#Comment_118193416

When they invent CHILD cancelling headphones I'll be at the top of the queue!!

lenovo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117269552#Comment_117269552

Hi, just wondering how to I get into this menu? Do I need to do a full reset of the tv?

I have already set it up as Ireland only.

I can enter the Initial setup in the menu but it doesn't let me repick a region.

vidapura

Yah its a major pain in the butt

Won't work that way.. You have to find the factory Reset in the menus and start from scratch again.

(It only takes about 15 mins in all tho.)

Just remember to do it in the right sequence.. (see great instructions there from @byte ), enter you email and all that ..opt then eventually you get to set the country to ireland and tune the digital channels.

Then go back to country-pick and select uk.. have a postcode on hand.. and go forward and tune the freeview channels.. (NOT the satellite )

When that is done just continue on to the end.. dont do like I did and double back to set country code to ireland again.. that fecks it all up and you have to start all over again.. yee.. voice of experience here...

For me it didn't appear to have worked at all for a few mins.. then suddenly that awful YouView thing popped up.

I then hit Home and selected TV and then when I had a look at the satellite EPG it was all populated..

lenovo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118211581#Comment_118211581

Cheers for that. I had got the BBC iPlayer and a few other apps sideloaded so will be annoying to have to reinstall them. I even deleted the downloaded files... Oh well...

Do you still see RTE Player and TG4 apps even with it set to UK? I'm being a bit greedy and want every thing.

Could you see all your channels even when you did the first satellite tune? I'm missing most. Gave one ITV but no BBC. Might be a dish issue or something.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058219343/missing-satellite-channels-on-sony-tv#latest

vidapura

 I had got the BBC iPlayer and a few other apps sideloaded so will be annoying to have to reinstall them. I even deleted the downloaded files... Oh well...

Interesting.. did the iPlayer work for you without a VPN ?? I installed it off the play store there and it looks for an account??

I dunno didn't look at it for too long..

If you sideloaded.. you had a 'special' version did you? Do tell!!

Do you still see RTE Player and TG4 apps even with it set to UK? I'm being a bit greedy and want every thing.

Yeah, I was worried bout that but its fine, I got the RTE Player, Virgin player and TG4 player installed from Google Play store.

Was thrilled to be able to set the menu language to english on TG4 app too... lol..

Could you see all your channels even when you did the first satellite tune? I'm missing most. Gave one ITV but no BBC. Might be a dish issue or something.

Not sure if you mean off Satellite or Freeview..

When I was first trying this I did a Satellite tune and got loads of channels. (bout 900 if I chose All and about 300 if I chose only non-encypted)

Then to get the proper EPG I did @byte's instructions and chose to tune FreeView instead. That has a few ITVs and BBC's.. regional ones etc.

Oh lookin at your link there.. ehhh.. no I didn't have that hassle.. I have all the BBC's, ITV's , UTV, Channel 4, More 4 etc.. and thats with an old sky dish that was here when we bought the house 5 years ago.. rusty lookin ould thing but so far it works great.. the odd channel doesn't work great in daylight.. Japanese channel.. but they tend to work fine at night.. Oh, S4C is not workin for me..

All in all.. I dunno.. 200 maybe?

lenovo1

I followed these instructions for the iPlayer.

Needs a vpn. There are apps in the store that work.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.androidpolice.com/2020/10/16/heres-the-new-bbc-iplayer-app-for-chromecast-with-google-tv-apk-download/amp/

i think I need to solve my other issue with the channels missing first before I redo it all.

I have sky for now but want to have an alternative system running well when we send back the Q box.

deezell

I'm in the same boat with iplayer, Apple TV app, etc. which would be a pain to reinstall, I sideloaded as set wouldn't allow install with the wrong ip location, then added DNS service to get it to stream. You'll need to open a BBC account also. As for Saorview with the set in region UK, it's 2 minutes work to sort and list the Digital scan from the 800s to 1 to 10. Funny, just last night I accidentally retuned Digital while trying out Google 'Live Channels' app (pointless app). It rescanned my digital and messed up my saorview epg, but it's super quick to reset/reorder the channel nos 1 to 10. You won't get automatic retuning of Saorview though, so channels may shift or get different ids and you'll have to rescan.

RTE player, VIrgin media player work fine, there's an issue with All4 player app iirc, it's part of YouView and doesn't work, but its on an Apple TV box I got free as a standalone app, so its fine.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117177093#Comment_117177093

I've reposted the above regarding Iplayer. I found that a VPN didn't work, Iplayer server knew that the requests were not UK based. What did work was DNS hiding, using "unlocator" as described in the quoted text. Small subscription, but I've used the settings on three devices, TV phone and tablet, all can now use iplayer.

Some tasty stuff there. Season two of 'His dark Materials' if you like the old Sci Fi, or have read Pullmans masterpiece. 'Missions', a French made allegorical tale of a Musk/Bezos like race to Mars, deliciously complex and with a killer theme tune. 'Dead Pixels' is hilarious, and current given the nonsensical uttering of facebook Meta-bolix man Zuckerberg on the virtual universe. Happy streaming.

vidapura

I've had no problem installing IPlayer etc on the sony KD-55XH9005

Running it is a different story however.. heh...

The Irish players are all workin fine.

My yoke has two satellite connections.. presumably to work with a dual lnb.

My vote for a TV series worth lookin at is For All Mankind.. I really enjoyed the first coupla seasons.. hopefully more on the way.

deezell

FYI. I recently had to invoke Sony warranty over dark shading on the side edges and top left and right, like a backlighting issue. It was only noticeable on brighter flat image like cartoons (son copped it over Xmas on Cocomelons, put on for an addicted 11 month old). Once I seen it I couldn't unsee it. A call to Power City brought a call from Sony service agents BAVS.ie, who viewed the image and declared a panel fault. This meant a replacement set from Sony as they don't replace panels. That took a few weeks, chap arrived out with new set, same model, just about could get one as the xh9005 has been updated to XJ series. Full marks Sony.

So I've had to start from scratch with all my apps and tuning, but a chance to use Byte's tuning bodge. Everything went well, Digital tuner to Saorview, then UK Freesat scan There's no way of saving off various user passwords to disk, so all subs had to be retyped in, Google, Apple, Netflix, BBC etc. Another surprise, the hard disk for recording had to be reformatted, it's securely paired to TV and won't work in another set. I had no recordings to speak of anyway, but this could be a disaster for timeshift/pvr fans if their set fails.

I'd had ongoing issues with Freesat epg being slow to display, often only on the channel selected, and only now next. This problem repeated with the new set, and I figured it must be to do with only having one sat feed (the other still in the Linux box). I decided to run the satellite tune also, which unlike an Irish region tune comes in fully sorted, abeit now/next, but with Ch4 HD in place of the SD version. When I completed this scan, an odd thing happened. Freesat EPG came to life and populated, up to a days programmes, and on virtually all displayed channels. Odder still, I changed to the new satellite list, and it's epg was fully populated, 7 days, and on the full list of Astra free channels, not just the Freesat set. All the genres populate too, Movies, Sport etc. Best of all, Most Watched shows all your, well, most watched channels, across tuners, so I've no need to build a mixed list, its been mostlydone for me. Tuning the astra satellite must have tuned in the EPG data channels, and provided a source for the EPG which was not happening on my initial Freesat scans. It's like having a different set. I am happy.

columt

Hi @deezell - how has your experience been with Freesat EPG over the last couple of months since your satellite re-tune? I ask cos despite dual sat feeds, my Sony Google TV's Freesat EPG remains erratic.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118989671#Comment_118989671

It was too good to be true. I watch very little on Freesat tbh, and usually when I do it's on a stream from my Linux box to a tablet late at night. It was when looking for a HD source for one of the 6 nations matches which otherwise was only on Sub SD on Virgin Media (TV3), that I noticed the EPG had vanished, on both satellite and Freesat. As previously, selecting various channels would bring on now/next, for it and maybe others, the odd channel might stretch to a full days programs. Erratic describes it perfectly. The only way to get it to work, for a while anyway, was to rescan Freesat, which fortunately is fast. This seems to restore full 7 day epg. I think what happens then is that it remains in memory until it runs out, a week later.

I had tried using two sat feeds by unplugging my Linux box feed. Resetting the Satellite/Freesat tuner lists by disabling them allows you to rescan them with a choice of main only or main and sub tuner. Once again I had full EPG for a week, and once again it disappeared and required a quick channel retune of Freesat to restore. I eventually pulled my second cable from the sub tuner to restore my Linux connection for my stream source, The Freesat continued to work though it was configured as a two wire connection. As I write I've idly restored it to Main only, rescanned Freesat which is now fully populated, for a week at least. I'll do the Satellite one later as it takes an age and West Ham had just kicked off. I'll have another go at this, there must be something we're missing in a setting that allows the set to access the EPG data channel on the astra in order to update it, even with only one cable. It's something a smart set could do while viewing the digital tuner, or during standby.

columt

Thanks @deezell - Sony has offered me a replacement TV, but I've 2 separate TVs, slightly different models, both suffering from this problem so I've no confidence a third TV will be any better. I'll keep searching. In the meantime I've resurrected my old Humax for reliable series recording.

columt

...but I would be curious to know if ANYONE has a reliably working Freesat EPG on a Sony Android or Google TV. I'm beginning to doubt it.

deezell

They'll replace the TV because Freesat full EPG is IFFY? Its not even valid in our region. That's warranty above and beyond the call. I've a few ideas I'm going to try.

columt

Yes Sony would replace the TV.

A suggestion from @andy1249 was that there might be insufficient storage space remaining to store the full EGP - so I tried freeing up a bunch of space deleting unrequired apps and emptying caches - but no joy. But it did get me thinking that somehow my app usage might be interfering with the TVs functionality.

Let us know if you make progress.

(For now I'v resurrected my ~2008 Humax FoxSat HDR for reliable series recordings - updated with customised firmware from raydon that's very impressive - can't believe I didn't know about this years ago. I can stream from it to any room, and set recordings remotely.)

deezell

I don't do recording anymore what with all the players out there, but the Linux is great for streaming from the sat or Saorview, even when abroad, where rte player is geolocked (though vpn to your router works just a well to overcome that). Now if I could just get abroad again, without airport nightmares, car Park charges that are multiples of your flight costs, etc.

deezell

As expected, my Feesat epg ran out on the 7th day. Nothing I could do to repopulate it fully, other than the random now/next after choosing channels. A Freesat retune was required, after a while the 7 days fills up. Something is preventing this process from running each day, to give you seven days epg everyday, not the 6, 5, 4 etc. countdown. After much searching, I've discovered that previous sonys disabled the freesat tuning, indeed sometimes the actual sat tuners, when Youview, the UK terrestrial TV epg and catch up app, is installed. There are various discussions out there on this subject. As Youview has no function here, It should not be an issue, but if the app is run at all, it may be the cause of problems for Freesat use and epg. On my Sony the app icon is labelled 'TV and Catchup', but a search through the Apps menu shows this as an icon with a large 'Y' I'm assuming this is Youview. I've cleared its cache, disabled, forced stop, then restarted the set. I've got my 7 days EPG to next Monday, so let's see does it stay updated. These are some of the clues I gathered.

https://community.youview.com/youview/discussion/7604804/youview-on-sony-af9

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2396510/freesat-is-now-available-on-selected-sony-android-tvs/p2

deezell

I haven't made any progress on the Sony Freesat 7 day EPG problem, though when I mentioned it in a Sony community forum a mod suggested putting in a support request. This on a blog which was bursting with posts about unanswered support requests for epg. The blog had even been labelled as 'Solved', followed by non solutions. One dead end I followed was a now defuct Android app, TVheadend, which at one stage was providing a 7 day epg on the screen, if not the ability to change channels. Its development stalled, and the APK is not on Play, but can be found and sideloaded.

This got me thinking about the actual Freesat app, which works well on the phone to see the Freesat epg, but doesn't let you link the TV as it doesn't recognise it as a licensed Freesat tuner box. I sideloaded the app in order to force it onto the TV itself, but it doesn't run well, perhaps its expecting touchscreen commands, not remote key, but it didn't load the epg even, just a few now/next.

My final thought is perhaps to disable the terrestrial tuner completely, then rescan Freesat, see what happens after a few days. Its not a runner here as I can't remove RTE from the set without ending up with a barring order or something from swmbo. You can try it if you like.

deezell

The Freesat implementation is a basket case. I rescanned the Freesat tuner, but just clicked channel update. There were no new channels, so unsurprisingly the EPG didn't populate at all, only a few now/next would appear if you left it long enough. Over a few days the now/next list improved, but when I casually switched to the general Satellite tuner, it was populated for 7 days, on almost every channel. It's not updating daily of course, but has 7 days right now, had 8 last night ( Sun to Sun). Theres obviously software bugs in the EPG code, it doesn't know when or where to place the data tables assuming its even accessing them routinely from the EPG feeds on Astra.

championc

Is your set now set to being Irish ? I looked at my EPG over the weekend and it was certainly populated for up to about 48 hrs ahead. I have my tv set to a UK postcode, so all my Irish channels are in the 800's.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119134917#Comment_119134917

It was joint Irish and UK using @byte's bodge, described on page two of this thread. From a tv reset, start in region Ireland, tune Digital (terrestrial) tuner, hit the back button right back to region, select UK, then proceed to tune Satellite and/or Freesat. Digital remains in Rou region, Saorview format, while satellite is UK, this showing Freesat option. If you ever have to retune Digital, you have to reset to get the region option, which means losing all your Netflix etc sign ins, a pain. Otherwise, Digital will now retune as 800+, unsorted, but easily sorted and renumbered to 0001 for Rte1 etc.

I had to do this as I was having severe interference on ch 35 Rte1 mux from Kippure, which after a chat with 2RN guy would seem to be atmospheric propagation CCI from Manchester ch35. Partner Rte2 mux on 34 was perfect. I also had a good signal from 3Rock on ch33, but poor in Rte2 ch30. These are tuned and stored in pairs by the Irish region Saorview setting, I.e. 30 and 33 from 3Rock or 34 and 35 from Kippure. Manually adding 33 was ignored. Disabling and enabling Digital reset the tuner, but now its in UK region, which facilitated mixing transmitters, ch33 and 34, which were all over the shop at 800 but easily sorted.

lenovo1

Just checking in on this. Does anyone have an update.

It seems the freesat works but doesn't refresh each day so you need to rescan? Which is a long way from ideal. Just want to set it up and leave it.

Does Saorview and fta work fine? Just get now and next?

Thinking Saorview on tv and freesat box could be solution. Do freesat boxes let you add free to air?

deezell

There are official Freesat boxes which will retrieve the freesat 7 day epg and tune in all the freesat astra channels. I'm not sure how they will tune the non freesat listed channels, probably on a 'Other channels' list. Some have UK freeview tuners as well, which is capable of receiving Saorview, though it won't be numbered or sorted correctly. Heres one cheap as chips BUT, you'll have to certain it has a licenced freesat decoder, otherwise you'll just get now next. Freesat enabled satellite only receivers are generally more expensive, and were fir a long time not available in a combi with terrestrial. The Linux type combis were capable using a series of online apps.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freeview-Satellite-Receiver-Television-Terrestrial/dp/B08L9HX7RJ/ref%3Dmp_s_a_1_3?crid=2RCXU7YM6AXBE&keywords=freesat+receiver&qid=1658326191&sprefix=freesat+receiver+%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-3

Freetv.ie do this freesat only one, its not that cheap.

https://www.freetv.ie/freesat-box/

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119358860#Comment_119358860

Ehh not sure what you mean about not refreshing.

It does work fine for me .. I get a 7 day EPG on both Freeview and Saorview.

Recording is not massively reliable and of course pausing in still complete pants.. so its still a sh**e telly in my view...

lenovo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119423981#Comment_119423981

Are you near the North to get Freeview. I think the issue is with Freesat refreshing.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119423981#Comment_119423981

It doesn't do timeshift at all even with pants. Not part of it's spec. The rec/play/pause workaround is just that, a bodge. The issue with FreeSAT updating is frustrating, there's no real solution out there yet, it may well have to do with regional issues. A poster here got the set replaced under warranty for this issue, but hasn't posted if the replacement consistently updates Freesat.

Some of the main reasons for purchase is Android apps, mixed epg, and the ability to fudge regions. Samsung broke my heart trying to shift from RTE1 to BBC1, eleven button presses, and the one which changed tuners seemed like a reboot, such was the thunk and pause before the choice of tuner presented.

columt

Just checking back on this thread.

Thanks for sharing all your findings @deezell - all useful information.

FYI - I didn't bother taking Sony up on their offer of a replacement TV - having 2 such problematic TVs I'd zero confidence in that offering any improvement. For now I continue to use my old Humax box for my occasional sat recording requirements.

I like to dream that Sony my decide to fix their crappy software - but I'm not holding my breath.

deezell

Yes, I'd thought about that too, what with 5 year warranty, but realistically, I just don't watch enough satellite broadcast TV to endure the hassle of a probably pointless return. We're not really entitled to Freesat epg, it's a UK postcode feature. I strongly suspect it's tied in software in some way with the Live/On demand app that I can't seem to shut off, and which afaik requires some element of Freeview to he available, which only happens if you live on the border.. Freesat and Freeview are merging have I also read? It doesn't matter, a quick retune of the Freesat program group seems to kick the epg off, and give me full 7 day epg, counting down. It also transfers to the Satellite tuned group, which includes extra channels not displayed under Freesat.

I bought the TV specifically for the quick channel switching, and the android features. I've downloaded a different android browser which seems bulletproof for watching live streams (not a dodgy box sub) of certain sports without constant interruptions from ads/porn. Did you know Jim Beglin is a much sought live commentator on US and SA feeds of football. Also the BBC Iplayer, Netflix, (shared family sub while it's still possible), and YouTube would fill up my viewing time, with Saorview for the rest. I don't record stuff at all. If I do it's to grab a clip of something to send to someone, and I'll do that on the SAB Linux box, as you can't download or copy the encrypted recorded files from the Sony HDD, or serve them out over the network. With the Linux box just find the disk share on your pc or phone and there's all your recordings.

I devour YouTube, I've just done my own automatic transmission fluid/filter and underbody fuel filter change on the car thanks to it. Cost me €64 for fluid and filters. €400 at dealers. Upgraded my car media system to Android Auto/ Carplay/Google maps also, completely free thanks to YT. It pays to watch it!

Fake Tales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119645121#Comment_119645121

Sorry can you help me understand what you mean by this:

It doesn't matter, a quick retune of the Freesat program group seems to kick the epg off, and give me full 7 day epg, counting down. It also transfers to the Satellite tuned group, which includes extra channels not displayed under Freesat.

Do you retune once a week and get the 7 day guide? I just have FTA channels and it doesn't even fully populate now and next. I understood I would have to reset to tune in Freesat and wouldn't want to do that weekly due to apps.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653171#Comment_119653171

You don't have to reset the TV to do a manual retune. If you go into Settings/Channels/Channel setup/Auto Tuning/ you can scroll across to the Freesat Set Up, from there you can Disable it or Set up again.

Sometimes I think disabling it and then reinstating it made the EPG restore faster, but Set Up seems to work too after a while.

You'll then be asked to "Scan channels to set up new channel List" Yes to that

"Use the current Satellite Antennae Config". Yes to that

"Enter your postcode" put in a UK or NI postcode, or skip

Finally, "Scan using Freesat channels" yes to this, it sits at 1% for a few seconds, then completes in a flash, unlike a full generic Satellite scan which takes ten minutes or more.

When you return to the EPG, it may not populate immediately, but selecting different channels briefly, especially odd ones in the upper band of the Astra spectrum, you should see program info extend beyond Now/Next. Selecting Sky Arts seemed to help fill it quickly. As I've only one sat feed to the TV, it would in theory need to be on the correct band to pull the epg data, but I'm unsure exactly what's happening in the software. Pressing the blue button to advance by a day responds eventually with a full EPG for next days. You can see in the next images how I have EPG on the 23rd, and the 30th. Unfortunately, I've yet to be able to get this to update daily, so it runs out in a week, hence my 'countdown' comment. Some images to help.

No Freesat EPG.

Today's EPG

Next Fridays EPG

deezell

In relation to the above, If you've set region as Ireland, the Freesat option won't appear alongside Digital, Cable, General Satellite. In that case a reset is required to change the region to UK, to display Freesat tuning option

Fake Tales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119656136#Comment_119656136

That's for detailed response. I'll have to have a better look when home.

But do I need to set the TV to Ireland to get Saorview channels? Do you have rte etc for 7day EPG by having it set to UK?

The reset as you show it isn't too bad to do once a week.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119656311#Comment_119656311

You can bodge it by setting it to region Ireland, setup and tune Digital (Saorview terrestrial) , then without leaving the tuner setup, hit the back button until you are back to the region, change to UK, the go forward and you can tune general satellite and Freesat. Set up Freesat, and option ally General satellite. Digital will be tuned with correctly numbered Saorview channels, while theTV will present as a UK tuner for satellite. This bodge due to @byte on page two if this thread, with images, have a look. If you tune entirely in UK region, Saorview numbering will begin at 800 and be all over the place, as the tuner expects Freeview channels, but is easily sorted and renumbered.

Fake Tales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119656820#Comment_119656820

Last question.

Given you are the in UK mode is rte player and VM app available from the app store?

I guess it could be side loaded? RTE is probably the only one I'd use.

deezell

I'd no problem loading RTE player, or VM. They show up on the play store app. I still had to sideload BBC iplayer, as it knew from IP that I was in the wrong region. Once loaded you still have to spoof the Domain Name Server, otherwise programs won't play. I use HIDEIPVPN.com, they have a Smart DNS which is just a couple of IP addresses for DNS that you enter into a manual network configuration on your Telly, tablet or phone. Iplayer will work. Just using a VPN to UK doesn't seem enough, as well as having a data charge overhead sub.

championc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119658943#Comment_119658943

But if you go with a smartDNS, does RTE and VM apps work too ?

deezell

All works on mine. I'd had one hiccup when Netflix wouldn't connect. I reverted to DHCP, and I connected, then went back to Smart DNS and it continued to work. There was talk that Netflix were going to hit family shares across different addresses, but it still working fine.

championc

@deezell What Smart DNS are you using please ?

deezell

This one. Its the DNS only, not the VPN, which is more expensive. I don't know what I paid, or if its annual. It was trivial, and I don't recall paying anything since the original fee after the trial. Maybe its a standing order I don't even notice.

Works on TV and phone. It worked in my Samsung Qled also until I changed the region back to Ireland as the terrestrial EPG was nuts to sort. Weirdly, after the change, I retained the Freesat EPG on this set but lost the iplayer.

https://www.hideipvpn.com/free-smart-dns-trial/

deezell

Btw, there's a new channel on Saorview, VM4. It's been around a few weeks, never even knew about until an article decrying Saorview for dallying in adding it to the EPG. It's there on my region Ireland Samsung, Brian Kerr sounding off, but I'll have to manually add to my Sony as I lost region Ireland when I had to disable and retune it due to UK interference on one Mux ch35, which made it necessary to select seperate mux from Kippure and Three Rock. With Saorview running the show it always filled the EPG from all of one or the other, but due to my compromised location, my best options were ch34 Kippure (Rte2, etc) and ch33 (Three Rock, Rte1, etc). In UK mode my terrestrial tuner doesn't try to fill the EPG from only one mux, or fill it from the unwanted partner mux. Ch 35, which was suffering Co Channel Interference from UK 35 in Manchester. VM4 is lurking in the RTE1 mux for anyone needing to manually tune sat box or TV on UK region.

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119662870#Comment_119662870

Where are you located that you're getting CCI from Manchester, Winter Hill I assume?

deezell

Near bog of Allen, the 2RN people had a look at some of my recorded screen images with superimposed signal strength and quality bars (help button on Sony does this), and recommended I change to Three Rock, as he figured it was ch 35 CCI. It's atmospheric dependent, but really annoying, signal strength might actually increase but quality turns to ****, then picture block pixellates. I though perhaps it was someone operating a cell phone booster. Or some kind of RT, but the CCi explanation made sense. I should know, I spent most of 1980 and 81 in the hills of West Ireland measuring the effects of the VHF band channel sharing which enabled the RTE2 TV introduction, without a nationwide UFH network.

A straight retune to 3 rock left me with under par ch30, hence the need to split twixt kippure and 3 Rock, 33 and 34. All tuned and sorted now on the Linux box and the Sony. Let's see if there's anything worth watching on it, they might use it for alternative champions/europa league match choices.

Fake Tales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119658943#Comment_119658943

Thanks. I'm up and running. Depending on how I go into it by Irish digital channels can appear in some sort of different EPG display. Looks a bit better but all the same.

I just made a favourites list of Digital, Freesat and CNN from regular satellite as it didn't seem to be on Freesat. Probably less than 20 channels.

But the built in players don't work. My understanding is they just need to receive UK digital once and they activate. Difficult thing to fool. Maybe but the TV in the back of the car and drive to the border and find somewhere to plug in :)

championc

I got the following SmartDNS entries and added them to the TV, but no joy with iPlayer. I gave the TV a reboot too

deezell

That's odd, do you have your network connection on static? Maybe disconnect from your router and reconnect. It may be a limitation of your isp, you may not have a 'real' external ip, though how that would affect connection im not sure. Make sure you sideloaded the correct iplayer app for android TV, not for Android mobile. https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/media-applications-technologies-for-the-bbc/bbc-iplayer-android-tv-2/bbc-iplayer-android-tv-2-0-4-5-release/

Youll need to sign up to BBC also at https://account.bbc.com

Regarding the other players, ITV, ch4, there isn't an easy way to get ITV hub as its known, All4 also not available as an android-for-tv app. I have an old Apple TV box, it has a working All4 app on it so that ticks that box. ITV hub is available as an app, but doesn't show on TV play store. I could download apk and try it, but first I tried the browser version. The sony's browser opened up the interface, let me log on, (registered on the phone beforehand), and I selected a live channel. Unfortunately no joy, just the trying-to-load four dots. Just to see, I switched my WiFi to a DHCP connection, at which point the itv hub scolded me for trying to connect outside the UK, so my Smart DNS was working to that point, but something is blocking the stream. Oddy the ITV hub app showed on my phone playstore, but was labelled unsuitable for my device. Undeterred, I tried it on my phones samsung browser, and it worked fine, Live ITV or on demand. If it works on the phone then it must be a quirk of the TV browser thats preventing it working on the TV, as the smart dns is definitely enabling the connection. I have an alternative browser on the TV I use for sports streams, very tight. In this case the problem was that the itv.com site looked to load cookies, but I think this browser doesn't do cookies

You can experiment with sideloading the itv hub app, and maybe get a vpn and smart dns app directly from the TV's play store. You could also try a different browser for android TV, but first you need to sort the DNS. If you try some of the vpn/dns apps in the sony's play store, and you get bbc iplayer working, then you can move on the other players. Happy fiddling!

Fake Tales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119664691#Comment_119664691

The built in apps run for me. Well sort of. I can get ITV Hub to play. However no joy with BBC and Channel 4. What's surprising is that I can login to both. It's just at the play stage it doesn't work.

However a sideloaded BBC iPlayer does work. I guess it's different.

championc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119666300#Comment_119666300

Ah right, I'll go the side loaded route so. I was going into the built-in ones

Fake Tales

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119667477#Comment_119667477

Only issue is I don't think there is a sideload for All 4 available.

It's funny because it works on other devices in Ireland without any issues or need for VPN etc.