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

deezell

One thing you could try is to set a timer rather than just press record, then watch a different channel and see if the timer forces the set to the timed channel. I'm guessing it will.

Dec4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774284#Comment_117774284

Yep, tried that. If you are watching anything it switches channel to whatever the timer has been set to record.

As you say it's possible on a €80 box but not on a Sony TV. Very strange!

vidapura

[sony KD-55XH9005]

Just want to drop a note here to thank ye all for this brilliant thread.

I followed @byte 's instructions there on page 3 and after days of despair I now have a fully functional EPG for Saorview and Satellite.

I was getting dogs abuse over it cos I talked the wife into letting me spend the extra €400 on the Sony over a Samsung cos I always thought Sony was the be all and end all.

When it became apparent that the Sony wasn't going to have a decent EPG AND doesn't pause live Tv there was murder...

I had an LG for the past 4 years that had turned blue the last six months... (common problem..) and we finally had a chance to replace it.. But the LG was easy enough to change location on and get the Freeview EPG going.. The Sony really had me foxed..

So you guys were an immense help.

Just wondering if ye could answer two questions for me.

1 - is there any way at all to get this yoke to pause live tv ?

2 - the freeview channel list is missing a lot of channels I had on the normal satellite list.. like C4 HD .. can they be added to this Freeview list some way?

The lack of live tv pause is a right pain.. we've small kids and its almost a given I'd need to pause the TV a lot...

Anyway, thanks again...

swoofer

You cant get C4HD on freesat and to get it on that sony tv you would need to change to non freesat mode but then you may lose Freesat and get a different list. Can you say Freesat becuse Freeview is the name of the UK dtt service ie its their equivalent of saorview, which is SAOR = free!! If you are near the fringes you can get both SAORVIEW and FREEVIEW by aerial and then FREESAT by dish. As I said I cant access that sony TV very often and I keep well away.

Apparently its all over the net that SONY wont pause live TV and that is a surprise. The only work round I can see for pausing is to record the programme you are watching, ie press red then it will ask for a duration, select that, then press rec list and play the programme back. Now you can pause. Better than nothing.

Gerry Wicklow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118180755#Comment_118180755

You will be delighted to know there are reports of CH4 HD returning to FreeSat soon on LCN 126.

deezell

You can have the satellite channel list in addition to the Freesat version. You have to run the tuner twice, once for Freesat, and once for generic Satellite (with only now/next EPG). You can populate a favourites list with channels from Saorview, Freesat and Satellite, having all three on an EPG list. The only hiccup with this favourites list is that when you scroll from say RTE1 (on button 1) to BBC 1 or CH4, and select, yoy must use the same Favourites EPG or scroll using the ch arrows to return to RTE1, as pressing '1' on the keypad will reset to the EPG of the tuner selected (say Freesat), not the first channel in the favourites EPG. The only other quirk is that though favourites can be resorted, they present in order of Tuner, you can't put BBC 1 in the middle of Saorview. CH4 HD can be added to the end from Satellite EPG.

I never knew that timeshift was not implemented on these sets. Most surprising. Perhaps if you watch a program on a stream from its Player, you can pause the feed.

vidapura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118182512#Comment_118182512

Ohh right.. brilliant.. a second satellite list? Grand.

And the favourites then.. makes sense.. Thank you.

The Timeshift thing would really me a lot more off-the-cuff usage.. you're watchin something and suddenly there's a Crash! in the kitchen .. or you hear a child make a bloodcurdling howl.. and you just can hit pause and go investigate..

Or one of the kids just HAS to arrive in roaring as Bundee makes a brilliant break and scores a try.. and you miss it.. ... and you can just go back..

Its a fecker to loose that convenience...

deezell

For those critical programs it really only takes a few seconds to hit Record, Duration of record, then Record list and start playing what you've just started recording. Now you can pause.

vidapura

Mmmm... I spose...

Just have to learn a new way of workin... 👍️

deezell

Here's a demo,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mtQtjSE2i6XaESm2WkzRqcI-tsIz99uJ/view?usp=drivesdk

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.