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

Its in the settings

freddy99 wrote: »

Tried the update again with the region set to UK, but still no Freesat unfortunately.

Thats a pity. I presume you tried to retune the satellite receiver? The update won't convert your current satellite scan to a Freesat scan, (if the software update contained Freesat upgrade). The menu sequence for the XF80 series is different from the newer android sequence on the sets listed as upgradeable.
The sequence listed for the XF80 is
[Settings] — [Watching TV] — [Channels] — [Channel setup] — [Digital setup] — [Satellite setup] — [Digital satellite tuning],
which is almost identical to my XH90 series. If Freesat is available, an extra item will be listed under satellite setup, probably named Freesat tuning. This allows you to select Freesat rather than general sat tuning, and only when you retune via the Freesat option will a source named Freesat appear in addition to Digital (for terrestrial) and Satellite (for general satellite tuning with now/next only) in the epg. These two sat lists are separate, though they have mostly the same main channels.

Long shot, power off the set, then on. Then check the tuner choices to see if Freesat tuning is available in addition to your satellite general scan, or digital satellite scan as its called on the Sony web help for the XF80 series (and lots of others). https://helpguide.sony.net/tv/faep1/v1/en/02-01-02_02.html
I have a feeling the XF80 may be an android generation older, and not yet tweaked for Freesat.

freddy99 wrote: »

Thanks again. Looks like the XF80 is not supported yet, as you say.
Tried a soft reset and then looked again, but only option is general Satellite setup.
Hopefully they will update in due course.

Frustratingly, you can't even add the Freesat epg app or equivalents as none are compatible with TV android. You could run the web version on the TV browser, I think you can set the default page to last browsed, but that's a bodge at best. Just keep freesat app on your phone I guess.

Andy454 wrote: »

Be very careful, my UHD tuner is acting up since this latest update!

This TV is very tough to tune!

One thing to watch, if you select manual tuning, there's no sign of Freesat tuning, as it doesn't allow addition of non Freesat member channels. You must go to auto tuning, where you select terrestrial, cable, Freesat or General sat. Once you select freesat, you must get your connection scheme right. If you have only one sat cable but your set has two sat connectors, you must select one connection only, else the EPG and the recorder may try and use the secondary connection while you watch from the primary connection. Linux box owners know this well.
Once the Freesat scan starts, it quickly connects to the Freesat data channel, and all the tuning info is pulled in rapidly, so no long 15 minute wait to scan the entire Astra bands.
The graphicly driven step tuning interface jolts with people who prefer a mutiple choice or numerical entry type, where you can enter and edit all parameters on one page, but Sony are trying to ease this pain for non techie people, and the default choices are correct in most cases. If you have two sat wires, youll know it, if you use DISEqC, you'll be familiar with sat tuning anyway.

deezell wrote: »

Yes, because it uses Android, you can download a TV android compatible version of RTE player. Other non android TV such as Samsung have an RTE player app which is tied to the TV region, and can't be installed manually if you've set the region to UK for Freesat

That's not true at all. I have a Samsung and a LG TV both set to UK on initial setup for Freesat, but the RTE Player is pre-installed on both because the Wifi they are connected to is an Irish IP address. Freesat comes from your dish and has nothing to do with Apps pre-installed on your Smart TV

That was not my experience. My Samsung had RTE player when in ROI region, and BBC iplayer when in UK. For that reason and the extreme difficulty of sorting terrestrial channels on what was now a Freeview terrestrial receiver, I reverted to Roi region. My channel list reverted to Saorview on Terrestrial, unsorted Astra on satellite, and BBC iPlayer disappeared. Oddly enough, I had been able to use it with a DNS proxy service, but it was too much hassle not having Saorview start at 1, plus no autoupdate. Amazingly, after a few days, Freesat reappeared, despite being in region ROI. So I had nearly all I wanted, except it took eleven torturous button presses just to change tuners. This is major, as leaving the set on satellite causes divorce proceedings when swmbo can't get RTE1 simply by pressing 1, or a few taps on the ch + -. This is the subject of several other threads on boards, particularly for people buying sets for older users.
Happily, this Sony does it all. I even have iplayer installed, but I haven't bothered to revisit the complex vpn/dns configuration required to make it work, and I probably won't at this stage.

The new Google TV android interface is coming to most Sony android TV models from about 2016 on. Here's a list. Note X90H is the US version of our designations, XH90** and so on. Link to an article below.

FY21: W800
FY20: Z9H, Z8H, A9S, A8H, X95H, X92H, X91H, X90H, X85H, X81H, X80H, X75H
FY19: Z9G, A9G, A8G, X95G, X90G, X87G, X85G, X83G, X81G, X80G, W80G
FY18: A9F, Z9F, A8F, X90F, X87F, X85F, X83F, X80F, X78F, X75F, W80F
FY17: A1, X95E, X94E, X93E, X90E, X85E, X82E, X80E, X75E
FY16: Z9D, X83D, X80D, S80D, X75D, X70D

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/04/28/googles-new-discover-homescreen-is-coming-to-sony-android-tvs/

championc wrote: »

I picked up my 8505 yesterday. Slotted in seamlessly with my LG sound bar. I'm still figuring out my way through the menus.

I've set the tv up to do Freesat, so all the Saorview channels are scanned into the 800's. Unfortunately, I cannot see how to renumber these. Is there a method to have Saorview in a more decent order. I've got RTE2 followed by RTE1 followed by Oireachtas I think I assume that if I change the region back to Ireland, that Freesat will disappear ?

Press the Settings button on the remote, then select Settings/Watching TV/Channels/Channel list Edit/Digital. Here you can select reorder, delete and renumber by moving the raw list. Move RTE1 to 001, and so on. Delete everything else after about 013.
Yes, Freesat region dependent.

byte wrote: »

It can be done, though my memory is a bit hazy.

On initial set up, pick Ireland, tune in terrestrial channels. When the channels are tuned in, back up in the menu to where you can pick country UK, then Freesat option will be there to tune in.

After all that, the terrestrial channels will still be there from earlier, still with their correct channel numbers. And of course Freesat will be working too.

A channel list saved under region Ireland will not restore when you change region to UK, the set will display 'Wrong region' or the like. Now the file it saves to USB is an XML file, a script file wilh a region entry in the header, so if you want, you can edit it and change IRL or ROI to UK, I can't remember which it was. This might work, but its a doddle to renumber the terrestrial channel list, there's only 9, and a few test card unused channels. Restoring the astra sat list while in UK may completely mess up the sorted sat list you get when you scan astra in UK region, (separate from the Freesat sorted and full egg list, which is a third scan)
Edit; on rereading, I think you mean back up as against backup. Hitting the back button. Not saving the terrestrial list. Afair, you have to reset the telly to change the region, you can't just change it as a setting, so everything is deleted and you're back to factory settings

deezell wrote: »

I see VM player is now available in android TV version, just installed it on the Sony there. Seems to work OK.

We had a Sony smart TV many years ago which had TV3player, Sony appears to be one of the few brands with TV3/VM player, is it on all android tvs
or just Sony. Wasn't there a tie up between Sony and Tv3, regarding a studio upgrade,

Here's BBC iplayer for Android TV,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/155ZXUWhrCsLkgWguMhA5nUFOLMIo05ys/view?usp=drivesdk

Iplayer doesn't normally show up in a Playstore search when you're not in UK, and won't play anyway. If you sign up for a trial from here,
https://unlocator.com/
You can change your network connections on the tv to Static, and change the last two entries to 185.37.37.37 and 185.37.39.39 . Use the existing network values for ip and gateway.

Works great.

For anyone who installed the BBC iplayer app and DNS trial to get it to work, the Euros are (partly) on BBC and BBC iplayer, but the iplayer is in 4K for the football, so if your broadband is fast enough, (>40Mbs, but ideally faster to allow for speed drop and surge), you can watch in 4K free. If you have wired ethernet to the set it will help prevent glitches also.

I keep an Ariva combo for that reason, a one for all remote works tv and combo box, just switch source on tv.

I would have thought so too, so I've just hooked up an HDD to my XH9005, its configured with terrestrial and only a single sat input, though it can take two. I Recorded RTE1 no prob while I switched over to BBC2. Can't think of an immediate reason why it should not work, XH8196 is substantially the same TV, just a few bells missing, 2nd Sat input, BT audio out and Full array backlighting. It's hardly the tuner bodge that allowed split regions? Mine is tuned all in UK, I just sorted and relisted the Freeview Terrestrialtune of RTE. I Didn't bother redoing it with Byte's method, if its not broken etc, but I'm not getting automating of Saorview, which is a bit of a problem sometimes as high trees in the wind can mess up my optimal source. Maybe I'll fiddle with it.

It doesn't make sense though, unless at the demultiplex level of the 8000 series there is only a single stream decoder, then in that case it may be that the 9000 series has two, to facilitate record and display from any two of three sources. There may even be only one front end on the 8000, configured as either dvb-S or dvb-T. I'm an analogue dinosaur, but I understand the quantum difference in how modern digital signals are encoded and decoded by sophisticated sampling rather than the rigid band tuners of yore. It has to be said that the Linux combi tuners in settop boxes were very impressive in this regard, I pushed an Alien clone to 4 simultaneous channels from its 3 inputs 1 terrestrial and 2 satellite. Playing live saorview while recording one sat, and sending two other live streams, one from a shared tuner multiplex, (terrestrial uhf channel or satellite transponder). The only limit was the processing power of the box. In theory you should require little processing to decode two or more streams from the same mux, e.g, watch RTE2 and record TG4 from one input, as both are demodulated from the same mux.

On the settop box I've just there now recorded TG4, while watching VM1 live, streaming VM2 live to a phone, that's three channels from a single Terrestrial connect. I also had BBC one live to a tablet from the same box, which currently is using only one of two sat inputs. That's on an ageing €80 box. Very disappointing if the 8000 series demux is limited to one channel stream from one source. Not much point in recording something you have to watch.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Here's a demo,

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