All 4 5OD & ITV Player keep taking me to YouView

[maf13r]

I have a Sony Bravia KD-49X8309C, I seem to have a problem trying to access All4, 5OD & ITV Player. When i click on the apps for them they take me to a YouView page to search for a TV signal but i dont use a TV Aerial. Are these not stand alone apps (like i have on my Amazon Fire TV stick) & can only run through youview, If so its a smart TV thats not very smart. Iv even tried to look for them on Google play store as its an Android TV but there not on there.

[Anonymous]

Hi there

Unfortunately All4 and ITVHub are not standalone apps and are indeed tied to YouView.  The solution is to get al least one channel tuned in on the tv and the apps 'should' then work without an aerial connected.  Do you have a portable aerial around or can you borrow one?

Cheers

[maf13r]

Good thinking, I'll try that. If I do tune the TV in with an Aerial im guessing I'll have to keep the aerial plugged into the TV to be able to use the apps or do they then download to TV once it thinks its tuned in?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi there

I havent tested this in a while, but once at least one channel was tuned in, you used to be able to then disconnect the aerial, and All4 and ITVHub apps would still work - as long as YouView is not disabled that is.

Cheers

[royabrown]

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@maf13r wrote:

Good thinking, I'll try that. If I do tune the TV in with an Aerial im guessing I'll have to keep the aerial plugged into the TV to be able to use the apps or do they then download to TV once it thinks its tuned in?

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The apps download when you activate YouView, but you can't use them if you have never tuned the TV to an aerial.

But once you have, even just one channel, you can disconnect the aerial indefinitely.

oh, and it's just the ITV Hub and All4 that require this by requiring YouView. The BBC iPlayer and My5 are provided by Sony, outside of YouView.

If you can't get My5, then, you must have another, different, issue. Can you get the BBC iPlayer OK?

[Machman2017]

Thanks to all on this forum for suggestions to solve the "YouView"/"freesat" problem.

Unfortunaltely, the reason I had to switch to FreeSat (from Freeview) is that since our local transmitter went fully digital Ihave not been able to get an aerial signal !!!!!

So as far as my new Sont TV is concerned, the youview feature (with ITV/Ch4) is useless.

Come on Sony - sort this out please.

[royabrown]

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@Machman2017 wrote:

Thanks to all on this forum for suggestions to solve the "YouView"/"freesat" problem.

Unfortunaltely, the reason I had to switch to FreeSat (from Freeview) is that since our local transmitter went fully digital Ihave not been able to get an aerial signal !!!!!

So as far as my new Sont TV is concerned, the youview feature (with ITV/Ch4) is useless.

Come on Sony - sort this out please.

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There's no Freesat on the Sonys either (Freesat is essentially a satellite EPG) but I guess you mean the Now/Next sort-of-EPG that you do get with satellite.

And since activating YouView disables satellite - and not merely disables it, but deletes all your tunings as well - it really is something you should steer clear of.

Since Sony are unlikely to add the itv Hub and All4 standalone, and YouView is equally unlikely to start playing nice with satellite and/or allow recording, my unvarying advice is to buy a NowTV box (£15, and no need to subscribe to NowTV itself, unless you want to) plug it into one of your several HDMI ports, and use that for these two catch-up players.

Or even, for £0, the built-in Chromecast and your smartphone or tablet with these apps on, if you find that convenient. (I don't, but that's just me, perhaps).

[Machman2017]

Ty royalbrown.

It's not a totally desperate situation - have a games console that we can get the itvHub and All4 through - just a real disappointment to have purchased an "all in one" TV and discover that its not quite as "all in one" as was lead to believe.

Really think that the FreeSat/Youview "feature" should be made more apparent to people puchasing these TV's. 

[royabrown]

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@Machman2017 wrote:

Ty royalbrown.

It's not a totally desperate situation - have a games console that we can get the itvHub and All4 through - just a real disappointment to have purchased an "all in one" TV and discover that its not quite as "all in one" as was lead to believe.

Really think that the FreeSat/Youview "feature" should be made more apparent to people puchasing these TV's. 

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Thanks for the crowning, but there's no 'l' in my online name 🙂

Glad you have an alternate source for itv and All4 catch-up.

Yes, I just read a couple of Android TV specs on the Sony website, and you have to dig a fair way down, and pull up the Footnotes specially to read:-

2. This feature will be available before 31st March. However, due to the technical complexity implementing this feature, the final release date(s) stipulated on our support site may be subject to change.For PiP/PaP feature Browser/Tuner, USB/Tuner, Tuner/Tuner combinations are not available. NOTE: HDD recording (REC) and Satellite features are not available if YouView functionality is enabled. YouView on Sony TVs will offer consumers a consistent and easy to use YouView experience, including scroll back, search, discover and catch up TV (BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4 and Demand 5). YouView functionality includes access to all the normal free-to-air channels via the YouView guide and mini guide.

That's 31 March 2016, by the way, so Sony is obviously letting the details languish 🙂

And in other footnotes elsewhere, it qualifies the comments about the itv player by saying the features may be limited in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

But nowhere can I find anything to say that the itv and All4 Players are only available with YouView. Unless that is in yet another set of obscure footnotes I can't find?

[daveybuntu]

Hi I'm having the same issue.  I don't think this solution works though because if I press the Guide button on my TV remote, it brings up the YouView TV guide rather than the standard Sony/Freeview guide, or in my case, it should display the Freesat TV guide.

It seems that if you want to access the ITV or Channel 4 apps via your Sony TV, you are forced to enable YouView.  In doing so, your guide button can ONLY activate the YouView TV guide.

I have no interest in this as I actually don't even have an aerial connected to my TV as I watch everything via Freesat.

Surely there is a way of setting the TV to be able to use these two apps and to completely remove YouView from my television.  I've no interest in YouView, and don't want to have anything to do with it.