vTuner Offline on Some Devices [Nov 2014]

[MK_Slinky]

Hi all,

It looks as though vTuner is now off-line again on some devices. My own STR-DN1040 Receiver remains unaffected at this time however my BDP-S7200 Blu-ray is displaying the following message:

“This service cannot be accessed at this time because the server replied with incorrect or invalid information”.

Please report any other affected devices here for simplicity of colaborating the information, kindly do not start a new thread.

Thanks in advance!

[pb1965]

I contacted the customer services dept of my retailer and they agreed to take the 1040 back. In it's place I got the 1050 which uses Tune In instead of vTuner. I've got all my stations back once again, and it's actually a better device. But it's not without issues. I prefer the slightly more 'upfront' sound of the 1040 compared to the warmer tones of the 1050. And although you can select the streamed bit rate of the station you are listening to (you'd pretty much always want the highest, right?) you don't seem to be able to save that when favouriting a station.

Need to find how to make that a suggestion to Sony for a firmware update. That's assuming they even listen, lol!

[Pistabacsi]

@pb1965 

Good work!

This is what I have been asking from sony since day 1. A straight exchange for the 1050. However they keep dodging the request with the lame old "a statement will be released very soon" BS.

[pb1965]

@Pistabacsi 

I think this is a discussion you may need to have with your retailer. In the UK, my contract is with them - not the manufacturer - and so they are responsible for dealing with any problems. If you paid with a credit card, you may be able to get assistance from them. In the UK, credit card issuers are also jointly liable with retailers. So if the retailer won't help, contact them explainng that you are rejecting the product as it does not function as advertised. 

Good luck.

[Pistabacsi]

@pb1965 

Thanks for the tip.

I have contacted the dealer here in Hungary & they simpy ignored me, so I have been bombarding sony customer support with my request for a replacement unit.

But they are turning out to be as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

[MK_Slinky]

@Pistabacsi 

Incoming PM...

[Pistabacsi]

Got it ;o)

Pista's log:

Day 30 & the giant redwood tree I planted last week should be reaching full maturity by the time sony can be bothered to even take any notice of their customers.

Still, it is the festive season so goodwill to all men & so on.

Not really. I hope they choke on their flippin' turkey.

[Pistabacsi]

Pista's log:

Day 31. Yes, a full month now & I am beginning to feel that the lumps of coal I am compressing with turn into diamonds long before this ugly event is ended.

Received the stock reply from customer "support" today

"thank you for contacting Sony technical support.
We are really sorry for the delay but according to latest news the vTuner services that were temporarily suspended have now been restored.
However, Sony cannot ensure that third party services will be uninterrupted or error free, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience that you may have experienced as a result of the temporary service unavailability. 
The official stance is that the service interruption was caused by a suspension of distribution from the Internet radio provider vTuner, and not by a malfunction of the product itself.

Thank you for your understanding."

In short. B.S.

If you see a mushroom cloud eminating from the central Hungary region later, that'll be me having a meltdown.

[richardc79]

@JacobZ  Great to hear that you have a workaround, but this was discussed before when vTuner was down for 5 weeks from the end of September. You can also use a computer/server of a smartphone to have this kind of workarounds but this will be a proper solution for those people who own a NAS.

(just curious, waht kind of a NAS are you using? Synology?)

Anyway I don't have a NAS and if i would have I would use it as a workaround for sure, but the solution must come from SONY. Not from there customers who has well paid for there products..

Still have a very limited vTuner service and i had till now no response from Sony on my last mail.

[JacobZ]

Well, here still no NPO radio 3 and NPO radio 4 either on vtuner. 

The NAS I am talking about is a lacie Networkspace2, with fvdw-firmware.

[Pistabacsi]

Just got off the phone with the shop & then the service centre.

Rather interestingly the shop told me that Tunein isn't working either & that sony seem to have messed up all their license agreements. Can anyone confirm this, as I cannot find any trace of this on the internets.

Advice from the service centre was as follows:

Report it as a quality problem. The way quality problems & functionality problems are handled are different (although a malfunctioning unit could arguably represent a quality problem. But then I'm a quality engineer so what would I know? ;o) ).

This ought to result in sony issuing an authorisation for replacement/ refund which you then need to take to the dealer.

All a bit of a PITA really, but could be helpful to any of you in the same situation.