Sony KDL42W653a Apps Issue

[Giles_W]

Hello

I have been trying to access the Sony Entertainment Network "All Applications" list, which only brings up a few applications unless I leave it loading on the page for 5 minutes where it finally comes up with the entire selection. 

Once this has happened, if I try and go on an application such as Netflix, I receive the message "The application is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later". The same happens with other apps such as Sky News etc. 

My internet connection is fine and have tried both wired and wireless. I have reset the internet aswell as doing a factory reset and unplugging the television from the wall for 10 minutes.

Could someone please advise me on what I can do to get this working.

Many Thanks 

[Sp0tlightKid]

Since last week iPlayer has been crashing after about 5 or 10 minutes of watching a programme. Screen just goes black and if pressing return I go back to iPlayer menu. Selecting the programme again I get an unavailable message.

Everything was working fine before this. I can access iPlayer with no issues on my other 30" Sony in the bedroom, on my iPad and PC.

[jakeroyd58]

Hello
This sounds similar to my problem.
As I mentioned from my experience a wired connection will fix it or getting
a stronger wifi signal.
This works for mine.
I have asked Sony to look at the behaviour of the software when this
happens cos it just sits there doing nothing with no user message etc.
On mine you had to reconnect even though the wifi utility says its still
connected.
As many will remark you also get a situation where SEN only partially loads
the icons. From my experience a stronger signal fixes this.
I was about to try a wifi repeater on it but (fingers crossed) it seems ok
at the moment.
In every other respect it's a great TV.

[Sp0tlightKid]

Just find it strange that everything worked fine for several months until last week. Also that the wireless signal is fine for the iPad to run iPlayer right next to the TV

[HHGTTG]

Have to say that since the Christmas shutdown and then resumption of business, mine has bee loading the Apps OK albeit there is sometimes a bit of a lag before they all show after pressing the SEN button.
I don't have my WLAN on the TV 'ON' until I want it, i then turn it on and press refresh Internet content and then when that's done press SEN and wait up to a half a minute, say, for them all to appear.

[diheor]

This apps issue is an ongoing error that just keeps returning. I have a cabled connection (16 Mbit), and sometimes the apps are gone and then they are back. The Netflix app worked fine - when available -  but a recent update to the Netflix app seems to have a buffering issue as the app pauses frequently during streaming. I use Apple Tv instead.

This tv has good picture quality, but it is not a very Smart Tv 

[Sp0tlightKid]

And as if by magic, after the update the other day iPlayer works again! Hooray!

[Sp0tlightKid]

...all a bit random though, isn't it?!

[Anonymous]

---

@Sp0tlightKid wrote:
...all a bit random though, isn't it?!

---

Yes it is, as you can see by the length of this thread, that there doesnt "seem" to be a common cause of these "gremlins" for the light of a better word.  So therefore, its possible that external factors may also be involved, which is hard to pin down.

[jakeroyd58]

Having started this thread it is clear there is an ongoing issue with:-

1) The TV needs a stronger signal than other devices the same distance away.

2) When the signal is lost the TV just hangs there with a black screen. This behavior is confusing to the user who thinks it's something other than a weak signal. Sony need to adress this.

Since creating the thread I have bought a wifi extender.

The results are quite amusing.

The extender can receive the wifi signal from my router from further away than the TV and beam it back to the TV with a full 5 bars of signal strength. When logged on the the extender the TV behaves perfectly.

If I go back to a direct wifi connection (2 to 3 bars) the TV misbehaves like we have all experienced.

From this I conclude:-

1) The Sony soft/firm ware is OK with the exception of error handling as described above.

2) The wifi antenna is rubbish and is not capable of hanging onto a signal well enough for most typical users (my router is about 10m away)

So Sony.

1) Please revise the software/firmware behaviour when internet is lost.

2) Improve the aerial/antenna , signal aquisition.

NB, my router signal has to go through the screen to get the the aerial at the back. I wonder if this causes a problem ?

Would Sony care to comment ?

Regards to all

[Ritz_uk]

So 17 pages of shame Sony, I skipped to the end.... Sorry if this isn't the most constructive message but i'm quite upset about this... First with the positive. This TV looks nice so maybe i bolt it to the wall and stick a picture of a nice tree onto the screen, that might be nice, no?

I bought this TV yesterday based on good reviews on a few of the usual AV review sites. Had I known the SMART bits of this TV were as dumb as they are I would have steered clear. My wireless router is 2 meters from this TV. IPlayer, Nextflix, BBC news play for about 5 minutes at a time before cutting out to a black screen. While that’s the most annoying problem the fact that it takes about 2  minutes to get onto the network in the first place and that if my amp isnt on when the TV turns on I have to turn the amp on, then turn the TV off and back on again so it can see the output via optical is surely some kind of joke?

This was a replacement for a Samsung I had for 5 years which works better than this thing ever will. Surley a 2013 model wouldn't still have problems like this???