3 ms·

My Android TV (from Sony) has the habit of randomly restarting every so often, most of the time while I'm watching something I don't want to miss of course - no

by rob74 3y ago

My Android TV (from Sony) has the habit of randomly restarting every so often, most of the time while I'm watching something I don't want to miss of course - no idea if it's doing system updates or just crashing, but even the updates could wait until I turn the TV off? It also has some quirks that appear from time to time (buttons on the remote not working, sound or image not working etc.), then I know it's time to, as the saying goes, try turning it off and on again. And, most annoying of all, sometimes it just randomly "forgets" channels, so I have to do a full channel scan (or restore the channels from a USB stick) to get them back. Since a few weeks, channel 4 is one channel when I press "up" from channel 3 and a different channel when I press "down" from channel 5. I can't even start to imagine a way to implement the channel list that would allow this bug to happen, but it does...

herbst 3y ago
> Since a few weeks, channel 4 is one channel when I press "up" from channel 3 and a different channel when I press "down" from channel 5. I can't even start to imagine a way to implement the channel list that would allow this bug to happen, but it does... And here was me thinking I spend the extra for a Sony on the next TV as they appear to 'more stable'. But well...
- neodymiumphish 3y ago
  I don’t think his anecdotal experience is representative of the masses. I have a Bravia Google TV and I’ve experienced none of his issues, except that controlling external speakers is limited to something like 10 surround sound SKUs, presumably all Sony options. Other than that, we’ve loved the speed and usability of this TV for about 2.5 years now.
- gorbypark 3y ago
  My in-laws have a fairly high end Sony smart TV (Android TV based) from only 3 or 4 years ago and it's the worst POS I've ever encountered. It was always a bit sluggish (flipping through menus, changing channels, etc) but recently it has slowed to an absolute crawl. Any type of App or even bringing up the menu takes like 2 minutes, and turning on the TV takes like 5 minutes. Once it's booted up, at least flipping through the OTA channels "only" takes about 2 or 3 seconds, so it's somewhat usable. My initial instinct is that some sort of hardware is failing (storage, maybe?) but it was quite slow to begin with, so it's plausible a software update is the cause.
  - zimpenfish 3y ago
    Adding an anecdata to the pile - my parents have a Sony Smart TV and yeah, it's a POS. Trying to watch some YouTube videos at Christmas and it would frequently crash with "This page requires too much memory" errors.
  - RugnirViking 3y ago
    I have this problem. I almost cannot use it at all apart from chromecast streaming. Any ideas what could fix it?
    - arcanemachiner 3y ago
      Just speculating, but do a factory reset and never ever connect it to the Internet. Maybe try older firmware if it's available.
  - InfamousRece 3y ago
    When I was a kid my grandparents had an old style TV with vacuum tubes. It also required several minutes to “heat up” before the picture appeared. I guess we’ve come a full circle.
    - userbinator 3y ago
      Minutes? More like seconds, tens of seconds at most; you can watch videos of them starting up on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImib9Keio8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImib9Keio8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxUQw5vCDZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxUQw5vCDZs
  - Grazester 3y ago
    If it's any consolation my in-laws have a similarly sluggish LG WebOS TV. When I go over there I hate having to navigate the menu. At home I have an non smart LG with an Nvidia Shield.
    - jasomill 3y ago
- CobaltFire 3y ago
  As a counterpoint we bought one recently (though it's literally their flagship, an A95L) and it's been wonderful. The only thing I could say is that the remote seems a bit battery hungry (~6 months on a. set of batteries). To be fair, we don't use broadcast or cable, and use an AppleTV. So it's run as a dumb set for the most part. All the people complaining here seem to be using the built-in OS and tuner.
  - philistine 3y ago
    That's the problem. People want to use the TV's own OS. I never quite understood why.
imp0cat 3y ago
It's probably crashing. You can plug the TV into a smart plug and disconnect it from mains power when not in use. The boot times will probably be longer, but it won't crash as much during use.
- herbst 3y ago
  It is. And yes it works better if it was disconnected before, but not reliable. However I likely have a unlucky stick, from the 3 I bought that's the one acting up most.
  - imp0cat 3y ago
    Yeah, that's quite possible. My Sony also has some minor glitches like forgetting to output sound sometimes (a restart fixes it - it's most probably caused by one of the apps I have installed).

by rob74 3y ago

herbst 3y ago

> Since a few weeks, channel 4 is one channel when I press "up" from channel 3 and a different channel when I press "down" from channel 5. I can't even start to imagine a way to implement the channel list that would allow this bug to happen, but it does... And here was me thinking I spend the extra for a Sony on the next TV as they appear to 'more stable'. But well...

neodymiumphish 3y ago
I don’t think his anecdotal experience is representative of the masses. I have a Bravia Google TV and I’ve experienced none of his issues, except that controlling external speakers is limited to something like 10 surround sound SKUs, presumably all Sony options. Other than that, we’ve loved the speed and usability of this TV for about 2.5 years now.
gorbypark 3y ago
My in-laws have a fairly high end Sony smart TV (Android TV based) from only 3 or 4 years ago and it's the worst POS I've ever encountered. It was always a bit sluggish (flipping through menus, changing channels, etc) but recently it has slowed to an absolute crawl. Any type of App or even bringing up the menu takes like 2 minutes, and turning on the TV takes like 5 minutes. Once it's booted up, at least flipping through the OTA channels "only" takes about 2 or 3 seconds, so it's somewhat usable. My initial instinct is that some sort of hardware is failing (storage, maybe?) but it was quite slow to begin with, so it's plausible a software update is the cause.
- zimpenfish 3y ago
  Adding an anecdata to the pile - my parents have a Sony Smart TV and yeah, it's a POS. Trying to watch some YouTube videos at Christmas and it would frequently crash with "This page requires too much memory" errors.
- RugnirViking 3y ago
  I have this problem. I almost cannot use it at all apart from chromecast streaming. Any ideas what could fix it?
  - arcanemachiner 3y ago
    Just speculating, but do a factory reset and never ever connect it to the Internet. Maybe try older firmware if it's available.
- InfamousRece 3y ago
  When I was a kid my grandparents had an old style TV with vacuum tubes. It also required several minutes to “heat up” before the picture appeared. I guess we’ve come a full circle.
  - userbinator 3y ago
    Minutes? More like seconds, tens of seconds at most; you can watch videos of them starting up on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImib9Keio8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImib9Keio8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxUQw5vCDZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxUQw5vCDZs
- Grazester 3y ago
  If it's any consolation my in-laws have a similarly sluggish LG WebOS TV. When I go over there I hate having to navigate the menu. At home I have an non smart LG with an Nvidia Shield.
  - jasomill 3y ago
CobaltFire 3y ago
As a counterpoint we bought one recently (though it's literally their flagship, an A95L) and it's been wonderful. The only thing I could say is that the remote seems a bit battery hungry (~6 months on a. set of batteries). To be fair, we don't use broadcast or cable, and use an AppleTV. So it's run as a dumb set for the most part. All the people complaining here seem to be using the built-in OS and tuner.
- philistine 3y ago
  That's the problem. People want to use the TV's own OS. I never quite understood why.

imp0cat 3y ago

It's probably crashing. You can plug the TV into a smart plug and disconnect it from mains power when not in use. The boot times will probably be longer, but it won't crash as much during use.

herbst 3y ago
It is. And yes it works better if it was disconnected before, but not reliable. However I likely have a unlucky stick, from the 3 I bought that's the one acting up most.
- imp0cat 3y ago
  Yeah, that's quite possible. My Sony also has some minor glitches like forgetting to output sound sometimes (a restart fixes it - it's most probably caused by one of the apps I have installed).