Topic: Smart TVs, smart devices, and TV apps
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By Rasmus Larsen
#7805
That's a very good write-up. Thanks. I enjoyed reading it.

So far, at least seen in retrospect, Sony's flirt with Google's Android TV has not been very succesfull, to say the least. Many of us probably also remember the major delay that hit Sony's entire 2015 TV line-up. It saddens me a little that Sony didn't actually update the processor of the spring 2016 TV line-up, especially because they promised to support at least VP9 Profile 2 (which I hope they will after an update, otherwise Sony lied at CES).
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By Rasmus Larsen
#7806
Another thing. I'm hearing that next year's MediaTek "MT5597" (may be called something different in the final TVs, but think of it as the generation after MT5891) will be a quad-core 64bit chip that supports all three HDR formats; HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision.

It is built for Android TV 7.0. That will probably be included in some of the 2017 models (spring or fall, I can't say).
#7807
Sony didn't actually update the processor of the spring 2016 TV line-up, especially because they promised to support at least VP9 Profile 2 (which I hope they will after an update, otherwise Sony lied at CES).
If you have a look at the WebM G2 VP9 decoder IP, you'll recognize that it always featured 10-bit 4:2:0 support. So hopefully MT5890 already has the respective configuration.
By nbpf
#7813
Kuschelmonschter wrote:After having spent about 3 months with my new Sony Android TV, I felt this deep desire to write a little review. Find it under the following link.

The Sony Android TV Experience
Thanks for your survey, it was extremely helpful! I am looking for a small, high quality 40 to 49 inches TV. A few months ago I went to a Sony showroom and played a little bit around with a 49'' device running 5.1. Bluntly said, my impression was that the OS was unusable. I might be overly critical but your survey seems to partly support my impression. Last week I played around with a most recent 49'' device running 6.0. The impression was that the OS had improved: better responsiveness, cleaner user interface. Unfortunately, the remote was still the same. I am not going to buy any Sony TV until they get rid of the silly Netflix button on their remotes. Still, I would be very interested in knowing whether 6.0 has brought more substantial improvements to Android TV beside better responsiveness and a slightly cleaner user interface.
By nbpf
#7816
Kuschelmonschter wrote:I will update the review with my impressions of Android 6 Marshmallow as soon as I get my hands on it.
Thanks, I very much appreciated your original review.
By Vispen74
#8071
Great review!
To bee honest, even if Android TV has a lot of bugs, compatibility problems and limitations today, it is still the best alternative for a real smart TV. This because of the number of apps today and if you miss something it is just to Sideload the apk-file for the app.
I really wish that Android TV will success before it dies out, that it will if not the speed of development keeps up and also the makers updating the OS quickly. Hopefully there will also be more Android TV units on the market, TVs as well as TV boxes.
#8099
It is time for yet another review update. I decided to put the review based on Marshmallow on a new page.

The review is a complete overhaul with adaptions due to the Marshmallow update, but also quite some new findings and helpful information. I therefore encourage everybody who already read my first review on Sony Android TV to again read through the many pages. Might be worth it Smiley (zwinkernd) .


So here are the links:

The Sony Android TV Experience (Marshmallow/2017)

Bugtracker


As a quick conclusion I want to say that Marshmallow did fix some problems, mainly in 3rd party components though, with Sony custom software still suffering from countless bugs (especially Live TV).