OK, after being one of the first customers to receive the new KD-55X8505C Android 4K Smart TV, I have to get this out there.
The WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) is getting dangerously low. This is definately Not A Good Thing. Let me give just one example. We come back from a holiday, with lots of pictures. I put about 200 of them on a USB stick to show them on our shiny new big screen. I have exported them from the Photos app on my Mac, and had them renamed in sequential order. I put the stick in the back of the TV, go to the "Photos" app on the TV, search for "Devices" (or "Apparaten" in dutch). nothing happens. Wait a couple more mintues, check again, now some folders on the USB stick start to appear. I select one of the folders, verify that some pictures are present, and want to start a slideshow. Only, the pics are now shown in reverse chronological order, ie : newest ones first. That messes up the story of the holiday ofcourse. No way to change the order.
The other day we were at my inlaws, and their 5 year old non-smart TV had the pictures playing in the right order from the same USB stick in a matter of seconds.
Not happy.
Also, when I put the USB stick in the Sony TV, I am now unable to view pictures in folders "higher up" on the USB stick. There's no way to browse back to the root of the stick once you have entered one folder with pictures.
I could also mention the fact that the whole Android system is buggy as hell. For instance, after rebooting the TV, I get 5 or 6 notifications that the UsbMsgService has stopped. Whether the USB stick is present or not.
The other day, the picture from our set-top box appeared to be "zoomed in". We were watching a football game, and the time only showed the minutes in the upper-right hand corner. The sation logo in the upper-left hand corner dit not appear at all. Rebooting the set top-box did not help. To be sure, I hooked up another TV to the same set-top box, which gave a good, full picture. Rebooting the Sony TV did restore the picture size back to normal (although I then had to "OK" the UsbMsgService prompts again).
We have a wireless subwoofer that we got together with the TV. Sometimes the connection between the TV and the sub (through the USB dongle) is gone. Sometimes the sound of the sub is VERY LOUD. I have to say sometimes it also works fine. Sometimes.
HDD recording is promised 'in a future release'. I've been through at least two firmware updates, but still no HDD Recording. When, Sony, when?
I have several DLNA-capable devices on my home network (Synology NAS, WD TV Livehub, several PCs running Windows 8.1 and Mac OS X). The "Videos" and "Photos" apps on the TV rarely get to find those devices to play media off of them. Sometimes it finds the devices, but thinks they are shut down and offers to "wake them up" by clicking on them. Obviously that doesn't work, because they are already on. Most of the time it can't find a single device on my network though. It doesn't make a difference if I'm running the TV wireless or wired.
The interface feels and reacts VERY sluggishly. That should be much better. I expected at least the same performance from a brand new 2000€ Sony TV as I get from 3 year old 99€ AppleTV box. Big dissapointment in that regard.
After a couple of firmware upgrades, at least the Netflix App works fine. Much less buffering issues than in the beginning. That's a sparkle of hope there.
All in all, I feel that the Android TV system is VERY bloated. I mean, updating the firmware shows a count of no less than 184 apps needing updates. 184 Apps. Really? Do I really need to be able to print from my TV? I don't think so.
So please, pretty please, with sugar on top, get your troops together and fix these issues. I can't justify recommending this TV to my friends in the state that it currently is in. Agreed, the picture quality is fine, but the "smart" interface is a terrible piece of work. I only wish that the people who have signed off on this would also have this set at home for their family, that would possibly speed up the repair of these obvious flaws.
A slightly disappointed customer,
Joris Dinet
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