KDL-43W756C - ITVX

[1Allingham]

Good morning - apologies if this has been asked before - I have a KDL-43W756C (purchased 2015) - I can only see the ITV Hub icon not the ITVX one - I have emailed ITV but haven't had a reply - can I get ITVX - all my software updates have been run ... I have a sky HD box but I need Sky glass or Sky stream to get ITVX via this - surprised that there are so many problems with this .... thank you for your help 

[royabrown2]

@1Allingham 

Here’s the Sony compatibility list:-

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00287614

Your TV, alas, is under Not Supported.

£40 on a Roku Express (my preference) or an Amazon Firestick, though, will solve most issues with Sony leaving its customers behind as far as apps go, as long as you have a spare HDMI port on the TV.

[Fenton1950]

Weird as I signed up for ITVX a few weeks ago on my 2017 SONY Bravia and now I can't even get the Homepage...Also unable to connect to Google Play Store.

[1Allingham]

This isn't good service from Sony - surely ITVX is something standard and their sets should allow this - it's not as if it's some cheap item - I shall see if I can access the ITVX hub in the bedroom where I have a very inexpensive TV - I shan't be going out of my way to buy another Sony TV  - thanks for your response ... much appreciated 

[royabrown2]

@1Allingham 

itvX is basically a whole new app, and itv have to decide what minimum base specification they are going to support. I expect there will be a bit of back-and-forth with the major manufacturers, who may well have to decide what models will get software tweaks and which won’t, but hardware comes into it too; if itvX requires certain features that older Sony sets just don’t have, then it’s never going to run on them.

I think the reasonable support life of a TV should be six years, so I would forgive itvX not programming for sets before 2017, and/or Sony declining to support new apps on sets older than that. 

So I guess that like my 2015 Samsung that no longer supports Now, and doesn’t support UHD on the BBC iPlayer, your 2015 Sony is going to lose apps, or bits of apps, as time goes by.

But for 2018 and later sets, not to support things like itvX is reprehensible, though who the fault lies with, Sony or itv or a bit of both, I could not say.

As regards buying Sony TVs, I have to remind myself, every time I pass one in a showroom and see its gorgeous picture, that beauty is only skin deep. It used to be when you bought a Sony TV, you paid a premium, but you knew that premium had gone into the engineering, and nobody else could match a Trinitron, either for picture or for reliability.

I wish Sony would put someone with their camera ethos in charge of TVs, try and go back to the days when the engineering matched the PQ, charge a premium if needs be, and let the other manufacturers race to the bottom, and welcome to it.

[1Allingham]

Thank you for your reply - I just thought that paying top dollar for the Sony TV it would be good for future apps etc. yes I am happy with the picture but a family member has a tv older than mine and is able to get ITVX - I guess my TV isn't that SMART - but I will buy a Roku Express as mentioned and view it that way - however, I am not inclined to spend more for a Sony TV over other brands when this one does eventually die - I'm also annoyed that I can't use the bluetooth facility ... but I like the simplicity of the Sony, however, it doesn't warrant the big bucks 

[royabrown2]

@1Allingham 

I have a bunch of top dollar stuff from 2015, none of it Sony, and none of it futureproofed.

A Yamaha YSP2500 soundbar that can’t pass the video from the Planet Earth UHD disc to the Samsung JS9000 TV because it needs HDCP 2.1 and the soundbar can only pass HDCP 2.0; and the TV can do 2.1 just fine, but can’t pass the uncompressed audio to the soundbar, because both are only ARC, and the audio needs eARC to go across uncompressed.

And eARC wasn’t even released until 2017.

It’s not just Sony; the new stuff just can’t be retrofitted to the older kit. Samsung even had a brave try at solving this, putting all the smarts in a separate One Connect box that was supposed to mean you could swap this for a new one for about £400 year on year, and get all the new hardware changes as well as the software changes. They did one for 2016, but then went all quiet about it; and the screen bit, which supposedly wouldn’t change, has gone from LCD to Quantum Dot, and who knows what since.

So the Samsung is now doing light duties in the dining room, while the lounge sports an LG GX; but while the G1 that came a year later is Freeview Play, LG never retrofitted this to the 2020 sets; and off we go again.

You buy a TV, and it does what it does, and as the apps age and fall off it, you buy a stick to keep them up to date; and that’s how things are now. Sometimes, you even have to buy a new stick; the original Amazon one, newer than the TV it was plugged in to, has had to be replaced with a newer and more powerful version.

LG are up to the G3 now; I’m starting to budget for whatever comes in 2025.

[HannahEd01]

Hey Fenton1950, what's the model number of your TV? Also, what exactly happens with the ITV app and the Play Store? 

[Olethrion]

Hi 1Allingham

I read on Sky's website that it's coming to Sky Q soon.