vTuner Offline on Some Devices [Nov 2014]

[MK_Slinky]

Hi all,

It looks as though vTuner is now off-line again on some devices. My own STR-DN1040 Receiver remains unaffected at this time however my BDP-S7200 Blu-ray is displaying the following message:

“This service cannot be accessed at this time because the server replied with incorrect or invalid information”.

Please report any other affected devices here for simplicity of colaborating the information, kindly do not start a new thread.

Thanks in advance!

[MK_Slinky]

---

@Tammie_M3ENF wrote:

Well, I'm not sure if it's entirely down here in England at least on my hi-fi. I can get the list of stations etc but my favourite which I've gotten before, says cannot play.

Can someone please see if they can listen to this one: The Farm 580 AM. It's a country station in North Carolina, so you'll find it under either of those two categories.

---

Hi Tammie,

I don't know if you've read the full post here but my own equipment came back on-line last Sunday at about 3 am.

The US forum has plenty to read also although much of it is only duplicating what has been said here. However one user has posted their own solution to finding lost 'favourites'. See below

Read the Second Post down by this member: fg-bdps5100

[richardc79]

@Pistabacsi  I fully agree with that!

This is what i told to Sony support. Ofcourse it is a possibility that it is a failing vTuner service, and SONY cannot fix that. But for me as a Sony customer i don't care where the problem is located or even what the root cause is. For me as a customer i am only interested in a fix so my Internet Radio works like before. With or without vTuner, i really don't care at all, as long as i can listen to my favorite music channels. That's all.

And exactly on that point Sont (support) is failing. I mean it was the choice of SONY to supply only vTuner as a partner for streaming and equip there devices with only the vTuner service. 

As a result now, they keep fingerpointing to vTuner and don't have any solution for it.

But.... for me it results in a product what is totally useless because i bought it for the Internet Radio to listen to my favourite music channels which are now simply all gone.

I mean, come on, the service was down for more then 5 weeks from the end of september and after that it worked like before. And now we have out of the blue a strong reduced vTuner for already 20 days. What's next? Again 5 weeks of offline service? Or just a reduced service for a year?

Sony replied to me in there last mail that there is a problem with the distribution of radio channels at vTuner and because it is on there distribution servers (sony has no acces to the distribution servers at vTuner) they cannot do anything about it.

Well i don't know, but again, my friend with his Denon and also the vTuner internet radio everything is working perfectly with all radio channels available and working.

But ok, maybe only the Sony products have the limitations because it uses special 'sony' vTuner distribution servers(?). Simply don't know and again i don't care, cause for me (and all of us) only a solution would be nice after 5 + 2 weeks now! 

I don't know if youtube vids with cannot play will put presure on a a solution, but maybe it is worth a shot...

[Anonymous]

---

@richardc79 wrote:

@Pistabacsi  I fully agree with that!

Well i don't know, but again, my friend with his Denon and also the vTuner internet radio everything is working perfectly with all radio channels available and working.

But ok, maybe only the Sony products have the limitations because it uses special 'sony' vTuner distribution servers(?).

---

As far as I understand it, all your devices that connect to vTuner go through to vTuners authentication servers.  This tells vTuner which devices are using its services and how many etc.  Therefore they can then turn off or restrict services depending on which brand and models of devices.  Hence why your friends Denon will work and your Sony doesnt.  vTuner could do the same to Denon if it so wished.

[Pistabacsi]

Pista's log:

Day 23 & all is back to normal.......only kidding. It hasn't changed one iota.

& there's a good line up of shows on 6 music today (as every day).

Was talking to a friend last night & he suggested a slighty different tactic.

Get in touch with the service department & simply tell them you want your device fixed.

That would leave them in the sticky situation of actually admitting they cannot fix it & they would have no alternative but to refund or replace the item.

[richardc79]

Well point is that i did this and Sony actually admits that they cannot fix it. (see my earlier posts)

Problem is that they will tell you that your device is working well and not broken.

And for the vTuner part they only will say: well that is not working very well, and 'we' are working on that issue. But the solution is at vTuner, we can't do anything about it. Just telling you that we working on the issue with vtuner.

That's the whole point, because for me as a customer the device is not working, because i bought it mainly for the internet radio with my favourite stations which are now all gone. That's the whole discussion.

Besides that my warranty is voiding in a couple of weeks, that's also a reason that i am a bit ***** off of this whole situation. Cuase, at the end, SONY is offering no solution at all for us as there customers.

I checked the US community last night. There are some tips and tricks but for me they are simply not working.

The tip for presets which say Cannot play is kind a useless, because that was an issue which happens to me more then once over the years. That was the reason i didn't use the presets anymore and always browsed to the stations i used, or choose "Recently played stations". And ofcourse i tried all the ways in the menu to check if the stations were available in another subtree but they are really gone with all the other stations.

[Pistabacsi]

@richardc79 

How can they declare it's working?

If you can pull up a menu of stations & demonstrate that they don't play, then it's clearly not working is it?

Not sure how they could argue with that really

[richardc79]

@Pistabacsi 

Because the statement of Sony is that our equipment is technical 100% ok.

That the internet radio function (which is functioning as well...) has only a couple of stations left because it is strongly reduced is from there point of view a whole other story because they just point to vTuner at that point. 

I am just as surprised as you are, but that's what Sony support is doing here in the Netherlands.

Ofcourse i don't agree with it and my reply on there statement is just on its way..

Because for me as a SONY customer it is pretty useless, because i (we all i presume) still have not the Internet Radio like it was before and should be in my opinion. But they don't really seem to care on that point.

Problem is: how can i (we) get the support from Sony, or vTuner through Sony, cause it is there streaming partner!) we all deserve as there customers on this point?

Any more ideas?

[MK_Slinky]

---

@richardc79 wrote:

Problem is: how can i (we) get the support from Sony, or vTuner through Sony, cause it is there streaming partner!) we all deserve as there customers on this point?

---

Sony have already told you that your product is not technically faulty - how can they fix a fault which doesn't exist?

Sony do not provide support for vTuner, they've already told you this - vTuner is not part of Sony, you will need to speak to vTuner. Unfortunately as we all know, vTuner have a campaign of silence on the issue.

Something worth considering.., in the lead up to Christmas Sony will sell lots of products which have vTuner built in. Sony certainly won't want a barrage of angry customer complaints in the new year because their new product appears faulty. None of us truly know what is going on behind the scenes but it's logical to suggest that this issue is of the highest priority for them right now.

[Pistabacsi]

Oops.

Might have put a video on youtube.

Bit shaky, but you get the message

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdvCVLtCSLk&feature=youtu.be

Spread the word fellow sufferers 🐵

[Pistabacsi]

Pista's log: Day 24. I might start gnawing on my own leg shortly. Absolute despair setting in as there has been no changes even overnight. Both support organisations have gone strangely quiet...

[removed personal details]