Sony Bravia TV EPG "no event information" on freesat

[Solway]

Sony Bravia TV EPG "no event information" on freesat

Hi guys

Been trying to contact Sony via their web email support. the page endlessly loops on trying to send, no matter on what broswer i use. 😕 so here i am...

anyway

I have a Sony bravia TV KDL-42W805A.

I have recently cancelled my Sky package. so have been using the builtin freeview (aerial) for TV, which is all working fine.

However, i have decided to remove the freeview aerial and use the built in freesat tuner with existing Sky dish.

I can get over 800 channels with freesat. and the signal quality/strength is at the max. no issues there.

The issue im having is:

the EPG does not populate with information. all i get is "no event information". it will only appear once i view a channel. but im not flickering through 800 channels just to get the information to load

Because this don't load, it make the EPG completely useless

What am i doing wrong?

PS. the TV is not connected to the internet (yet) but has latest firmware update i think.

[Deezell]

This is a particular issue on a new XH9005 I bought. It's to be expected that Astra epg information will not load for all channels until at least one channel from a specific provider is selected, e.g, BBC,  ITV, CH4 etc. The epg will at most be Now Next.The Freesat epg on the other  hand should automatically load and provide a full 7 day epg for all channels,  but it is not  clear how  this is achieved by Sony. I would assume that they harness the Epg data channel on Astra. I've  had some success by manually tuning this channel in on TP 11,778, V, 27500.  The Epg data channel named It sits at CH 7020 in the  Satellite channel list, when I selected it, it shows no video, but on changing tuner group to Freesat, the channel information of the epg was fully populated. I think it may be important to ensure that a TV with twin Satellite inputs but with only only one cable connected is configured correctly as having only one wired sat tuner, otherwise the system make seek epg data from the unconnected  second tuner. I've had hit and miss Freesat epg over my last 15 months of ownership. It will often populate perfectly after a retune, but not update thereafter, as the 7 days epg ticks down to its final day, then I'm left with 'no information'. The set was replaced under warranty for bad edge backlighting after 12 months, the epg issue is identical in the new replacement.

[HannahEd01]

Hey Deezell, most Sony TVs aren't satellite certified, this is why they don't guarantee the functionality of the guide. 

[Deezell]

• I've been able to view a full 7 day EPF on my Linux satellite box for over 8 years now, it downloads it over the Internet and combines it with the tuned Astra satellite list of channels. In memory it is a tiny program, written in Python, but it works without fail. The satellte receiver cost €139 in 2014. It's a shame that a top brand name  product costing ten times this can't achieve this same functionality. Worse than  having only basic satellite tuning, it introduces Freesat functionality, but the implementation is faulty and remains unfixed. Many customers would have returned to Sony from LG, Samsung when Freesat was added to the specification. How difficult can it be for the Software developer who added the Freesat code to trace why the program or app responsible is unable to rescan the IEPG channel to populate the EPG daily. I have to do a full retune to get it to (eventually) fill the EPG for seven days, which reduces by a day, daily, until it's blank, and will only populate some channels with now/next if you channel hop for a few minutes.

[HannahEd01]

@Deezell, why don't you contact Sony about that and see what can be done? 

[Deezell]

There's 16 pages of post here with no one getting a solution. I'd imagine if a solution was available, it would be out there to find. So far I'm only finding post of people complaining about the issue,but no solutions.

[HannahEd01]

@Deezell, I'm not sure if this will be the case, at least you will get the chance to add your voice fromally.

[WillMackey]

Xr-75X93J Second and last Sony tv as the UI seems to be always pure garbage, no matter what platform it's running (previous was some godawful Sony in house crap). In 2years updates have just made the menus slower (thanks Google!) and basic things like EPG are still broken. Wifi and Ethernet both slow as hell and tons of other bugs and issues. By default comes with 40W standby consumption that was due to some useless Google services. Glad it's just a secondary tv set for me.

[TheMaze]

Hi,

To receive a guide with more information, this TV needs to be connected to the Internet and use the Guide with search option. To enable this, enter these settings.
"Menu" > "system settings" > "General set-up">"guide key behavior" > change to ""Launch Guide and search"

Let us know the outcome...

[jtdorginsh]

thanks for your message.

Ive had a look.  Unfortunately, my TV didn’t have the “guide key behaviour” option in the settings menu…

Menu" > "system settings" > "General set-up">"guide key behavior" > change to ""Launch Guide and search"

The guide is very difficult to use.  Channels are all over the place.  It’s possible to move them in the list, but it loses the list settings from time to time, so I’ve given up and now make a paper-based list. 

If you are able to suggest any other options to improve it, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for your help so far.

[orwell84]

Its really terrible how Sony handled this whole EPG thing.  They had a brilliant solution with the Guide and Gracenote.  They also had an app which was flexible and usable as a device with TVs.  But they messed up entirely and now it is a mess.  But they did provide a channel editor (see below) so a tiny bit of kudos for that effort.  End of the day it a bit like - "I  just shot you" - "Sorry, here's a plaster!"

I am putting up with the woeful guide on satellite with now and next and using the terrestrial EPG which works.  I use external boxes for full EPG if I need it.  The internal satellite guide woes will never be fixed for a variety of reasons, some technical and some because no one can be bothered to  replicate the great solutions provided for satellite with guide brought in from internet feed was the case in previous Sony TVs.  (the Launch guide and search method that has been mentioned). 

As for organizing channels, I use the Sony provided windows editor, which is not ideal but it works better than trying to do everything via the hand remote,   Link may not work for your location but the one I use is Sony Channel Editor Ver.1.2.0 (Windows) | Sony Ireland for the Sony Channel editor.