Sony TVS, and YouTube app being terminated on the 20th April

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#1263535 19-Mar-2015 16:31

mattwnz:
Glassboy:

I'm guessing that you oversold the smart tv angle to your parents and now feel responsible for it not working and want to deflect blame onto Sony. You'd be better being straight up with them about the current pace of technology change.

I think it is very fair to compare UHF broadcast media , with TV over broadband. They are both digital forms of video.

Not at all, infact isn't it sony who have oversold it, as it was clearly advertised as a feature with no expiry date? Having an inbuilt feature is a far easier option than having to buy another device to achieve the same thing, for a feature that they have already paid for, that should last a reasonable amount of time. 2 years IMO is not a reasonable amount of time for an advertised feature to last, comparing it to other devices that have youtube. If anyone should be educating people, it should be sony, who should be more open with the fact that smart tvs functions maybe removed at anytime. But I suspect if they did any advantage of their smart TVs over non smart TVs would be extinguished.

Youtube isn't TV over broadband. TV is transmitted to a set of internationally ratified standards. Youtube is a proprietary product from a company that isn't Sony.

It's very interesting the new extent to which you're reaching into the logical fallacy basket when I bring up your motivation for slagging off Sony.

Glassboy

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#1263939 20-Mar-2015 11:26

I think it's also worth pointing out that Sony has its own video (and music) distribution networks, and will also be one of the biggest IP owners of pirated material posted to Youtube.

cb1

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#1285227 15-Apr-2015 23:24

Looks like the same now applies to Facebook app on Sony tv's from April 27th - here is info with affected models

Sony notice

mattwnz

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#1285237 15-Apr-2015 23:44

cb1: Looks like the same now applies to Facebook app on Sony tv's from April 27th - here is info with affected models

Sony notice

Interesting it says ' We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.' Well it hasn't caused any inconvenience to those users who use facebook yet, as it doesn't get cancelled until the 27th, but their wording infers it has already occurred. But this is all a lesson to keep the 'Smart' and TV separate from one another.

michaelmurfy

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#1285240 15-Apr-2015 23:56

Well my TV is 4 years old and is having the YouTube app terminated - really not a big deal as it has a Chromecast connected to it.

Often people may get a smart TV not realising it is an old version and therefore running the older OS. I know for a fact all Smart TV's released in the last 2 years have the later version of the YouTube app on it. When I investigated I found TV's around 3-4 years old with the older YouTube app are the ones being terminated and that is fine, the TV had a slow and terrible interface anyway.

Worst comes to worse you've got the built in (but pretty useless) web browser that can play YouTube too (well, can on my TV) so yes, you're still able to YouTube on the TV but it is now even more slow and clunky - just like the user experience if they actually did bring the new YouTube app to the TV with the under-powered CPU it has (hint, the Chromecast has more grunt and ram)

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mattwnz

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#1285245 16-Apr-2015 00:15

michaelmurfy: Well my TV is 4 years old and is having the YouTube app terminated - really not a big deal as it has a Chromecast connected to it.

Often people may get a smart TV not realising it is an old version and therefore running the older OS. I know for a fact all Smart TV's released in the last 2 years have the later version of the YouTube app on it. When I investigated I found TV's around 3-4 years old with the older YouTube app are the ones being terminated and that is fine, the TV had a slow and terrible interface anyway.

Worst comes to worse you've got the built in (but pretty useless) web browser that can play YouTube too (well, can on my TV) so yes, you're still able to YouTube on the TV but it is now even more slow and clunky - just like the user experience if they actually did bring the new YouTube app to the TV with the under-powered CPU it has (hint, the Chromecast has more grunt and ram)

What it probably does do though is devalue the value of the smart TV. If you go to sell a 3 year old TV, you have a lot of apps in the menus which don't work, which were features that now no longer work. For example someone may buy it because they see that the model does youtube or facebook after googling the model, they get it home only to learn that those features no longer work. People may also try to knock down the price due to this. Just glad I didn't pay for the additional $100 + sony wifi dongle on mine, which is exclusively for those types of services. It does look like Samsung are better at supporting their apps, and for longer.

MikeB4

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#1285263 16-Apr-2015 06:45

I have a two year old Panasonic TV (65" VT) it was sold as their top of the line which it is for the core functionality. As for the smart features? Occasionally I will mess with them if bored but they are terrible. It is like trying to use a PC from circa 2001 with today's programs, slow and just painful to use.
Want smarts get one of the multitude available and add to your system at a fraction of the cost.

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littleheaven

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#1285351 16-Apr-2015 09:33

KiwiNZ: I have a two year old Panasonic TV (65" VT) it was sold as their top of the line which it is for the core functionality. As for the smart features? Occasionally I will mess with them if bored but they are terrible. It is like trying to use a PC from circa 2001 with today's programs, slow and just painful to use.
Want smarts get one of the multitude available and add to your system at a fraction of the cost.

I totally agree. I just bought one of their top-of-the-line PVTs and the internet functions are laughable. And still no Netflix app for my model. I would recommend a streaming box any day over a smart TV. So much easier to upgrade than the whole telly. I use AppleTV's YouTube app for watching on my TV.

Not that it matters, but I wonder if the YT apps on my PS3 and Sony Home Theatre will stop working on the 20th? I can understand those who are frustrated at losing it off of a new-ish smart TV if it was one of the features they bought the thing for. At least there are lots of other very economical options.

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mattwnz

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#1285580 16-Apr-2015 13:22

littleheaven:
KiwiNZ: I have a two year old Panasonic TV (65" VT) it was sold as their top of the line which it is for the core functionality. As for the smart features? Occasionally I will mess with them if bored but they are terrible. It is like trying to use a PC from circa 2001 with today's programs, slow and just painful to use.
Want smarts get one of the multitude available and add to your system at a fraction of the cost.

I totally agree. I just bought one of their top-of-the-line PVTs and the internet functions are laughable. And still no Netflix app for my model. I would recommend a streaming box any day over a smart TV. So much easier to upgrade than the whole telly. I use AppleTV's YouTube app for watching on my TV.

Not that it matters, but I wonder if the YT apps on my PS3 and Sony Home Theatre will stop working on the 20th? I can understand those who are frustrated at losing it off of a new-ish smart TV if it was one of the features they bought the thing for. At least there are lots of other very economical options.

I wonder if it will stop working on my ipod touch 2, which is over 5 years old, and must be using the older api, as it hasn't been updated for many years. But there hasn't been any announcement I have seen from apple, as it is apple own youtube app. I agree that a newish TV, owners should feel frustrated about losing it, because it means that there is something on the TV that now doesn't work, and dates it. If they were able to remove it from the menu that would be better, but there is no way for a user to do that themselves. It is something we haven't really come across with this change in technology.

heylinb4nz

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#1285635 16-Apr-2015 14:35

KiwiNZ: I have a two year old Panasonic TV (65" VT) it was sold as their top of the line which it is for the core functionality. As for the smart features? Occasionally I will mess with them if bored but they are terrible. It is like trying to use a PC from circa 2001 with today's programs, slow and just painful to use.
Want smarts get one of the multitude available and add to your system at a fraction of the cost.

Got the 65" ST here , thought the VT would have had better Smart ?. Know what you mean, painfully slow, limited apps and enter in characters using the TV remote is horrible.

Ended up getting a Roku 3 ...much better ($130 shipped)

MikeB4

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#1285641 16-Apr-2015 14:41

heylinb4nz:
KiwiNZ: I have a two year old Panasonic TV (65" VT) it was sold as their top of the line which it is for the core functionality. As for the smart features? Occasionally I will mess with them if bored but they are terrible. It is like trying to use a PC from circa 2001 with today's programs, slow and just painful to use.
Want smarts get one of the multitude available and add to your system at a fraction of the cost.

Got the 65" ST here , thought the VT would have had better Smart ?. Know what you mean, painfully slow, limited apps and enter in characters using the TV remote is horrible.

Ended up getting a Roku 3 ...much better ($130 shipped)

Not to mention a god awful *Bing* every time you move the pointer. Grrrr so annoying

mattwnz

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#1285648 16-Apr-2015 14:52

It is apity that it seems to be their higher quality LCDs that have these smart TV features. I would prefer theyhad the same tvs but removed the smart functions from it.

Dratsab

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#1285653 16-Apr-2015 14:54

My Sony TV and blu-ray player are both affected by this. Fortunately I didn't buy them for their smart functionality which is utter crap and painfully slow. I have used the Youtube app on the TV but thought it was rubbish so took to streaming via a Chromecast. Never bothered using Facebook on the TV tho...

mattwnz

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#1285670 16-Apr-2015 15:25

Dratsab: My Sony TV and blu-ray player are both affected by this. Fortunately I didn't buy them for their smart functionality which is utter crap and painfully slow. I have used the Youtube app on the TV but thought it was rubbish so took to streaming via a Chromecast. Never bothered using Facebook on the TV tho...

I do actually use the twitter app as it is quite good. But that doesn't appear to be affected...yet. At somestage I am guessing most apps will stop working.

Endo

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#1286627 18-Apr-2015 00:19

I have a Panasonic smart TV that is 4 years old and although I didnt buy it for the smart TV features, we have grown to love having Youtube on it. We have used it extensively (with a wireless keyboard to make it useable) and are gutted that it's disappearing.

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