topic Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set? in Android TV

What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 21:28:06 GMT

I have a Sony Bravia KD32W800 (2021) tv.

2 years on since buying it as what the salesman described then as Sony's latest state of the art set, and that the set was so new that there wasn't an Apple TV app for it yet but "it would be made available shortly" - but there is still no app to enable us to watch Apple TV programmes. Who might know whether it is ever going to happen? Clearly no point in asking Sony salesmen...

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

daveyh64 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 22:00:23 GMT

I doubt very much that your KD32W800 in 2021 at only £300-00 was ever Sonys latest state of the art TV.

Do you have an Apple TV device.

Does your TVs remote control have a Google Assist button, if so press and hold and say Apple TV.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

royabrown2 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 08:46:19 GMT

@Kevin_W @daveyh64

‘State of the art’ Sony TVs don’t have to throw away their terrestrial tunings when you choose satellite tunings, and vice versa.

Which retailer did this salesman work for, so I can avoid them?

Oh, and did you not walk past TVs costing ten times that, or even same-size TVs costing twice that, in the store, and not wonder what corners Sony had to cut to meet that price point?

But don’t sweat it. Get a Roku Express HD, £25, or even the 4K one at £35 for a bit of future-proofing, and start watching Apple TV on your Sony TV the same day.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 09:15:23 GMT

Actually the set cost £449.
I don’t have a separate Apple TV device.
The Google store does not show the Apple TV app as being available.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 09:22:11 GMT

I bought it in John Lewis.

I particularly needed a 'small' 32" set and there seem to be very few available.

The Sony 32" was probably twice the cost of the other makes available elsewhere at this size.

I mistakenly thought Sony was one of the best!

In fact, I could have bought a big set for quite a lot less than the smaller 32" one.

I could try an external box to get Apple TV but really wanted to know whether an app is likely?

I've since been told by a techo friend that there is some sort of feud between Apple and Android so they don't cooperate - but it is the customer who suffers...?

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

daveyh64 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:33:10 GMT

£300-00 at John Lewis,

https://www.johnlewis.com/sony-bravia-kd32w800-2021-led-hdr-hd-ready-720p-smart-android-tv-32-inch-with-freeview-play/p109903199

Does the remote control have a Google Assist button if so press and hold and say Apple TV, this will start the Apple TV app on my Sony TV, an app which I never downloaded.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:43:05 GMT

Yeah, I know. It is £299 now. It was £449 when it first came out. I was told "This is Sony's latest super new Android set. Android is the very best OS. It is so new you'll have to wait a few months for all the apps to catch up.." etc. Never trust a TV salesman! And Android, in comparison with my other TV (an old Lowe) it is really SLOW at even simple things like changing the aerial TV channel - it seems to have to wait for internet information each time even when live TV using the aerial?

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

daveyh64 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 11:11:19 GMT

I can only go on today prices.

The TV is an entry level TV so will have the least expensive/ fastest features and components.

Your TV is still under warranty with John Lewis so you could maybe get advice from their support team.

Have you updated the firmware on the TV since you bought it.

There was an update for your TV in November 2022 which includes Android 11, which may help you.

You can download it from this link, read the instructions and follow them to the letter.

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/lcd-tvs-android-w80x-series/kd-32w800/software/00262461

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 12:38:24 GMT

Yes thanks, the set has already updated itself to the Android 11 OS.

And I spoke with the John Lewis "support" shortly after buying the TV. Once they had got my money they gave a new meaning to the term "useless". It was John Lewis who told me it was the "very latest state of the art TV using the new Android system...etc"

The fact that the Apple TV app doesn't show on the Google App Store for the TV I wonder whether it is because there isn't one or maybe it's a territorial licensing thing that excludes the UK?

Basically I can't get a sensible answer from Sony nor John Lewis... and Apple just said the solution was for me to buy a separate Apple TV box at £149.

So I tried watching Apple TV as a webpage on the TV as a workaround and it worked sufficiently to show me the film titles but as soon as I tried to watch one it came up with an error message saying copyright permissions for the device were blocking it. So I've given up... But thanks for your suggestions.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

daveyh64 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:21:03 GMT

You still haven't confirmed if there is a Google Assist button on your remote control

Apple TV is available in the UK, do you really think Apple would have restricted itself in the UK.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:29:33 GMT

Google Assist button? If you mean the microphone button then yes, it can search the Google App Store but when asking for Apple TV it says nothing found. I know there is an Apple TV app on other smart TVs, but I think the issue is whether Apple have specifically made an app that works with Android TVs...

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

daveyh64 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:53:19 GMT

Most Smart tvs run the android system or as it is now known as google tv, they devised the android os.

My Sony tv is on google tv which if you interrogated further in settings is Android OS 10 and it has Apple TV

available through the google assist button.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:56:53 GMT

Thanks. That is interesting! I think I will persist in trying to get an answer from Sony... It doesn't make sense!

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

royabrown2 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 16:30:31 GMT

@Kevin_W

Here is a list of TVs on which Apple TV is supported:-

https://www.apple.com/eg/apple-tv-app/devices/

There are 18 series of Sony Android TVs supported. Yours is not included there.

It was always an odd TV, by any standards. Android but with Freeview Play, HD Ready when the price you paid should have got you full HD, underspecified in very many respects, this was Sony getting the 32” set market horrendously wrong, and they haven’t got it right yet,

They should either abandon it altogether (which maybe they have) or work a lot harder on a competitive offering for it.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 16:40:50 GMT

That's probably why the price has dropped from £449 to £299.... Thanks for all the input.

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Fab3rge — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 22:59:48 GMT

I can’t even watch Apple TV through my Sony KD-49XE9005

it just crashes as soon as I press play and goes into a reboot loop (until I pull out the HDMI).

Like you said, I was also promised a future-proof TV but it did not even last 3 years without glitches.

I’ve seen plenty of evidence that software is making TVs completely obsolete within a matter of a few short years now (whereas they used to last 10-20 years - nothing a smack on the top of the box wouldn’t fix!)

The amount of e-waste in landfill must be staggering but consumers gotta keep Sony and Co afloat somehow, right?

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 00:52:01 GMT

The set cost £449.
I don’t have a separate Apple TV device.
The Google store does not show the Apple TV app as available.

Sent from my iPhone

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

royabrown2 — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:16:18 GMT

@Fab3rge

By and large, modern TVs do not respond well to percussive maintenance 😢

But, trying to keep a smart 2012 3D TV set alive after the apps on it started dying, I simply added an Amazon Firestick, and made it smarter than it ever had been.

And I’ve been doing it ever since, though I find Roku devices both less expensive and less in-your-face than Firesticks. Now all I have to worry about is if the screens last, which they do better than a lovely old Trinitron we had, which slowly went green over time.

It doesn’t matter how much your TV cost; for less than £50, sometimes a lot less, obsolescence becomes a thing of the past.

And not always obsolescence; the 2020 LGs, even the flagship GX we bought, came without the itv and Channel 4 players, which we were promised were coming later. No problem; a Roku Express 4K, heavily subsidised by Curry’s to £10, provided them from day 1 as a workaround.

Good thing too, as while itv eventually arrived, Channel 4 never did, and we watch it on the Roku to this day. And it’s still less clicks to get to it than to the embedded Channel 4 player on our dining room Samsung 😛

Re: What is the actual problem that stops us watching Apple TV on a Sony set?

Kevin_W — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:52:21 GMT

Thank you. That’s really helpful! Still peeved about the John Lewis salesman saying the Apple TV app would be released “within a couple of weeks” of the new Sony set…
K

Sent from my iPhone