I am not going to repeat (again) what has already been described and discussed in so many threats...
https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/audio-passthrough/m-p/2366395/highlight/true#M21550
https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/mediatek-again-screwed-up-with-nougat-concerning-audio/td...
It is more an open letter to SONY should they care...
Born in the 70s, I have been a big fan (like many) of their products in the 80s (Trinitron TV, walman, miniDisks, phones...).
SONY's catastrophic and bipolar behavious towards MP3 in the 90s forced me to look elsewhere to find a better fit to my consumer's changing behavious that they simply refused to address and showed that, for the first time, technical excellence was no longer their first priority most likely due to internal conflicts between the hardware and content (movies/music) divisions... At the same time, a medium player from Korea (samsung) started to offer good technical alternatives at a better price...
Early 2000, I completly abandonned the SONY brand....
in 2017, I decided to come back to them and purchase 2 SONY Tvs (65 and 42 inchs) and one amplifier for one and one reason only... They integrated Android environment in their TV.
Being part of a 100% android family, I saw incredible benefits having a TV Android enabled that could interract with all my phones and tablets but most importantly, simplify the echosystem by getting rid of all the external boxes, cables and remote controls to have an all in 1 KODI integrated solution.
I cannot express enough my disapointment after 1 year of usage...
- How could you decide to integrate such a mediocre and slowwwwww...SoC (Mediatek) when they could have been flying with an NVidia chip that would be more align with the SONY preimium image...
- How could you release broken firmware with an apps like KODI that has such a high number of users that it has become de facto market standard...
My overall experience has been poor and I do not see any willingness from SONY to correct the buggy situation witch worries me... It is one thing to get it wrong but it is another to do nothing about it...
When the announced NOUGAT update arrives on my TVs, If they do not deliver a product that works with Standard Android API, it will be the last stroke that will definitely end of my relationship with this brand for good...
That would be a shame for them as their marketing departement will classifiy me without any doubts in the prime target segment (VERY high spending power & massive budget allocated to eletronics stuff for the family on a yearly basis...).
Maybe the problem is mass market vs eletronic enthusiats after all... SONY is a safe harbour if you stick to NETFLIX & AMAZON Video... If this is the case, my bad. I will just jump ship (definitely) and will go spend my money elsewhere...
Best
BooTooo
