[Temujin]

I've got the XBR75X900E and love it, but am running a dedicated HTPC for stored media and Kodi and using the TV app for NetFlix for 4K material.
I basically assumed Kodi via the TV wouldn't be ideal.
If someone wants something tested, I could certainly do some things over the holidays.

[trajce_drvarceto]

Hello to all.

I started to research for Android TV in the past few days as I must make a purchase on the next few days, and I am in general totally disapointed by the Android TV platform. However, as I must make a purchase I have problematic time to figure if Android TV could fufill my demands.

What I want to achieve, like many others, is to use Kodi for streaming 4K (and Full HD) video files (4K rips + external .srt subtitles, 4K videos taken with mobile phone, and 4K from action cam) who generally does not have hight bitrate. Media will be streamed from LAN HDD connected to a gigabit LAN. Sound will come/be passed to external soundbar.

Are Sony Android TV currently capable of fufilling this requirements? I was suprised when 2017 TV hit only 100FPS in GFXBench as oposed to 300FPS on more than 2 years old Xperia XA and dont think that 2018 XF models are any different as they seems to have the same MT5891 chip (well at least XF75 model that I checked).
Could anyone tell if there is any improvements with the latest 6.5603 firmware on 2017 models?
I was told that 2017 models would not get Android 8.0 update as oposite to 2018 models, so what is expecteded Android 8.0 to bring to the table? Is it expected to solve some of the current issues?

Also, do you think that I shoud go with dummber TV and change LAN HDD to a NAS, which will do all the things required from KODI?

Thank you all.

[wrxtasy]

From the START HERE sticky thread...

Q. What about buying one of those Android TV's from Sony or Sharp/Philips for Kodi use ?

• May be OK so long as you are not a demanding Kodi user expecting everything to just "work"
  
• Firmware is generally poor for Kodi Audio compatibility. Forget about HD Audio and even basic 5.1 DTS Audio will cause issues.
  
• A very informative Review from @CiNcH is worth reading - The Sony Android TV Experience (2017)
  

[trajce_drvarceto]

Hello @wrxtasy. Thank for reply.

I did review the initial sticky thread, and review from @CiNcH which was extemly informative, however, my questions were more in a line of what the latest firmware bring, and does it solves some of the issues. Also what Android 8 is expected to bring?
I did review some XF model and it seems that the it has the same CPU as 2017 models, nowever maybe they have new kernel ets?

[wrxtasy]

This AVSforums review thread might have some additional info:

https://www.avforums.com/review/sony-kd-...view.14564

[trajce_drvarceto]

I did look into every possible reviews that I could find online. Sadly, non of them reviewed in-depth Android platform and KODI. Disappointing.

[CiNcH]

Mine does a bit more...

[noggin]

Beware the XE90/XE900/XBR900E 2017 Android TV model range - there is a well known and widely reported (in UK and German AV Forums) bug with this model that means 50Hz and 59.94Hz native content (Sport, Entertainment, News etc.) is displayed with frame drops and frame repeats in all picture modes other than GAME and one of the Photos (Custom I think).  This most commonly exhibits itself as very brief pauses/jerks on shot changes, though it can appear mid shot.  The TV is dropping a frame pair (usually on a cut) and then repeating a pair of frames (usually on another cut - but not always).  The fact it shows two pairs twice is really obvious on content where there is motion between field/frame pairs... The shot effectively jumps back two frames and then plays again.

It's a real pity - because with FALD and a 10-bit panel, and at a very competitive price, it's a great TV in almost every other respect. 

Sony are replacing XE models with XFs as warranty 'repairs' for many people who have spotted the fault.  There have been at least three firmware updates since the fault was first logged with Sony in October last year, and none of them fixes it...

(Personally I find Android TV on both the XE and XF series annoyingly slow - due apparently to the underpowered MediaTek processors they use.  I'd use an external solution for Kodi if I'm honest, just as I do for Netflix and Amazon Prime as the internal players seem to run at 59.94Hz not 23.976?)

[trajce_drvarceto]

Mine does a bit more...

Hello, CiNcH. I did look into your review before as I had written in my previous post. I must say that your review was spot-on, far the best explanation on the state of Sony Android TV, and pretty much the only one. My comment about the lack of in-depth review of Android TV was regarding the new 2018 model (as suggested by @wrxtasy) and any other review except yours. 
Now, in context of this, your last review was from April 2018, and a week ago Sony had released new firmware 6.5603. Did you had the chance to review it? Is there any significant changes that affects UX? 
Also, if you are well informed, will 2017 models be upgraded to Android TV 8.0? What should Android TV 8.0 bring on the table, and could it affect KODI UX? And final question, do you think that 2017 model could flawlessly stream 4K material and import .srt subtitles on a hardware level, from a or NAS?

Thank you.

[Temujin]

Thanks for that info noggin.
I have the XBR75X900E love it so far but not sure I've seen this behavior...will have to see if I can reproduce.
Do you have a link to the Sony bug? Curious to see if I'd be eligible for a replacement
Time to make a few phone calls.

Also, as mentioned above, Kodi certainly installs via GooglePlay but passing HD audio has issues, and also as mentioned, the processor doesn't quite stand up to large processing.

EDIT: reading some of the avsforum threads now

[CiNcH]

Now, in context of this, your last review was from April 2018, and a week ago Sony had released new firmware 6.5603. Did you had the chance to review it?

I had the chance to look at a XF90/X900F with latest FW 6.5603 in-depth. Android TV is still the same laggy experience with the same bugs that have been there for years. Sony doesn't fix bugs. You can buy Sony for their panel technology and video processing, but not for the smart part.
 

Also, if you are well informed, will 2017 models be upgraded to Android TV 8.0?

Sony only confirmed rolling out Oreo to 2018 TVs. But since all TVs since mid-2016 are based on exactly the same (slow) MediaTek SoC with all of them sharing the same firmware image, I assume Oreo will come to all those TVs indeed.
 

What should Android TV 8.0 bring on the table, and could it affect KODI UX?

nVIDIA SHIELD just received the Oreo update. You might want to check several YouTube videos...
 

And final question, do you think that 2017 model could flawlessly stream 4K material and import .srt subtitles on a hardware level, from a or NAS?

If you ask questions like that, you probably won't be happy with Android TV on Sony. You are expecting too much I think. It also depends on too many factors. Especially when your videos exceed ~90mbps and you have to go wireless...

[trajce_drvarceto]

Thank you @CiNcH for the extensive review. I am starting to be completly disapoint from all TV platforms. I did review today some Philips models, from the moderate to the most expensive and they used the same MediaTek CPU as Sony, so I quess UX is the same. I was also disapointed with LG and Samsung as well for my idea of good usage. Cant understand why no-one is puting at least medium-low class chips.

The 4K videos that I am playing are generally higly compressed, usualy between 5-7MB per 1 second of video, and 4K videos from mobile. 

Anyway, just one more question. Does build in video app in Sony have option to read .srt subtitle files? Can it adjust codepage of srt subtitles together with size, position and color? And finally, NAS usually have aditional USB ports. Is it posible to atach USB directly to TV and TV see multimedia material as well?

[CiNcH]

Anyway, just one more question. Does build in video app in Sony have option to read .srt subtitle files? Can it adjust codepage of srt subtitles together with size, position and color?

No and no.
 

 Is it posible to atach USB directly to TV and TV see multimedia material as well?

You can play multimedia files from USB, but only from Microsoft file systems like NTFS and exFAT.

[noggin]

Thanks for that info noggin.
I have the XBR75X900E love it so far but not sure I've seen this behavior...will have to see if I can reproduce.
Do you have a link to the Sony bug? Curious to see if I'd be eligible for a replacement
Time to make a few phone calls.

Also, as mentioned above, Kodi certainly installs via GooglePlay but passing HD audio has issues, and also as mentioned, the processor doesn't quite stand up to large processing.

EDIT: reading some of the avsforum threads now

Have a look at the UK avforums.com site (not to be confused with avsforum.com)

The XE8500 is also similarly impacted it seems (assume that's an XBR850E in the US?)

You will only see the frame drops/repeats on native 50/59.94Hz content - such as sport, entertainment, news etc., and it's most clearly visible if you have disabled MotionFlow.  Entertainment and Sport shows are good as they have camera or scene motion that shows the repeated frames. They are usually seen after cuts/shot changes, but do happen mid-shot as well.  The repeated pair look like a slight freeze or jump back, as if someone is bouncing forward and backwards a frame or two.  It does it on 720p, 1080i, 1080p and 2160p content at >30fps.

It's incredibly obvious on the UK equivalent of Dancing With The Stars...

Speculation now suggesting it is an issue with 100/120Hz displays that use the lower spec X1 (not X1 Extreme) processor - though this is just speculation.

[alikocfb]

stupid head ex9305 shift x800 uhd sold.