Many Sony iDTV Sets cannot be retuned

Inactive

Sony are hardly likely to give publicity to this, the link that I have given is an official one from Freeview that clearly identifies the faulty Sony models.

The OP gives the response of Sony to this acknowledged problem with many Sony TV's, and even gives Sony's excuse for the problems ie; outsourced supplier that is no longer in business, which I believe is a feeble response from Sony.

Because your model isn't affected, that doesn't mean that there are many Sony TV models that clearly are.

AnnoyedAtSony

ukmike wrote: »

Yes & yes.I have the same model as the OP, just a 4 " bigger screen & i retuned to freeview fine which means that there is not a problem with them all .I'll say it again,you can't retune this models digital channels by pressing the menu button,that only retunes the analogue channels.Perhaps all the people complaiming are simply doing it wrong? Where do Sony admit there is a problem with this model?Link please,an official Sony one.

Hello, this is the OP here.

Yes, I know how to tune in the analogue and the digital stations.

For digital tuning, select digital and then
1. Press i button
2. Press Blue (Set-up) - Digital Set-up appears top left.
3. Select Auto Tuning
4. Press Red (Start)
5. Watch the little dots after the word 'Searching' flicker indicating progress. After 30 minutes of the progress bar stuck at 2% and the number of stored services stuck at 0, give up and ring Sony.

The difference between my set and yours is probably that you were lucky enough to get the last OAU, so you have a stay of execution. Although I leave my set in standby most of the time, occasionally it gets turned off, so I may have missed the OAU. What Version Number and Loader have you got (Digital Set-up/Detail Set-up/System Information)? Mine says:
Version Number r3.50 [GB]
Loader v1.01

I cannot find any page on Sony's web sites that describes this problem. I find that really poor. Additionally, Sony's help line has an automated recording suggesting you contact (phone or web) the tvretune organisation. The tvretune website has a section about TVs that lock up when trying to tune and it's full of Sonys. Look at the pdf referred to by a previous poster.

By the way, you do realise that in a couple of years (whenever Analogue Switch Off occurs in your area), your set will not be able to receive ANY Freeview channels? If you don't believe me, ring Sony 0870 511 1999.

I can see how the problem I have might not be entirely of Sony's making - an ambiguous spec, a subcontractor that's gone out of business, a six-year-old TV that might not have received the last OAU, etc. However, I think that Sony have a responsibility to accept some responsibility for the situation I'm in. They took my money (actually, I think it may have been £800, not £600 as I said earlier), and I (and I would guess they at the time) believed that the TV they sold me would be good for 10-15 years, and not become obsolete after six.

I'm a reasonable man. If Sony had said to me that it was not cost-effective to design and fit a new decoder in the TV, I would have been quite happy with some compromise. A free or heavily subsidised set-top box would have been a reasonable offer. Better still, assuming I only got 60% of the life of the TV (assuming a Sony TV lasts 10 years), a 40% discount on a new model would have been nice (and accepted!).

I'm still surprised, disappointed and annoyed at Sony's response.

ukmike

What Version Number and Loader have you got (Digital Set-up/Detail Set-up/System Information)? Mine says:
Version Number r3.50 [GB]
Loader v1.01

Mines the same!

By the way, you do realise that in a couple of years (whenever Analogue Switch Off occurs in your area), your set will not be able to receive ANY Freeview channels?

Not really bothered as i use BT Vision to watch freeview through the TV.

bignred05

Pretty certain I have the same sony model TV

when I retuned mine, I had to retune at least 8 times
before I got all the "usual" channels in the correct order

by that I mean
No.1 = BBC1, No.2 = BBC2 etc

on my first retune I got a soft !!!!!! channel on No.1
next I would get ITV1 & CH4 & CH5 but no BBC1 or BBC2

hence I retuned many, many times before I finally got all my channels correctly

very frustrating, as you don't expect such problems/issues with Sony products

Turkey_Machine

What's wrong with a £20 Freeview box and a universal remote?

Inactive

Turkey_Machine wrote: »

What's wrong with a £20 Freeview box and a universal remote?

It isn't integrated in to the TV, which is what customers paid for in the first place.

AnnoyedAtSony

Turkey_Machine wrote: »

What's wrong with a £20 Freeview box and a universal remote?

Back in 2003, I could have bought a 28" Sony and a set-top box for something like £100 less than I paid for the integrated TV - the integrated bit was really important to me - or rather to my wife. The only thing she hates more than having to use lots of remote controls to get sound and vision on a TV, is having to use a single universal control that seems to have amind of its own!

A crude analagy - if you bought a top of the range 3 Series BMW in 2003 and paid £1000 for a GPS integrated into the dash/radio/steering wheel - would you be happy in five years, if the GPS failed only to be told by BMW - sorry sir, the GPS spec changed ever so slightly, and although almost every other GPS unit (including five year old cheapo Garmins) still works fine, our ever-so-expensive integrated one is incompatible. Why don't you buy a Garmin? They stick on your windscreen, plug into the cigarette lighter and only cost £80?

swagman

If I were you I would get a second opinion. There have been cases of compensation under the Sale of Goods Act several years after original sale - along the lines of "an item of that price and quality should be expected to last ...".

It is not the strongest case, but for the cost of a phone call you can ask Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 for their opinion. Consumer Direct is intended to have replaced contacting individual Trading Standards departments, but in my area at least, the local Trading Standards Dept of the Council is very willing to take calls about individual problems. So that would be my second phone call.

If they both agree that you would lose a Small Claims court case, then you have run out of practical options for redress.

djohn2002uk

Inactive wrote: »

Sony are hardly likely to give publicity to this, the link that I have given is an official one from Freeview that clearly identifies the faulty Sony models.

I may be reading it wrong but I didn't read the info on your link as referring to "faulty Sony models". I read it that those models had not received an OAD possibly due to the fact that their sets were switched off at the time the Sony downloads were on air on Mux1.

Inactive

djohn2002uk wrote: »

I may be reading it wrong but I didn't read the info on your link as referring to "faulty Sony models". I read it that those models had not received an OAD possibly due to the fact that their sets were switched off at the time the Sony downloads were on air on Mux1.

Correct, however it is not the fault of the consumer that an OAD is required to fix a fault by leaving the TV in a certain mode if the consumer isn't even aware of the fact.

Clearly Sony have no intention of re-broadcasting the download to remedy this, as outlined by their response to the OP.

The fact remains, the set is now no longer fit to do the job that it was intended for, through no fault of the owner/s.