Why I find it difficult to love my new X85C

[MonkeyWallace]

There's a lot of good things about my new KD65X8509C 4K TV.

The picture is great, the ease of setting up sound output to my (Sony) amplifier, Netflix, iPlayer etc.. Did I mention the picture is great?

But, the main reason for a TV is watching TV. I was looking forward to ditching my Humax freesat box and having a 'smart' TV where everything was pretty much on board.

So, point one:

The TV guide is awful! I can't even get it to populate with all the channels' programmes (support call in progress). Even if it did show what was on now and on in the future, there are no categories. Not even anything to separate TV channels from radio channels. What you get instead is just a long list of channels (which I have to select and watch to get an entry in the guide for now and next). If I were to delete the unwanted ones and re-order the ones I do want it would take me hours!

So, on to point 2: You can't plug a USB HDD in and record TV!

And don't even mention long-term series recording and so on.

If I went a bought a car I wouldn't expect the manufacturer to give me a shell with an engine and tell me to wait (for an unknown period) before I could have some seats. Oh, and that reverse gear is coming next year...

It's unbelievable that a modern (and bl**dy expensive!) TV doesn't come with the equivalent of a set top box. It's just software and a hard drive. Much to my disgust I plugged in my old set top box, configured the IR blaster (another trailing cable) and went through the set up again. Only to find that when I press 'guide' on the TV remote it brings up the TV's guide and doesn't forward the command on to the Humax as it does with other commands. It did go through the process during setup and brought the guide up correctly so I've got the right commands configured but the remote button doesn't want to activate it.

To make matters worse, the documentation is atrocious. Search for anything on the internet and you have to trawl through a lot of irrelevant material because searching for a model number and a question just doesn't find anything. I've read more about almost every Sony TV ever made than I care to admit!

As I said at the beginning, there is a lot of good about this 65" X85C, one of Sony's latest 4K TVs, but it is marred by an unusable TV guide and I'm left with 4 remote controls I have to flip between and some difficult explanations when my elderly relatives come to visit and try to use it!

[dearg1]

Thanks for your input , I was just about to buy one of these , can you tell me more about the recording isues , do you mean the tv actually can't record any programmes at all , what have sony said in relation to this , because I certainly will be holding off Buying until this is resolved. 

Ps how is the tv upscaler with standard definition and does it upscale external sources ie dvd, usb etc.

Last point I am in Ireland , does anybody know if there are plans to have RTE player on the Android srvice , it seems a bit ridiculous that it is available on phones and tablets from Google but not on their new "baby" (Google tv)

Thanks

[MonkeyWallace]

Recording to a USB HDD isn't currently supported. I've seen a schedule for future improvements (but damned if I can find it to post here, maybe someone else can?)

At the moment recording is "in the future" and didn't appear in the list of upcoming patches for the necxt few months. Even picture-in-picture was higher up their priority list so go figure.

The quality of the upscaling I can't fault. I've watched DVDs, Blu Rays, 'normal' TV and Netflix (on a very poor internet connection so no 4K streaming) and I've got to say it's very impressive, Some channels, notably American ones, whose quality is poor to begin with doesn't look fantastic but that's to be expected really. There's on old adage about polishing something but would probably get blocked here

As I put in my original "moan", there's a lot of good to be said about the TV but don't expect to unplug your Freeview/Freesat box any time soon.

[dearg1]

Thanks for your quick reply , I think I'll keep my current setup for the next couple of months to see if these issues are resolved , I see from reading another thread that most early adapters have been having a nightmare , but they gradually seem to be getting better......... time to wait in the long grass 😉