Sony TV software update.

[Les Jones]

I have a Sony KDL-40Ex503U (About 10 years old.) which has worked perfectly until recently. A few months ago when tuned to QVC in standard definition it started switching in and out of standby. QVC could be watches at first in HD but some time later this started switching in and out of standby. It worked OK when QVC was received via an external tuner in a video recorder. Today (12/018/20) after doing the required re-tune many channels are not received reporting no signal. All the other TVs and PVRs worked after the re-tune. I suspected that this is a software problem but I can't find out how to update the software. (Software auto update over the air is turned on.) There does not seem to be an option to update the software from the internet or from a USB stick. I have looked on the Sony website but did not find a solution. I could not even find a list of software versions to see if the current software (PKG4.114EUL-0108) is up to date. Does any one know if this TV is too old to be supported with software updates ?

Les.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Sony updates are available on the customer support pages - but there don't seem to be any for that model any more.

OTA updates were discontinued years ago, in fact the entire service no longer even exists (it was a VERY expensive way to do updates).

However, it seems VERY unlikely that the set would require a software update to fix the issue - unless QVC have made some bizarre changes to their broadcasting specification - and even if they had, it's highly unlikely that Sony would reassemble a team to rewrite the sets software to cure the issue.

The tuning issue sounds like you've probably tuned to the wrong transmitter?, auto-tune very commonly does this, as it usually simply selects the first multiplexes it finds, regardless of strength or viability. The correct ones are usually stored up in the 700's 0r 800's, so you could try looking there, and confirm that they are.

You then have the option of manually moving the channels to where they should be, or manually retuning the set - and best to do a factory reset first.

 

[Les Jones]

Hi Nigel,
Thank you VERY much for solving my problem. I started by trying factory reset and a manual tune but being lazy I could see it would be a long job sorting the channel numbers. So I decided to try putting an attenuator in the aerial input to the TV (12 db) to reduce the strength of other transmitters so they were too week to be recognised. I then did a factory reset followed by an auto tune. This solved all the problems.

Les.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi Nigel,
Thank you VERY much for solving my problem. I started by trying factory reset and a manual tune but being lazy I could see it would be a long job sorting the channel numbers. So I decided to try putting an attenuator in the aerial input to the TV (12 db) to reduce the strength of other transmitters so they were too week to be recognised. I then did a factory reset followed by an auto tune. This solved all the problems.

Les.

Freeview is an absolute nightmare - I'm VERY pleased to be out of the TV trade now - and while I'm on even poorer money than I was before, I work less days, and less hours per day, and there's no stress any more I'm also spending much of my time 'playing' at my hobby, and making aliving out of it.

Our usual technique was to pull the aerial lead out, let it tune so far up, and then insert it - this worked fine with the channels as they were then, but it's now worse as the channels keep moving lower and lower, and if they are interleaved that trick obviously can't be used.