In the last couple of days I've noticed on two of my Sony Android TVs that when watching a recording the screen will go black after roughly 5 minutes, the audio continues. The timeline still comes up etc. I have to stop the playback and start it again to restore the video.
Same thing happens again 5 minutes later.
Have you tried changing your decoder to software? Beyond that you may want to consider getting a better client. I have a sony TV and bought my first apple tv a week after.
Thanks, changing my decoder to software worked on one of the TV's, but on another one it made the picture all jumpy.
@tmm1 do you know what could be going on or how I can troubleshoot? This suddenly started happening on 3 different TV's, I've had it running without issue for several years.
Thanks!
Processor probably can't handle it. That's the reason I have an AppleTV connected to all 3 of my TV's. Android TV really sucks on Sony TV's
I have an 85” Sony that cost an absolute fortune in 2019, and it’s amazing how terrible of a cpu they give to the smart tv portion. It’s shameful.
For this cost and tier, it should have had a Shield in it.
It’s amazing how these TVs have everything built in and the only reason stopping you from using it is the $15 they saved pairing garbage hardware to its operating system.
I agree - the cpu's in these TV's are a bit of a joke!
I have been using Channels for a few years on these TVs without this particular issue, so I am not sure why it's started just now. Is it possible for you to get me to gather some logs that can be analyzed? In the meantime I've set it to "Software" mode, but because the cpu's are so poor, it can be a bit choppy at times.
I have a Sony Google TV XR55X90J that doesn't have any problems with Channels DVR. On some low power devices, I have lowered the streaming quality to eliminate video problems.
@tmm1 sorry for tagging you direct, but I'm hoping you might be able to tell me if this is something that can be resolved? I'm happy to send diagnostic logs. It's really affecting how we use channels, and the wife is not happy!
I also noticed that when using Software to decode, the colours are really washed out, not nice and vibrant when it's set to Hardware - so I really hope there is a fix for this.
Thanks in advance.
If you send diagnostics I could take a look but its unlikely we can do anything about it.
Thank you - server-side diagnostics submitted as cd4f883c-e26b-4d3f-a0c6-94dc4662f807, I also submitted client-side diagnostics.
I started watching something at 10:26am (NZ time +13), and the screen went blank shortly after 11 minutes of playback.
Yea I see at 10:37:07 the hardware decoder stopped returning data for some reason with no additional information or log messages.
When this happens the audio continues, and I can still bring up the timeline, but the only way to get the video back is to stop the playback and start it again.
Are you saying that based on the logs you received there is nothing that can be done?
Correct, there's nothing we can do to fix the underlying hardware, OS or firmware.
Thank you - I appreciate you looking into it. Obviously Sony/Google have pushed out some update that is causing this issue, fingers crossed it'll be fixed in a future update.
My advice. Get an Apple tv and you will be mad that you waited as long as you did...
Your sony tv isnt going to get any better...
We've got 3 different Sony TV's and we watch all 3 regularly, plus we are a google household. Yes the Sony's are a bit slow, but I use them for a lot of things (Plex, Sports, etc.) and everything else works fine. Channels was fine until this recent issue cropped up.
I understand that getting a new device will help - but it's not really a practical solution for me, thanks for the advice though.
Even one of these 4K Google TV devices for < $20 would run circles around that Sony.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/onn-Google-TV-4K-Streaming-Box-New-2023-4K-UHD-resolution/2835618394
I know because I have a Bravia and it's software is so slow and it's hardware clearly underpowered. If you're running that amout of software, I'd suggest it's worth it to consider this inexpensive upgrade more seriously.
Unfortunately I live in New Zealand and we don't get things that cheap! 
Plus I don't want to have multiple remotes, gotta keep it simple for the wife and family.
I do have a Google TV Chromecast, my daughter uses that on her tv, and yeah that is quicker than the Bravia's.
Ah, I hear ya. Just saying, with HDMI-CEC only one remote is needed. The GoogleTV box's remote controls the TV's power and volume too. And the Sony remote can control the Google TV box too.
Yeah thanks, if it continues to be a problem I may look at getting something like that. Cheers for the link.