topic Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe? in Android TV

Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

lgcebr — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 15:39:16 GMT

I’ve just received an emal from Sony inciting me to update my TV to Android Oreo. My TV has automatic updates turned off because past updates had bugs which disrupted the TV functionality. I have seen large numbers of posts on here saying the Oreo update is buggy and has disrupted many functions from video playback to sound and ARC. Does the Sony email inviting updating mean that the Oreo update is now fixed and safe to use..... or is it still risky? Thanks

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

stormyuk — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 15:48:28 GMT

I have chosen not to update until some of the bugs are fixed (if they ever do), most notably the DTS optical/HDMI passthrough debacle.

The bugs previously reported with Oreo are not fixed if thats the question you are asking. Have a look down the list of topics posted on this forum to decide if any of them bother you.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Mooly01 — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 19:08:39 GMT

I'm another that has auto updating disabled. If you are happy with your current funtionality and operation then I would probably advise caution. There have been far to many reported issues with each previous update, and seemingly known and reported old issues are not addressed.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Jecht_Sin — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:32:03 GMT

@lgcebr The only thing that really changed on the outside is the Leanback launcher (and some don't even like the new format).

For the rest it seems to me the smart part is more broken than ever. Talking about positives which is what seems to be improved so far (but it's too early to tell):

- The Linux kernel now uses a Z-RAM (compressed RAM drive) as swap area. That should improve things when there is need for memory

- The Discover menu isn't crashing

- The volume bar seem to have slightly improved (not much, though)

- Prime Video didn't stutter on me the couple of minutes I tried (maybe because of the Z-RAM)

- The HDMI profiles (picture settings and the likes) for different HDMI devices seem to be always working

- I didn't notice any reboot, yet

The negatives are:

- Audio passthrough more broken than ever

- Can't write on USB devices

- Recent Apps is broken

There might be more. If you use an AVR I wouldn't suggest to upgrade.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Csongi_ — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 09:28:51 GMT

ARC support is messed up, you cannot control volume properly with a samsung soundbar.

Also the favourite channel navigation has some annoying bugs (e.g.: gets out from the favourite group without any reason)

I want somehow to roll back the update, but I don't know if it's possible ...

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

cowst666 — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 10:29:41 GMT

The ARC issue is what kept me from updating right away, because I am quite unhappy with most of the TV (except the image quality).

Eventually I prepared my optical cable and went for it.

Surprisingly, my Samsung soundbar worked well so far, and reboots happened only when I enabled VPN (they will never fix this).

The satellite TV experience is not really worse than the mess it was before, and for my use the new interface feels more usable.

Didn't try Amazon video yet, but I gave up and bought a fire TV stick 4k, so I move almost everything there except TV, YouTube, dazn.

So, risky busyness to update, but was worth for me so far.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 11:07:09 GMT

- The Linux kernel now uses a Z-RAM (compressed RAM drive) as swap area. That should improve things when there is need for memory

Sony should consider debloating their system. I removed some useless crap (like Samba, Sony Select, DIAL, BIVL, IRB, interactive) and gained 250M of RAM.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Jecht_Sin — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:18:20 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
- The Linux kernel now uses a Z-RAM (compressed RAM drive) as swap area. That should improve things when there is need for memory
Sony should consider debloating their system. I removed some useless crap (like Samba, Sony Select, DIAL, BIVL, IRB, interactive) and gained 250M of RAM.

I had disabled Samba and Sony Select as well already. Do you have the list of commands/app URLs(?) you disabled? I don't mean the full list one can find in the Internet (reddit and also here), they remove things that I believe should stay there.

Then one would wonder what the heck dial is doing there. Unless it's this one: "com.sony.dtv.dialservice", but being made by Sony for TV it must have a need, I suppose.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

stormyuk — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:20:58 GMT

@Jecht_Sin wrote:
@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
- The Linux kernel now uses a Z-RAM (compressed RAM drive) as swap area. That should improve things when there is need for memory
Sony should consider debloating their system. I removed some useless crap (like Samba, Sony Select, DIAL, BIVL, IRB, interactive) and gained 250M of RAM.
I had disabled Samba and Sony Select as well already. Do you have the list of commands/app URLs(?) you disabled? I don't mean the full list one can find in the Internet (reddit and also here), they remove things that I believe should stay there.

Then one would wonder what the heck dial is doing there. Unless it's this one: "com.sony.dtv.dialservice", but being made by Sony for TV it must have a need, I suppose.

I would be interested in a complete list of safe to disable stuff too. The stuff on the net is so for and wide and inconsistant its quite difficult. Samba and Sony Select I disabled but some of the others I didn't know about.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Kuschelmonschter — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:24:21 GMT

It really depends on what you need. Here are some things that I always remove:

u0_a114       7514  1250 1711856  17832 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S tv.samba.ssm
u0_a66       21470  1250 1717384  30224 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.dialservice
u0_a30       20972  1250 1702680  30520 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.irbservice
u0_a73       19666  1250 1699716  24956 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.bivlinfo
u0_a65       20183  1250 1706884  29460 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.youview
u0_a127      19514  1250 1712276  33500 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.sonyselect
u0_a101       3333  1250 1731676  34484 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.interactivetvutil
system        6482  1250 1696276  13844 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.interactivetvutil.output
u0_a100       6497  1250 1705260  18556 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.interactivetvplatform

If you don't need the Video app, you can also remove that plus alle the flaky DLNA (Huey) modules. If you don't need integrated tuners, you can also remove a lot of that stuff.

DIAL is an old thing and has been superseded by mDNS. Never experienced any issue in the way I use the TV.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

zer0ner0 — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 15:05:33 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
- The Linux kernel now uses a Z-RAM (compressed RAM drive) as swap area. That should improve things when there is need for memory
Sony should consider debloating their system. I removed some useless crap (like Samba, Sony Select, DIAL, BIVL, IRB, interactive) and gained 250M of RAM.

By "removing" do you mean disabling or actually uninstalling a system app? And how?

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

mickyt — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 16:03:18 GMT

Not for me, messed my wifi up. Cannnot connect after Oreo 8. Had to perform factory reset, now have lost some action menu options.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

stormyuk — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:10:11 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
It really depends on what you need. Here are some things that I always remove:
u0_a114       7514  1250 1711856  17832 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S tv.samba.ssm
u0_a66       21470  1250 1717384  30224 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.dialservice
u0_a30       20972  1250 1702680  30520 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.irbservice
u0_a73       19666  1250 1699716  24956 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.bivlinfo
u0_a65       20183  1250 1706884  29460 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.youview
u0_a127      19514  1250 1712276  33500 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.sonyselect
u0_a101       3333  1250 1731676  34484 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.interactivetvutil
system        6482  1250 1696276  13844 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.interactivetvutil.output
u0_a100       6497  1250 1705260  18556 SyS_epoll_wait      0 S com.sony.dtv.interactivetvplatform
If you don't need the Video app, you can also remove that plus alle the flaky DLNA (Huey) modules. If you don't need integrated tuners, you can also remove a lot of that stuff.

DIAL is an old thing and has been superseded by mDNS. Never experienced any issue in the way I use the TV.

My XE9005 with Android 7 doesn't let me disable half of those? I can force close but nothing else???

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Kuschelmonschter — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:10:49 GMT

I use ADB to uninstall those packages. More info here.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

zer0ner0 — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 13:02:36 GMT

I was thinking that it should be an ADB method.

Thanks for the link.

I ain't going to run the *.bat file, but I might try to uninstall some of the apps that you 're suggesting and I have already force-stopped.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Jecht_Sin — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 19:44:10 GMT

@zer0ner0 wrote:
I ain't going to run the *.bat file, but I might try to uninstall some of the apps that you 're suggesting and I have already force-stopped.

We can't unisntall system apps. One needs root for it. The method suggested in reddit, the same I was talking about, disables them, though. Force-closing doesn't achieve much. They may restart automatically even without rebooting.

Also instead of running the .bat file you may copy and paste the lines for the apps you want to disable. What I never understood is how one can enable them again, without a factory reset. But I didn't investigate much.

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Kuschelmonschter — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 19:50:12 GMT

@Jecht_Sin schrieb:
Also instead of running the .bat file you may copy and paste the lines for the apps you want to disable. What I never understood is how one can enable them again, without a factory reset. But I didn't investigate much.

Do a

adb shell pm list packages -f

and you will get for each installed package the APK, e.g.

package:/system/app/SonySelect/SonySelect.apk=com.sony.dtv.sonyselect

To re-install, do

adb shell pm install -r --user 0 /system/app/SonySelect/SonySelect.apk

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Jecht_Sin — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 19:54:23 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter I forgot the command was "pm uninstall". I was sure it was "pm disable". But so what does it do exactly? The apps are in /system, which is mounted read only (unless of yet another stupid trick that installs them in /data/apps instead).

Anyway, thanks for the command to reinstall/reenable them!

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Jecht_Sin — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 08:19:48 GMT

And also netflix goes banana... It keeps running (fully) in a CPU core, apparently. This is the extract from "top" command (Android 8 has a MUCH better Unix shell, now. Quite complete):

Tasks: 342 total,   1 running, 307 sleeping,   0 stopped,   2 zombie
Mem:   1603708k total,  1468428k used,   135280k free,    18044k buffers
Swap:  1196348k total,   446384k used,   749964k free,   306820k cached
400%cpu   3%user  48%nice  65%sys 282%idle   2%iow   0%irq   1%sirq   0%host
  PID USER         PR  NI VIRT  RES  SHR S[%CPU] %MEM     TIME+ ARGS
 5209 u0_a143      20   0 2.0G  65M  20M S 95.3   4.1 126:31.92 com.netflix.ninja
 1650 root         RT   0    0    0    0 D  8.6   0.0 165:38.29 [MLVdo_thread]

Obviously Netflix isn't running. Sure it must be on background, but "Recent apps" is broken, so.. Actually "Recent apps" doesn't even show it.

And to the void also Netflix goes.. I have an Apple TV 4K anyway!

Re: Is the Oreo update for TVs safe?

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 08:28:13 GMT

Sony stopped the OTA rollout ... again