Sony A8 (AH8) OLED TV Owners & Discussion Thread

Been posting in the A9G forums also as looking at one of them or one of these plus LG GX as little stuck on what to get. I’m just wondering how you are finding the picture on this compared to your LG ? Plus dark scenes do you get blocky blacks or they good.
@olliden
If you know which files I can test to give a concrete answer I will gladly test them. I use the tv mostly for cable tv and some harddisk music videos.
 
@olliden
If you know which files I can test to give a concrete answer I will gladly test them. I use the tv mostly for cable tv and some harddisk music videos.
Not sure which files but when watching most reviews online they say the Sony suffers from micro blocking in dark scenes compared to LG. On these forums people say there’s no such problem.
 
Not sure which files but when watching most reviews online they say the Sony suffers from micro blocking in dark scenes compared to LG. On these forums people say there’s no such problem.
Well i would believe what the owners of the product say. I know one thing that i read and that is that blacklevel for HDMI ports is set to 49 instead of 50, but that is only for the hdmi ports, for tv and usb you leave it standard at 50.
Besides there have been at least 2 or more firmware updates in the last couple of months and one this morning so most likely if there was a problem it was fixed in one of those firmware updates.
 
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Hopefully the firmware update also addresses the UHD problem with BBC iPlayer. Sony already announced they were working on a fix
 
Hi
I am thinking of buying the A8 65in, there are a few things I want to ask other owners, I have heard that the screen/picture is not bright, needs to be viewed in a darkened room, I currently have a Samsung Q90R, I am not expecting the A8 to be as bright as the Q90R, but is the A8 a dim display, I know brightness is not everything, but I don't want to end up with a dim TV, picture quality and motion handling are the 2 most important things to me, so how does the A8 handle football, and is the picture bright enough, so you can view it in a lightly lit room
 
Hi
I am thinking of buying the A8 65in, there are a few things I want to ask other owners, I have heard that the screen/picture is not bright, needs to be viewed in a darkened room, I currently have a Samsung Q90R, I am not expecting the A8 to be as bright as the Q90R, but is the A8 a dim display, I know brightness is not everything, but I don't want to end up with a dim TV, picture quality and motion handling are the 2 most important things to me, so how does the A8 handle football, and is the picture bright enough, so you can view it in a lightly lit room
See post #549
 
Hopefully the firmware update also addresses the UHD problem with BBC iPlayer. Sony already announced they were working on a fix
Good to know its not only my TV problem. How do you ipdate BBC app. Its not showing in Google play store, nor in setting,/apps. Only place i could find it was SONY chanel. or something like that still. without option to update
 
Good to know its not only my TV problem. How do you ipdate BBC app. Its not showing in Google play store, nor in setting,/apps. Only place i could find it was SONY chanel. or something like that still. without option to update
Just done the update and it HAS solved the problem with BBC iPlayer and UHD content, which isn't in the list of fixes on the website. Too early to tell if it's made any other noticeable differences.

The Sony Select thing is the only way to get it as an app on the TV and it updates automatically. It appears you can't get the UK catch-up services on this TV unless you enable YouView, even if you don't then use YouView.
 
My experience with my SONY 55A8 with aprox. 150 hours of use.

I dislike the way ANDROID TV works in comparison with the WEBOS from LG.
WEBOS is much more user friendly than the Android TV, but the capabilities of Android TV are much more deversified then Webos.
It takes a while to get used to the unfriendliness of the ANDROID TV system but is well worth to get proficient with, because of the all possibilities it has.

Regarding the 55A8 it took till about 125 hours for it all of a sudden become MUCH brighter then it was when brand new, note that it became a lot sharper at about 50 hours of use, but the biggest change came at 125 or so hours, almost became a 3D picture, things/people, seem to seperate from the background more, really neat.

After 5 years of having lots of problems with the LG oleds and multiple exchanges, I did have the last one (E8) that worked as intended, I think the picture quality of the Sony 55A8 is superior to the LGs at least in comparison with the last LG E8 I had.

To those of you with an Sony A8(H) with less then 200 hours, hang in there till at least 200 hours of use before you decide to exchange, because the best is yet to come.
My Euro 55A8 got its BIG improvement around 135 hours and the biggest noticeable change was the BRIGHTNESS and picture DEPTH, Brightness went from MAX(50) to having to set it back to 18, and that is a BIG difference.

There is a new software version out this morning OTA version number 6.5016.0631EUA
that is another thing I like about the SONY is that the explenation of what was changed in the firmware, is shown on screen when you go to update.

One thing I dislike is trying to find the user manual that explains the workings of ANDROID TV. It is hidden very well on the SONY site. It took me 5 times looking for it before I found it you can download it and then either print it or save it as PDF file. I chose to save as PDF because of its length, 164 pages.

Download User Manual from HERE.
I've had my A85 since September and the picture definitely improved over the first couple of weeks. I was genuinely concerned with the sharpness of the image at first but it resolved over an initial period of use. I have to say I don't remember that happening with the LG C9 it replaced.
 
Can confirm the update has resolved the UHD issue on BBC IPlayer, I can finally now complete watching of His Dark Materials where I had seen the first four episodes until it stopped working for me. Hopefully it stays fixed permanently this time.

On a related note, the update notes mentioned improvements in the UI...which I hoped would be google tv but it wasn’t. I haven’t noticed anything different to be honest in the UI.
 
I'm having an issue with ITV hub where I can't view any content form the main ITV channel, it doesn't show up on the Home Screen and when going to the ITV channel I get a message saying it's not available because my region is not set.

I it then has a link to set the region, which is already set. If I reset the region it doesn't work, I've also tried resetting the apple and logging in again but still the same. ITV work fine on all other devices in the house using the same account and postcode, it's only the Sony TV that has this issue.

Anyone know how to fix this?
 
Hi - I've just joined this forum so apologies if this is not in the correct thread.

I bought the Sony A8 oled last November and a few hours ago I had a software update.

Now when I access the Quick Settings button and try to change the picture mode or brightness, I get a pop-up message saying: "Confirmation screen for power consumption is shown when this item is changed."

If I continue, another message appears at the bottom of the screen saying:
"This may increase power consumption more than the normal configuration."
I have to click OK on this before I can change the picture mode or brightness. This adds about 3 clicks to the "quick" settings.

It also happens when I go into the picture settings menu and try to change black level and some other brightness settings. It doesn't apply to any of the sound settings - only picture.

Has anybody had this problem? I can't seem to find anything in the settings that will turn off those annoying banners. It was fine before the update.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
Hi - I've just joined this forum so apologies if this is not in the correct thread.

I bought the Sony A8 oled last November and a few hours ago I had a software update.

Now when I access the Quick Settings button and try to change the picture mode or brightness, I get a pop-up message saying: "Confirmation screen for power consumption is shown when this item is changed."

If I continue, another message appears at the bottom of the screen saying:
"This may increase power consumption more than the normal configuration."
I have to click OK on this before I can change the picture mode or brightness. This adds about 3 clicks to the "quick" settings.

It also happens when I go into the picture settings menu and try to change black level and some other brightness settings. It doesn't apply to any of the sound settings - only picture.

Has anybody had this problem? I can't seem to find anything in the settings that will turn off those annoying banners. It was fine before the update.
Any help would be appreciated.
Same issue for me after the most recent update, I use quick settings a lot to quickly switch between Dolby Vision Bright/Dark. Does not seem to be a way to disable this pointless warning message, so frustrating and completely unnecessary. How can I be increasing power consumption when I am turning the brightness down?
 
Hi - I've just joined this forum so apologies if this is not in the correct thread.

I bought the Sony A8 oled last November and a few hours ago I had a software update.

Now when I access the Quick Settings button and try to change the picture mode or brightness, I get a pop-up message saying: "Confirmation screen for power consumption is shown when this item is changed."

If I continue, another message appears at the bottom of the screen saying:
"This may increase power consumption more than the normal configuration."
I have to click OK on this before I can change the picture mode or brightness. This adds about 3 clicks to the "quick" settings.

It also happens when I go into the picture settings menu and try to change black level and some other brightness settings. It doesn't apply to any of the sound settings - only picture.

Has anybody had this problem? I can't seem to find anything in the settings that will turn off those annoying banners. It was fine before the update.
Any help would be appreciated.
Yes here too, best thing to do is call or email Sony with youre complaint.
 
Looks like the last update has really screwed things up now i dont get any picture when I turn on the tv, I do see BRAVIA logo in the lower right hand corner which seems to flash once a minute, but no tv cable channels. Great that SONY checks their updates before setting them out for the customer.......NOT!!!

The BRAVIA flashes off and on once in a while giving me the idea it is doing a refresh leaving it go for a few minutes and see what happens.
 
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Looks like the last update has really screwed things up now i dont get any picture when I turn on the tv, I do see BRAVIA logo in the lower right hand corner which seems to flash once a minute, but no tv cable channels. Great that SONY checks their updates before setting them out for the customer.......NOT!!!

The BRAVIA flashes off and on once in a while giving me the idea it is doing a refresh leaving it go for a few minutes and see what happens.

Adding to my own comments the following:
I left the TV on in the no picture mode with the BRAVIA logo in the lower right corner for 25 minutes NO CHANGES HAPPENED so I did a LONG PRESS on/off button on the remote. The TV restarted and all is ok now.
I just wonder what this is all about why does this happen?
My tv was off all nite i turn it on this morning and Black screen with BRAVIA logo, this is totally unacceptable.
 
Black screen and bravia logo is the screen saver. This was a pervious issue when inputs were switched (often skyQ either to or from it). Hopefully they haven't broken that issue they fixed!
 
Black screen and bravia logo is the screen saver. This was a pervious issue when inputs were switched (often skyQ either to or from it). Hopefully they haven't broken that issue they fixed!

Well I hope not it only happened one time this morning tv been off for a bout 2 hours now, turned it back on and all is well sofar.
 
Plumped for the A8,watch more sport than Movies
I posted a question asking owners how it handles football, mainly motion, also heard it's not the brightest display, so far no replies, can you please answer these 2 questions before i buy the A8, thanks
 
Black screen and bravia logo is the screen saver. This was a pervious issue when inputs were switched (often skyQ either to or from it). Hopefully they haven't broken that issue they fixed!
Just been into living room and got the Bravia logo in bottom right even though turned the TV off last night
 
I posted a question asking owners how it handles football, mainly motion, also heard it's not the brightest display, so far no replies, can you please answer these 2 questions before i buy the A8, thanks
Personally I think the sport looks superb on this TV and so does Moto Gp,the Tv pic looks far superior when the room has darker conditions !
Im well happy with the set after my Q7
 
Same issue for me after the most recent update, I use quick settings a lot to quickly switch between Dolby Vision Bright/Dark. Does not seem to be a way to disable this pointless warning message, so frustrating and completely unnecessary. How can I be increasing power consumption when I am turning the brightness down?
Thanks for your reply.
As you say it's completely pointless and it always says I am increasing consumption even if I'm reducing brightness or whatever.
It doesn't look like an update glitch though. Is there some new ECO law in force? I blame Brexit. ;)
 
Yes, will do that. I wonder if it has affected all A8 TVs who got the update?
It doesn't look like an update error.
I think time will tell on this one. I suffered from the Black bravia screen issue the first time round and it was only the firmware update that solved it (the one before this one). It's very annoying.

I say time will tell because the problem didn't manifest itself all the time - sometimes it would be several days between it happening, but it always came back eventually.
 
I Just had the black screen PLAUQUE again 2 times was tuning sat in the background while watching cable tv and it happened twice while watching tv.......Bummer!!!!:(
 

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