Okay so I finally got my Sony 77inch A80. I used to own a 75inch Sony 8500 series.
Some brief feedback:
BadStuff:
- Sony can get f%&ked for not including a gigabit ethernet port. Some of my streams are well beyond what 100mbit can deliver. SteamLink also works better with gigabit ethernet, not Wifi.
- Certain things do stupid shit - Tried to open youtube when I first turned it on and it hung for ages because the wifi didn't connect straight away. Then it wouldn't connect at all and I had to wait about 3-4 minutes for it to do anything and then reboot the TV.
- GoogleTV sucks. I miss the android TV interface. GoogleTV pushing everything into your face is abnoxious. I have to click down about 4 times past all the banners and pretty much ads to get to my apps. I don't care what google recommends, I will chose something myself with my own free will. The Android interface was so much better and more simplistic.
- If you use "App only Mode" then these weird quirky things happen like youtube won't sign in sometimes etc. Works sometimes
- Dolby Digital+ still doesn't work with Emby. The sound cuts in and out.
- Remote is a bit big, excess buttons and the buttons feel a bit weird.
Good Stuff:
- The picture is amazing. The blacks are actually real and gives you a better representation of dark scenes.
- It's light, easy to mount
- You can turn off the front LED indicator still.
- It uses less power. about 10-20watts less than the Sony 75inch 8500 series
- When I connected it and switched it on for the first time, all the ARC stuff worked out of the box. My amp switched on, the volume adjustment on the amp was working with the remote buttons - it all just worked.
- The GoogleTV interface is fairly smooth and doesn't stutter when moving through the menus. (The 8500 series was slow and really horrible to use with the last 12 months of updates)
Hope some of this info helps. I'm an IT guy who is pretty picky but then again if you are going to release some software to the masses, then you should test the damn code to make sure you aren't pushing out garbge to everyone that owns the device.
I will say though, if it keeps doing the thing where it has no network for 2-3-4 minutes after turning it on, I'll be returning it straight away. That is unacceptable.