topic Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices in Home Cinema, Projectors & Players

Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 18:05:56 GMT

This is a breakaway thread from my earlier vTuner post which I hope will get better exposure here. Hopefully someone from Sony will see this and realise that the vTuner issue is now having a knock-on effect rendering other features of our devices inoperable.

For owners of the Sony STR-DN1040 Receiver (other models may apply) you will likely know that since the vTuner issue arose earlier this summer our SEN button on the remote control has now become obsolete for some owners and worthless to others.

Here in the UK we have just two SEN services, 'vTuner' & 'Music Unlimited'. However since the later is a premium service costing £9.99 p/month it is way too expensive for some. Likewise the suspension of vTuner has rendered my SEN button pretty much worthless either way.

However, those customers living in other parts of the world and who only have the one SEN service 'vTuner', will now know that SEN button is now completely obsolete on your device.

As the SEN service was an advertised feature on our devices and no longer works I am therefore appealing to Sony via this post to compensate customers for the loss of the vTuner / SEN service and to provide free access to Music Unlimited on all STR-DN1040 models worldwide.

If you have a different model and can no longer access any services on SEN please update this post accordingly.

Thanks

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 21:34:26 GMT

As an update to the above, SEN has now stopped functioning on my BDP-S7200 Blu-ray player!!

I cannot access the SEN Home feature from the cross media bar and only have the spinning orb of death. Strangly though I can access the Music Unlimited Subscription service and likewise Video Unlimited from Sony. Of course Music Unlimited is not worth using unless you have a subscription because you can only play 30 seconds of each track!!! Although Video Unlimited seems similar to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Instant and you can rent the latest movies or just watch previews.

Where did Sony go so wrong?

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:13:27 GMT

Day 2

No change - No word from Sony!

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

Pistabacsi — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:09:04 GMT

Day 2 my Erse!
Day 5 for my 1040.
Absolutely livid about it.

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:20:29 GMT

@Pistabacsi wrote:
Day 2 my Erse!
Day 5 for my 1040.
Absolutely livid about it.

Um... NO!!! It's around day 38 on your STR-DN1040 since you only have the one service in SEN (vTuner). You have no other service therefore your SEN button has been obsolete since the start of this fiasco.

Maybe worth loging into the Sony Entertainment Network website and checking if you can enable any other service for your receiver? Worth a shot I guess.

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

Pistabacsi — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:02:39 GMT

Ooh. I hadn't thought of like that.
Sony can't wriggle out of this one 🐵

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:01:34 GMT

Yes I think we got so bogged down with the vTuner issue we overlooked the obvious. I think almost all Sony entertainment products have the SEN feature although quite how many have been affected in this way I couldn't say.

With regard to my previous reply, have you actually logged into the SEN homepage yet? If you take a look at the vTuner post you'll see what I'm talking about. Once logged in you will see which SEN services are available on your devices and which ones you can add. I noticed a button to enable vTuner which was odd because my device already has it albeit now 'non functioning'. I did try to enable it but got a message saying that "vTuner has to be managed from the vTuner website" which as we all know is nonsense! vTuner is a free service for private users. Only vTuner Partners can manage this service and Sony is one of them. Therefore managing the service has to be done at a manufacturing level and not by a single user!

At the moment I'm beginning to believe this issue may be wider spread than I originally thought. Some members on the Sony US forums are reporting similar anomaly's with various services stopping working for no apparent reason such as Pandora, RedBull Racing, vTuner and so on. I'm just hoping this doesn't turn out to be another hack attack on Sony's servers!

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

Pistabacsi — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 20:39:30 GMT

I really don't want to have to register for yet another [edited by moderator to remove profanity] "service" tbh.
I have a remote control with one button made deliberately a different color to every other button and it used to work. It now doesn't.
I'd say that constitutes a quality failure and suggest (as Sony couldn't actually give a hoot) contacting all HiFi/ audio publications' social media feeds and asking them to run the story.

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 20:07:13 GMT

No worries, it would have been useful to see if your available options were different from my own but I understand you not wanting to do this.

I already posted @SonyUK and @BBCWatchdog about this on Twitter yesterday.

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

Pistabacsi — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 20:45:35 GMT

Sorry for being a tad "short", but I am really sick to death of Sony [edited by moderator to remove profanity] me about. I would try to see the services bit have to register to another [edited by moderator to remove profanity] site they proclaim to run.
They sure as *****e don't run this one or they'd have actually had a moderator relay the info.
That's what I would have done on my forum anyway.
I tweeted what HiFi bit I need more publications. Sony's sorry ass needs to be slapped hard.

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 01:12:17 GMT

I think it's a very sorry situation when customers have to resort to outside influence's to get the answers they need from Sony. I think putting pressure on Sony through social media is now probably the only option we have left! Lets face it they've had since August when the vTuner fiasco first began and all we've had is just a two line statement telling us diddly squat! As we all know, you can bury your head in the sand but if you don't come up for air every once in a while you'll eventually suffocate!

Someone mentioned in another post that the Japanese are honourable people, that may be so but failing to answer customers questions is the height of ignorance in my book!

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:05:05 GMT

Day 3

Still no change! No response from Sony, 'SEN Home' still inaccessible on my Blu-ray Player, SEN services unusable on my STR-DN1040 Receiver.

Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) is now officially 'Sony Non Entertainment Network' on my products!!!

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

Pistabacsi — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:15:42 GMT

The Sony entertainment notwork really 🐵

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 17:51:57 GMT

@Pistabacsi wrote:
The Sony entertainment notwork really 🐵

All we need are the PSN Network jokes now. Got a few of them, heres a couple of clean ones

WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF UP?.........PSN

WHAT IS PSN'S FAVORITE WINTER JACKET FILLING?.............DOWN

WHAT IS PSN'S FAVORITE ELEVATOR BUTTON?........DOWN

Another joke was about comparing PSN to a male medical disfunction, but I wont go there

Sorry, getting off-topic here

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 20:39:41 GMT

Hahahahah..., LOL!

The missing joke about ED makes me laugh most! Most definitely 'Down'!!

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 03:31:53 GMT

@Quinnicus wrote:
Another joke was about comparing PSN to a male medical disfunction, but I wont go there

You could have said you weren't going to rise to the occasion! That would have made me chuckle myself silly

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 01:41:52 GMT

Day 4 & 5

Sadly no change to this situation. Worse still I had hoped that Sony's New Year resolution would be to sort the faults on their existing products before even considering launching any new ones! I think this company is driven soley by profits and customer satifaction doesn't even enter into the equation.

I know you are reading my post Sony, you may choose to hide behind the very large wall you've built around your empire but eventually the truth will out! It always does...

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:36:03 GMT

Day 6, 7 & 8 (sorry playing catch-up here)!

Well I happy to announce that SEN has now returned to both my devices but specifically I would like to discuss my Blu-ray Player (BDP-S7200).

I first noticed that the SEN Home screen was working again last night and I can no access the full menu of services. However!! Some services are still experiencing issues and either won't load at all or are simply unusable. RedBull TV being one of them. The interface does load but navigation seems impossible as you cannot see where you are navigating to or what you have selected to watch. I tried for half an hour or more to view something at random but each time I received an error saying the application was having technical difficulties! Arghh!!!

Another App that I tried (can't remember it's name) got to the loading icon (spinning orb of death) but just remained on that screen indefinitely. After 10 minutes I gave up!

I did have some success with one or two other App's that I tried and these seemed to function as normal.

I have however discovered a new bug which I was not aware of previously. When navigating through the Favourite App's list if I press 'RETURN' to go back to the previous page the application immediately exits taking me back to the XrossMediaBar. Frustrating to say the least!!

So to summarise, SEN is working partially but with issues!

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 20:48:49 GMT

This is now becoming personal......

SEN has now ceased functioning again on my Home Theater Receiver STR-DN1040

No access to vTuner - No access to Music Unlimited, both services *******!!

All I now see is this screen, nothing works, navigation is impossible!!!!

Given that most issues of this nature occur shortly after I post in these forums I'm guessing this is now a personal attack on me as a customer for complaining and Tweeting my disatisfaction.

What's next Sony? Should I get my member of Parliament involved??

Re: Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) - Obsolete on Some Devices

MK_Slinky — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:21:34 GMT

Is this the work of Hackers?

Yet another mystery whilst trying to access Twitter using the SEN Network on my Blu-ray player!! I am shown a message on my TV asking me to go to the URL shown using my computer and enter the pin code below, accep there is no pin code shown.

Entering the above URL on my computer takes me to the Japenese Amazon Website!!!!!!