AF8 Black screen with sound when streaming Netflix and YouTube

[simonbruce82]

I have just received the AF8 which is an amazing television, but so far has been a frustrating experience as just as I settle down to watch something off YouTube or Netflix, it will start file and then after a short while the sound keeps playing, but this screen goes black. 

With the info button presses on Netflix, I have monitored the resolution playing, at it seems to go black as it tries to go from 720 to 1080, or from 1080 to 1440. Internet isn’t the best, but I never have trouble streaming to my other television’s Apple TV or any other device here.

TV is connected by WiFi but in same room and latest BT router.

Firmware and all software up to date.

Have tried a soft reboot, unplug for several minutes and even a factory reset. 

Same problem still recurring.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Educated_Pork]

Unfortunately I don't think this isn't a case of any of the display/picture settings resulting in the failure. Those settings are not used by decoding performed the applications being discussed (Netflix/YouTube), but instead operate on the output to the display panel itself (via the picture processor - the X1 Extreme or whatever is in the particular model).

When the video output vanishes, it's *only* the decoded video surface that is black. Overlays displayed by Netflix etc (such as the video statistics, the FF/RW controls, and subtitles) continue to display as usual - showing that this is not a general display failure.

Besides, resetting the display settings to default does not address the issue. Similarly, force closing the application does not fix it. Indeed, when I first reported this issue I restored my TV to factory defaults several times, even going as far as rolling back to an earlier version of the Netflix application - with no success.

 At its core, the Android developer guidelines state the following for Video Decoding:

Device implementations must support dynamic video resolution and frame rate switching through the standard Android APIs within the same stream for all VP8, VP9, H.264, and H.265 codecs in real time and up to the maximum resolution supported by each codec on the device.

As this is impacting two different applications, by two different authors (Netflix/YouTube), then it seems more likely that there is an issue in the device implementation present in the v6.258 (and later) firmware.

Cheers,
Dean

[simonbruce82]

I hope Sony are following this thread. I forwarded a link to them yesterday in reply to email correspondence with support regarding the fault. 

I successfully watched the entire of Annihilation last night, on Netflix, in 2160 Dolby Vision. It ramped from 720 to 1080 and then all the way up to 2160. No hiccups. No black screen. A near-flawless presentation (for streaming!).

Also did an online support chat with Netflix who categorically stated that this is a device issue.

Can anyone else try and play an episode of Penn and Teller Fool Us (season 2 in Vegas) on Netflix and let me know if they have the same issue? I can replicate the problem every time!

As for YouTube videos, yes, you can force it to pick a resolution, but that's on a per video basis. When you let it do it's own thing and switch res once buffered, videos will suffer the same problem, but link Netflix, it's not every video.

Sony, please acknowledge the issue and respond!