Sony Bravia 4K TV: Android Apps not even HD ready

[ayeaye]

Hello,

I have recently got a X8505C Sony Bravia TV (Android TV 55", 4K, year 2015).
I also intended to use it to display high quality (DSLR) pictures shared on the Web thanks to Android and Opera.

The result is just very disappointing, the images are very soft: there is no Wahoo effect as you would expect with 4K. Nothing to compare with what you get on the same screen when you connect a PC directly on the HDMI port.

The reason is that screen resolution seen by Opera TV browser is:
Density-independent pixel (dp) = 960x540.
This is also confirmed by an Android application which measures the screen resolution. 960x540 (qHD) is the resolution of low-ends smartphones.

Sony support has recognised the limitation after one month of discussion, but they have not provided any fix. They did not tell whether it is a hardware or software limitation. They said that the TV is 4K for video streams (HDMI,..) but not for Opera and the Android Apps.

Are you aware of such a limitation on other Android TV devices? Does anybody know if there is a way to improve it?

Thanks,

 

[El Presidente]

What is your exact setup? I take it the pics are uploaded to cloud storage and you're using Opera to browse cloud storage?

I wonder if it's an issue with opera as opposed to the TV itself?

Is there a Google Photos app available for Android TV? Can you use that to display the images? If yes, are they better?

 

[ayeaye]

What is your exact setup? I take it the pics are uploaded to cloud storage and you're using Opera to browse cloud storage?

I wonder if it's an issue with opera as opposed to the TV itself?

Is there a Google Photos app available for Android TV? Can you use that to display the images? If yes, are they better?

Hello,

Yes, these are images uploaded to a Web server and when we use Opera browser to display them on the TV, the result is disappointing. While the same images …

• directly displayed from a USB key using the Sony local app "Album": the quality is much better
• with a PC connected to the TV HDMI port, with a Web browser connected to the same web site: the quality is excellent.

Since the local app "Album" gives a better result, it could well be a software limitation of Opera rather than a hw limitation.
BTW I also installed firefox .apk: it has the same low resolution as Opera.

Thanx

 

[El Presidente]

Were the apks sideloaded or are they available to install via Play? I'd presume Chrome is? Can you try that?

I'd also try a dedicated photo app, something like Flickr or Google Photos. I think both would need to be sideloaded, but you can get them from here -

http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/yahoo/flickr/flickr-4-0-3-release/flickr-4-0-3-2-android-apk-download/

http://www.apkmirror.com/?s=Google+photos&post_type=app_release&searchtype=apk

Alternatively, try any of the apps listed here - https://plus.google.com/communities/109694875004529508368/s/photos

Plex might also be something you want to try, you'd need to setup a media server on a laptop/PC for that to work though.

If anything, trying something else would rule out/point to an issue with Opera.