Happy7User
New member
What Hi-Fi ran a piece where one of their writers admitted he had been wrong about automatic firmware updates. He spent weeks chasing audio dropouts, swapped cables, went through settings, and it turned out to be the most recent update on his Bravia 8 II. The failure only appears when an external source is feeding an external sound system, so the TV's own apps kept working perfectly, which is the worst kind of bug to track down. Sony knows about it, a fix is in progress, no date, and the bad build has been out roughly two months.
His new policy is the sensible one. Wait a week after an update shows up, search the release number, see whether owners are complaining, then install it manually. Security fixes excepted.
My problem is with the enforcement, not the policy. On half the sets I have owned the automatic update toggle is barely a toggle. It is buried, it comes back on after a factory reset, and some builds arrive in standby anyway because the manufacturer decided that one was mandatory. And unlike a receiver, where you can usually flash an older build back from USB if you kept the file, a TV that swallows a bad update is simply a TV with a bad update on it. No rollback, no archive of previous firmware, no way back.
So the waiting game only buys you something if you can actually hold the line. My streaming boxes are on manual and I gave up on the televisions years ago.
Has anyone genuinely kept a modern set on an old build for a full year? Which brand let you do it?
His new policy is the sensible one. Wait a week after an update shows up, search the release number, see whether owners are complaining, then install it manually. Security fixes excepted.
My problem is with the enforcement, not the policy. On half the sets I have owned the automatic update toggle is barely a toggle. It is buried, it comes back on after a factory reset, and some builds arrive in standby anyway because the manufacturer decided that one was mandatory. And unlike a receiver, where you can usually flash an older build back from USB if you kept the file, a TV that swallows a bad update is simply a TV with a bad update on it. No rollback, no archive of previous firmware, no way back.
So the waiting game only buys you something if you can actually hold the line. My streaming boxes are on manual and I gave up on the televisions years ago.
Has anyone genuinely kept a modern set on an old build for a full year? Which brand let you do it?
