If You Have a Bravia with Android TV and Are Tired of Falling Behind on Updates, Here's The Final Solution

by kurmudgeon

Take the Nuclear Option and Turn Your Bravia Into a "Dumb TV"

  • First off, get an external Android TV device (Nvidia Shield, Mi Box S, etc.).

  • Second, create a dummy Google account for signing into your TV.

  • Next, fully update your Bravia until no more firmware updates are available, this will ensure you have the newest TV settings menus/features.

  • Now, factory reset your Bravia.

  • After factory reset, sign in with your new dummy Google account.

  • The biggest step, you can turn your Bravia with Android TV essentially into a dumb TV and use an Nvidia Shield or similar instead by using the built-in, hidden Pro Mode settings to disable most of the Android TV features. When your finished, your TV will just boot up to an input screen, the home screen won't have anything except inputs, but all the settings screens will still be available to configure and use all the nice processing features built into your Bravia TV (HDR, Motionflow, Digital Noise Reduction, etc.).

  • Final step, disconnect your Bravia from your network completely. With the 3rd party device being used for Android TV now, there's no need to connect your Bravia any more.

Why do all of this? As we know, Nvidia does a great job keeping their Shield devices up to date and provide the best Android TV experience there is. Notable runner up is the Mi Box S.

With vulnerabilities in mobile OS devices always being found, and with Sony's neglect with updating all of their Android devices, including Bravia TVs, that leaves one new approach vector as an avenue for not only your TV to get hacked, but your entire Google account and possibly your entire home network as well.

For example, my x850c has not had a security update since May 2019; others here haven't seen an update for their Bravia TVs for 1.5 years. Google has patched Android with security updates numerous times in the past 6 months that my x850c is now lacking. A 6 month window for providing security updates, if they even supply them at all is not acceptable in this day and age. For a TV that originally ran $2400 at launch to barely get security updates after the 1st year is unacceptable. I personally do not buy Bravias for the Android TV/Smart TV experience, but instead for the great picture quality, post-processing tech, etc.

By turning your Android TV into a dumb TV, you are securing your Bravia more and instead getting a much better, faster and stable and customizable Android TV experience with a 3rd party Android TV device.

--HugoStiglitz--

The Final Solution?!

I was expecting you to put the TV in a gas chamber but what youve written probably works a bit better.

fearofthesky

FFS don't use that phrase, come on

croccatcher

There should be govt regulatory penalties applied to AndroidTV manufacturers who do not provide regular lifetime updates for their TV products. The lack of firmware update support by manufacturers creates a throw away culture and is responsible for consumers having to buy new products to enhance their already purchased products to get them to work or be up to date and ultimately leads to increased cost to the consumer, wastage, global warming etc.....

RainbowJeremy24

How is this different to simply disconnecting the TV from the network? You're not going to get "hacked" if there is no internet access.

MinerAlum

Damn. Sorry to hear sony is dragging their feet on this.

Im looking at New tv's and sony was on my list

ShortFuse

I'm doing this now with my X830C. I love the ability to remap Home just for my Nvidia Shield. Thanks so much for this.

Edit: Seems like the Home button can't be remapped for CEC, which is a bummer. Though it seems it may be possible if there were an app that's only purpose were to send HOME input over HDMI.

funtoburnthings

Does the tv tuner functionality of the tv still work in pro mode? If so, how about the red/green buttons for catch up and on demand stuff?

dukdukgoos

Why so complicated? Just unplug the ethernet cable... done. xD

radcapper

Sony has become this giant sloth.

juice2boost

Why make a dummy Google account? Why not just use the original one?

Andriusdude

My biggest problem is that there's almost no Android TV boxes that have cable (NTSC and ATSC) inputs like TVs do and HDHomeRuns only work on ATSC signals : (

If they had universal drivers for USB tuners (like those usb sticks with a coaxial input on the other side) I wouldn't use anything else more than dumb tv + external Android TV box.

If you are wondering who watches NTSC TV anymore: people in terrible countries like myself.

SilentDisco_

edit: figured it out. probably should add this in your post OP.

for anyone else curious;

while tv is on enter the following on your tv remote relatively fast (~1sec)

(Screen display) / (Muting) / (Volume +) / (HOME)

tv will reboot and you'll see "Pro Settings in process" in a blue box at the top of the screen if correctly entered. actual "pro settings" menu item didn't appear for me as soon as the tv rebooted. count 30 mississippi if you don't see it in the settings menu and check again

on mobile otherwise i'd go through all the google search results to find it... so how do you enable this? the guide you linked to only references do so via a "pro mode tool" or via in the tv's menu. i vaguely remember reading that enabling this is similar to accessing the service menus of yester-year; meaning input sequence via the tv's remote. maybe i'm too hopped up on caffeine and missed it on the guide you linked but they provide information on what the settings do for said pro-settings-mode/pro-mode on both android 7.0 and android 8.0 but i'm not actually seeing how to enable "pro mode".

SilentDisco_

double posting in case no one see's my edit and is curious to do this...

key sequence:

(Screen display) / (Muting) / (Volume +) / (HOME)

bongobills

I thought my smart TV was dumb when YouTube stopped working on it. Got goobang abox A3 and never use the 'smart' features on my dumb tv

[deleted]

All you have to do is download the updates onto a usb and that it is!

muscles-r-us

This is great! Does this work on oleds too? Saving post for when I'm fed up of my af8 being stuck on 8.0!