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Sony Appears To Be Blocking Kodi On Its Recent Android TVs (androidpolice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cease-and-desist dept.

Several reports indict that at least some of Sony's recent Android TVs are actively blocking Kodi, the open-source, cross-platform streaming and media player that allows you to access and play local, network, and remote content. Android Police reports: The official Kodi project Twitter account pointed out Sony's deficiency a couple of days ago, but reports on the Kodi forums of issues installing and running the app from the Play Store go even further back to last year. A handful of affected enthusiasts believe they have discovered the cause of the problem: Sony seems to be blocking the package ID for the app from being installed/run. Supporting this theory is the fact that recompiling the app from scratch with a different ID allows it to work.

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Sony screwing their customers again by barc0001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For the illusion of protecting their revenue from their content division? This is my shocked face.

    Sony hardware used to be great. Used to be. Now it's overpriced compared to a dozen competitors. No reason to buy it.

    1. Re:Sony screwing their customers again by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For the illusion of protecting their revenue from their content division? This is my shocked face.

      ^This.

      It is a huge conflict for hardware makers to also be content purveyors, and the people who buy their products are worse off for it.. The same is true of ISPs.

      If you want to avoid crippled equipment or services you are better off dealing with people who have no financial interest in what you actually use them for, because otherwise your needs are always going to come second.

  2. I don't get why people still buy SONY Televisions by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Informative

    especially smart ones. I guess it's a Ford/Chevy kind of loyalty.

    When SONY made 200lb 30+inch CRTs they were pretty good.

    Nowadays, SONY is overpriced and under performs compared to most other vendors/.

    And don't get me started on "smart" televisions.

    I'd much rather toss a $100 media box when it becomes useless than have to bypass all the smart features by blocking a tv on WIFI after updates are discontinued (and still have to buy a media box).

      Over time tvs also stop being powerful enough to run updated software that works on media boxes, tablets or smart phones.

    If a tv doesn't have at least 2GB of memory, don't call it "smart".

    Oh and please don't even bother with other integration like alexa/siri/google... voice spying "services" or usage/metric reporting back to the mothership. /RANT off