[App][Pro] Sony BRAVIA Android TV

Sony BRAVIA Android TV - Made to Entertain
Integrate and control your Sony Android TV with Homey

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Introduction

Ricardo, the developer of this app, transfered the app to me. He restarted Homey development and added SDK 3 support for Homey Pro 2023. But for lack of time he can’t continue app support. So I will continue app support and development.

The app

This app imports your Sony BRAVIA Android TV as device into Homey.
Currently some basic controls are available like on/off, volume up/down, channel up/down, mute.
Via flow you can use additional actions like input selection.

Add your TV

In pair view, the Sony TV should be found automatically fi it’s accessible in your network.
You have to set a preshared key in your Sony TV settings to allow app access to your TV. This key is needed during pairing. The pair dialog provides a good explaination and a video showing how to setup your TV (thanks to Ricardo for this).

If the TV can’t be found, you can add it using the IP address in manual pair dialog. It’s shown automatically if no Bravia device could be found in your network.

The Sony API

The app uses the Sony API (IP Control)

It contains an IRCC IP API for sending remote control commands and a REST API to interact with the device.

TVs standby mode

To turn on your TV via app it’s needed to activate the “Powered on by apps” or “On (Network standby)” in network setting. You get this dialog in TV settings, Network & Internet, Remote start.
The option “Power on by apps” increases stand-by power consumption by ~25 W (~220 kWh/year).

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If "On (Network standby) is activated, a short poll intervall can still precent the TV going to sleep. Depending on the TV it can stay online (no deep sleep mode) if the poll interval is less than 2 minutes.
In this case, please increase the poll interval until your TV goes into sleep mode.

When selected “off” and the TV is in sleep mode, you can try to ude the WoL (wake on LAN) flow action to wake up the device. The flow card check the device availability for ~20 seconds. If the flow card finished, you can switch on the device from the app or flow.

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super, minor point and I apologise for being pedantic, but could the title be changed to correct spelling of Android…?

Hehe, written too fast :grin: It’s corrected now.

1 Like

Sorry for being “that guy”, but it will make it easier found and I’m looking forward to what this app can do. I have a new 95L on the way

New test version 1.1.1:

  • Bugfix for crashes on HomeyPro23
    Hopefully this will fix the issues. I’ll take a look at crash reports for this version if there are still issues.

Is anyone here enjoying testing the app?

I made some internal changes to reduce dependencies of most npm packages to reduce the app size and memory consumption.
And in future I want to improve the app and add new features.

If you want to help to improve the app, you can

  • install the upcoming test version
  • activate auto update for the app.

Then you will get all following test versions.
This helps a lot to check if new features are working well or if changes are causing issues that can be fixed before rolling out to all users.

I’ll post if the new version is ready.
And please subscribe the thread in this case to be up to date.

Thanks in advance :+1:

2 Likes

I’m in! Unfortunately i cant connect my A95K

Is the TV in the same LAN?
Have you set the preshared key (PSK) in network settings of your TV?
Can you please describe the pair process?

  • is the TV found automatically (shown in device list) or not?
  • have you continued with manual pairing using the IP address?
  • are error messages visible?

Hi,
Thanks for your app.
I installed the test version on hp2019.
My tv was not found automatically, so entered the address manually.
Also entered the predefined key
But after ‘klaar’ nothing seems to happen.
After 10 minutes i canceled the process.
So unfortunately i was not able to add my tv
Please let me know if you need something from me.
Cheers,
Eric

My X95J is not on the supported list. But I tried it anyway :sweat_smile:. Not sure if this information is of any value to you:

On the Homey Pro (2023) the TV is not found automatically. When I enter the IP I get a request to enter the shared key, but when I press done, nothing happens at all. This is in the web app. If I try it on my phone (iOS) or iPad, I don’t have access to a continue button after inputting the IP. Maybe it is below in that window, but I can’t scroll to it.

The Homey is connected via Wi-Fi (ethernet adapter should arrive soon), the TV with an ethernet cable.

I hope this helps in any way :grinning:

Yes, the TV is in the same LAN and i’ve entered the preshared key.

The TV was not found automatically. So i tried the manuel pairing. After hitting the “done” button, just nothing happen.

New test version 2.0.0:

  • Many internal changes to remove the most NodeJS deendencies. Reduces app size and hopefully memory usage.

  • The single action flow actions (like EPG, ENTER…) are deprecated now. You can still use them in flows if already added, but they can’t be added again.

  • As replacement for all these remote control actions there is a new flow card where you can select the possible remote control action of your TV in an autocomplete field.
    grafik

  • Added new flow card to start apps. The autocomplete field offers your all available apps of your TV
    grafik

  • Added new flow card to select an input. This list is also a dynamic autocomplete field showing all valid inputs (like in input list of your TV where you can activate or hide inputs). This list also contains HDMI-CEC devices.
    grafik

  • Added volume slider in device

  • Added input list in device. This list only contains TV and HDMI inputs. A corresponding trigger an condition card is also added.

  • Added trigger for playing content change (only TV and inputs, no apps). You can use this to react on other inpots than only TV and HDMI (CEC) and you get program title for TV (if EPG is showing this data).

I also added some logging for pair process. So if you get trouble, you can send me a diagnostic log after pair attempt. I hope I can see some details…

About device auto discorery:
The app uses SSDP boradcast. If the TV is off and in sleep he perhaps doens’t answer and is not discovered. Even is it’s on, it can take more that the 10 seconds to get an boradcast answer. If the TV is not found, you can start a second or thirth search.
If it’s still not found, you can send me a diagnostic log. I hope I can find some details in SSDP data - perhaps Sony changed some ID data.

@friethoe @HugoLXO @Shanster (and all I forgot):
Can you please install the test version? The pair process is technically the same, but the diagnostic log should contain more details.
At least errors on checking the PSK should not appear in pair dialog.

Installed the latest Version and as you said same behavior. Heres the Diagnostic Code: 9b67a8d3-5fa9-4e7d-845d-41958a8cca6b

Same here. Installed v2.0 and got same results.
My report is: 96453c17-ea01-402b-b73d-cd82c87f7d80

@Shanster
On HP23, the diagnostic log is very short. So I will continue testing with @friethoe and his HP19 which provides more log data.
It’s already reported to Athom via Slack and hopefully the HP23 will provide more line in th etext FW version.

I found a place in the app where the model name is checked (starts with “KD”). Perhaps that’s the issue that the device is ignored. I’ll make some changes and upload a new test version soon.

Report: bf86a98e-86dd-4cf9-ae80-899a5d17f3bd
Edit: TV IP is 192.168.68.78