Cheers for clarifying the position wrt ongoing Tunein service, that's also good news!
I'd like to focus some more on the Sony Music Centre app issue if I may, as I think there's some flawed thinking on the part of Sony and/or an unnamed 3rd party developer.
The facts - the last update to this app (via the Apple app store) dumped support for the STR-DN1050 amongst others. The app has an ongoing lifetime, but for reasons nobody has explained if you have certain receivers, the latest version of the app will not support them. You could call it discriminatory support.
The user impact. It's my view that this range of receivers was marketed partly on the convenience of using a handheld device such as phone or tablet to access what I'd call detail settings. Stuff such as equaliser, speaker details such as position and levels etc.
Given the diverse range of sources I use, and I guess it's the same for most owners, otherwise why would you have a receiver with the range of inputs available (I have the following inputs: DVD, BluRay, console, satellite, local network and internet streaming) it's to be expected that tweaking various levels to achieve preferred audio presentation will be needed, as not every source is the same. This can even be true within one input device, say CD, DVD or BluRay, just as a result of varying recording approaches. It's always been the way and always will be.
How does one make these changes on the fly? Well the remote control does not have dedicated buttons, nor a display to show what levels are set to, so a visual guide is needed. There are 2 ways of doing that, either using a handheld device plus the app, or using the TV as a monitor. Now the TV approach may be acceptable when viewing a movie, as you're "already there" but for sources that are solely audio it does not make sense to crank up a dirty great TV purely to view various setting sliders. Not only does this involve the avoidable extra energy usage, but for certain TVs e.g. plasma it is not a good idea to leave the TV on all the time, to avoid screen burn.
Equally, turning the TV on and off every few minutes to make those tweaks is simply annoying.
Now the app change, as I think there are a few points to consider. Sony certainly don't seem to either understand the impact of these, or don't care.
-It is not possible to "reload" the "old" version of the app, which supported more devices including the STR-DN1050. The Apple store only offers one variant of the app, the latest.
-If you do accidentally update to the new version, there is only one way to fix it, and that depends upon the customer having created a backup of their device BEFORE the app got updated. If you don't have that backup you're screwed. Even following this approach is a hassle. It takes a good amount of time to reset an Apple tablet/phone, then load your backup, then bring all other apps up to date, except Sony Music Centre. Of course th time for this will vary and factors such as how much stuff you've got in the cloud that has to replicate down to your device again. Not really acceptable.
-Other scenarios of pain and inconvenience revolve around device change. Let's say you are in a phone contract, and the phone is how you manage your receiver via the app. New phone arrives, with no apps. You load all your favourite apps, go to load Music Centre, oh dear, only the new version, so you can't use phone to control things. Ditto if you change your tablet. The other factor to consider, particularly with Apple products is their marketing view is that an iPad/iPhone only has a TWO year lifecycle in terms of ownership. They would claim this is due to people wanting the latest processor/display spec etc but as many owners know, the reality is hardware change can often be also driven by IOS updates. Once again, you change your hardware, no old app to reload.
-Finally it is my understanding that Apple are on a crusade to move to 64 bit apps only. Once more this will flush out older but perfectly usable hardware, and once in the hands of the owner they will find they don't have the right version of the app to install.
A point I've failed to get across to Sony is that they could fix this in one fell swoop, by ensuring co-existence of both versions of the app for the benefit of ALL customers. not just a select audience. Just make it clear in the app blurb which version for which device. Surely it cannot cost that much to host both versions. One that is still developed as needed, the "old" one remaining static. It may not have been the fastest app, but it did at least work.
So, apologies for the long post but I think it important to get this out in the open. I suspect there are still many owners that are in for a nasty surprise if they choose to update all apps on their device without considering the impact of doing so, and to be fair, why should the owner need to worry about that? At the time of marketing devices such as the STR-DN1050 nobody told me that an app you'd rely on might just disappear without a substitute being made available.
The responses from Sony Support I've had have been dismissive and to be honest somewhat insulting. Sure, they've apologised, lots but that's no good to me. They can't reasonably use the excuse that the contract they have with developers let's them do what they like (and that's pretty much the implication) Are they so short sighted they cannot see that if this is true, a 3rd party is undermining the out of the box functionality of their hardware? It's practically obsolescence by design, or negligence.
I'd appreciate any insight anyone can offer on this, or even better, if someone can get the points I've made in front of someone from Sony, and get a response from them as to how they think this is acceptable.
For completeness here's my other thread on this one:
https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/home-cinema-projectors-players/sony-songpal/td-p/2297225
