A USA Feature for a Europe-Market Sony Receiver

A feature of many modern network-connected entertainment devices is that they will play streamed music while on standby mode. This so-called “network standby”is very useful if you fancy some gentle …read more

A feature of many modern network-connected entertainment devices is that they will play streamed music while on standby mode. This so-called “network standby”is very useful if you fancy some gentle music but don’t want the Christmas lights or the TV. It was a feature [Caramelfur] missed on their Sony AV receiver, something especially annoying because it’s present on the US-market equivalent of their European model. Some gentle hackery ensued, and now the rece3iver follows its American cousin. A first examination of the firmware found the two downloads to be identical, so whatever differences had to be in some form of configuration. Investigating what it exposed to the network led to a web server with device configuration parameters. Some probing behind the scenes and a bit of lucky guesswork identified the endpoint to turn on network standby, and there it was, the same as the US market model. Should you need it, the tooling is in a GitHub repository. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen identical hardware being shipped with different firmwares in Europe from that in the USA, perhaps our most egregious example was a Motorola phone with a much earlier Android version for Europeans. We don’t understand why manufacturers do it, in particular with such an innocuous feature as network standby. If you have a Sony receiver you can now fix it, but you shouldn’t have to. RJ45, Devcore, CC0. Just a wild guess:
Ist this maybe related to standby power consumption? I remember some EU regulation for standby <0.x W and they could not meet this while the CPU keeps running? So – just disable that feature for EU Would bei interesting to measure … Exactly my first thought. But then still, they are only required to give the user that option. Why not make it configurable. Any device can use as much in standby as they wish except for that one option they must provide. My home TV set-top-box for example: eco boot: takes over 30 secs to switch it on, normal boot is showing a channel within 2 seconds Have you measured the power usage of the “normal” mode? To me the fact that you’ve been presented with an “eco” mode suggests the manufacturer couldn’t be bothered to implement a real deep sleep mode. Another wild guess: customs. Possibly, I’ve had several products that had certain features disabled in software even though the hardware was fully present, one was a DV camcorder that was perfectly capable of recording from composite or other inputs (and it was even discussed in the manual) but all the menu options were missing because there was an additional import tariff on video recorders that video players and camcorders were exempt from. Wasn’t much effort to re-enable it, the details were all in the service manual. Another wild guess: patents in different regions. Now he only needs to never update the device, lest they may/may not break it. If the difference is in configuration a breaking change would break the functionality for a whole continent of consumers. I’m not going to say they’re safe, I don’t really trust Sony with anything internet connected, but they’re as safe as all the other customers using that feature. “A feature of many modern network-connected entertainment devices is that they will play streamed music while on standby mode. ” Half-pregnant? Either a device is standby or it’s not (full on lr full off). This “mode” or feature hears seems to violate the whole concept of standby mode. I can understand if that “pseudo standby” causes legal issues here in European Union. Because devices must not surpass a certain amount of standby power. “Full off” is equivalent to “unplugged/not using any power at all.” Even your desktop computer that is “off” isn’t “fully off” in this sense – it’s drawing enough power for the on/off button to work. History note for those younger than about 35: Most 1980s computers had hardware-based on-off switches: Off was truly off, if you didn’t count the power from the CMOS/clock battery. Sigh. Let me put it this way, “standby” mode utilizes an electronic switch (an active circuit) to power on/power off an appliance. This may also include flipp-flopp circuits. ATX power supplies are properly most popular example of an eletronically controlled consumer. And that’s what I was thinking of when I was saying “full on or full off”. Everything else isn’t true standby. A LAN card in a PC which simply wakes the PC up on incomming packets might be still a standby thing, because it controls the power of the main consumer (PC). A motherboard chipset which is silently working when the PC is “turned off” isn’t, however. – A standbye power is an exception, it’s needed for wakeup procedure and to keep the RAM powered. But not an chipset thats silently executing program code and filtering network traffic. That’s a trojan. IIRC, back in “my” day, some TVs in Standby Mode also kept the CRT filament at a lower voltage/current which shortened the time to get the picture on screen. Intel ME is active in the chipset in standby. ME has full control of the system and can send and receive data while the system is on standby power. Roughly 10watts if it’s a 2 Amp 5v standby. Yeah, that isn’t what “standby” means. Standby is “ready at a moments notice”. Which is explicitly not “off”. In the modern context, it DOES mean shutting things off, but those things are peripherals so the device has a lower power draw, while still being able to “wake” quickly. If you are going to be pedantic (which I certainly am) then at least be correct… Thanks, your explanation is spot on I think. And you’re right about modern context, that’s what I was thinking of in first place. About the pedantic part, I do understand and I’m not angered. It’s better to be this way than to be indifferent, I think. An old saying says “whatever you do, do it by the heart”. Yeah, there was a minor uproar about “standby” a few years ago. There were plenty of appliances that were using as much power as when they were fully on when they were in standby mode. This isn’t what consumers were expecting, so there were some legal protections brought in. Personally I wouldn’t have a problem with a receiver that would maintain its network connection and run a server that could wake everything else up, that can be done with minimal power use. If it’s just faking “off” though, I would have a problem with that. I honestly hate ON/Standby. I want the old ON/OFF state of a device. Wastes power and my 4 year old grand daughter attends to turn on TVs around the house with her tablet. Go into the menu and there should be a section dealing with remote control from apps. Turn the function off. Sadly even coffee makers are now wanting to stay on in standby mode though. Your only option is to put some sort of switch in the cord or unplug it. That is what I did with the coffee maker at least. I wonder if this is done for legal reasons (government regulation, patents, something like that). In Australia the nanny state government forced Ford to disable certain features on the Ford Mustang but its a software thing and there are ways to re-enable the features. I don’t understand the concept. If you switch the thing off (or “standby”), why are you streaming music to it? If you want music, turn it on. If you don’t, turn it off. Same here. If I put my PC into standby (for example) then I want it to be standby/inactive. The fans go out, the HDD spins down, the VGA card stops sending sync signals to monitor etc. I don’t want the MS Media Player to be running in a special mode or that Cortana or Co-Pilot or any other assistants are continuing to listen. I don’t want that. Not even for extra comfort. I do want to know for certain where I stand. Ok, maybe the American market really likes such nifty things, but I do consider such a pseudo-standby mode to be a bug rather than a feature. If I put my smart TV into standby mode and the screen turns off, I do expect it to be asleep and not to be listening to conversations through the built-in microphone. No offense, though. I think the hack as such is cool and think it’swell done. It’s just the feature that I have no use for. rece3iver? Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy) This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. By using our website and services, you expressly agree to the placement of our performance, functionality and advertising cookies. Learn more

https://hackaday.com/2024/08/16/a-usa-feature-for-a-europe-market-sony-receiver/