Hello.

I have been enjoying developing an app for the STR-DN1080 using this API. Thank you!

If I may request your consideration of 2 additions to the API please:

1). Chromecast built-in and soundFields

Enable the selection of soundField's 2chStereo and MultiChStereo when the built-in Chromecast Audio device is selected. These 2 soundFields are the only 2 accessible for this input. The notes at the bottom of this page of the online help for the STR-DN1080 confirms this.

The IR remote's '2ch/Multi' button can toggle between these two soundFields when using the Chromecast Audio, but the API cannot. For example:

{
	"id":8,
	"method":"setSoundSettings",
	"params":[{
		"settings":[{
		"target":"soundField",
		"value":"multiChStereo"
	}]
	}],
	"version":"1.1"
}

results in:

{
  "error": [
    15,
    "unsupported operation"
  ],
  "id": 8
}

To confirm this discrepancy between the IR Remote and the API, the Sony 'Music Center' app greys out the 'Sound Field' option when this input is selected. The above JSON request succeeds on other inputs.

2). Codec Information

Being able to querying the STR-DN1080 for the codec, bitrate, frequency information of the audio stream that it is currently being decoded by the STR-DN1080. The only way to see the codec being decoded is to physically press the Display Mode button on the front panel of the AVR.

As an aside, I'm mystified as to why Sony didn't assign the 'Display' button on the IR remote to this function, as the button seems almost redundant in my opinion.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Hi. I'm not sure if this is the place to ask, but is anyone else finding that the forum is not displaying the most recent edit on posts? I'm using mobile to access the forums, and even refreshing the pages or opening a page in an incognito tab shows the earlier edits. The edit history shows the current version though, as does editing the posts.

Please post your JSON and the URL that you are posting the JSON to. I'm guessing that you are sending the JSON to the wrong URL, i.e.http://ip.number.to.device:10000/sony/{Lib} where {Lib} is one of system, audio, or avContent.

Because error code 12 is "No Such Method".

getVolumeInformation needs to be POSTed to the "audio" lib, i.e. http://ip.number.to.device:10000/sony/audio.

Also, try getMethodTypes on the "audio" lib as well as the "avContent" lib and you should see a lot more method types. It looks like you're querying the "system" lib.

Hi. This may be of some use to somebody debugging their app/s. After many months of things working nicely, the getSpeakerSettings function starting giving me false info. Some of the speakers were listed as not available, yet they were previously configured and still working. Here is a snippet of the output:

{
        "candidate": [
          {
            "isAvailable": true,
            "max": 10,
            "min": -10,
            "step": 0.5,
            "title": "Surround R",
            "titleTextID": "surroundRLevel",
            "value": "0.0"
          }
        ],
        "currentValue": "0.0",
        "deviceUIInfo": "picker",
        "isAvailable": false,
        "target": "surroundRLevel",
        "title": "Surround R",
        "titleTextID": "speaker-speakerlevel-surroundr",
        "type": "doubleNumberTarget"
      },

Note the "isAvailable": false, and the "currentValue": "0.0", lines -- neither were correct.

I couldn't see anything wrong in the receiver's setup menu. Nothing had been reconfigured recently. Eventually after a factory reset, it's back to normal:

{
        "candidate": [
          {
            "isAvailable": true,
            "max": 10,
            "min": -10,
            "step": 0.5,
            "title": "Surround R",
            "titleTextID": "surroundRLevel",
            "value": "-3.5"
          }
        ],
        "currentValue": "-3.5",
        "deviceUIInfo": "picker",
        "isAvailable": true,
        "target": "surroundRLevel",
        "title": "Surround R",
        "titleTextID": "speaker-speakerlevel-surroundr",
        "type": "doubleNumberTarget"
      },

I have had this AV receiver get into a weird state twice previously by powering it off at the wall (via a smart switch) before powering it off on the AVR itself. One time the Chromecast stopped working, and the other time the WiFi stopped working -- if I remember correctly. Both times solves with factory reset.

So I try to be careful to power off on the AVR before cutting the power to it. But maybe I need to wait a longer period after powering off (more than the 5 seconds it takes to tell Alexa to power it off at the wall)?

Anyhoo, if your receiver gets garbage info from the API out-of-the-blue, try a factory reset!

Thanks @David.

I'm having problems specifying a frequency using the presetBroadcastStation v1.0 function. If I specify a frequency to store, it is ignored. Even using the sample JSON on the docs webpage.

Whether I specify the frequency, or if I omit the frequency line altogether, it simply stores the frequency that the STR-DN1080 is currently tuned to instead.

This is suits me better actually. But this might confuse other developers as the specification in the documentation (and expected behaviour) works differently for method on this device. The receiver accepts the frequency integer without an error code - and the integer doesn't even need to be in the correct range for it to be accepted.

This should really be mentioned in the method definition in the docs please.

I was thinking, it would be beneficial to add this to the online documentation, please.

Hi. I see in the API that it is possible can seek forward or backwards for radio stations (using seekBroadcastStation v1.0), and also save the found station as a preset (using presetBroadcastStation v1.0). However, I do not see a method to select a preset to actually play it, or a method to jump to a specified broadcastFreq or broadcastFreqBand.

Are there such methods? Thanks.

EDIT: I figured out you can select presets by appending the preset number onto the URI with ?contentId=1 , e.g. "uri":radio:fm?contentId?1 using the setPlayContent v1.2 method.

@david said in Maximum volume = 55?:

Yes, it is the same hard upper limit (55) for al devices, but some devices like HT-ZF9 the hardware limitation can be lower (50 in this case) but you can never get above 55 for any device.

Thank you very much @david. This is useful to know.

Hi @david. Thank you very much for that. Did they say if it's the same limit for all AVRs that support the API?

Hi @david. Thanks for replying. When I set the volume to 55, the receiver is set to 55. There's no scaling occurring - just a limit lower than the volume the receiver is capable of.

When I set the volume to any number higher than "55", e.g. "volume":"777777" the receiver gets set to "55". The on-screen display shows "55". And the reply is:

{
  "id": 8,
  "result": []
}

@ozshabat, I think David meant for you to add the APIs you are going to use into that letter.

Hi. Would it be possible to hide deleted threads and posts please?

Hi @david,

After setting the volume to 74 ("Max") with the IR remote, I sent this query:

{
	"id":8,
	"method":"getVolumeInformation",
	"params":[{
		"output":"extOutput:zone?zone=1"
	}],
	"version":"1.1"
}

Here is the result:

{
  "id": 8,
  "result": [
    [
      {
        "maxVolume": 55,
        "minVolume": 0,
        "mute": "off",
        "output": "extOutput:zone?zone=1",
        "step": 1,
        "volume": 55
      }
    ]
  ]
}

Note the maxVolume is 55 and the API response thinks the volume is set at 55 when it is actually currently 74.

Questions:

1. Is this the same with all other Sony AVRs supporting the API?
2. Does your STR-DN1070 do the exact same thing? (if you have it handy, please)

Rather than querying each device to find the maxVolume, ideally I would like to know the maxVolume for the STR-DN1070, STR-DN1060 and STR-DN860 please. That way I can set it once for each model.

Thanks in advance.