Xperia 1 V Netflix HD

[seunodueko]

The Xperia 1 V does not have Widevine L1 certification, meaning despite its superb display, Netflix videos can only be streamed and/or downloaded in 480p SD resolution!

This is not a chipset or hardware limitation, and there is simply no excuse for a £1,300 flagship phone to only have Widevine L3 support, so hope this major flaw will be corrected soon! 

[kennycr]

Agree, it's totally unacceptable that Widevine L1 is not supported. This impacts Netflix, Prime Video and now Bravia Core for Xperia. It seems a recent update has caused this because It definitely wasn't the case some weeks ago.

Sony, please fix this!

[seunodueko]

Not an ideal solution of course, but one workaround is to restart the
phone, which restores Widevine L1 (until the next deactivation). Sony still
needs to solve the root cause.

[kennycr]

Restarting didn't work, neither did reinstalling the apps. YouTube appears to work but nothing else.

[Pernas]

Hmm, sounds familiar, had the same issue with the Asus ZF9 and while Asus pointed me to Netflix, Netflix did the opposite, needless to say, it wasn't fixed for me...ever. This is probably only because the 1 V is too new - hopefully

[Piscie]

Hey @seunodueko, are you facing this issue with Netflix only? Have you contacted the Sony reps directly about this? 

[seunodueko]

Yes it still happens intermittently, and affects Prime Video as well. In my case, restarting the phone resolves it until the next occurrence but what is needed is a software fix by Sony. I flagged it up on Sony's Twitter channel but who knows if they're looking into it or not...

[HannahEd01]

Hey guys, try these steps and let me know how it goes: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/mobile-phones-tablets/articles/00232845

By the way, it's not mentioned anywhere if this phone is Widevine L1 certified or not, and it doesn't make sense that the issue happens intermittently, so I think it should be treated as a normal issue. 

[kennycr]

Hello,

I have restarted, forced restart, performed a factory reset (time consuming process) and performed a software repair via the PC. Nothing has worked. Widevine is still L3. Safety net CTS profile match falls, Google Play Protect is saying "device is not certified" and to be absolutely clear, the phone is not and never has been rooted.

Sony Support have not been able to resolve this.

[seunodueko]

I've just realised that although I get Widevine L1 playback on Amazon Prime Video after restarting, and the DRM Info app confirms it, Netflix still remains at Widevine L3. So not sure if it's a problem for Netflix to resolve but when I contacted them previously, they insisted it was a Sony issue.