2014 W series, no remote button for "Screen Format"?!

[hcr_hassen]

The remote that came with my W705B, unlike yesteryear's W654A, does not include a "Screen Format" button that changes the picture aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9, etc.) and zoom. Instead I only see this option under Options \  Screen Format.

Am I missing something? This is a feature I have to use constantly when watching TV, and now it requires multiple remote presses.

The ironic thing is that the remote has more buttons than in the previous Sony model I had, and many of the buttons are useless: "Football", "Social View", "SEN", "Discover", "Related Search", 4 colored ones...

In general I find the 2014 interface decidedly inferior to the 2013 one, especially for people who don't use "apps". The TV takes longer to become interactive on startup, the interface has more delay points and they are longer, it's less refined in terms of usability (why does "returning" from a settings submenu not return to an open settings menu?), the remote is littered with useless gimmicky functions at the expense of some of yesteryear's useful functions which were removed, the animation is more sluggish, the GUI is less refined visually. I don't buy a TV for its GUI, but all these things add up to add a little frustration and awkwardness each time.

Sony: Can you allow configuring the remote buttons' functionality? At least some of them.

[hcr_hassen]

I checked it, and the TV does support the remote code to change the aspect ratio/zoom. It's just not on the remote that comes with the TV.

By the way, it doesn't support the remote codes to toggle just between wide/normal (and not cycle through all the 5 modes available), nor does it support switching directly to wide or normal.

[MrPillze]

I also found some of the buttons on the latest remote to be kinda useless but fortunatly i still have my w905 and i can use my 2013 remote on my 2014 x8505 tv no problem, screen size function and all If you have a look around for a Sony RM-ED052 or still have your old remote then your in luck Hope this helps!

[hcr_hassen]

Thanks. I don't have the old remote. Didn't even know I needed to compare the remotes to see if there are important keys missing.

I'll try asking the store if they can exchange the ED061 for something with a Screen Format button.

BTW, besides the missing button, I have no idea why Sony shuffles their buttons positions all the time on a whole set of remotes that are overall designed exactly the same.

[hcr_hassen]

Customer support, steadfast as always, were useless as expected.

I asked if I may suggest that a future firmware use the 4 unused color buttons to: switch to "Normal", switch to "Full", and open the Screen Format menu (in the unlikely case one wants a mode other than the common two).

The answer was: we don't have information on future firmware.

Huh?

I noticed that the silliness the "Football" button invokes, and some other buttons, is implemented in Javascript. I think the TV sometimes fetches that Javascript from the internet, then saved a local copy. Perhaps I could intercept it and feed it with code that would actually do something useful. I'm not sure I've seen functions to change screen mode directly, but I think opening the Screen Format menu might be doable.