Move the soundbar and the subwoofer closer. If it still happens, then electronic components in either the soundbar or the subwoofer are dying. Send it for repairs if possible.

The alternative is doing it yourself by finding the subwoofer signal from the mobo of the main unit and connect it directly to the subwoofer using wires.

I doubt it. But you can try the solutions here.

I realized the rear speakers will make the living room very messy, as behind the sofa seats is not the partition wall, it is the entrance walk way.

If I insist on putting rear speakers right behind the sofa seats, I will have to put them on stand and there will be wiring running around ( power cable for example ). Or I put the rear speakers at the wall, but it will be much further from the sofa seats .....

How does the rear speaker cable looks like? Each speaker has its own power port to plug in?

I have the space for rear speakers in my living room but electrical plug points are near the tv only

I think this is an issue with Sony or Google TV. I'm using Edifier B700 and it does that too sometimes. I think better to pause playback and press return to main menu of the app before pressing home. Sometimes I just play a video on YouTube and change to another video until I get sound. When everything else doesn't work, I would restart the TV. It only happen when TV is being put on standby for some time. I'm using X90J.

Have you bought your soundbar? I'm also looking at the SP8A. From the online reviews seems that it's quite worth the price at below 1.5k. Not sure if there are any better options at this price range?

need to add about 1k extra for this. is it worth it if i use it mainly for youtube on tv?

i see, is it the current promo?

what would you recommend for 10k budget?

currently having a sony A80L tv, and a bit pulled into the sony marketing if use sony sound bar can use the TV's audio as center channel or something like that.

is it better to just get a proper audio set up instead of sound bar (have zero knowledge and experience with 'home theater').

mainly watching youtube, netflix, mostly anime, but will restart watching backlog movies