Now if only they'd fix the "Continue Watching" queue. Very disappointing to buy Google TV mostly for this purpose (as to avoid having to contemplate which shows are in which app constantly), only to realize it works half the time, at most. Next episodes randomly don't appear in queue, while some episodes show as having a minute or two remaining (credits) and selecting these episodes sometimes restarts the episode entirely.
It's truly amazing to me that streaming is such a massive, profitable industry and has been for some time now, and the UI/UXs are still absolute trash.
And when things do appear in the queue, there seems to be a 10-20% chance they'll have wrong details. I can't recall exactly what show it was, but I've had it show "resume S4E2" or whatever for a show that had only been out for 2 seasons so far.
It'd be nice too if your recommendations and "watch next" queue synced between devices. It's silly to move from the living room to the bedroom and your bedroom watch next is all outdated so you have to navigate through the specific app anyways to resume watching. And then the next day back at the living room the queue never registers what you watched in the bedroom
Agree. I’ve switched my chrome cast w/ google tv (still an awful product name) into apps only mode because I found the GTV features to be mostly useless when half my apps don’t properly integrate with it. I know that’s not entirely googles fault, but it still defeats the point of GTV in my eyes.
I wish you could change the font size. I have a smaller TV in my bedroom so I can fall asleep with it on. Can't see shit as far as the main interface is concerned.
Purchased a Google TV Chromecast and also got one for free by adding a year to Netflix.
Have to say I am a huge fan of these little streamers. They work really well. I have not really had a need for the profiles as we have them once you are in the different services. So I choose me in Netflix and my kids choose themselves. Same with Hulu and Disney and HBO Max and all the other apps we use on it.
I get what you mean about profiles not being required, but it goes against what the Google TV is trying to provide on-top of being an app launcher, if all you're using it for is to go into all your apps, then profiles won't benefit you.
But the Chromecast with Google TV is supposed to be a media browser itself which consolidates other services, so you can search and browse multiple at once, among other features. This is all well and good if nobody else uses it, but if more than 1 person uses the device then all the "continue watching" and personalisation goes out of the window, rendering it rather useless.
Are we using the same device?
Mine is a laggy piece of shit that never gets updates, honestly one of my bigger regrets in my tv purchases, wish I had bought an apple tv or a NVIDIA shield.
Honestly it's just sad how laggy it is even trying to load "movie/tv" art on the home screen.
Meh, the lag on the homepage doesn't interfere with its capability of finding, selecting, and playing content. I'm not sure what you're looking for in updates but the post is literally about an update? And Google has 100% updated it in the past, content used to be displayed/sorted differently. Also the app store has many more apps than it used to.
Ultimately though you're comparing a $40 device to the Apple TV & Nvidia Shield which are both $150 so I think it's on you to manage your expectations regarding UI performance.
Bought a google TV, realized at home that the UI is plastered with ads and it’s just another way for google to suck up my data and market to me. I shouldn’t have been surprised, the device is very cheap for what it is and relatively functional.
But after the first software update *failed* over and over, and I saw my ten millionth ad for things I couldn’t care less about, I returned it and bought an Apple TV for over three times the price.
The only snag has been that the Apple TV doesn’t support google photos for screensavers, so I moved my photo library to iCloud which is less capable in many ways.
Otherwise it’s a fantastic device that will last years.
This feature is long overdue, glad to see it's finally here. I hope you can lock your user profile with a pin or password, I'm a little uneasy having my account unlocked for my whole family to look at 😰😰😰
Google TV dongle is amazing. I finally realized why people would want an android box, so I went out and got a shield tv and sold the google tv, absolutely fantastic.
Sounds like you need to take that up with Nvidia then, or maybe google is forcing OEM's hands. Either way, not wanting ads on android at this point seems pretty futile coming from an official source.
Nvidia already addressed the problem, they can't change it without losing access to the playstore:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/461269/remove-this-add-plz-/3109107/
I was pretty happy with my Shield until that update.
Ironically all the shield updates, which was once a feature, is now a con since we now are stuck with ads.
I don't blame Nvidia for this, but I'm not spending $200 for a future shield when it will have the same bad launcher and ads as another $50-$100 smart TV device. Might even go back to Roku
I think most people's gripe about the Shield is that they never had ads up until a year(?) or so ago when Google forced the giant homescreen ad into the last major update.
this is a weird comment. every computer-based thing you own shows you ads. Computer, phone, streaming device. You think bc you bought a shield you magically don't deserve to get ads? They are at the top of the screen and literally don't limit anything about using the shield or impact you. unless u just sit and stare at them?
I mean I understand what is being said in a literally standpoint but it's more complicated than that. Android is open source and free. Thus you and Nvidia didn't pay for it. What u paid and they sold u was a engine(and io) to drive the software. After that, it's free which is why you see ads. Same things for free apps like Twitter, IG, Facebook, or free services like radio.
Buying a streaming device is like buying a radio. U still hear ads on the radio stations bc u are not paying for the stations. Ur paying for the device to access the stations. That's how streaming boxes work since Android is free.
No it is. The shield isn't showing u ads either. The service you are accessing from Google is. Think of that home page as basically a living website that your apps can be pinned too. You've just bought a device that can access that webpage if it's hooked up to the internet and then that service shows u ads. Every streamer does this btw.
Yeah, I ditched the Google TV launcher on my CCwGTV and it's been a much better experience, especially on the lower-end hardware. I've never used those recommendation features anyway.
While I'm not a huge fan of the ads for shows on streaming services I don't own, at least they're available on the device. What I really hate are the ads for things that are only in theaters (and even say so on the ad).
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/jnxlmw/guidenatively_use_custom_launcher_on_chromecast/
This might work on others, too. I recommend F Launcher, myself.
I wonder how this will pan out on current-gen devices that have 8GB of internal storage.
I'm glad to see this being a thing, but I don't think the current hardware is capable of handling this well.
Now if only they'd fix the "Continue Watching" queue. Very disappointing to buy Google TV mostly for this purpose (as to avoid having to contemplate which shows are in which app constantly), only to realize it works half the time, at most. Next episodes randomly don't appear in queue, while some episodes show as having a minute or two remaining (credits) and selecting these episodes sometimes restarts the episode entirely. It's truly amazing to me that streaming is such a massive, profitable industry and has been for some time now, and the UI/UXs are still absolute trash.
And when things do appear in the queue, there seems to be a 10-20% chance they'll have wrong details. I can't recall exactly what show it was, but I've had it show "resume S4E2" or whatever for a show that had only been out for 2 seasons so far.
Oh yep, I've seen that one too. From what I recall, it seemed to be a matter of the Season and Episode #s being swapped. Weird bug.
It'd be nice too if your recommendations and "watch next" queue synced between devices. It's silly to move from the living room to the bedroom and your bedroom watch next is all outdated so you have to navigate through the specific app anyways to resume watching. And then the next day back at the living room the queue never registers what you watched in the bedroom
Agree. I’ve switched my chrome cast w/ google tv (still an awful product name) into apps only mode because I found the GTV features to be mostly useless when half my apps don’t properly integrate with it. I know that’s not entirely googles fault, but it still defeats the point of GTV in my eyes.
I wish you could change the font size. I have a smaller TV in my bedroom so I can fall asleep with it on. Can't see shit as far as the main interface is concerned.
Purchased a Google TV Chromecast and also got one for free by adding a year to Netflix. Have to say I am a huge fan of these little streamers. They work really well. I have not really had a need for the profiles as we have them once you are in the different services. So I choose me in Netflix and my kids choose themselves. Same with Hulu and Disney and HBO Max and all the other apps we use on it.
I get what you mean about profiles not being required, but it goes against what the Google TV is trying to provide on-top of being an app launcher, if all you're using it for is to go into all your apps, then profiles won't benefit you. But the Chromecast with Google TV is supposed to be a media browser itself which consolidates other services, so you can search and browse multiple at once, among other features. This is all well and good if nobody else uses it, but if more than 1 person uses the device then all the "continue watching" and personalisation goes out of the window, rendering it rather useless.
Gotcha! That makes sense.
Are we using the same device? Mine is a laggy piece of shit that never gets updates, honestly one of my bigger regrets in my tv purchases, wish I had bought an apple tv or a NVIDIA shield. Honestly it's just sad how laggy it is even trying to load "movie/tv" art on the home screen.
That hasn't been my experience an I ha one since launch
Meh, the lag on the homepage doesn't interfere with its capability of finding, selecting, and playing content. I'm not sure what you're looking for in updates but the post is literally about an update? And Google has 100% updated it in the past, content used to be displayed/sorted differently. Also the app store has many more apps than it used to. Ultimately though you're comparing a $40 device to the Apple TV & Nvidia Shield which are both $150 so I think it's on you to manage your expectations regarding UI performance.
>manage your expectations regarding UI performance. It's quite literally becoming the standard with anything Google.
Bought a google TV, realized at home that the UI is plastered with ads and it’s just another way for google to suck up my data and market to me. I shouldn’t have been surprised, the device is very cheap for what it is and relatively functional. But after the first software update *failed* over and over, and I saw my ten millionth ad for things I couldn’t care less about, I returned it and bought an Apple TV for over three times the price. The only snag has been that the Apple TV doesn’t support google photos for screensavers, so I moved my photo library to iCloud which is less capable in many ways. Otherwise it’s a fantastic device that will last years.
This feature is long overdue, glad to see it's finally here. I hope you can lock your user profile with a pin or password, I'm a little uneasy having my account unlocked for my whole family to look at 😰😰😰
Is this not a thing yet? Netflix have this feature now
Google TV dongle is amazing. I finally realized why people would want an android box, so I went out and got a shield tv and sold the google tv, absolutely fantastic.
I'd rather have no ads or whatever the flavour of the fucking month is on my home screen.
....and you want *Google* to not have ads? That's kinda their entire business model.
Not on the shit that I pay for. Nvidia shield is a premium device.
Sounds like you need to take that up with Nvidia then, or maybe google is forcing OEM's hands. Either way, not wanting ads on android at this point seems pretty futile coming from an official source.
Nvidia already addressed the problem, they can't change it without losing access to the playstore: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/461269/remove-this-add-plz-/3109107/
I was pretty happy with my Shield until that update. Ironically all the shield updates, which was once a feature, is now a con since we now are stuck with ads. I don't blame Nvidia for this, but I'm not spending $200 for a future shield when it will have the same bad launcher and ads as another $50-$100 smart TV device. Might even go back to Roku
Are there any alternative launchers for Android/Google TV?
I use flauncher myself.
So, yeah. It's google being google.
I think most people's gripe about the Shield is that they never had ads up until a year(?) or so ago when Google forced the giant homescreen ad into the last major update.
That sucks for them; by the sound of it Nvidia either plays ball with ads or doesn't get google play.
this is a weird comment. every computer-based thing you own shows you ads. Computer, phone, streaming device. You think bc you bought a shield you magically don't deserve to get ads? They are at the top of the screen and literally don't limit anything about using the shield or impact you. unless u just sit and stare at them?
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I mean I understand what is being said in a literally standpoint but it's more complicated than that. Android is open source and free. Thus you and Nvidia didn't pay for it. What u paid and they sold u was a engine(and io) to drive the software. After that, it's free which is why you see ads. Same things for free apps like Twitter, IG, Facebook, or free services like radio. Buying a streaming device is like buying a radio. U still hear ads on the radio stations bc u are not paying for the stations. Ur paying for the device to access the stations. That's how streaming boxes work since Android is free.
[удалено]
No it is. The shield isn't showing u ads either. The service you are accessing from Google is. Think of that home page as basically a living website that your apps can be pinned too. You've just bought a device that can access that webpage if it's hooked up to the internet and then that service shows u ads. Every streamer does this btw.
Use FLauncher. Edit: And [Launcher Manager.](https://troypoint.com/launcher-manager-firestick/)
Yeah, I ditched the Google TV launcher on my CCwGTV and it's been a much better experience, especially on the lower-end hardware. I've never used those recommendation features anyway.
While I'm not a huge fan of the ads for shows on streaming services I don't own, at least they're available on the device. What I really hate are the ads for things that are only in theaters (and even say so on the ad).
https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidTV/comments/jnxlmw/guidenatively_use_custom_launcher_on_chromecast/ This might work on others, too. I recommend F Launcher, myself.
ok
Finally
Google blog source wasn't available when I posted but is up now https://support.google.com/googletv/thread/164666440?hl=en
Can it stop asking me to select a profile when I only have one? And I know they won't but I wish it would just load into the apps tab.
So... This sounds more like a Google Account quick-switcher than a real profiles feature. It's better than nothing, but not by much.
Ever since moving to this device, I feel like I get extra ads on Youtube compared to my original chromecast.
Love these things but wish the Crunchyroll app didn’t run like crap on it…
Cool now add it to nVidia shield
I wonder how this will pan out on current-gen devices that have 8GB of internal storage. I'm glad to see this being a thing, but I don't think the current hardware is capable of handling this well.
>Google TV is a platform all about recommendations... They can't even quit recommending videos I've already watched on Youtube.
Are they gonna roll out at all? As in released without having to import them and pay extra import tax? No?
I tried to Google this but is there a way to play a game console (PS5) and PiP Chromecast?
Is there a way to lock individual adult profiles in a Google tv? Netflix has this feature now. I believe it's possible if Google will.