24 ms·

Google TV

328 points by owenwil 6y ago

paxys 6y ago
FYI if you are planning to anyways pay for Netflix for the next 6 months then you can pick up one of these for effectively ~$10 through a bundle (https://store.google.com/us/config/chromecast_google_tv_netflix https://store.google.com/us/config/chromecast_google_tv_netf...).
timw4mail 6y ago
I'm really confused as to whether this is Google's blessed Android TV spin (like Android TV with a different home screen), or a rebranding of Android TV.
mtgx 6y ago
How many years of guaranteed updates across TV brands and models, and how many ads will I see seeing per hour on average from Google/advertisers?
dougmwne 6y ago
Oh Google. So this is a reskin and rebrand of Android TV, launching for the first time on the new "Chromecast with Google TV". Not to be confused with a different Google TV from 10 years ago. It's unclear if they are sunsetting Android TV or supporting 2 branches of Android based TV interfaces. Side note, I have a TV with Android TV and it is chock-full-o-bugs. Only in the Google-verse.
- samizdis 6y ago
  Ars Article: Google merges Chromecast and Android TV with the “Chromecast with Google TV” https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/google-merges-chromecast-and-android-tv-with-the-chromecast-with-google-tv/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/google-merges-chrome...
  - evanextreme 6y ago
    right, but that headline doesnt answer the underlying question. This chromecast runs Android TV, so what is Google TV? Is it an interface on top of Android TV, or the successor to Android TV as we know it? It says its coming to future TV's, so what about the Sony TV I just bought? There's so many questions about what this software even is.
    - roneythomas6 6y ago
      The new Android TV interface premieres on the Chromecast with Google TV. It’s coming to third-party set-top boxes and TVs as well, although you’ll have to wait until 2021 before it reaches non-Google hardware. This doesn’t replace Android TV, to be clear — it sits on top. Google is just separating the ‘skin’ for Android TV from its underlying platform. https://www.androidauthority.com/google-tv-android-tv-1162603/ https://www.androidauthority.com/google-tv-android-tv-116260...
      - dougmwne 6y ago
        So Google TV is a skin that sits on top of Android TV which has a separate skin called Android TV which isn't being used in new products but will continue to be supported in current products. And my Android TV I have right now is an Android TV with Chromecast, but the launch product for Google TV was Chromecast with Google TV, which I can plug into my Android TV when Android TV running Android TV is EOL but Android TV running Google TV is still supported so that I don't need to buy a new TV with Google TV. That clears it up, thanks!
        basch 6y ago
        I suspect that people with older Android TV's who cant upgrade the os or play services, will be able to install the Google TV app to circumvent the lack of updates, similar to Play Services separating from Android. My phone app (Movies & TV) updated to Google TV automatically. I'm just kidding myself, theres no way itll work that cleanly.
    - josteink 6y ago
      When not even a site full of techies can tell what you’re tech-product is after studying its product-page intensely... You know you’re in for a hell of a marketing phase later on.
- ehsankia 6y ago
  But at 50$, it's a really decent price point for getting a smart tv + controller experience.
  - dougmwne 6y ago
    I go back and forth. It is a good price for a little computer you attach to your tv that can sideload apps and do a lot of the same audio/video things your phone can do. But then, the beauty of the original Chromecast was that it was a wireless external display for your phone, so you didn't need to manage apps and logins on yet another device, just hit the cast button to play music, video, pictures or games on your tv. It was incredibly versatile and really had all capabilities of your phone, with zero setup or fuss. I know you could just use the new Chromecast like the old chromecast by Chromecasting, but sometimes more is not more. I also really hope that little chromecast icon isn't going away in media apps anytime soon.
    - ehsankia 6y ago
      I agree that for us the old one was perfect, but for less tech savvy people, using their phone to control the TV never worked. For my parents this is perfect.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Not to be confused with a different Google TV from 10 years ago The Google TV 10 years ago was rebranded as Android TV, so the Android TV reskin and slowmo rebrand is literally the linear successor. (Of course, they are also rebranding Play Movies & TV on Android as Google TV, which makes me wonder what the Google Play Movies & TV app on Android TV is going to become Google TV on Google TV?)
leetrout 6y ago
I was very confused then I remembered I was subscribed to _YouTube TV_ not _Google TV_. Then I was confused again- is this an actual TV? Oh it's a dongle- no, wait, that's a Chromecast with Google TV. Anyway, I guess this is a new content app like Hulu.
- rastapanda 6y ago
  I think this may be closer to an Android TV replacement? but with seemingly less features. Is my 65" TV I splashed out on going to stop getting updates now...
  - freeone3000 6y ago
    Yes, of course - if not now, in two years. Smart TVs rarely get updates for longer than that.
  - ihuman 6y ago
    Its Android TV with a different UI, and its replacing Android TV https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google-tv-update/ https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google...
baggy_trough 6y ago
I looked at the site, but I have no idea what it is or what it costs. Total marketing failure.
- cjohnson318 6y ago
  I got a little woozy with all of the unexpected zoom-outs. Really no idea what was going on until the end.
  - gertrunde 6y ago
    Well done on getting that far, I gave up the fight against the interface well before the end!
- smoyer 6y ago
  I had the same reaction and was hoping the conversation here would answer those questions ... so far I'm out-of-luck!
- vidanay 6y ago
  It costs three years of your life and commitment until they shelve it with 90 days notice.
  - botto 6y ago
    I would not spend a dime on this, to be honest I'm impressed Stadia isn't shelved yet, but just give it time.
  - roneythomas6 6y ago
    My first and third gen chromecast still works. Google TV is just 4th gen chromecast. I expect this to work several years.
- Brendinooo 6y ago
  Similar reaction here. https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_compare https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_com... That page is a bit better at explaining things.
blakesterz 6y ago
Who is this website designed for? I'm on Chrome and it took me about a dozen presses of the space bar to get an idea of what Google TV is/does and then a bunch more to get some specifics and a price. I assume it looks different on mobile, maybe better / more useful? Remember the old book/saying "Don't Make Me Think"? (Krug, 2000. Wow, it's 20 years old now?!) This site made me think in ways that seem really unnecessary. Serious question, why is this site designed like this, I honestly don't understand the goal here. It's like a slideshow? People in general are so interested in this they do actually page through it? I feel like it took some real effort to finally learn things that should've been on page 1.
- foobarian 6y ago
  Maybe it's like a hard video game. It takes some real effort to get to the goal, but after you do, you feel particularly good about it!
- thedanbob 6y ago
  I find this kind of scrolljacking presentation page incredibly annoying. I get it, it's beautiful and impressive, but it feels like a present that's wrapped with 15 different layers of paper.
  - willio58 6y ago
    I think this presentation style works for expensive products, like an iPhone or something. For yet another money-making service from Google? Nope.
  - theandrewbailey 6y ago
    I find it depressing knowing Google's track record for these kinds of things, and this probably won't be around in 5 years, at least under this name.
- interestica 6y ago
  It's designed for regular scrolling. Spacebar jumps break the flow. The goal here isn't to give you information fit for a short one-pager -- it's to create a story and bring you along. It works surprisingly well in Opera (chrome-based).
botto 6y ago
So the Google TV dongle is $49.99 in the US but why on earth is it £59.99 in the UK??!! Edit: Clarify it's the dongle
- umvi 6y ago
  Google TV is free as far as I can tell, Chromecast is $49.99
  - botto 6y ago
    Yes sorry, I meant the Google TV dongle.
- botto 6y ago
  To clarify that is at current exchange range: £59.99 = $77.45 $49.99 = £38.72 It's actually twice the price!
  - Fogest 6y ago
    Yeah that is odd because in Canada it is $69.99 which is only a few dollars over the current exchange rates conversion.
- quickthrowman 6y ago
  Maybe they can’t sell as much data from UK users? This, the fire stick, and Roku all have their cost subsidized by ads/selling your data.
- compsciphd 6y ago
  youtube tv is sold in the US, not in the UK. youtubetv subsidizes the cost of the dongle in the US and not in the UK. much like netflix also subsidizes the cost of the dongle. Apparently, google is valuing its ability to push youtube tv with it a lot.
stickyricky 6y ago
This might be the wrong place to complain about this issue. But "smart" TVs need to be replaced with "dumb TV + set top box" bundles. As it is now, the best panels are obsolete after a year.
- jtsiskin 6y ago
  You can always plug a box into the TV, even if it’s a smart TV. The software can still update. Does the hardware needed to play a video really become obsolete in 1 year? Why, do hardware decoders improve that fast? People aren’t using these panels for games
  - lapetitejort 6y ago
    My smart tv constantly gets in the way. If I boot up a game device it starts with a footer bar with apps and such that won't disappear for up to a minute. I have to press back on the remote if I want it to go away faster. If I accidentally press or long press a button on the remote the whole TV will be hijacked for a voice command or something. A year or so ago the TV decided that if it wasn't getting any inputs it should switch to a video app I never installed and automatically play. The days of getting a giant monitor must be over as the profits from bundling crapware with TVs must have driven down the costs so much that they no longer cannot contain them.
    - lotsofpulp 6y ago
      I stick to high end Sony TVs because I trust them to not pull this kind of garbage.
    - edogg 6y ago
      i'm getting the $200 sceptre brand 4k tv from walmart. it is just a display. they still exist
    - bickeringyokel 6y ago
      I bought a cheap Toshiba that only has a built in chrome cast that you can ignore. It's a good option.
thirtythree 6y ago
I was slightly confused by this as well but I think I got the gist. It's a chromecast interface/OS so that Google knows what you're watching on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other apps
- jmole 6y ago
  From portals to search engines and back to portals again. The circle of life.
aplusplus 6y ago
Almost a 1:1 copy of the Apple TV app just with a worse copy of website https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app, not new but ever so disappointing Google adds so little new to ideas they decide to adopt
- snazz 6y ago
  Apple's website scrolls much more smoothly for me as well (although that might be since I'm using Safari).
  - Fogest 6y ago
    That's funny, I am using Chrome and found the Google one scrolled smoother than the Apple one.
  - Polylactic_acid 6y ago
    The tv page was fine for me but the iphone and ipad pages are horrendous. I don't know why there is this trend in web design to make the page a video except you have to scroll to progress it.
- Terretta 6y ago
  Yes, the flattery appears most sincere with this one: Google's take on the TV app from Apple that runs on Apple TV, iOS, and Mac, serving as a common UI to content from apps that buy into the partner ecosystem. Awkward how unclear that site is: this new app from Google is to be the UI pre-installed on future Android TVs, but for now, you can get as a thing running on a $49 Chromecast puck.
- jankyxenon 6y ago
  I just bought one. I'm a chromecast user on my main tv (that I control with my phone or nearby google home). I bought this for the remote. There's not really anything to "improve" here. It's a dumb box that aggregates streaming apps. The real differentiator is google assistant (and associated google home ecosystem - if you've bought into that)
saos 6y ago
I don’t get it
SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
Can it run plex? Client or client + server?
- anderber 6y ago
  It will run the client, but not the server
ketralnis 6y ago
I owned the Logitech Google TV which I bought for about $300 early in its lifespan. After about a year they shipped some really bad updates to it that made it so slow that it was essentially unuseable and removed several key features, and then never shipped another update to it again. Logitech and Google both lost interest in it and after not long all of the apps like Netflix and even Google's own Youtube stopped working because of changes to the underlying services. Will this be different? I doubt it. I'm not putting more money into Google hardware to find out that they'll break it and then lose interest. Meanwhile my second gen Apple TV is working great.
- lern_too_spel 6y ago
  As far as I understand, a second generation Apple TV can't even play Youtube videos.
  - dvtrn 6y ago
    I thought that it didn't play certain resolution YouTube, as even the newer generations only just got 4k support for due to codec issues?
    - lern_too_spel 6y ago
      No, YouTube does not work at all on the second generation Apple TV since 2015.
  - niklasrde 6y ago
    While (I think) it has rudimentary YouTube support, it does not have an AppStore, or any sort of “ecosystem” around it that would need as much maintenance as an Android device or the APLE TVs running fully fledged tvOS these days, so I don’t think it’s an entirely fair comparison. In the UK it doesn’t have iPlayer, which is probably the most popular VoD app after YouTube.
- pier25 6y ago
  My Nvidia Shield TV from 2015 is still doing great
DevKoala 6y ago
It took me a while to realize this was a new device and not an app.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  It's also an app (can be installed on phones).
maxdo 6y ago
thank you google but no :) I don't trust you even more of my data
canada_dry 6y ago
> "TV personalized for you." Um, well... coming from Google this is more of a turn-off, not a selling point.
s1mon 6y ago
Did Google manage to convince Netflix to allow them to monitor what you watch on Netflix? This is one of the biggest holes in Apple TV (the app, on Apple TV, the box) - it knows most of what you watch and can make recommendations for Hulu, HBO, Prime, etc. and manage your queue except for Netflix.
- andoriyu 6y ago
  Not exactly. When you install an app on android tv you can create a "channel". App developers get one channel "for free" and more channels requiring implicit consent from user. Netflix chose to use recommendations as their first channel. Google TV acts as aggregator for those channels.
umvi 6y ago
Ok, maybe I'm the only one, but I'm actually excited about this. It appears to be an aggregation service. Instead of individually searching across N platforms for content (hulu, disney+, youtube, crunchyroll, netflix, etc), you can now just use a single app (Google TV) which will allows you to search and stream across all platforms you are subscribed to. Furthermore you can cast stuff directly to chromecast from Google TV as well as watch locally on your device.
- r-w 6y ago
  This has already been possible for years upon years on Roku.
  - umvi 6y ago
    I don't own a Roku, just a Chromecast
    - freeone3000 6y ago
      You might be interested in JustWatch, which does this as a phone app.
    - basch 6y ago
      this is Google catching up to Roku, Amazon, and Amazon (and maybe Xbox and Playstation as well.)
  - andybak 6y ago
    Hasn't this been possible for years on whateverthatgooglethingiscalled? (I genuinely thought it was still called Google TV so I was rather confused by this post - I couldn't work out what was new.)
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > Hasn't this been possible for years on whateverthatgooglethingiscalled? The only aggregation on existing Android TV seems to be “Continue Watching” across apps.
pmlnr 6y ago
"TV personalised for you. Movies and shows are grouped in ways that reflect your interests." I can't be the only one who _wants_ to be surprised, out of their usual bubble of interest, at least sometimes. How can one tell this to all these "clever" things?
pier25 6y ago
Will this support 4K HDR?
- alfg 6y ago
  Seems like it will. It's listed along with Dolby Vision on their Tech Specs page: https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_specs https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_spe...
  - pier25 6y ago
    Thanks I missed the little dropdown arrow
tracker1 6y ago
I'm hoping this just means an OS update for those of us with NVidia Shield TV devices (or other Android TV devices). Better app/search integration would be nice, but I'm not giving up local/network playback options, and really don't want to see the apps languish (netflix, hulu, amazon prime, etc) too much. Something, something, cold dead hands.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
What would be the comparison with NVidia Shield, aside from the top NVidia shield being about 3 times the price and has wired network?
- seabrookmx 6y ago
  Nvidia has DLSS upscaling, remote play to a PC with a GeForce graphics card, and generally faster hardware. I think for 99% of people though this new Google dongle will do everything they need but cheaper.
Bedon292 6y ago
Like many others, I got very confused by this branding. Its a Chromecast (4k60 HDR HDMI Dongle) that is running Android TV (Which they appear to be calling Google TV). And a remote control with voice controls. [1] Not sure I see any reason why someone should get this over an Nvidia Shield. Which at least has a track record of long term support. Certainly a lower price point though, so maybe a market there? [1] https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_specs https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_spe...
- Fogest 6y ago
  If you already have the shield may as well stick with that. But if you don't have the shield the prices are quite different and the Google TV may be more appealing.
- paxys 6y ago
  $50 vs $200 is a good enough reason.
roneythomas6 6y ago
The interesting thing i found is that it supports keyboard, mouse, ethernet and power via type c dongle.
r-w 6y ago
Would this support 3rd-party live TV streaming services, such as Sling, Fubo, Hulu?
adrianmonk 6y ago
Milestones in Google branding: 2010-05-20: Google introduces Google TV at Google I/O (https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv-tv-meets-web-web.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv... , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASZbArr7vdI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASZbArr7vdI) 2014-06-24: Google introduces Android TV at Google I/O (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/introducing-android-11-on-android-tv.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/introducin... , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dCUPeyhag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dCUPeyhag), a rebranding of Google TV 2017-02-28: Google introduces YouTube TV (https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/finally-live-tv-made-for-you https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/finally-live-tv-made-fo...) 2020-09-30: Google introduces Google TV, which might be a rebranding of Android TV back to Google TV, but I'm not sure.
- adrianmonk 6y ago
  [Replying to myself] Oops, got the first link wrong on Android TV. Should have been this: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2014/06/android-tv-and-google-cast.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2014/06/android-tv...
- Navarr 6y ago
  Google TV is a launcher for Android TV, so far as I can tell. Android TV is not being rebranded, as it is the OS - but Google TV is the "Google Experience" on Android TV. To make this more complicated/interesting - Google renamed the Play Movies and TV app to "Google TV." I'm guessing so you can have Google TV on Google TV? Will the Play Movies app on my existing Android TV open the Google TV launcher like shown off here, or is it still just a browser for the content I already have? Is the change to Android TV just that this app becomes the launcher?
  - crazygringo 6y ago
    I swear I've read this comment like five times, because you seem to actually know what's going on... but it's left me only more confused. What is a launcher? If Android TV is an OS, then what is a launcher for an OS? And I guess you're as confused as I am as to also what this has to do with the previous Play Movies and TV app.
nlstitch 6y ago
Why would I want the same dumb Google Assistant in my tv?! It would help if they would put some actual effort into the services behind Google Home/ Mini let alone Google Assistant before expanding hardware options.
winrid 6y ago
But will it have the new South Park episode tonight?
AcerbicZero 6y ago
This was a good chance for google to cancel something before they actually launched, rather than after ~2-3 years of ignoring it.
mNovak 6y ago
I'm sure this site looks great scrolling on mobile, but here with my mouse wheel, it's unbearably jumpy
- martin_a 6y ago
  Same for me, I gave up on it. No fun on a desktop.
nigrioid 6y ago
Finally out of beta! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA
maxerickson 6y ago
You guys take the longevity of a $50 consumer device super serious.
- freeone3000 6y ago
  Yes. Of course. Because there's no inherently consumable parts. There's no reason that this shouldn't work 10 years from now (like original Chromecasts do, or first-gen Roku devices, or even 1080p TVs). Why bother buying into something with a limited lifespan?
- callalex 6y ago
  It’s not about the price in USD, it’s about the price in CO2 production and human suffering from mining and manufacturing.
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  Why shouldn't we? It's a consumer device that happens to have a perfectly good general purpose computer inside it. There's no reason why it shouldn't continue to work until the hardware itself fails.
- robmsmt 6y ago
  And so does the environment when you throw it in the trash after 7 months.
ed25519FUUU 6y ago
Great idea with 1 fatal flaw: it requires my TV to be connected to the internet. NOPE. Besides the fact that many TV manufactures are owned by Chinese government subsidiaries, it's simply not safe to connect a TV to the internet. Who's collecting and selling the data? Why are they taking screen captures and sending them off to who-knows-where? Your TV spies on you[1]. Instead, my TV stays offline and I use an Apple TV. At least I know they're not selling my data to advertisers, and the experience is quite good. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-warns-about-snoopy-smart-tvs-spying-on-you/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-warns-about-snoopy-smart-t...
- lsaferite 6y ago
  I'm confused. This Chromecast device has it's own internet connection. Your TV can still remain disconnected. Are you replying to something else?
dgudkov 6y ago
Now you will see more ads on a bigger screen.
simonkafan 6y ago
Does someone want to set up a stadiacountdown.com for Google TV?
- Traster 6y ago
  The fact I had to basically google "What happened to stadia" means I suspect we can probably reuse whatever server was hosting stadiacountdown.com
amiga-workbench 6y ago
Do we know if this is it for all future Chromecasts? Because the only reason I'm using one is due to the lack of a remote, it lets me treat my TV like the big dumb monitor that it is. If they're going all in on remotes, then I need to move back to DLNA.
- seabrookmx 6y ago
  I think you can just ignore the interface / remote and still Chromecast to this, not unlike current Android TV implementations (integrated into Smart TV's and the NVidia Shield). Would love if someone with more experience with Android TV could clarify though. I daily a Chromecast Ultra not Android TV.
  - aarongolliver 6y ago
    That's how my LG TV works. The TV shows up in the cast menu just like a chromecast does. Using youtube as an example, it opens up the youtube app and starts the video. You can either use the remote as usual to interact with the video, or the you phone exactly like you would if it were just a chromecast. You can also queue up multiple videos from your phone. I have a chromecast as well, and I really expected to use it over the built-in apps. But the built-in TV apps really blew me away, much better user interface than I was expecting. I'm hoping this new chromecast/Google TV thingy is as good, I'd really like to disable network connectivity to the TV if possible (but right now the apps are just too nice to give up).
  - amiga-workbench 6y ago
    Ah good, hopefully backdrops can be enabled too. I do enjoy the random selection of artwork.
cblconfederate 6y ago
one day they 'll release Google Google
DesiLurker 6y ago
God bless the google tech lead whose promotion this iteration of google tv would end up supporting. Jokes apart, I am not buying that this time is different. as much as it pains me to say, google needs a little power to the product managers to push through a consistent vision of consumer product side.
- thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
  To me this is a top down problem. VPs and execs should be putting a stop to this. There needs to be a clear product vision from the top for there to be a clear product vision in the middle and bottom. This is what Steve Jobs was so good at. He could just say, this is dumb we aren't doing this. Google needs an exec team that understands products at the consumer level, not the engineering level and sees products as long living endeavors. The Apple Watch did not do great when it was released, but Apple kept making updates, kept improving it. They committed to the project and the vision and had the confidence to stick with it even if it lost money in its early days.
  - cpeterso 6y ago
    Yes! Better to iterate, even dramatically, on a clear product vision and brand than to keep pitching "same but different" products like Google TV, Android TV, and YouTube TV (or Google's various text and video chat apps). Users get confused and fragmented and they won't want to commit to your new products.
  - starky 6y ago
    I'm in full agreement with you. However, it is hard for management to change how the company operates in such a massive way when the shareholders have been nothing but happy with the company's performance. Google have to have left a ton of revenue on the table by giving up on products rather than developing them to be useful and giving their customers confidence that the product they depend on won't be depreciated.
    - jakear 6y ago
      Why do you think the shareholders are nothing but happy with its performance? It’s by far the slowest growing FAANG, and over the past 5 years has basically tracked the Nasdaq, suggesting it is performing no better than any random tech company.
ronyfadel 6y ago
It looks like a shameless ripoff of Apple TV. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it were made by Huawei (or similar); but for Google to stoop to that level? Tsk tsk tsk
- andybak 6y ago
  Haven't they had a thing like this for years? Is this different to the thing before or just a renaming?
  - ronyfadel 6y ago
    It looks the same as Apple’s tvOS. Someone ran the photocopier on their competition.
    - andybak 6y ago
      But didn't they have a thing before like this? Was that also a copy or is this different?
  - Dig1t 6y ago
    Yeah, if you put this interface next to the Apple TV interface they look _extremely_ similar. That and the remotes are also extremely similar as well.
    - andybak 6y ago
      Dunno. I just looked at an image search of Android TV, Apple TV compared to the new Google TV. - are they really that similar? Maybe I'm looking at the wrong Apple TV screens - or they are an older version but Apple TV and Android TV look as similar to each other as either does to Google TV. (Windows Media Center UI predates all three and was the first place I saw the "mix of horizontal and vertical" scrolling thing. It was a nice system for it's time)
mandeepj 6y ago
They need to hire somebody like "Google program advocate manager for TV" to get their branding fixed :-) //sarcasm
m0zg 6y ago
People still watch TV? I haven't turned mine on in years.
- andybak 6y ago
  I have a large monitor in my living room that shows content from various entertainment services. What's the nearest equivalent you've got to that? I also have several other screens that show the same entertainment services (with minor inexplicable differences). Some are called "TVs", some are called "tablets", "laptops" or "phones" but they all seem to do roughly the same job in this regard. (I also keep reading about a thing called a "notebook computer" but no human being I know has ever used that phrase. Is it different to a "laptop"?)
- sneak 6y ago
  I recently bought a half dozen large TVs, and I stream randomized playlist folders of non-television-programming video content to them from a server I keep in the garage. Some just 24/7 display live streams from YouTube of famous places. TVs are cool. Television is garbage.
  - daveevad 6y ago
    > live streams from YouTube of famous places any chance you have a curated list of these you'd be willing to share? thank you
    - sneak 6y ago
      Email me.
    - m0zg 6y ago
      Not the OP, and I don't have a list, but I like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/Rambalac https://www.youtube.com/user/Rambalac
- dbbk 6y ago
  Something tells me this is not a serious comment
mattcofer 6y ago
Is there any reason I need this if I already have a Roku?
- jccalhoun 6y ago
  I'm considering buying it to cover the things that aren't on roku like twitch
- x13 6y ago
  not that I can tell; I was wondering the same thing.
- colinmhayes 6y ago
  HBO and twitch
drewg123 6y ago
So is this open, like Android TV / Nvidia Shield, and allows side-loading? Or is this a closed device, like a Chromecast?
cobookman 6y ago
Google just deprecated Android TV as well: https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google-tv-update/ https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google...
- karmasimida 6y ago
  Google's product team is just clueless, yet I am sure they are 'laser focus' on the metrics. It is laughable yet sad.
- comeonseriously 6y ago
  I rather like my Shield TV (2017). Nvidia has been pretty good about keeping it up to date, so I wonder how this changes things.
sergiotapia 6y ago
Why does google get it's tld?
- nhumrich 6y ago
  technically, anyone can create a tld given enough money, technical expertise, and willingness to deal with icann
  - robmsmt 6y ago
    Aren't the first and the last thing on that list the same thing?
gertrunde 6y ago
Goodness me, this is an exemplary example of the type of website that I just cannot abide. Style over content, and the presentation just plain getting in the way of the information, to the point that the user ends up leaving rather than finding out what the site is attempting to convey. Awful. Just awful.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  I agree. A simple "More info" or "How does it work" link at the top or bottom would have kept me there.
- trynewideas 6y ago
  I hate this whole genre of site design/parallax abuse. The Nexus 5 page does the same thing. It's a commercial that gives you a trivial amount of control over playback, not a website.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    Yeah this was really bad. I actually like the way parallax looks, within reason. This was not within reason.
    - niwork 6y ago
      Know of any libraries that will achieve this kind of parallax scrolling-to-reveal rather than just scroll between pages?
      - Shared404 6y ago
        No libraries off the top of my head. I know w3[.]css[0] has one example page[1] with a parallax , but I don't know if that's what you're looking for. LineageOS[2] has a site with a decently readable source code. They also don't have exactly what you are looking for, but the <img> with id="rotate-on-scroll" (The spinning phones) and the related script[3] look like they could somewhat related -- you could probably change the transform in the script to accomplish what you're looking for. [0] https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/ https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/ [1] https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryw3css_templates_parallax.htm https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryw3css_templates_parallax.... [2] https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ [3] view-source:https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ (lines 1247-1263)
ausjke 6y ago
I can chromecast youtube to my TV already. I have firetv dongle(two of them) that can run youtube too. Roku is also pretty popular in this space. Some also uses apple tv(not an Apple fan here) what google tv buy me? what's its unique selling point? that was not very clear to me.
sosodev 6y ago
The inconsistency is the worst part about the scroll linked effects on this website. Sometimes scrolling causes a huge change to the content, almost like scrolling to the next slide in powerpoint. Other times scrolling simply moves the text a little bit.
awinter-py 6y ago
scroll jank as a service
bigbossman 6y ago
Google should merge this with Stadia so they can sunset them at the same time
- adjkant 6y ago
  > Play games on Stadia / Coming in 2021 https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_compare https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_com...
rafaelturk 6y ago
I've tried to click in the `live` menu item expecting to watch some live stuff, that actually started really well with a soccer game only to realize that this is not actually live at all.
tanilama 6y ago
Boring and unnecessary product. A Google TikTok clone will excite me than Google TV. TV is dying and few will miss or even notice it.
- paxys 6y ago
  Lol what? TV is going nowhere.
matheusmoreira 6y ago
Yet another service which will most likely be abandoned... Wait, there is a .google top level domain now?
myko 6y ago
I prefer this name, glad they brought it back
freediver 6y ago
Actually makes sense from the perspective of Google's mission of "organizing world's information", as finding stuff to watch these days reminds of pre-google web. Problem of course is that in practice Google nowadays is really about "organizing world's ads", so I am sure they will find more than one way to screw this up by insulting the intelligence of people using it.
AnssiH 6y ago
I just got an email from Google saying > The Google Play Movies & TV app on Android mobile devices in the U.S. is now Google TV. I'm not in U.S., though, so I guess no rebranding for me...
woeirua 6y ago
Yet another Google product that will be abandoned within 2 years. Don't buy the hype.
- chillers 6y ago
  Why the Google hate in this case? I'm in love with my chromecast I've had for the past 6 years with no issues, and this seems like a great upgrade for less than I paid.
  - Polylactic_acid 6y ago
    Chromecast is the only google media receiver that survived. Over the last few years we have had: * Google TV (A different product to this Google TV) * Nexus Q * Android TV * Youtube TV * Probably 10 other things that started and shut down without anyone noticing.
murat124 6y ago
No thanks, I like my TV dumb.
grensley 6y ago
Talk about a product with a foot in the grave already. It honestly makes me angry how much human capital was wasted on making this. Everything about this is a UX nightmare, from the scrolljacking site, to the apps-in-apps UI, to the abomination of a remote. This is such a waste.
- inoop 6y ago
  No kidding. I feel for the engineers who spent sleepless nights getting this to launch ...
  - simonkafan 6y ago
    Imagine you had to invert a binary tree on a whiteboard just to create something like this...
Robotbeat 6y ago
I think the practice of killing off streaming services and projects that aren't "core" is a huge liability for Google. Why should I invest time and money in a service or product that might be killed off in a few years? We need to reward companies that keep things alive for longer. I got an iPhone recently (over a somewhat cheaper Android) precisely because Apple provides OS updates for longer than any other smartphone maker. Sometimes over 5 years. Especially as tech products have started to somewhat plateau in functionality, I value longevity over features or performance.
- xerxesaa 6y ago
  Fully agree. I paid to purchase hundreds of songs on Google Music and now I have to migrate to Youtube Music which won't let me play those songs without ads and without keeping my phone's screen on unless I pay for a subscription. I already paid to own those songs. Why do I now have to pay a monthly subscription to keep using them? Thanks but no thanks, Google.
  - t-writescode 6y ago
    Have you spoken with Google's tech support about this? There's actually a support app for YouTube music that I found to be top rate, much, much to my surprise. They might be able to find a way to satisfy your wants? Maybe download them or similar?
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Why do I now have to pay a monthly subscription to keep using them? You don't. You can download paid and uploaded content from Google Play Music and use it anywhere. This has been supported since before Play Music even had a paid subscription service.
    - buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
      Yes, but then they have to somehow manage those files. They paid to have those songs readily available on any of their devices easily through Google Play Music. Now they have a bunch of random mp3 files that can't easily be played on any device. No exactly the same thing. Sure you can argue that the TOS said this or that when they bought the music.. but the fact remains: if they had bought the music on nearly any other music streaming service, they'd still have access to it easily on any device.
mshockwave 6y ago
I guess they're the only one using the .google domain
ChuckMcM 6y ago
Wow, and on the heels of the disastrous price hike in Youtube TV because well gee those content guys are so MEAN they want all the dollarz. I also like Google Chat you know its like that thing we got rid of years ago, went through about six evolutions and came back to but without the interoperability with other systems that actually made the first one useful. It makes me wonder if there is anyone working at Google who understands what the term "value added" even means. Maybe they should just buy Roku and crap on that. After all Roku is moving into an analytics for sale company away from a streaming company. Why? Because everyone wants to be a portal but they can't afford to be with the studios demanding extortionate sums for their content. So instead of getting money for bringing you the content (because they have to pass on more than they can afford to the content owner) they sell their observation of people watching content to people who want to make content that people watch which is "their data" because it happened on "their device." It makes me physically ill sometimes with how messed up this whole system came to be.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Cd00d 6y ago
  Big Roku fan here. Was an early adopter, have had many versions of the device over the last dozen years and been a brand evangelist to my friends and family. I also try to avoid being a panelist in behavior datasets. For this reason there are financial planning services I won't use and I won't buy a Vizio TV. So, I'm very curious about your assertion that Roku is doing analytics for sale. I hadn't seen that before, so any further insight would be appreciated. Thanks.
  - ChuckMcM 6y ago
    From last year: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-surveillence-data-collection-home-roku-amazon-fire-princeton-study https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-survei... but my source was a long time Roku employee who eventually quit after the monetization started getting "out of hand" (his words, not mine).
ekanes 6y ago
Deleted -- posted on wrong thread.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  Hi, posted in the wrong thread (- you want the one about the google phone app thing).
  - ekanes 6y ago
    haha thank you! SIGH
floatingatoll 6y ago
I got motion sick while trying to read this webpage. Apparently scrolling counts as motion to the brain and all the crazy flying icons set it off. I don’t normally get motion sickness, either.
sally1620 6y ago
I wonder when they would start shipping Google TV software on smart TVs. Every high-end TV today comes with some sort of OS pre-installed. So a set-top box in 2020 is not a very popular device. Even Apple figured it out and released Apple TV app on most smart TV platforms.
Element_ 6y ago
I purchased Android TV devices for my family and I when Android TV was first released because Google claimed it was going to be the next big thing. The software development and app store seemed to basically be abandoned by Google shortly after. Even the apps for Googles own services (youtube) seemed to be thrown together and worked very poorly. I don't think I would ever consider Google for a service/device like this again...
getlawgdon 6y ago
After Google bricked my previous version of Google TV, and the one I gave to my dad as a gift, it's gonna be a big, fat NO THANKS from me, dawg.
animanoir 6y ago
How do they do those movements in the site? Like which framework or vanillajs?
mmclar 6y ago
I scrolled all the way through that and don't know what it does.
Nuzzerino 6y ago
Is it me or is the decision to use the URL tv.google instead of google.tv a seemingly pretentious one?
Newtonip 6y ago
Why does Google get to have a tld?
elliottinvent 6y ago
I will openly admit to hating Google but found the scrolling effect on this website quite beautiful. However, it would have to jump out of the TV and make me a bacon sandwich before I allowed Google to track what I was watching that evening. Even then I would delete the app having ate the bacon sandwich.
- Shared404 6y ago
  It looks cool, but it is ridiculously frustrating to actually find info. Also, I agree, except the bacon sandwich is going to have to be a BLT, and it would have to bring me a Coke as well.
NoblePublius 6y ago
Will my brand new Sony Android TV update to this?
tzs 6y ago
"Chromecast with Google TV requires a TV with an HDMI port" How come nearly all video dongles want you to plug them into an HDMI port on your TV? Wouldn't it make more sense to plug them in to an HDMI port on your A/V receiver? Unless you have a fairly recent TV and receiver, the TV can only send up to 5.1 DTS or Dolby compressed audio to the receiver, due to bandwidth limits of ARC. You need a system with eARC if you want to handle more, like Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio, and the like, or uncompressed 5.1. Also, with all video sources going through the receiver, it is one less remote to deal with. The only function you need on the TV is power on/power off, and one of your other remotes almost certainly will know or be able to be taught the TV's on/off code. Another advantage of that approach is that you don't have a need, after initial setup, to look at any of the control or setting or information screens of your TV, which means if you've got a Smart TV that has started festooning those screes with ads, you don't see them.
- tfitz237 6y ago
  Because of HDMI-CEC. The dongle can control things on the TV via this technology. This product specifically has a remote that I believe only interacts via HDMI-CEC. I don't know if it's possible for the HDMI-CEC to pass through a receiver to the TV itself for this purpose.
  - cmelbye 6y ago
    Yes, that’s a feature in many receivers. My older Chromecast turns on the receiver, sets the receiver input, and turns on the TV. I’m guessing this new one would work perfectly fine, too.
- sujinge9 6y ago
  You definitely can plug it into a receiver's HDMI input port and work well. That quote only means if you still have a TV that only takes analog inputs or something, then you won't be able to plug the Chromecast in.
- compsciphd 6y ago
  even if plugged into a receiver, the new chromecast doesn't passthrough/bitstream hd audio (dts-ma/dts-x, true-hd/atmos). which means I probably will not be getting it.
trashburger 6y ago
Oh, I just _love_ websites that hijack my scrolling. Please keep doing it.
ggregoire 6y ago
I had no idea Google has its own tld. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.google https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.google
saltedonion 6y ago
Can’t wait to jump on this and binge on my favorite hyper personalized ads!
- bluemax 6y ago
  When I scrolled through the page and saw 'TV personalized for you' my brain instantly appended 'ads' after 'personalized'. I had to read that sentence twice. Personalized is such a red flag.
gfxgirl 6y ago
I detest turning on my TV and getting ads from the TV itself (recommendations). I detest it even more of there is some show/celebrity I don't want to see but every day for a week/month whatever it's shoved in my face. I'm happy Apple TV (the device not the service) starts up with no ads. Android TV / Google TV is all ads (for shows). I managed to manually turn them off but now my is super ugly. You can't set a startup image or anything since it's reserved for ads. (well, short of writing my own launcher) I don't know what I'm going to do for my next TV. I'd love to get a dumb TV but casually glancing through options it looks hard to find a dumb TV with high end features for a reasonable price. Most of the display oriented monitors seem to be 4x-10x the price and/or use 10yr old tech.
- loughnane 6y ago
  Spectre + Roku + Pi-hole is a really nice experience
  - Cd00d 6y ago
    I'm 2 for 3. What's Spectre? Google returns mostly Bond.
    - kidfiji 6y ago
      I’m pretty sure he’s talking about “dumb” Sceptre TVs that have no smart features
      - loughnane 6y ago
        That’s right.
- rendall 6y ago
  "...detest it even more of there is some show/celebrity I don't want to see but every day for a week/month whatever it's shoved in my face." I literally stopped using Google Play Music for podcasts because that Adam Ruins Everything guy is always at the top of their recommendations. No problem with the guy or his content, just, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, seeing that guy, every time I switch podcasts, with no way not to see it. Doesn't matter now anyway, Google Play Music is another service that lost the PM wars
SpeckOfDust 6y ago
And it will be killed in 3 years.
_ZeD_ 6y ago
Ok, I'm asking: what features does this (or the apple one, or the nvidia shield, or the roku stuff) give you that can't be given by a Raspberry Pi + libreelec + kodi?
- untog 6y ago
  The ability to use streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO, etc etc etc? Besides, a lot of these streaming sticks are cheaper that an RPi. The question is why should you use a Pi over the streaming stick, not the other way around.
  - _ZeD_ 6y ago
    do you know that netflix, amazon prime video etc are viewable throug kodi? have a look at https://github.com/peak3d/inputstream.adaptive https://github.com/peak3d/inputstream.adaptive
    - untog 6y ago
      But that still doesn't answer the question of why use it. It's going to be inherently less stable than using first party apps, and the Pi is still more expensive in the first place. I just don't see a compelling case for it.
- hackmiester 6y ago
  Playing DRM media, I would assume.
  - _ZeD_ 6y ago
    drm (at least widevine) is supported in kodi
    - hackmiester 6y ago
      I had no idea, thank you!
- 6y ago
throwthrowcatch 6y ago
This shows up as: Google TV (Previously Play Movies & TV) I have had the earlier app for years now, never used it though
ycombonator 6y ago
I blame the mbas
rusbus 6y ago
The internet has come full circle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA&ab_channel=infinitesolutions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA&ab_channel=infin... (Hoax video from 2007 about how to get Google TV)
Dig1t 6y ago
Is anyone else struck by how similar this looks to Apple TV? It looks like a straight up clone, down to the remote and interface. Only difference is that it looks like it dangles from your TV and has Assistant instead of Siri.
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  Honestly at this point I am jumping ship altogether although I think I will get the next Xbox console as my TV app device manager especially with the Game Pass. I hate the concept of streaming games but the idea of having most Microsoft games on a game pass is worthwhile they got some solid flagship games that are easily replayable.
  - vlozko 6y ago
    Why not both? https://www.windowscentral.com/apple-tv-coming-xbox-consoles https://www.windowscentral.com/apple-tv-coming-xbox-consoles
    - giancarlostoro 6y ago
      Nice, that just makes it just as likely for me to get an Xbox instead of any other device.
robmsmt 6y ago
Next week... Chrome TV+
shiohime 6y ago
I know others have mentioned it but really the behavior of the scroll on this website is some of the worst I've seen in recent web design. It's completely inconsistent in how it behaves - sometimes it actually scrolls, other times it is shrinking and moving panes around on the screen. It's impressive that they were able to do it yes, but it is one of the most jarring experiences scrolling a website I've ever seen and did make me feel a bit dizzy and felt like scrolling wasn't actually working. Maybe I'm just getting old lol
coreyoconnor 6y ago
After a lot of scrolling through marketing hyperbole... What is it?
- inoop 6y ago
  It's an Apple TV/Roku/Fire TV but from Google?
mraza007 6y ago
I’m not quite sure but isn’t this similar to YouTube TV
yardstick 6y ago
I’m a bit sad they didn’t take Apple’s approach and use USB to recharge the remote. With Apple TV I just plug it into the wall once every 6-9 months for 30mins. No battery waste.
occamschainsaw 6y ago
This webpage is worse than Apple ones for side scrolling and just bad at conveying information in general. The videos are too distracting, and it doesn’t seem to be very clear what the product is. Not the page’s fault (maybe), but it kept triggering reader mode on my phone multiple times as I scrolled down.
mrjohnes 6y ago
Hey at least it now supports Atmos and at a nice price point. Just pissed about the pricing in the UK.. $49.99 is NOT £59.99.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
thiht 6y ago
I have no idea what this is. Do they sell an actual TV? Or is it just a Chromecast-like dongle? Does it work on every TV or do I need a smart TV? What does it do?
tartrate 6y ago
Why do I need dedicated remote buttons for Youtube and Netflix if this thing is so smart? Regardless of the reason, why do I not get buttons for all the other apps it integrates with, or reprogrammable buttons?
ksec 6y ago
Looking at the Samsung TV ads fiasco, First Gen Google TV, new Google TV, Apple TV, It seems the whole TV viewing experience, both hardware and software is still mess, just like it was 10 years ago. I guess Steve [1] described it best, the lack of Go to Market Strategy. I sometimes wonder why cant we build a Tuner that works on all International market. https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/29/3704270/how-apple-can-build-next-generation-tv https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/29/3704270/how-apple-can-bu...
seaghost 6y ago
Another user data harvesting platform.
haltingproblem 6y ago
Why Google? Why? How is this different than Chromecast? What is the upgrade path from Chromecast. There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup. Google PMs are high on adwords/adsense revenues trying to score points via product launches to get higher bonuses. That is an apt summary of Google's internal political economy. Time to get an Apple TV and get off the Google ecoystem. sigh.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > How is this different than Chromecast? It's software that is included on the newest Chromecast. (And will soon be included in Android TVs.) > What is the upgrade path from Chromecast. It is included in the newest Chromecast, which is also the upgrade path for existing TVs that won't get it. > There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup. There should be a law against improved versions of existing products?
tweetle_beetle 6y ago
Interesting to see a Netflix button on a Google product - is having a third party logo (and a competitor in one market at that) a first for them?

328 points by owenwil 6y ago

FYI if you are planning to anyways pay for Netflix for the next 6 months then you can pick up one of these for effectively ~$10 through a bundle (https://store.google.com/us/config/chromecast_google_tv_netflix https://store.google.com/us/config/chromecast_google_tv_netf...).

timw4mail 6y ago

I'm really confused as to whether this is Google's blessed Android TV spin (like Android TV with a different home screen), or a rebranding of Android TV.

mtgx 6y ago

How many years of guaranteed updates across TV brands and models, and how many ads will I see seeing per hour on average from Google/advertisers?

dougmwne 6y ago

Oh Google. So this is a reskin and rebrand of Android TV, launching for the first time on the new "Chromecast with Google TV". Not to be confused with a different Google TV from 10 years ago. It's unclear if they are sunsetting Android TV or supporting 2 branches of Android based TV interfaces. Side note, I have a TV with Android TV and it is chock-full-o-bugs. Only in the Google-verse.

samizdis 6y ago
Ars Article: Google merges Chromecast and Android TV with the “Chromecast with Google TV” https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/google-merges-chromecast-and-android-tv-with-the-chromecast-with-google-tv/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/google-merges-chrome...
- evanextreme 6y ago
  right, but that headline doesnt answer the underlying question. This chromecast runs Android TV, so what is Google TV? Is it an interface on top of Android TV, or the successor to Android TV as we know it? It says its coming to future TV's, so what about the Sony TV I just bought? There's so many questions about what this software even is.
  - roneythomas6 6y ago
    The new Android TV interface premieres on the Chromecast with Google TV. It’s coming to third-party set-top boxes and TVs as well, although you’ll have to wait until 2021 before it reaches non-Google hardware. This doesn’t replace Android TV, to be clear — it sits on top. Google is just separating the ‘skin’ for Android TV from its underlying platform. https://www.androidauthority.com/google-tv-android-tv-1162603/ https://www.androidauthority.com/google-tv-android-tv-116260...
    - dougmwne 6y ago
      So Google TV is a skin that sits on top of Android TV which has a separate skin called Android TV which isn't being used in new products but will continue to be supported in current products. And my Android TV I have right now is an Android TV with Chromecast, but the launch product for Google TV was Chromecast with Google TV, which I can plug into my Android TV when Android TV running Android TV is EOL but Android TV running Google TV is still supported so that I don't need to buy a new TV with Google TV. That clears it up, thanks!
      - basch 6y ago
        I suspect that people with older Android TV's who cant upgrade the os or play services, will be able to install the Google TV app to circumvent the lack of updates, similar to Play Services separating from Android. My phone app (Movies & TV) updated to Google TV automatically. I'm just kidding myself, theres no way itll work that cleanly.
  - josteink 6y ago
    When not even a site full of techies can tell what you’re tech-product is after studying its product-page intensely... You know you’re in for a hell of a marketing phase later on.
ehsankia 6y ago
But at 50$, it's a really decent price point for getting a smart tv + controller experience.
- dougmwne 6y ago
  I go back and forth. It is a good price for a little computer you attach to your tv that can sideload apps and do a lot of the same audio/video things your phone can do. But then, the beauty of the original Chromecast was that it was a wireless external display for your phone, so you didn't need to manage apps and logins on yet another device, just hit the cast button to play music, video, pictures or games on your tv. It was incredibly versatile and really had all capabilities of your phone, with zero setup or fuss. I know you could just use the new Chromecast like the old chromecast by Chromecasting, but sometimes more is not more. I also really hope that little chromecast icon isn't going away in media apps anytime soon.
  - ehsankia 6y ago
    I agree that for us the old one was perfect, but for less tech savvy people, using their phone to control the TV never worked. For my parents this is perfect.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Not to be confused with a different Google TV from 10 years ago The Google TV 10 years ago was rebranded as Android TV, so the Android TV reskin and slowmo rebrand is literally the linear successor. (Of course, they are also rebranding Play Movies & TV on Android as Google TV, which makes me wonder what the Google Play Movies & TV app on Android TV is going to become Google TV on Google TV?)

leetrout 6y ago

I was very confused then I remembered I was subscribed to _YouTube TV_ not _Google TV_. Then I was confused again- is this an actual TV? Oh it's a dongle- no, wait, that's a Chromecast with Google TV. Anyway, I guess this is a new content app like Hulu.

rastapanda 6y ago
I think this may be closer to an Android TV replacement? but with seemingly less features. Is my 65" TV I splashed out on going to stop getting updates now...
- freeone3000 6y ago
  Yes, of course - if not now, in two years. Smart TVs rarely get updates for longer than that.
- ihuman 6y ago
  Its Android TV with a different UI, and its replacing Android TV https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google-tv-update/ https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google...

baggy_trough 6y ago

I looked at the site, but I have no idea what it is or what it costs. Total marketing failure.

cjohnson318 6y ago
I got a little woozy with all of the unexpected zoom-outs. Really no idea what was going on until the end.
- gertrunde 6y ago
  Well done on getting that far, I gave up the fight against the interface well before the end!
smoyer 6y ago
I had the same reaction and was hoping the conversation here would answer those questions ... so far I'm out-of-luck!
vidanay 6y ago
It costs three years of your life and commitment until they shelve it with 90 days notice.
- botto 6y ago
  I would not spend a dime on this, to be honest I'm impressed Stadia isn't shelved yet, but just give it time.
- roneythomas6 6y ago
  My first and third gen chromecast still works. Google TV is just 4th gen chromecast. I expect this to work several years.
Brendinooo 6y ago
Similar reaction here. https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_compare https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_com... That page is a bit better at explaining things.

blakesterz 6y ago

Who is this website designed for? I'm on Chrome and it took me about a dozen presses of the space bar to get an idea of what Google TV is/does and then a bunch more to get some specifics and a price. I assume it looks different on mobile, maybe better / more useful? Remember the old book/saying "Don't Make Me Think"? (Krug, 2000. Wow, it's 20 years old now?!) This site made me think in ways that seem really unnecessary. Serious question, why is this site designed like this, I honestly don't understand the goal here. It's like a slideshow? People in general are so interested in this they do actually page through it? I feel like it took some real effort to finally learn things that should've been on page 1.

foobarian 6y ago
Maybe it's like a hard video game. It takes some real effort to get to the goal, but after you do, you feel particularly good about it!
thedanbob 6y ago
I find this kind of scrolljacking presentation page incredibly annoying. I get it, it's beautiful and impressive, but it feels like a present that's wrapped with 15 different layers of paper.
- willio58 6y ago
  I think this presentation style works for expensive products, like an iPhone or something. For yet another money-making service from Google? Nope.
- theandrewbailey 6y ago
  I find it depressing knowing Google's track record for these kinds of things, and this probably won't be around in 5 years, at least under this name.
interestica 6y ago
It's designed for regular scrolling. Spacebar jumps break the flow. The goal here isn't to give you information fit for a short one-pager -- it's to create a story and bring you along. It works surprisingly well in Opera (chrome-based).

botto 6y ago

So the Google TV dongle is $49.99 in the US but why on earth is it £59.99 in the UK??!! Edit: Clarify it's the dongle

umvi 6y ago
Google TV is free as far as I can tell, Chromecast is $49.99
- botto 6y ago
  Yes sorry, I meant the Google TV dongle.
botto 6y ago
To clarify that is at current exchange range: £59.99 = $77.45 $49.99 = £38.72 It's actually twice the price!
- Fogest 6y ago
  Yeah that is odd because in Canada it is $69.99 which is only a few dollars over the current exchange rates conversion.
quickthrowman 6y ago
Maybe they can’t sell as much data from UK users? This, the fire stick, and Roku all have their cost subsidized by ads/selling your data.
compsciphd 6y ago
youtube tv is sold in the US, not in the UK. youtubetv subsidizes the cost of the dongle in the US and not in the UK. much like netflix also subsidizes the cost of the dongle. Apparently, google is valuing its ability to push youtube tv with it a lot.

stickyricky 6y ago

This might be the wrong place to complain about this issue. But "smart" TVs need to be replaced with "dumb TV + set top box" bundles. As it is now, the best panels are obsolete after a year.

jtsiskin 6y ago
You can always plug a box into the TV, even if it’s a smart TV. The software can still update. Does the hardware needed to play a video really become obsolete in 1 year? Why, do hardware decoders improve that fast? People aren’t using these panels for games
- lapetitejort 6y ago
  My smart tv constantly gets in the way. If I boot up a game device it starts with a footer bar with apps and such that won't disappear for up to a minute. I have to press back on the remote if I want it to go away faster. If I accidentally press or long press a button on the remote the whole TV will be hijacked for a voice command or something. A year or so ago the TV decided that if it wasn't getting any inputs it should switch to a video app I never installed and automatically play. The days of getting a giant monitor must be over as the profits from bundling crapware with TVs must have driven down the costs so much that they no longer cannot contain them.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    I stick to high end Sony TVs because I trust them to not pull this kind of garbage.
  - edogg 6y ago
    i'm getting the $200 sceptre brand 4k tv from walmart. it is just a display. they still exist
  - bickeringyokel 6y ago
    I bought a cheap Toshiba that only has a built in chrome cast that you can ignore. It's a good option.

thirtythree 6y ago

I was slightly confused by this as well but I think I got the gist. It's a chromecast interface/OS so that Google knows what you're watching on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other apps

jmole 6y ago
From portals to search engines and back to portals again. The circle of life.

aplusplus 6y ago

Almost a 1:1 copy of the Apple TV app just with a worse copy of website https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app, not new but ever so disappointing Google adds so little new to ideas they decide to adopt

snazz 6y ago
Apple's website scrolls much more smoothly for me as well (although that might be since I'm using Safari).
- Fogest 6y ago
  That's funny, I am using Chrome and found the Google one scrolled smoother than the Apple one.
- Polylactic_acid 6y ago
  The tv page was fine for me but the iphone and ipad pages are horrendous. I don't know why there is this trend in web design to make the page a video except you have to scroll to progress it.
Terretta 6y ago
Yes, the flattery appears most sincere with this one: Google's take on the TV app from Apple that runs on Apple TV, iOS, and Mac, serving as a common UI to content from apps that buy into the partner ecosystem. Awkward how unclear that site is: this new app from Google is to be the UI pre-installed on future Android TVs, but for now, you can get as a thing running on a $49 Chromecast puck.
jankyxenon 6y ago
I just bought one. I'm a chromecast user on my main tv (that I control with my phone or nearby google home). I bought this for the remote. There's not really anything to "improve" here. It's a dumb box that aggregates streaming apps. The real differentiator is google assistant (and associated google home ecosystem - if you've bought into that)

saos 6y ago

I don’t get it

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago

Can it run plex? Client or client + server?

anderber 6y ago
It will run the client, but not the server

ketralnis 6y ago

I owned the Logitech Google TV which I bought for about $300 early in its lifespan. After about a year they shipped some really bad updates to it that made it so slow that it was essentially unuseable and removed several key features, and then never shipped another update to it again. Logitech and Google both lost interest in it and after not long all of the apps like Netflix and even Google's own Youtube stopped working because of changes to the underlying services. Will this be different? I doubt it. I'm not putting more money into Google hardware to find out that they'll break it and then lose interest. Meanwhile my second gen Apple TV is working great.

lern_too_spel 6y ago
As far as I understand, a second generation Apple TV can't even play Youtube videos.
- dvtrn 6y ago
  I thought that it didn't play certain resolution YouTube, as even the newer generations only just got 4k support for due to codec issues?
  - lern_too_spel 6y ago
    No, YouTube does not work at all on the second generation Apple TV since 2015.
- niklasrde 6y ago
  While (I think) it has rudimentary YouTube support, it does not have an AppStore, or any sort of “ecosystem” around it that would need as much maintenance as an Android device or the APLE TVs running fully fledged tvOS these days, so I don’t think it’s an entirely fair comparison. In the UK it doesn’t have iPlayer, which is probably the most popular VoD app after YouTube.
pier25 6y ago
My Nvidia Shield TV from 2015 is still doing great

DevKoala 6y ago

It took me a while to realize this was a new device and not an app.

maxerickson 6y ago
It's also an app (can be installed on phones).

maxdo 6y ago

thank you google but no :) I don't trust you even more of my data

canada_dry 6y ago

> "TV personalized for you." Um, well... coming from Google this is more of a turn-off, not a selling point.

s1mon 6y ago

Did Google manage to convince Netflix to allow them to monitor what you watch on Netflix? This is one of the biggest holes in Apple TV (the app, on Apple TV, the box) - it knows most of what you watch and can make recommendations for Hulu, HBO, Prime, etc. and manage your queue except for Netflix.

andoriyu 6y ago
Not exactly. When you install an app on android tv you can create a "channel". App developers get one channel "for free" and more channels requiring implicit consent from user. Netflix chose to use recommendations as their first channel. Google TV acts as aggregator for those channels.

umvi 6y ago

Ok, maybe I'm the only one, but I'm actually excited about this. It appears to be an aggregation service. Instead of individually searching across N platforms for content (hulu, disney+, youtube, crunchyroll, netflix, etc), you can now just use a single app (Google TV) which will allows you to search and stream across all platforms you are subscribed to. Furthermore you can cast stuff directly to chromecast from Google TV as well as watch locally on your device.

r-w 6y ago
This has already been possible for years upon years on Roku.
- umvi 6y ago
  I don't own a Roku, just a Chromecast
  - freeone3000 6y ago
    You might be interested in JustWatch, which does this as a phone app.
  - basch 6y ago
    this is Google catching up to Roku, Amazon, and Amazon (and maybe Xbox and Playstation as well.)
- andybak 6y ago
  Hasn't this been possible for years on whateverthatgooglethingiscalled? (I genuinely thought it was still called Google TV so I was rather confused by this post - I couldn't work out what was new.)
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Hasn't this been possible for years on whateverthatgooglethingiscalled? The only aggregation on existing Android TV seems to be “Continue Watching” across apps.

pmlnr 6y ago

"TV personalised for you. Movies and shows are grouped in ways that reflect your interests." I can't be the only one who _wants_ to be surprised, out of their usual bubble of interest, at least sometimes. How can one tell this to all these "clever" things?

pier25 6y ago

Will this support 4K HDR?

alfg 6y ago
Seems like it will. It's listed along with Dolby Vision on their Tech Specs page: https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_specs https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_spe...
- pier25 6y ago
  Thanks I missed the little dropdown arrow

tracker1 6y ago

I'm hoping this just means an OS update for those of us with NVidia Shield TV devices (or other Android TV devices). Better app/search integration would be nice, but I'm not giving up local/network playback options, and really don't want to see the apps languish (netflix, hulu, amazon prime, etc) too much. Something, something, cold dead hands.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago

What would be the comparison with NVidia Shield, aside from the top NVidia shield being about 3 times the price and has wired network?

seabrookmx 6y ago
Nvidia has DLSS upscaling, remote play to a PC with a GeForce graphics card, and generally faster hardware. I think for 99% of people though this new Google dongle will do everything they need but cheaper.

Bedon292 6y ago

Like many others, I got very confused by this branding. Its a Chromecast (4k60 HDR HDMI Dongle) that is running Android TV (Which they appear to be calling Google TV). And a remote control with voice controls. [1] Not sure I see any reason why someone should get this over an Nvidia Shield. Which at least has a track record of long term support. Certainly a lower price point though, so maybe a market there? [1] https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_specs https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_spe...

Fogest 6y ago
If you already have the shield may as well stick with that. But if you don't have the shield the prices are quite different and the Google TV may be more appealing.
paxys 6y ago
$50 vs $200 is a good enough reason.

roneythomas6 6y ago

The interesting thing i found is that it supports keyboard, mouse, ethernet and power via type c dongle.

r-w 6y ago

Would this support 3rd-party live TV streaming services, such as Sling, Fubo, Hulu?

adrianmonk 6y ago

Milestones in Google branding: 2010-05-20: Google introduces Google TV at Google I/O (https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv-tv-meets-web-web.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv... , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASZbArr7vdI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASZbArr7vdI) 2014-06-24: Google introduces Android TV at Google I/O (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/introducing-android-11-on-android-tv.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/introducin... , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dCUPeyhag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3dCUPeyhag), a rebranding of Google TV 2017-02-28: Google introduces YouTube TV (https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/finally-live-tv-made-for-you https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/finally-live-tv-made-fo...) 2020-09-30: Google introduces Google TV, which might be a rebranding of Android TV back to Google TV, but I'm not sure.

adrianmonk 6y ago
[Replying to myself] Oops, got the first link wrong on Android TV. Should have been this: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2014/06/android-tv-and-google-cast.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2014/06/android-tv...
Navarr 6y ago
Google TV is a launcher for Android TV, so far as I can tell. Android TV is not being rebranded, as it is the OS - but Google TV is the "Google Experience" on Android TV. To make this more complicated/interesting - Google renamed the Play Movies and TV app to "Google TV." I'm guessing so you can have Google TV on Google TV? Will the Play Movies app on my existing Android TV open the Google TV launcher like shown off here, or is it still just a browser for the content I already have? Is the change to Android TV just that this app becomes the launcher?
- crazygringo 6y ago
  I swear I've read this comment like five times, because you seem to actually know what's going on... but it's left me only more confused. What is a launcher? If Android TV is an OS, then what is a launcher for an OS? And I guess you're as confused as I am as to also what this has to do with the previous Play Movies and TV app.

nlstitch 6y ago

Why would I want the same dumb Google Assistant in my tv?! It would help if they would put some actual effort into the services behind Google Home/ Mini let alone Google Assistant before expanding hardware options.

winrid 6y ago

But will it have the new South Park episode tonight?

AcerbicZero 6y ago

This was a good chance for google to cancel something before they actually launched, rather than after ~2-3 years of ignoring it.

mNovak 6y ago

I'm sure this site looks great scrolling on mobile, but here with my mouse wheel, it's unbearably jumpy

martin_a 6y ago
Same for me, I gave up on it. No fun on a desktop.

nigrioid 6y ago

Finally out of beta! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA

maxerickson 6y ago

You guys take the longevity of a $50 consumer device super serious.

freeone3000 6y ago
Yes. Of course. Because there's no inherently consumable parts. There's no reason that this shouldn't work 10 years from now (like original Chromecasts do, or first-gen Roku devices, or even 1080p TVs). Why bother buying into something with a limited lifespan?
callalex 6y ago
It’s not about the price in USD, it’s about the price in CO2 production and human suffering from mining and manufacturing.
matheusmoreira 6y ago
Why shouldn't we? It's a consumer device that happens to have a perfectly good general purpose computer inside it. There's no reason why it shouldn't continue to work until the hardware itself fails.
robmsmt 6y ago
And so does the environment when you throw it in the trash after 7 months.

ed25519FUUU 6y ago

Great idea with 1 fatal flaw: it requires my TV to be connected to the internet. NOPE. Besides the fact that many TV manufactures are owned by Chinese government subsidiaries, it's simply not safe to connect a TV to the internet. Who's collecting and selling the data? Why are they taking screen captures and sending them off to who-knows-where? Your TV spies on you[1]. Instead, my TV stays offline and I use an Apple TV. At least I know they're not selling my data to advertisers, and the experience is quite good. [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-warns-about-snoopy-smart-tvs-spying-on-you/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-warns-about-snoopy-smart-t...

lsaferite 6y ago
I'm confused. This Chromecast device has it's own internet connection. Your TV can still remain disconnected. Are you replying to something else?

dgudkov 6y ago

Now you will see more ads on a bigger screen.

simonkafan 6y ago

Does someone want to set up a stadiacountdown.com for Google TV?

Traster 6y ago
The fact I had to basically google "What happened to stadia" means I suspect we can probably reuse whatever server was hosting stadiacountdown.com

amiga-workbench 6y ago

Do we know if this is it for all future Chromecasts? Because the only reason I'm using one is due to the lack of a remote, it lets me treat my TV like the big dumb monitor that it is. If they're going all in on remotes, then I need to move back to DLNA.

seabrookmx 6y ago
I think you can just ignore the interface / remote and still Chromecast to this, not unlike current Android TV implementations (integrated into Smart TV's and the NVidia Shield). Would love if someone with more experience with Android TV could clarify though. I daily a Chromecast Ultra not Android TV.
- aarongolliver 6y ago
  That's how my LG TV works. The TV shows up in the cast menu just like a chromecast does. Using youtube as an example, it opens up the youtube app and starts the video. You can either use the remote as usual to interact with the video, or the you phone exactly like you would if it were just a chromecast. You can also queue up multiple videos from your phone. I have a chromecast as well, and I really expected to use it over the built-in apps. But the built-in TV apps really blew me away, much better user interface than I was expecting. I'm hoping this new chromecast/Google TV thingy is as good, I'd really like to disable network connectivity to the TV if possible (but right now the apps are just too nice to give up).
- amiga-workbench 6y ago
  Ah good, hopefully backdrops can be enabled too. I do enjoy the random selection of artwork.

cblconfederate 6y ago

one day they 'll release Google Google

DesiLurker 6y ago

God bless the google tech lead whose promotion this iteration of google tv would end up supporting. Jokes apart, I am not buying that this time is different. as much as it pains me to say, google needs a little power to the product managers to push through a consistent vision of consumer product side.

thrwn_frthr_awy 6y ago
To me this is a top down problem. VPs and execs should be putting a stop to this. There needs to be a clear product vision from the top for there to be a clear product vision in the middle and bottom. This is what Steve Jobs was so good at. He could just say, this is dumb we aren't doing this. Google needs an exec team that understands products at the consumer level, not the engineering level and sees products as long living endeavors. The Apple Watch did not do great when it was released, but Apple kept making updates, kept improving it. They committed to the project and the vision and had the confidence to stick with it even if it lost money in its early days.
- cpeterso 6y ago
  Yes! Better to iterate, even dramatically, on a clear product vision and brand than to keep pitching "same but different" products like Google TV, Android TV, and YouTube TV (or Google's various text and video chat apps). Users get confused and fragmented and they won't want to commit to your new products.
- starky 6y ago
  I'm in full agreement with you. However, it is hard for management to change how the company operates in such a massive way when the shareholders have been nothing but happy with the company's performance. Google have to have left a ton of revenue on the table by giving up on products rather than developing them to be useful and giving their customers confidence that the product they depend on won't be depreciated.
  - jakear 6y ago
    Why do you think the shareholders are nothing but happy with its performance? It’s by far the slowest growing FAANG, and over the past 5 years has basically tracked the Nasdaq, suggesting it is performing no better than any random tech company.

ronyfadel 6y ago

It looks like a shameless ripoff of Apple TV. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it were made by Huawei (or similar); but for Google to stoop to that level? Tsk tsk tsk

andybak 6y ago
Haven't they had a thing like this for years? Is this different to the thing before or just a renaming?
- ronyfadel 6y ago
  It looks the same as Apple’s tvOS. Someone ran the photocopier on their competition.
  - andybak 6y ago
    But didn't they have a thing before like this? Was that also a copy or is this different?
- Dig1t 6y ago
  Yeah, if you put this interface next to the Apple TV interface they look _extremely_ similar. That and the remotes are also extremely similar as well.
  - andybak 6y ago
    Dunno. I just looked at an image search of Android TV, Apple TV compared to the new Google TV. - are they really that similar? Maybe I'm looking at the wrong Apple TV screens - or they are an older version but Apple TV and Android TV look as similar to each other as either does to Google TV. (Windows Media Center UI predates all three and was the first place I saw the "mix of horizontal and vertical" scrolling thing. It was a nice system for it's time)

mandeepj 6y ago

They need to hire somebody like "Google program advocate manager for TV" to get their branding fixed :-) //sarcasm

m0zg 6y ago

People still watch TV? I haven't turned mine on in years.

andybak 6y ago
I have a large monitor in my living room that shows content from various entertainment services. What's the nearest equivalent you've got to that? I also have several other screens that show the same entertainment services (with minor inexplicable differences). Some are called "TVs", some are called "tablets", "laptops" or "phones" but they all seem to do roughly the same job in this regard. (I also keep reading about a thing called a "notebook computer" but no human being I know has ever used that phrase. Is it different to a "laptop"?)
sneak 6y ago
I recently bought a half dozen large TVs, and I stream randomized playlist folders of non-television-programming video content to them from a server I keep in the garage. Some just 24/7 display live streams from YouTube of famous places. TVs are cool. Television is garbage.
- daveevad 6y ago
  > live streams from YouTube of famous places any chance you have a curated list of these you'd be willing to share? thank you
  - sneak 6y ago
    Email me.
  - m0zg 6y ago
    Not the OP, and I don't have a list, but I like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/Rambalac https://www.youtube.com/user/Rambalac
dbbk 6y ago
Something tells me this is not a serious comment

mattcofer 6y ago

Is there any reason I need this if I already have a Roku?

jccalhoun 6y ago
I'm considering buying it to cover the things that aren't on roku like twitch
x13 6y ago
not that I can tell; I was wondering the same thing.
colinmhayes 6y ago
HBO and twitch

drewg123 6y ago

So is this open, like Android TV / Nvidia Shield, and allows side-loading? Or is this a closed device, like a Chromecast?

cobookman 6y ago

Google just deprecated Android TV as well: https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google-tv-update/ https://9to5google.com/2020/09/30/android-tv-replaced-google...

karmasimida 6y ago
Google's product team is just clueless, yet I am sure they are 'laser focus' on the metrics. It is laughable yet sad.
comeonseriously 6y ago
I rather like my Shield TV (2017). Nvidia has been pretty good about keeping it up to date, so I wonder how this changes things.

sergiotapia 6y ago

Why does google get it's tld?

nhumrich 6y ago
technically, anyone can create a tld given enough money, technical expertise, and willingness to deal with icann
- robmsmt 6y ago
  Aren't the first and the last thing on that list the same thing?

gertrunde 6y ago

Goodness me, this is an exemplary example of the type of website that I just cannot abide. Style over content, and the presentation just plain getting in the way of the information, to the point that the user ends up leaving rather than finding out what the site is attempting to convey. Awful. Just awful.

kzrdude 6y ago
I agree. A simple "More info" or "How does it work" link at the top or bottom would have kept me there.
trynewideas 6y ago
I hate this whole genre of site design/parallax abuse. The Nexus 5 page does the same thing. It's a commercial that gives you a trivial amount of control over playback, not a website.
- Shared404 6y ago
  Yeah this was really bad. I actually like the way parallax looks, within reason. This was not within reason.
  - niwork 6y ago
    Know of any libraries that will achieve this kind of parallax scrolling-to-reveal rather than just scroll between pages?
    - Shared404 6y ago
      No libraries off the top of my head. I know w3[.]css[0] has one example page[1] with a parallax , but I don't know if that's what you're looking for. LineageOS[2] has a site with a decently readable source code. They also don't have exactly what you are looking for, but the <img> with id="rotate-on-scroll" (The spinning phones) and the related script[3] look like they could somewhat related -- you could probably change the transform in the script to accomplish what you're looking for. [0] https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/ https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/ [1] https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryw3css_templates_parallax.htm https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/tryw3css_templates_parallax.... [2] https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ [3] view-source:https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ (lines 1247-1263)

ausjke 6y ago

I can chromecast youtube to my TV already. I have firetv dongle(two of them) that can run youtube too. Roku is also pretty popular in this space. Some also uses apple tv(not an Apple fan here) what google tv buy me? what's its unique selling point? that was not very clear to me.

sosodev 6y ago

The inconsistency is the worst part about the scroll linked effects on this website. Sometimes scrolling causes a huge change to the content, almost like scrolling to the next slide in powerpoint. Other times scrolling simply moves the text a little bit.

awinter-py 6y ago

scroll jank as a service

bigbossman 6y ago

Google should merge this with Stadia so they can sunset them at the same time

adjkant 6y ago
> Play games on Stadia / Coming in 2021 https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_compare https://store.google.com/us/product/chromecast_google_tv_com...

rafaelturk 6y ago

I've tried to click in the `live` menu item expecting to watch some live stuff, that actually started really well with a soccer game only to realize that this is not actually live at all.

tanilama 6y ago

Boring and unnecessary product. A Google TikTok clone will excite me than Google TV. TV is dying and few will miss or even notice it.

paxys 6y ago
Lol what? TV is going nowhere.

matheusmoreira 6y ago

Yet another service which will most likely be abandoned... Wait, there is a .google top level domain now?

myko 6y ago

I prefer this name, glad they brought it back

freediver 6y ago

Actually makes sense from the perspective of Google's mission of "organizing world's information", as finding stuff to watch these days reminds of pre-google web. Problem of course is that in practice Google nowadays is really about "organizing world's ads", so I am sure they will find more than one way to screw this up by insulting the intelligence of people using it.

AnssiH 6y ago

I just got an email from Google saying > The Google Play Movies & TV app on Android mobile devices in the U.S. is now Google TV. I'm not in U.S., though, so I guess no rebranding for me...

woeirua 6y ago

Yet another Google product that will be abandoned within 2 years. Don't buy the hype.

chillers 6y ago
Why the Google hate in this case? I'm in love with my chromecast I've had for the past 6 years with no issues, and this seems like a great upgrade for less than I paid.
- Polylactic_acid 6y ago
  Chromecast is the only google media receiver that survived. Over the last few years we have had: * Google TV (A different product to this Google TV) * Nexus Q * Android TV * Youtube TV * Probably 10 other things that started and shut down without anyone noticing.

murat124 6y ago

No thanks, I like my TV dumb.

grensley 6y ago

Talk about a product with a foot in the grave already. It honestly makes me angry how much human capital was wasted on making this. Everything about this is a UX nightmare, from the scrolljacking site, to the apps-in-apps UI, to the abomination of a remote. This is such a waste.

inoop 6y ago
No kidding. I feel for the engineers who spent sleepless nights getting this to launch ...
- simonkafan 6y ago
  Imagine you had to invert a binary tree on a whiteboard just to create something like this...

Robotbeat 6y ago

I think the practice of killing off streaming services and projects that aren't "core" is a huge liability for Google. Why should I invest time and money in a service or product that might be killed off in a few years? We need to reward companies that keep things alive for longer. I got an iPhone recently (over a somewhat cheaper Android) precisely because Apple provides OS updates for longer than any other smartphone maker. Sometimes over 5 years. Especially as tech products have started to somewhat plateau in functionality, I value longevity over features or performance.

xerxesaa 6y ago
Fully agree. I paid to purchase hundreds of songs on Google Music and now I have to migrate to Youtube Music which won't let me play those songs without ads and without keeping my phone's screen on unless I pay for a subscription. I already paid to own those songs. Why do I now have to pay a monthly subscription to keep using them? Thanks but no thanks, Google.
- t-writescode 6y ago
  Have you spoken with Google's tech support about this? There's actually a support app for YouTube music that I found to be top rate, much, much to my surprise. They might be able to find a way to satisfy your wants? Maybe download them or similar?
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Why do I now have to pay a monthly subscription to keep using them? You don't. You can download paid and uploaded content from Google Play Music and use it anywhere. This has been supported since before Play Music even had a paid subscription service.
  - buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
    Yes, but then they have to somehow manage those files. They paid to have those songs readily available on any of their devices easily through Google Play Music. Now they have a bunch of random mp3 files that can't easily be played on any device. No exactly the same thing. Sure you can argue that the TOS said this or that when they bought the music.. but the fact remains: if they had bought the music on nearly any other music streaming service, they'd still have access to it easily on any device.

mshockwave 6y ago

I guess they're the only one using the .google domain

ChuckMcM 6y ago

Wow, and on the heels of the disastrous price hike in Youtube TV because well gee those content guys are so MEAN they want all the dollarz. I also like Google Chat you know its like that thing we got rid of years ago, went through about six evolutions and came back to but without the interoperability with other systems that actually made the first one useful. It makes me wonder if there is anyone working at Google who understands what the term "value added" even means. Maybe they should just buy Roku and crap on that. After all Roku is moving into an analytics for sale company away from a streaming company. Why? Because everyone wants to be a portal but they can't afford to be with the studios demanding extortionate sums for their content. So instead of getting money for bringing you the content (because they have to pass on more than they can afford to the content owner) they sell their observation of people watching content to people who want to make content that people watch which is "their data" because it happened on "their device." It makes me physically ill sometimes with how messed up this whole system came to be.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Cd00d 6y ago
Big Roku fan here. Was an early adopter, have had many versions of the device over the last dozen years and been a brand evangelist to my friends and family. I also try to avoid being a panelist in behavior datasets. For this reason there are financial planning services I won't use and I won't buy a Vizio TV. So, I'm very curious about your assertion that Roku is doing analytics for sale. I hadn't seen that before, so any further insight would be appreciated. Thanks.
- ChuckMcM 6y ago
  From last year: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-surveillence-data-collection-home-roku-amazon-fire-princeton-study https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-survei... but my source was a long time Roku employee who eventually quit after the monetization started getting "out of hand" (his words, not mine).

ekanes 6y ago

Deleted -- posted on wrong thread.

kzrdude 6y ago
Hi, posted in the wrong thread (- you want the one about the google phone app thing).
- ekanes 6y ago
  haha thank you! SIGH

floatingatoll 6y ago

I got motion sick while trying to read this webpage. Apparently scrolling counts as motion to the brain and all the crazy flying icons set it off. I don’t normally get motion sickness, either.

sally1620 6y ago

I wonder when they would start shipping Google TV software on smart TVs. Every high-end TV today comes with some sort of OS pre-installed. So a set-top box in 2020 is not a very popular device. Even Apple figured it out and released Apple TV app on most smart TV platforms.

Element_ 6y ago

I purchased Android TV devices for my family and I when Android TV was first released because Google claimed it was going to be the next big thing. The software development and app store seemed to basically be abandoned by Google shortly after. Even the apps for Googles own services (youtube) seemed to be thrown together and worked very poorly. I don't think I would ever consider Google for a service/device like this again...

getlawgdon 6y ago

After Google bricked my previous version of Google TV, and the one I gave to my dad as a gift, it's gonna be a big, fat NO THANKS from me, dawg.

animanoir 6y ago

How do they do those movements in the site? Like which framework or vanillajs?

mmclar 6y ago

I scrolled all the way through that and don't know what it does.

Nuzzerino 6y ago

Is it me or is the decision to use the URL tv.google instead of google.tv a seemingly pretentious one?

Newtonip 6y ago

Why does Google get to have a tld?

elliottinvent 6y ago

I will openly admit to hating Google but found the scrolling effect on this website quite beautiful. However, it would have to jump out of the TV and make me a bacon sandwich before I allowed Google to track what I was watching that evening. Even then I would delete the app having ate the bacon sandwich.

Shared404 6y ago
It looks cool, but it is ridiculously frustrating to actually find info. Also, I agree, except the bacon sandwich is going to have to be a BLT, and it would have to bring me a Coke as well.

NoblePublius 6y ago

Will my brand new Sony Android TV update to this?

tzs 6y ago

"Chromecast with Google TV requires a TV with an HDMI port" How come nearly all video dongles want you to plug them into an HDMI port on your TV? Wouldn't it make more sense to plug them in to an HDMI port on your A/V receiver? Unless you have a fairly recent TV and receiver, the TV can only send up to 5.1 DTS or Dolby compressed audio to the receiver, due to bandwidth limits of ARC. You need a system with eARC if you want to handle more, like Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio, and the like, or uncompressed 5.1. Also, with all video sources going through the receiver, it is one less remote to deal with. The only function you need on the TV is power on/power off, and one of your other remotes almost certainly will know or be able to be taught the TV's on/off code. Another advantage of that approach is that you don't have a need, after initial setup, to look at any of the control or setting or information screens of your TV, which means if you've got a Smart TV that has started festooning those screes with ads, you don't see them.

tfitz237 6y ago
Because of HDMI-CEC. The dongle can control things on the TV via this technology. This product specifically has a remote that I believe only interacts via HDMI-CEC. I don't know if it's possible for the HDMI-CEC to pass through a receiver to the TV itself for this purpose.
- cmelbye 6y ago
  Yes, that’s a feature in many receivers. My older Chromecast turns on the receiver, sets the receiver input, and turns on the TV. I’m guessing this new one would work perfectly fine, too.
sujinge9 6y ago
You definitely can plug it into a receiver's HDMI input port and work well. That quote only means if you still have a TV that only takes analog inputs or something, then you won't be able to plug the Chromecast in.
compsciphd 6y ago
even if plugged into a receiver, the new chromecast doesn't passthrough/bitstream hd audio (dts-ma/dts-x, true-hd/atmos). which means I probably will not be getting it.

trashburger 6y ago

Oh, I just _love_ websites that hijack my scrolling. Please keep doing it.

ggregoire 6y ago

I had no idea Google has its own tld. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.google https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.google

saltedonion 6y ago

Can’t wait to jump on this and binge on my favorite hyper personalized ads!

bluemax 6y ago
When I scrolled through the page and saw 'TV personalized for you' my brain instantly appended 'ads' after 'personalized'. I had to read that sentence twice. Personalized is such a red flag.

gfxgirl 6y ago

I detest turning on my TV and getting ads from the TV itself (recommendations). I detest it even more of there is some show/celebrity I don't want to see but every day for a week/month whatever it's shoved in my face. I'm happy Apple TV (the device not the service) starts up with no ads. Android TV / Google TV is all ads (for shows). I managed to manually turn them off but now my is super ugly. You can't set a startup image or anything since it's reserved for ads. (well, short of writing my own launcher) I don't know what I'm going to do for my next TV. I'd love to get a dumb TV but casually glancing through options it looks hard to find a dumb TV with high end features for a reasonable price. Most of the display oriented monitors seem to be 4x-10x the price and/or use 10yr old tech.

loughnane 6y ago
Spectre + Roku + Pi-hole is a really nice experience
- Cd00d 6y ago
  I'm 2 for 3. What's Spectre? Google returns mostly Bond.
  - kidfiji 6y ago
    I’m pretty sure he’s talking about “dumb” Sceptre TVs that have no smart features
    - loughnane 6y ago
      That’s right.
rendall 6y ago
"...detest it even more of there is some show/celebrity I don't want to see but every day for a week/month whatever it's shoved in my face." I literally stopped using Google Play Music for podcasts because that Adam Ruins Everything guy is always at the top of their recommendations. No problem with the guy or his content, just, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, seeing that guy, every time I switch podcasts, with no way not to see it. Doesn't matter now anyway, Google Play Music is another service that lost the PM wars

SpeckOfDust 6y ago

And it will be killed in 3 years.

_ZeD_ 6y ago

Ok, I'm asking: what features does this (or the apple one, or the nvidia shield, or the roku stuff) give you that can't be given by a Raspberry Pi + libreelec + kodi?

untog 6y ago
The ability to use streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO, etc etc etc? Besides, a lot of these streaming sticks are cheaper that an RPi. The question is why should you use a Pi over the streaming stick, not the other way around.
- _ZeD_ 6y ago
  do you know that netflix, amazon prime video etc are viewable throug kodi? have a look at https://github.com/peak3d/inputstream.adaptive https://github.com/peak3d/inputstream.adaptive
  - untog 6y ago
    But that still doesn't answer the question of why use it. It's going to be inherently less stable than using first party apps, and the Pi is still more expensive in the first place. I just don't see a compelling case for it.
hackmiester 6y ago
Playing DRM media, I would assume.
- _ZeD_ 6y ago
  drm (at least widevine) is supported in kodi
  - hackmiester 6y ago
    I had no idea, thank you!
6y ago

throwthrowcatch 6y ago

This shows up as: Google TV (Previously Play Movies & TV) I have had the earlier app for years now, never used it though

ycombonator 6y ago

I blame the mbas

rusbus 6y ago

The internet has come full circle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA&ab_channel=infinitesolutions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA&ab_channel=infin... (Hoax video from 2007 about how to get Google TV)

Dig1t 6y ago

Is anyone else struck by how similar this looks to Apple TV? It looks like a straight up clone, down to the remote and interface. Only difference is that it looks like it dangles from your TV and has Assistant instead of Siri.

giancarlostoro 6y ago
Honestly at this point I am jumping ship altogether although I think I will get the next Xbox console as my TV app device manager especially with the Game Pass. I hate the concept of streaming games but the idea of having most Microsoft games on a game pass is worthwhile they got some solid flagship games that are easily replayable.
- vlozko 6y ago
  Why not both? https://www.windowscentral.com/apple-tv-coming-xbox-consoles https://www.windowscentral.com/apple-tv-coming-xbox-consoles
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    Nice, that just makes it just as likely for me to get an Xbox instead of any other device.

robmsmt 6y ago

Next week... Chrome TV+

shiohime 6y ago

I know others have mentioned it but really the behavior of the scroll on this website is some of the worst I've seen in recent web design. It's completely inconsistent in how it behaves - sometimes it actually scrolls, other times it is shrinking and moving panes around on the screen. It's impressive that they were able to do it yes, but it is one of the most jarring experiences scrolling a website I've ever seen and did make me feel a bit dizzy and felt like scrolling wasn't actually working. Maybe I'm just getting old lol

coreyoconnor 6y ago

After a lot of scrolling through marketing hyperbole... What is it?

inoop 6y ago
It's an Apple TV/Roku/Fire TV but from Google?

mraza007 6y ago

I’m not quite sure but isn’t this similar to YouTube TV

yardstick 6y ago

I’m a bit sad they didn’t take Apple’s approach and use USB to recharge the remote. With Apple TV I just plug it into the wall once every 6-9 months for 30mins. No battery waste.

occamschainsaw 6y ago

This webpage is worse than Apple ones for side scrolling and just bad at conveying information in general. The videos are too distracting, and it doesn’t seem to be very clear what the product is. Not the page’s fault (maybe), but it kept triggering reader mode on my phone multiple times as I scrolled down.

mrjohnes 6y ago

Hey at least it now supports Atmos and at a nice price point. Just pissed about the pricing in the UK.. $49.99 is NOT £59.99.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

thiht 6y ago

I have no idea what this is. Do they sell an actual TV? Or is it just a Chromecast-like dongle? Does it work on every TV or do I need a smart TV? What does it do?

tartrate 6y ago

Why do I need dedicated remote buttons for Youtube and Netflix if this thing is so smart? Regardless of the reason, why do I not get buttons for all the other apps it integrates with, or reprogrammable buttons?

ksec 6y ago

Looking at the Samsung TV ads fiasco, First Gen Google TV, new Google TV, Apple TV, It seems the whole TV viewing experience, both hardware and software is still mess, just like it was 10 years ago. I guess Steve [1] described it best, the lack of Go to Market Strategy. I sometimes wonder why cant we build a Tuner that works on all International market. https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/29/3704270/how-apple-can-build-next-generation-tv https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/29/3704270/how-apple-can-bu...

seaghost 6y ago

Another user data harvesting platform.

haltingproblem 6y ago

Why Google? Why? How is this different than Chromecast? What is the upgrade path from Chromecast. There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup. Google PMs are high on adwords/adsense revenues trying to score points via product launches to get higher bonuses. That is an apt summary of Google's internal political economy. Time to get an Apple TV and get off the Google ecoystem. sigh.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> How is this different than Chromecast? It's software that is included on the newest Chromecast. (And will soon be included in Android TVs.) > What is the upgrade path from Chromecast. It is included in the newest Chromecast, which is also the upgrade path for existing TVs that won't get it. > There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup. There should be a law against improved versions of existing products?

tweetle_beetle 6y ago

Interesting to see a Netflix button on a Google product - is having a third party logo (and a competitor in one market at that) a first for them?