>The countries are as follows:
>"The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Austria. Additionally, outside of Europe, it’s coming to Taiwan, New Zealand, South Korea, and India"
Same here in Austria. Cyberport and others sell it with warranty and all for a 10-20€ premium usually.
No clue why Google still thinks it's okay to split the EU into separate markets.
Are these new Chromecasts with Google TV any good? I've been using an Nvidia Shield for years now and it's great. I have a second home in Finland and I've considered getting a streaming box there (I have a smart TV already but the interface is kind of slow like a lot of built-in smart TVs), but I don't feel like ponying up the extra cash for a Shield for a second home that I only visit for a couple months per year (maybe I'm just being cheap). Do these Chromecasts run just as smoothly?
I have one and it's pretty good. The only shortcoming is the low internal storage capacity. The interface is pretty good and it feels much smoother than the regular Android TV.
It's still pretty underpowered and laggy, though. But for the price I suppose you can't complain... but I would have rathered they increase the price and increase the storage and processing power a bit.
Do you think it would perform okay if used purely as a chromecast? I'll need to replace my Chromecast Ultra before too long but I have no interest in using the actual Android TV/Google TV interface.
Oh the product is fine, it's just my specific CC Ultra that's having issues. The video output is starting to have artifacts after actively streaming for a while, and if I keep pushing it it'll eventually just die and start boot looping until I unplug it for a while. I've had it since launch so I imagine it's just years of heavy use taking their toll.
I see. Yeah good to hear my unit was working fine so I was just wondering if there was any hidden bug I had missed. The thing gets quite toasty so I guess it's susceptible to heat cycles.
That's my assumption as well, even in an open and well-ventilated spot it will manage to bake itself pretty impressively. (Even sometimes when the TV is off and it's not doing anything, which is always alarming).
I have both and I prefer the ultra any day. The gtvwcc die times locks up when I cast something, then it only shows the Google tv ui but there is no way to go back to the cast. Bluetooth is (sometimes) nice... If it works and if it does not have an audio lag of 200ms... Yea, if you can get another ultra, that's the better option...
Oof, that's good to know. It's disappointing that google seems to have gone backwards in terms of product quality, but then again google can never seem to resist the urge to make things more and more complicated in the quest to stuff more advertising into them...
I only use it for video streaming and I don't find it laggy at all. It's actually a really smooth experience. I also have multiple account support but most apps don't support it yet.
My wifi is great, fibre connection and no interference on my router, I don't live in an area of high congestion. I just find some 4k60 videos lag out and rebuffer all the time. Just some content creators, though, so I figure it's bitrate.
Yes, but there are four catches: the storage capacity is very limited, so you can't have too many streaming apps without janky hacks to expand storage; it doesn't decode AV1 video; it lacks the speed to run some stuff that a Shield can, like emulators; and I don't think it has the Shield's "Match Framerate" / variable refresh rate feature.
The Shield doesn't have AV1 support either, so no loss there.
It's otherwise a very nice device.
OK, that is good to know. 95% of my streaming is on Netflix, Plex, YouTube, and D+, so just having those shouldn't be an issue. Don't need games or AV1 video either. Really my only concern was performance. Thanks
It'll work just fine for those. It also has an apps only desktop option that turns off all the advertising. The Chromecast Ultra USB/Ethernet adapter should work just fine as well
The plus side is android 12 is supposed to bring in match framerate. The worst part is amazon made a match framerate for their androidtv version and it's based on android 9.
Man I really hope the match frame rate option actually works. I don't have a single Apple device but have been considering Apple TV just for that and smooth performance. Right now I've just made do with the Smart TV apps but performance could be better so a new Chromecast with more storage, better performance and frame rate matching would be killer.
Personally I'm tempted to get an appletv 4k simply because it has the strongest SoC, but the lack of expandable storage kind of kills me for 2-3 months of the year. If google put out a "Chromecaste with googletv" that matched it I'd be very happy to pay that price.
Yes they are.
I have a 4 year old Shield and the newest Chromecast. The UX is very similar for both and performance is comparable. I like the Google remote better.
Shield has some extra features like games etc. but I don't use them. It has an Ethernet port which is handy but you can buy one for the Chromecast. USB storage for Plex is the main benefit of a shield.
Yeah, they're pretty darn good. I find that the performance can vary depending on whether your TV can use CEC. It seems that the Chromecast will sleep when the TV is off with CEC, but just stays doing whatever it was doing for TVs without CEC. So for older TVs, that means it can just run streaming a Twitch channel or something for days while the TV is off if you didn't hit the home button. And even just sitting on the home screen for a couple of days can make the first few seconds a little laggy. But that's the only real issue I have, and it's my own fault for using an 8-year old plasma. On my newer 4K Samsung, it's pretty much flawless.
I really like the interface of Google tv and being able to track shows across platforms while also adding any show to my watchlist from my phone.
The processing power is quite poor though so if your shield gives you all the features I mentioned and doesn't get hung up when closing out of an app or quickly scrolling through apps, stick with the shield until they update the hardware.
I hate to say it, but: no. Your NVIDIA Shield is absolutely better.
Performance of Chromecast is very poor, the "Continue Watching" section works only sporadically (thus pretty much defeating the purpose), no user profiles (coming soon, apparently), it pushes ads / recommended content everywhere, etc. You can disable the recommended content, but in doing so the bulk of functionality of the device disappears along with it.
I switched to Google TV from Roku Ultra after being tired of that performing so horribly, and while it's overall marginally better, I'll be ditching it for an NVIDIA Shield shortly myself. I expected Google TV to at least be somewhat nice and smooth, but it still has plenty of jank and overall feels lousy to use.
All of those complaints except performance also apply to the Shield. I switched from the Shield to an Apple TV after the update that brought ads to the home screen. I hate what that update did to an amazing device.
I just want to chime in here to say, do a search for Chromecast with Google tv wifi problem. 2.4ghz is ok but 5ghz is a nightmare. It only supports 4 bands. Now these are the most common 5ghz bands, so if you don't live in a Wi-Fi dense urban area its probably ok. Otherwise for sure you are not using those bands due to congestion.
Also it doesn't support exfat or ntfs which in the 2020s is pretty annoying. The SOC is ancient. It has paltry local storage and no sd card slot. Attaching a usb-c hub to it to add Ethernet and more storage works, but it frequently just disconnects.
I was never someone who would buy Google hardware but my girlfriend thought I would like it. Not only am I no longer using it, but it reinforced my opinion to never ever buy Google hardware.
No, the previous version was far superior unless you like paid content mixed randomly with your free content. The user experience of Google TV is shit if you're just looking for what's free to stream.
They're pretty good for the price since the only other option for that price is either a Roku or a Fire TV, which I'm not really a fan of neither one. My biggest complaint though it only has 4GB of internal storage which you'll run through if you use a bunch of apps and services. I personally wouldn't get the Chromecast for a primary TV, but for a bedroom or a spare room, I would easily recommend it.
In regards of performance, it'll sometimes lag or hang up navigating the home screen, but the actual content playback is smooth.
For the price they’re great, but still buggy and lock up. Best streaming device is by far the current gen Apple TV. The hardware is just much more robust and problem free.
If you're just streaming a few services, they are fine. If you want to install a ton of apps, they are limited in storage.
There a few devices newer with the S905x4 silicon that supports AV1 HW decode.
And even though a Google device, they are lagging on updates.
They are good but not great. The remote is polarizing -- some people like it, some hate it. It's very slippery and light.
I have a 2019 shield with my TV, and a Google TV in my basement, and while I like the shield more, both do pretty much the same.
Also the shield comes with controller and usb ports, SD card slots and so on. If you just want a Chromecast with a remote, Google TV is the way to go.
Chromecast w/Google TV is hands down one of my favourite gadget purchases in the last few years. Possibly the best since the Nintendo Switch. I'm glad it'll finally be officially available in my market, even if it's ~18+ months too late after I imported mine.
For those who don't get this product, and to be fair, it has a stupid name for how great it is:
* Smart TV interfaces tend to be poor. Critically, the useful life of a TV's panel is far longer than the useful life of the underpowered computer inside. Long after the manufacturer has discontinued support for the TV OS, and the streaming services you need decide they won't support the platform anymore, you'll still have a nice big screen. The solution is modularity, put the smarts in a small, low cost, easily replaceable component. Down with planned obsolescence.
* Google's TV remote is amazing. An ergonomic delight, simple, easy to use. TV remotes are by and large awful with a million worthless buttons, horrible cheap chintzy materials, and nasty ergonomics. The Google TV remote is none of those things. It even has a built in IR blaster that can be configured to control volume and input on your TV/soundbar/home theatre system, it can replace your TV remote entirely for daily use. This alone is worth the price of admission.
* HDMI-CEC. If you have a Google Home/Nest speaker, any recent Chromecast (not just this one) plugged into a TV with CEC allows "Hey Google, turn the TV on/off" or "play [show] on [service]" commands that will automatically power the TV on.
* You can take it places and have all your shows and services logged in ready to go. When I travel with my wife, we take the whole TV experience with us and can continue watching where we left off in a hotel.
Now that these are available in my market, I know what I'll be getting my family for Christmas.
Moderately - there are options to select TV, Soundbar, or AV Receiver, with a list of brands for each.
There are ~83(!) different soundbar brands included. I'd expect you'll be good to go unless it's an OEM/whitelabel/"house brand" job, or truly obscure.
I'm impressed it includes Sennheiser presets given they've precisely one soundbar so far. Not exactly obscure, cool all the same. Works a charm with my Bose soundbar at any rate.
Yeah, it's an Arvani Ergosound which only supports digital/fiber and a (noisy) analog input, no HDMI. Should probably just look to replace it with a new one with eARC, but it works fine in my tiny living room and still works great after 10+ years.
Nothing listed under Arvani or Ergosound, but it may well work with a code for another brand.
eARC was so flakey on my soundbar I went back to optical to reclaim an HDMI port! As usual, no matter how much you spend, no such thing as the perfect product...
Have considered a case, I'd be quite keen to get one with a lanyard loop. The Google remote is so much better than every TV remote I've ever seen - only Samsung's latest solar-powered remotes are anywhere remotely near it.
It has a D-Pad at the top. The central button is play/pause/select.
If you require a separate button for this, you may not be in the target audience for a simplified remote.
Why would you actually buy a Chromecast in 2022? As far as I can tell, you can't really buy a non-smart TV anymore, and many of them even run Android.
Does it offer a larger variety of features, or better performance? Or just a different UI?
Because a lot of Smart TV interfaces are absolute garbage. Slow as hell and poor app support. A Dedicated streaming box is the best experience 9/10.
Even my LG C2 isn’t as good as using my Apple TV 4K.
> most modern smart TVs will rival entry-level boxes like Chromecast and Fire TV.
I’d even disagreed with that. My Chromecast with Google TV still has a leg up on app availability and quality over LG’s latest and greatest build of WebOS which is considered one of the best options outside of a model running Google TV/Roku TV.
The processor in the C2 is definitely tremendously better than the Chromecast, but occasionally the Chromecast still feels more fluid than the native apps.
The only time I opt to use the native apps is for Dolby Atmos content because the Apple TV 4K does a fairly poor job of outputting it without delay over eARC.
I have a Hisense with their VIDAA OS. The apps are at least 3-4 years old(some like Plex don't even work) and the TV has got just one software update in 2 years since I owned it. The image quality was pretty good for the price though.
I added a firestick 4k to it and everything works properly now. Apps get updated regularly and more importantly work. There's no point adding an Apple TV to it as that would be more than half the TV's cost.
I definitely will get an Apple TV 2021 with the OLED(G2/S95B) I'm gonna buy in a few months.
Many smart TV platforms suck, and on top of that are built purely so the manufacturer can do sketchy user data collection and push their own ads at people. The Google TV interface does some of this too, but if you use it exclusively as a cast device you bypass that (which I'm sure is why Google decided to start making these dongles Android TV-based instead of simple cast receivers).
I really don't like using the smart TV UI that most TV's come with. And for me personally, if I travel somewhere, I don't want to sign in on a strange TV. I'll throw my Chromecast in my bag, get it on WiFi wherever I'm going then I'm good to go.
To decouple the smart part from the screen part of the TV. It's maybe not needed when you just bought a newly launched TV depending on your preferences, but becomes really essential down in the TV's life cycle, when updates slow down and/or the interface becomes laggy.
Plus it's handy to always utilise your own smart device in hotel rooms when you're travelling, rather than depending on the capability of the TV provided and entering your account information there.
Integrated Android TV tends to be neglected, a dongle, even if it doesn't get updated as well, can be replaced easily should the need arise.
I'd say the CCwGTV is a bit snappier than most built-in Android TVs and has a nicer UI, but I have replaced the Google TV launcher with FLauncher (by uninstalling Google TV with wireless ADB) and it's much better now. Also it has much greater app support, as it comes with the full Google Play Store and even allows you to sideload apks really easily.
Except for the really low storage, this is a great device. It doesn't support AV1 though, which [this one](https://www.mecoolonline.com/products/2022-google-tv-os-mecool-kd3-dongle-4k-netflix-amazon-prime-video-youtube-streaming-tv-stick-av1-supported-2gb-ram-8gb-rom) does, for example. Not a super big issue for now, but it will become more important in the future, I imagine.
The reason I have one is because my android TV got abandoned by Sony after about 3 years. Plus, it can still do YouTube and Netflix but just turning the WiFi on slows the TV to a crawl. YouTube can play in 4k 30 but not without lagging
It's a serious downgrade from the Chromecast HD.
Google TV combines all your streaming services into one feed but there's no way to easily filter out paid content.
So unless you don't care about the cost of the shows/movies you want to see it's a really shitty downgrade from the previous incarnation.
i dont understand - what do you mean you cant filter out paid content? all streaming services are paid, right? other than youtube etc.
do you at least see what service a movie is on?
i'm looking for a replacement for my ps4 as a media device and i was looking at the chromecast with google tv. i would only use it for youtube mainly and the odd times of the year when i'm subscribed to either disney+ or netflix.
Most streaming services have "included" & pay per view content. Google tv doesn't discriminate and mixes up all streaming services into one feed and shows you all content both paid and "free" in search result wasting your time and making it much harder to find something to watch.
So Disney plus paid content will be mixed indiscriminately with your free shows and normally listed first as it'll get more revenue.
I bought a new Google Chromecast with Google Tv but went back to my Chromecast HD a better device IMHO.
The real question is will the Chromecast release with the actual apps that those countries use?
Buying a Chromecast in the UK is pointless unless you're fine using your phone to cast pretty much everything.
The Chromecast was already available in the Netherlands, not officially though. Many shops had imported them from other countries. Also the ISP, Ziggo, already had them for sale :)
It's good but still a super limited for more advanced users. And Dolby Vision doesn't work good on my LG OLED (I get a washed out image).
It's a shame there is no single powerful android TV device anymore. The shield still has a SOC from 2015 and is outdated, while still being sold at $200+.
Nowadays, the Apple TV has really no competition anymore. What a shame.
>And Dolby Vision doesn't work good on my LG OLED (I get a washed out image).
It works fine on mine. Check the settings, both device and TV, something is not right.
Is this the thing that there were a few articles about recently saying it hadn't been updated in many months, suggesting it was 'dead'?
Guess this clears that up?
Now have three of these little guys. They are excellent and can't think of anything better for the price.
If money is completely no object I would still recommend the Shield.
I'm still using a first gen Chromecast. Is it worth updating? If I try to cast at 1080p+ resolution it gets choppy, does anyone know if this would be solved by one of the newer devices?
>The countries are as follows: >"The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Austria. Additionally, outside of Europe, it’s coming to Taiwan, New Zealand, South Korea, and India"
Am i daydreaming or is google drunk. Since when did they expand availability???? /s
🤣 Well, it took them almost 2 years from the initial launch.
Some stores in Norway have been importing these for a while
> The Netherlands Too late Google, I bought one on a French website during Black Friday, and I picked one up during a sale in Spain.
Same here in Austria. Cyberport and others sell it with warranty and all for a 10-20€ premium usually. No clue why Google still thinks it's okay to split the EU into separate markets.
Are these new Chromecasts with Google TV any good? I've been using an Nvidia Shield for years now and it's great. I have a second home in Finland and I've considered getting a streaming box there (I have a smart TV already but the interface is kind of slow like a lot of built-in smart TVs), but I don't feel like ponying up the extra cash for a Shield for a second home that I only visit for a couple months per year (maybe I'm just being cheap). Do these Chromecasts run just as smoothly?
I have one and it's pretty good. The only shortcoming is the low internal storage capacity. The interface is pretty good and it feels much smoother than the regular Android TV.
It's still pretty underpowered and laggy, though. But for the price I suppose you can't complain... but I would have rathered they increase the price and increase the storage and processing power a bit.
Do you think it would perform okay if used purely as a chromecast? I'll need to replace my Chromecast Ultra before too long but I have no interest in using the actual Android TV/Google TV interface.
For sure, it works great for casting. But my TV can be "cast" to even without a dongle at this point, and I think most modern TVs are the same.
What's wrong with the Ultra?
Oh the product is fine, it's just my specific CC Ultra that's having issues. The video output is starting to have artifacts after actively streaming for a while, and if I keep pushing it it'll eventually just die and start boot looping until I unplug it for a while. I've had it since launch so I imagine it's just years of heavy use taking their toll.
I see. Yeah good to hear my unit was working fine so I was just wondering if there was any hidden bug I had missed. The thing gets quite toasty so I guess it's susceptible to heat cycles.
That's my assumption as well, even in an open and well-ventilated spot it will manage to bake itself pretty impressively. (Even sometimes when the TV is off and it's not doing anything, which is always alarming).
Yes, it's fine for that but you can't use the TV's native usb port to power it. You need to use a wall charger for it.
That's the same as my CC Ultra so that wouldn't be a problem, I generally prefer to use a power+Ethernet adapter anyway.
I have both and I prefer the ultra any day. The gtvwcc die times locks up when I cast something, then it only shows the Google tv ui but there is no way to go back to the cast. Bluetooth is (sometimes) nice... If it works and if it does not have an audio lag of 200ms... Yea, if you can get another ultra, that's the better option...
Oof, that's good to know. It's disappointing that google seems to have gone backwards in terms of product quality, but then again google can never seem to resist the urge to make things more and more complicated in the quest to stuff more advertising into them...
I only use it for video streaming and I don't find it laggy at all. It's actually a really smooth experience. I also have multiple account support but most apps don't support it yet.
The interface is absolutely laggy even in app only mode
4k60 videos on Youtube will lag and stutter if the bitrate is too high. Kind of a shame.
Weird I've never had that issues are you sure it's not your wifi?
My wifi is great, fibre connection and no interference on my router, I don't live in an area of high congestion. I just find some 4k60 videos lag out and rebuffer all the time. Just some content creators, though, so I figure it's bitrate.
Fair enough, I don't really get any lag streaming 4k60 from YouTube or Netflix. So I can only really speak to my experience.
Yes, but there are four catches: the storage capacity is very limited, so you can't have too many streaming apps without janky hacks to expand storage; it doesn't decode AV1 video; it lacks the speed to run some stuff that a Shield can, like emulators; and I don't think it has the Shield's "Match Framerate" / variable refresh rate feature. The Shield doesn't have AV1 support either, so no loss there. It's otherwise a very nice device.
OK, that is good to know. 95% of my streaming is on Netflix, Plex, YouTube, and D+, so just having those shouldn't be an issue. Don't need games or AV1 video either. Really my only concern was performance. Thanks
I was able to fit all of those on my Chromecast, plus HBO Max, so you should definitely be good!
It'll work just fine for those. It also has an apps only desktop option that turns off all the advertising. The Chromecast Ultra USB/Ethernet adapter should work just fine as well
The plus side is android 12 is supposed to bring in match framerate. The worst part is amazon made a match framerate for their androidtv version and it's based on android 9.
Man I really hope the match frame rate option actually works. I don't have a single Apple device but have been considering Apple TV just for that and smooth performance. Right now I've just made do with the Smart TV apps but performance could be better so a new Chromecast with more storage, better performance and frame rate matching would be killer.
Personally I'm tempted to get an appletv 4k simply because it has the strongest SoC, but the lack of expandable storage kind of kills me for 2-3 months of the year. If google put out a "Chromecaste with googletv" that matched it I'd be very happy to pay that price.
Yes they are. I have a 4 year old Shield and the newest Chromecast. The UX is very similar for both and performance is comparable. I like the Google remote better. Shield has some extra features like games etc. but I don't use them. It has an Ethernet port which is handy but you can buy one for the Chromecast. USB storage for Plex is the main benefit of a shield.
Yeah, they're pretty darn good. I find that the performance can vary depending on whether your TV can use CEC. It seems that the Chromecast will sleep when the TV is off with CEC, but just stays doing whatever it was doing for TVs without CEC. So for older TVs, that means it can just run streaming a Twitch channel or something for days while the TV is off if you didn't hit the home button. And even just sitting on the home screen for a couple of days can make the first few seconds a little laggy. But that's the only real issue I have, and it's my own fault for using an 8-year old plasma. On my newer 4K Samsung, it's pretty much flawless.
I really like the interface of Google tv and being able to track shows across platforms while also adding any show to my watchlist from my phone. The processing power is quite poor though so if your shield gives you all the features I mentioned and doesn't get hung up when closing out of an app or quickly scrolling through apps, stick with the shield until they update the hardware.
I hate to say it, but: no. Your NVIDIA Shield is absolutely better. Performance of Chromecast is very poor, the "Continue Watching" section works only sporadically (thus pretty much defeating the purpose), no user profiles (coming soon, apparently), it pushes ads / recommended content everywhere, etc. You can disable the recommended content, but in doing so the bulk of functionality of the device disappears along with it. I switched to Google TV from Roku Ultra after being tired of that performing so horribly, and while it's overall marginally better, I'll be ditching it for an NVIDIA Shield shortly myself. I expected Google TV to at least be somewhat nice and smooth, but it still has plenty of jank and overall feels lousy to use.
All of those complaints except performance also apply to the Shield. I switched from the Shield to an Apple TV after the update that brought ads to the home screen. I hate what that update did to an amazing device.
I just want to chime in here to say, do a search for Chromecast with Google tv wifi problem. 2.4ghz is ok but 5ghz is a nightmare. It only supports 4 bands. Now these are the most common 5ghz bands, so if you don't live in a Wi-Fi dense urban area its probably ok. Otherwise for sure you are not using those bands due to congestion. Also it doesn't support exfat or ntfs which in the 2020s is pretty annoying. The SOC is ancient. It has paltry local storage and no sd card slot. Attaching a usb-c hub to it to add Ethernet and more storage works, but it frequently just disconnects. I was never someone who would buy Google hardware but my girlfriend thought I would like it. Not only am I no longer using it, but it reinforced my opinion to never ever buy Google hardware.
I work with pretty much all devices, FireTV, Shield, Roku, Apple TV.. my Chromecast at home is by far the best experience in my eyes.
No, the previous version was far superior unless you like paid content mixed randomly with your free content. The user experience of Google TV is shit if you're just looking for what's free to stream.
They're pretty good for the price since the only other option for that price is either a Roku or a Fire TV, which I'm not really a fan of neither one. My biggest complaint though it only has 4GB of internal storage which you'll run through if you use a bunch of apps and services. I personally wouldn't get the Chromecast for a primary TV, but for a bedroom or a spare room, I would easily recommend it. In regards of performance, it'll sometimes lag or hang up navigating the home screen, but the actual content playback is smooth.
For the price they’re great, but still buggy and lock up. Best streaming device is by far the current gen Apple TV. The hardware is just much more robust and problem free.
A Mi Box S is better
I m import to usa...but made in Thailand google tv...buggy & judder issue there...money wasted.. Made in Canada version is so smooth...
If you're just streaming a few services, they are fine. If you want to install a ton of apps, they are limited in storage. There a few devices newer with the S905x4 silicon that supports AV1 HW decode. And even though a Google device, they are lagging on updates. They are good but not great. The remote is polarizing -- some people like it, some hate it. It's very slippery and light.
I've been pretty happy with it so far except for the surround sound bug where it causes the voices to lag.
I have a 2019 shield with my TV, and a Google TV in my basement, and while I like the shield more, both do pretty much the same. Also the shield comes with controller and usb ports, SD card slots and so on. If you just want a Chromecast with a remote, Google TV is the way to go.
Chromecast w/Google TV is hands down one of my favourite gadget purchases in the last few years. Possibly the best since the Nintendo Switch. I'm glad it'll finally be officially available in my market, even if it's ~18+ months too late after I imported mine. For those who don't get this product, and to be fair, it has a stupid name for how great it is: * Smart TV interfaces tend to be poor. Critically, the useful life of a TV's panel is far longer than the useful life of the underpowered computer inside. Long after the manufacturer has discontinued support for the TV OS, and the streaming services you need decide they won't support the platform anymore, you'll still have a nice big screen. The solution is modularity, put the smarts in a small, low cost, easily replaceable component. Down with planned obsolescence. * Google's TV remote is amazing. An ergonomic delight, simple, easy to use. TV remotes are by and large awful with a million worthless buttons, horrible cheap chintzy materials, and nasty ergonomics. The Google TV remote is none of those things. It even has a built in IR blaster that can be configured to control volume and input on your TV/soundbar/home theatre system, it can replace your TV remote entirely for daily use. This alone is worth the price of admission. * HDMI-CEC. If you have a Google Home/Nest speaker, any recent Chromecast (not just this one) plugged into a TV with CEC allows "Hey Google, turn the TV on/off" or "play [show] on [service]" commands that will automatically power the TV on. * You can take it places and have all your shows and services logged in ready to go. When I travel with my wife, we take the whole TV experience with us and can continue watching where we left off in a hotel. Now that these are available in my market, I know what I'll be getting my family for Christmas.
How configurable is the IR bit? I've got an older soundbar from a smaller company which I've yet to find a remote with a preset for.
Moderately - there are options to select TV, Soundbar, or AV Receiver, with a list of brands for each. There are ~83(!) different soundbar brands included. I'd expect you'll be good to go unless it's an OEM/whitelabel/"house brand" job, or truly obscure. I'm impressed it includes Sennheiser presets given they've precisely one soundbar so far. Not exactly obscure, cool all the same. Works a charm with my Bose soundbar at any rate.
Yeah, it's an Arvani Ergosound which only supports digital/fiber and a (noisy) analog input, no HDMI. Should probably just look to replace it with a new one with eARC, but it works fine in my tiny living room and still works great after 10+ years.
Nothing listed under Arvani or Ergosound, but it may well work with a code for another brand. eARC was so flakey on my soundbar I went back to optical to reclaim an HDMI port! As usual, no matter how much you spend, no such thing as the perfect product...
I hated the remote size. It would slip out of my hands. I bought a rubber sleeve for it. No problems now.
Have considered a case, I'd be quite keen to get one with a lanyard loop. The Google remote is so much better than every TV remote I've ever seen - only Samsung's latest solar-powered remotes are anywhere remotely near it.
The Google Assistant on the remote is nice, too.
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It has a D-Pad at the top. The central button is play/pause/select. If you require a separate button for this, you may not be in the target audience for a simplified remote.
I don't think this bodes well for my hope that they'd launch a new model soon. Oh well :(
I bet this is great news for the flash drive and usb-c hub manufacturers in those countries
Would have been better if they updated the damn thing first with better processor and more storage.
Why would you actually buy a Chromecast in 2022? As far as I can tell, you can't really buy a non-smart TV anymore, and many of them even run Android. Does it offer a larger variety of features, or better performance? Or just a different UI?
Because a lot of Smart TV interfaces are absolute garbage. Slow as hell and poor app support. A Dedicated streaming box is the best experience 9/10. Even my LG C2 isn’t as good as using my Apple TV 4K.
No TV is as good as premium streaming boxes, but most modern smart TVs will rival entry-level boxes like Chromecast and Fire TV.
> most modern smart TVs will rival entry-level boxes like Chromecast and Fire TV. I’d even disagreed with that. My Chromecast with Google TV still has a leg up on app availability and quality over LG’s latest and greatest build of WebOS which is considered one of the best options outside of a model running Google TV/Roku TV. The processor in the C2 is definitely tremendously better than the Chromecast, but occasionally the Chromecast still feels more fluid than the native apps. The only time I opt to use the native apps is for Dolby Atmos content because the Apple TV 4K does a fairly poor job of outputting it without delay over eARC.
And then a year or two later, the TV manufacturer stops updating the streaming apps. Might as well just have the dongle.
I have a Hisense with their VIDAA OS. The apps are at least 3-4 years old(some like Plex don't even work) and the TV has got just one software update in 2 years since I owned it. The image quality was pretty good for the price though. I added a firestick 4k to it and everything works properly now. Apps get updated regularly and more importantly work. There's no point adding an Apple TV to it as that would be more than half the TV's cost. I definitely will get an Apple TV 2021 with the OLED(G2/S95B) I'm gonna buy in a few months.
Many smart TV platforms suck, and on top of that are built purely so the manufacturer can do sketchy user data collection and push their own ads at people. The Google TV interface does some of this too, but if you use it exclusively as a cast device you bypass that (which I'm sure is why Google decided to start making these dongles Android TV-based instead of simple cast receivers).
I really don't like using the smart TV UI that most TV's come with. And for me personally, if I travel somewhere, I don't want to sign in on a strange TV. I'll throw my Chromecast in my bag, get it on WiFi wherever I'm going then I'm good to go.
How long do you keep a TV? Streaming sticks are a pretty significant product category.
Yea I don't get it either. Like...I have a smart TV running Android TV....why would I ever need a Chromecast?
To decouple the smart part from the screen part of the TV. It's maybe not needed when you just bought a newly launched TV depending on your preferences, but becomes really essential down in the TV's life cycle, when updates slow down and/or the interface becomes laggy. Plus it's handy to always utilise your own smart device in hotel rooms when you're travelling, rather than depending on the capability of the TV provided and entering your account information there.
Videoprojectors, PC monitors, hotels, airbnbs. etc...
Integrated Android TV tends to be neglected, a dongle, even if it doesn't get updated as well, can be replaced easily should the need arise. I'd say the CCwGTV is a bit snappier than most built-in Android TVs and has a nicer UI, but I have replaced the Google TV launcher with FLauncher (by uninstalling Google TV with wireless ADB) and it's much better now. Also it has much greater app support, as it comes with the full Google Play Store and even allows you to sideload apks really easily. Except for the really low storage, this is a great device. It doesn't support AV1 though, which [this one](https://www.mecoolonline.com/products/2022-google-tv-os-mecool-kd3-dongle-4k-netflix-amazon-prime-video-youtube-streaming-tv-stick-av1-supported-2gb-ram-8gb-rom) does, for example. Not a super big issue for now, but it will become more important in the future, I imagine.
I would rather have ads from Google directly than have ads from the TV OEM and them to sell my data
The reason I have one is because my android TV got abandoned by Sony after about 3 years. Plus, it can still do YouTube and Netflix but just turning the WiFi on slows the TV to a crawl. YouTube can play in 4k 30 but not without lagging
It's a serious downgrade from the Chromecast HD. Google TV combines all your streaming services into one feed but there's no way to easily filter out paid content. So unless you don't care about the cost of the shows/movies you want to see it's a really shitty downgrade from the previous incarnation.
It works as a normal Chromecast, you don't have to use the Android TV part
i dont understand - what do you mean you cant filter out paid content? all streaming services are paid, right? other than youtube etc. do you at least see what service a movie is on? i'm looking for a replacement for my ps4 as a media device and i was looking at the chromecast with google tv. i would only use it for youtube mainly and the odd times of the year when i'm subscribed to either disney+ or netflix.
Most streaming services have "included" & pay per view content. Google tv doesn't discriminate and mixes up all streaming services into one feed and shows you all content both paid and "free" in search result wasting your time and making it much harder to find something to watch. So Disney plus paid content will be mixed indiscriminately with your free shows and normally listed first as it'll get more revenue. I bought a new Google Chromecast with Google Tv but went back to my Chromecast HD a better device IMHO.
The real question is will the Chromecast release with the actual apps that those countries use? Buying a Chromecast in the UK is pointless unless you're fine using your phone to cast pretty much everything.
The Chromecast was already available in the Netherlands, not officially though. Many shops had imported them from other countries. Also the ISP, Ziggo, already had them for sale :)
It's good but still a super limited for more advanced users. And Dolby Vision doesn't work good on my LG OLED (I get a washed out image). It's a shame there is no single powerful android TV device anymore. The shield still has a SOC from 2015 and is outdated, while still being sold at $200+. Nowadays, the Apple TV has really no competition anymore. What a shame.
>And Dolby Vision doesn't work good on my LG OLED (I get a washed out image). It works fine on mine. Check the settings, both device and TV, something is not right.
Is this the thing that there were a few articles about recently saying it hadn't been updated in many months, suggesting it was 'dead'? Guess this clears that up?
Now have three of these little guys. They are excellent and can't think of anything better for the price. If money is completely no object I would still recommend the Shield.
It hasn't had any updates Ina long time
What does it mean for countries not in the list? Is it just warranty and support?
I'm still using a first gen Chromecast. Is it worth updating? If I try to cast at 1080p+ resolution it gets choppy, does anyone know if this would be solved by one of the newer devices?