PS REMOTE PLAY CHROMECAST WITH GOOGLE TV TV

In the past year, I've cut the cord, ditched all the CATV hardware, and moved to Hulu as my live TV provider, which has simplified things a lot.

PS REMOTE PLAY CHROMECAST WITH GOOGLE TV WINDOWS 7

Before that, Windows 10, Windows 8, and if we go way back, Windows 7 Media Center boxes (and even Vista/XP era MC solutions) and all the dedicated equipment (set-top box for CATV/DVR passed through to the PC/console for EPG integration and viewing on the TV, receivers, speakers, various remotes, IR blasters, cables, more cables, and even more cables). Previously, I relied on Xbox consoles connected to each random TV set in my home. But to fully appreciate how I ended up there, first a little history. I have worked over the past year to get all my household TVs migrated over to Vizio 4K SmartCast sets, mainly to standardize on one robust UI and set of apps. Tagged with Chromecast, Chromecast with Google TV I’ll keep using it and make sure it continues to meet my expectations. Overall, this seems like a great choice for the living room. I’ve configured this to display family and friend photos from Google Photos. I assume you’re supposed to search, but browsing is sometimes preferable and this UI is pointless for that.Ĭontent playback works as expected, with nice navigation features, a captions toggle, and other settings.īeyond that, you’ll find all the expected settings interfaces, and for those familiar with past video-based Chromecast dongles (and Google smart displays), you’ll also find the familiar ambient mode that appears after a timeout period. I’ve only seen two issues so far, one of which I assume is temporary: The UI sometimes gets stuck on a blank-ish screen in which you can see content boxes but not the content they’re supposed to display.Īnd the Library view is a bit tough: Movies and Shows each get only one row to display all of the content in your library, and for folks like me that have literally hundreds of movies to scroll through, this is not ideal. In fact, it’s very similar to Amazon’s UI. The interface is straightforward, with top-level For you, Movies, Shows, Apps, and Library options, and there are no real advertisements that I’ve yet seen, which is a problem with Roku and, to a lesser degree, Fire TV Stick. That means I can turn the TV on and off and change the soundbar’s volume with the Chromecast’s remote. In the good news department, pairing the device with my TV (a Samsung smart TV) and soundbar (a Sonos Beam) was straightforward, and everything worked properly the first time.

PS REMOTE PLAY CHROMECAST WITH GOOGLE TV SOFTWARE

Setup is similar to that of the Nest Audio speakers, or really any modern connected device, which is to say that is a simple but time-consuming process with multiple steps, one of which involves downloading the requisite software update. I chose white, but black makes more sense for something that will be hidden behind a TV. It also comes in multiple colors, Snow (white), Sunrise (pink), and Sky (light blue), whereas older models were black. And it requires a power adapter, connected via USB-C instead of micro-USB, and can’t be powered off of a USB port on your TV. By comparison, its predecessor, Chromecast Ultra 4K, started at $69.99 when it launched in 2016.Ĭompared to the Ultra, the Chromecast with Google TV looks and works similarly, though it features a kind of oblong body instead of the circular form factor of its predecessor. And it comes with a great little remote, which seems to work well in early testing.

PS REMOTE PLAY CHROMECAST WITH GOOGLE TV FULL

It includes a full user interface, called Google TV, which looks/works like the UIs on other streamer boxes and will assumedly and eventually replace Android TV. A real hardware remote control-even the crappy Applet TV version-is always better than using your phone.Ĭhromecast with Google TV solves both of these problems. The problem was that Chromecast relied too heavily on your smartphone, both to find content, as the dongles had no real user interface, and as a remote control. I was immediately intrigued: I’ve always really liked the idea of Chromecast-and here, by “Chromecast,” I mean the video-based Chromecast dongles with HDMI ports, not Chromecast Audio, which was excellent and should still exist.

And Apple is rumored to have a new Apple TV waiting in the wings if that thing came with a better remote-a low bar-that would be an obvious choice.īut then Google announced the Chromecast with Google TV. The newly-announced Roku Ultra, for example, is supposed to offer a significant performance improvement over its predecessor, so that would solve one of my issues with that device.

Remote comparison: Google TV, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Apple TV (with case)Īnd there are definitely some possibilities.

Ps remote play chromecast with google tv