Google TV, Take 2: Android Apps now on Smart TVs | Hacker News Reader

Google TV, Take 2: Android Apps now on Smart TVs

wired.com

38 pointsacak22 comments

I got my Google TV for free at Google Zeitgeist. I'm really, really, glad I didn't pay for it.

I was pretty excited when I got it, since I've never subscribed to cable, and watch most of my shows online.

Unfortunately, there's a huge issue with Google TV: almost every streaming content provider has summarily blocked Google TV's access.

So, if you buy a Google TV, what you're essentially getting is a fancy YouTube/Netflix player. Google has this pipe dream of YouTube replacing traditional and nontraditional premium content channels (cable, Hulu, Netflix)... but honestly, YouTube is a terrible user experience on the TV, since most videos only last minutes.

The thought of having to use that tiny controller-keyboard (the Google TV boasts an absurdly complicated controlled that kind of feels like using a PlayStation3 Controller, a smartphone from the early 2000's, and a TV remote, all at the same time) to navigate through the complex menus of GoogleTV every time my 3 minute YouTube clip ends is pretty unappealing.

Today, my GoogleTV sits collecting dust. I hooked up a cheap laptop to my TV through HDMI, and control it through VNC. It's a cheaper, easier to use, and simpler solution for watching Netflix and YouTube, and I even get to watch other things that I want to watch or download movies too.

The UI and platform improvements to GoogleTV are nice, but until they get some content providers on board, I don't see much point.

Right now, it seems like they're catching up with the AppleTV in terms of UI/UX... which is good, except when you realize that AppleTV is and was a failure as well.

> Right now, it seems like they're catching up with the AppleTV in terms of UI/UX... which is good, except when you realize that AppleTV is and was a failure as well.

AppleTV has one killer feature: AirPlay. For me, this does exactly what you are doing with your VNC-controlled PC, but it has a nicer UI and is wirelessly connected to a device I always carry with me.

Android devices have DLNA since before Airplay existed. It does pretty much the same thing.

DLNA can share the devices screen, including any app? I did not think it went that far?

What he is doing with his VNC controlled PC is picking content that the PC will play. What you are doing with your AirPlay device is playing it there and streaming it to your appletv. The device is doing the playing though; you are sucking its battery down. This is not what I would call the ideal experience. The ideal experience would be to use your device to tell the appletv where the content is and the appletv then does the playing/streaming. This would be easy for web content with a URI but unfortunately that's the extreme minority of all internet video content.

Changing the user agent unblocks most of that content. Although most websites streams at 480i and look pretty miserable on an HDTV.

90% of the sites have streaming blocked by Flash ID, not User Agent, which is not changeable.

the real trick is to have playOn send your G-TV the stream.

When the new update comes out just install a hacked version of the Flash player again problem solved.

It's not that easy. The first-gen Google TVs were extremely hard to jailbreak. The Revue was the only one jailbroken and it required soldering.

Installing the hacked version of Flash does not required root access. On my Honeycomb tablet its as easy as installing any non-market APK.

The non-Apple equivalent of AirPlay (which planb mentioned) can, for now, be Wi-Di for PC-to-TV streaming. This can and should be integrated to Google TV - plus an AirPlay interface for beaming content from Apple's devices if Wi-Di for Apple devices is an issue.

With Apps being added to it, we might start seeing streaming content providers make apps that offer pay-per-view or subscriptions within the app and become the TV-equivalent of a cable channel.

Google TV might even make it easier to recommend (socialize) and manage subscriptions/pay per view on these apps by centralizing it in the way Game Center socializes / centralizes score-keeping on iOS devices for game apps.

I got my Logitech Revue as part of a promotion by Google, and I agree with you -- I'm glad I didn't pay for it.

It just didn't do anything spectacular or exciting. The browser is cool, but I always have my iPad 2 with me at the sofa so it was rendered pretty much useless. Also, no apps (until now, if Logitech updates).

"Unfortunately, there's a huge issue with Google TV: almost every streaming content provider has summarily blocked Google TV's access."

I would state that as--> Unfortunately, there's a huge issue with almost every streaming content provider, they have summarily blocked Google TV's access.

This is FREE content we are talking about, but they want to extract some extra rents from cash rich Google putting their name on the device.

There should be no "deals".

Theoretically, I am wondering if opening up the platform to Android apps will mean that providers will have to block the Android flash player as well? (One wonders why they didn't block that, only the much smaller market of Google TV...)

I developed one of the featured TV apps. I think licensing is indeed one of the sticky points. One key point is that a lot of licensors may require DRM in their licensing terms. Google has a lot of room to grow in this area, and certainly will over the next year. Support for HLS is also another biggie, as it's not a POS like RTMP nor is it trivially copied like progressive download.

I'm probably the only one, but I love the GoogleTV. Had it since early this year and use it absolutely every single day. It's always on, so it's always so easy to look up something on youtube, show somebody your pictures, watch a video from my NAS, look up a recipe or a place to visit on the web, etc.

At first I thought the full keyboard was a bit too much, but now I don't mind it at all, just makes it easier to find stuff online. I love it, can't wait for the update.

The fact that it's always on is the killer for me. One keypress and you're searching for whatever you want. Whenever people visit me and we're talking about something, I just press the search key and we can all search together for it, much more social then pulling up a phone and looking down. I love it, cant wait for the update.

How do you watch video from your NAS. Did you setup a DLNA server, or something. That has been hard for me to figure out. Other then that it's been great.

In my case, I set up TVersity (http://tversity.com/) and pointed it at my media. It works just fine with my googletv.

Yes, I use an asus router for my wireless, with Tomato running, and that includes a DLNA server. I added a 2Tb harddrive connected via USB to the router, so my videos stay online all the time. Pretty awesome.

Agreed - can't wait for the updates. - I think watching Youtube on the TV with the kids (SesameSt) is amazing. - The sony device came with a blu-ray so that's one less device on the console. - Catching photos off picasa is a fun activity for the fam

Not for everyone, I agree, but it suits my needs real well (not too much into mainstream programming)

I got a free GoogleTV from Google last December and I really enjoy it, especially after a software update that auto-installed earlier this year. My only disappointment has been not having time to try writing an app for it - this has been a busy year for me. (I wrote a simple web site http://cookingspace.com/ 3 1/2 years ago to help me track nutrients in the meals I eat, and I had hoped to have time to write a custom rich client for this web app for my own use.)

I may buy the new version if the hardware is much better but I'll wait a while to see what any future software updates do for version 1.

Most of my use is with Netflix streaming, and I have considered quitting my Hulu+ account because they block use with GoogleTV.

I may buy the new version if the hardware is much better but I'll wait a while to see what any future software updates do for version 1.

Most of my use is with Netflix streaming, and I have considered quitting my Hulu+ account because they block use with GoogleTV.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com