In essence, Google is trying to get you to content as quickly as possible without requiring you to open a variety of apps to find something to watch. That’s why everywhere you look there are suggestions for movies and TV shows for you to watch with your apps list taking a back seat. Now, putting that aside, here’s what the Chromecast with Google TV’s UI is all about–content instead of services. I’m sure there would be many like myself who wouldn’t touch it, but it definitely would make a lot of users happy to disable it. Regardless, I can’t defend Google’s decision here, and at the very least there should be a way to toggle this off in the settings. A few times I may even pay attention and learn about a new show or movie. I’m mostly blind to the promoted shows and just treat it as a live wallpaper that makes the background more interesting than a static image. I’m not a fan of ads myself, but I’m honestly not too bothered by this change. The Android TV community has been very vocal about this, even tanking the review score of the Launcher app on the Play Store with negative reviews. To address the elephant in the room, yes, Google recently updated the home screen on Android TV that shows “recommendations” AKA ads. However, you’re going to have to switch to a power brick with more watts such as this Anker USB-C 45W charger. It has been proven to work well with the Chromecast with Google TV and it can even add an Ethernet port to it. Some things to note, it will only read FAT32 filesystems and it’s going to require a higher wattage power brick.įor USB hubs, I’d suggest the Vemont USB-C Hub 5-in-1. However, it is possible to connect a USB-C hub with power delivery to expand the Chromecast with Google TV and add external storage. That doesn’t leave you with a lot of options. You get an HDMI out on one end and a USB-C input on the other. When it comes to I/O, there aren’t a lot of options here. I have the Snow unit here, as if you couldn’t tell by its white color already. None of this matters for the unit itself, but it will change what color your remote is. It also comes in three different colors, Snow, Sunrise, and Sky. Basically, all you need to know is that it’s sleek and small enough to stay hidden behind your TV. The Chromecast with Google TV is slightly larger than the previous generation Chromecasts, while also being compact. And what other company would be more likely to update its TV box than the one that is responsible for creating the software? That’s right, I’m talking about Google, this is the Chromecast with Google TV review after all. The takeaway from this is, if you want your TV to run the latest version of software, it’s best to stick with a brand with a good track record with updates. It’s currently running Android TV OS 9 with the last update coming nearly a year ago and no signs of another update coming anywhere in the near future. My JBL Link Bar soundbar with Android TV is proof of that. It’s a tale as old as time, but a company doesn’t have to go under to leave you stranded with old software. Fast forward to 2021 and I’m left with a TV stuck on Android 6.0, while the most recent version is Android TV OS 10. Long story short, the company went belly up within a year. Once upon a time, there was a company called LeEco that burst onto the American shore with big promises and reasonably priced 4K Android TVs. Personally, I just returned a new Chromecast (without a remote) after a couple of days as I found it’s CEC was far to aggressive and prevented my Samsung TV from selecting other Anynet+ (Samsung’s flavour of CEC) sources (though this was only when the Chromecast was plugged into a Samsung Blu-ray sound system rather than the TV, which was how I wanted it).Let me tell you a story. If you can’t disable CEC, you can purchase CEC-less adaptors that strip the CEC connection on device’s HDMI link.Īlternatively, give our technical support team a shout and they can get CEC network information via Sonos diagnostics and hopefully address the issue directly. If you identify a device that’s causing problems, try to disable CEC on it. Test again, and if things are working, slowly replace each device, making sure you test fully before adding another. If you continue to have issues, repeat the last step but remove any other HDMI devices from the TV while it is off. This will be enough to reinitialise the entire CEC network. If issues with Chromecast remote controls persist, first reboot your TV by removing power from it for 30 seconds. If there was no HDMI used, you’d need to program IR for the Beam. This is why it works without IR being used. Your Chromecast remote will work like this: a Bluetooth link from remote to Chromecast, then CEC through the HDMI connection to the TV, then CEC from the TV to the Beam, also via HDMI.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |