Posting from my Google TV!
I unboxed my Logitech Revue with Google TV yesterday and have been screwing around with it with great delight. It works as advertised: An “input one” device that slaps a Google-favored netbook-like Internet on top of your existing setup, embedding your cable TV into it and embedding it into your cable TV effectively. It’s intended to plug into your televisions primary input jack, not like a DVD player but the one your tuner or cable box or whatever is currently plugged into, then you plug your cable box into the Logitech device and light it up bro.
After you set it up fully, something that may take you about twenty minutes from unboxing to checking your Picasa albums with Real Housewives of Atlanta playing in the lower right (hey, the wife was with me), you can put your remotes in a drawer as this thing takes control of your television, your AV system and your cable box all from a slim keyboard and/or your Android phone. This is Android-based but you get an essentially full-featured Google Chrome browser that appears to do everything a computer browser would do including Flash. Yes, tabbed browsing. No, no adblock extensions. The only point at which I saw a sign of a lack of horsepower was cruising around in Street View getting a choppy though still acceptable frame rate but for everything else I’ve done so far it works fine. I look forward to a Google TV app market opening up, but on the other hand I still haven’t tried half the things already on this puppy.
It comes with a chic keyboard with a touchpad and other buttons for general navigation, a universal Search button, buttons to switch to TV, to embed TV into Google TV, DVR, fast forward/rewind, menu and more or less what you’d expect to find on a laptop keyboard. It’s intuitive: My wife, not a nerd, managed to figure out the basics quickly and completely on her own. Streams 1080p from Youtube nicely, type in HBO or Bravo or Daily Show to bring up episodes on demand — content that they are working hard to enrich, a CNBC app that looks like you’re watching CNBC except your Google Finance stocks are streaming on it and you can click around, you can email on anything with a webmail setup, not just Gmail. Netflix, Amazon VOD, some NBA thing, some Napster thing, Pandora. I haven’t messed with an Apple TV but from what I’ve read many of the things I’ve been doing with this device cannot be done with Apple TV. No?
I’ve got my Android phone hooked up to it for a normal sized master remote to control everything within Google TV and the rest of my equipment (the Google TV thing comes with an infared “blaster” that shoots signals to your other equipment, provided you feed in the model numbers of everything which was the only nuisance of the setup). I have no interest in this but I understand that if you get a webcam for this you can video conference presumably as you would on a computer. With all the Google cloud services available I can picture my parents (though not me) getting away with surviving just on this system with no computer which ain’t bad for $300. If you’d prefer a critique from someone who hasn’t been drinking the Google kool-aid all year read this.
Did I say 1080p?
Doug Simmons
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Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
Touche.
But does it blend?:)
Really though, I’d like to see it compared to the Dell Zino (http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-zino-hd-410/pd?refid=inspiron-zino-hd-410&~oid=us~en~29~inspiron-zino-hd-410-anav1~~)
It’s a different product obviously (no universal search and it isn’t one box that takes over – but I presume if you used Media Center you get closer to that) but starting at $300 you get a full PC on your TV and that also means that it’s not blocked like they are donig to Goog now.
Attack of the Show reviewed the Revue yesterday and gave it 5 out of 5. My favorite bit was where Kevin Pereira said that it shouldn’t be compared to Apple TV because Google TV was “a way better experience.”
Sounds like a sweet device.
This device is lame..
To do any type of DVR management(search, schedule shows, watch stuff)you have to use Dish network, which is awful..
Since I have Directv(will not leave, have to have NFL Sunday Ticket) all Google TV is, is an over rated Roku box.
Granted I can’t browse the web with the Roku, but I can watch Youtube video, stream Amazon VOD content, Stream PlayON content from my Computer(this allows me to watch shows from CBS, which is the only network not in Amazon’s store)…Later this fall, if I want to pay to watch crappy shows that were available free, but no one watched when free, then I can subsribe to Hulu plus.
Also, on the Roku I have access to a plethora of Video podcasts via MediaFly. Not to mention the various music services on there(MOG, Pandora, Shoutcast radio, Radio Time)..
So tell me what does this $299 box do that the Roku box doesn’t do, and justifies the extra $200?? Is web browsing worth $200 extra? how about checking email? Flash content?
I really don’t understand the point of this box…
I really like the idea of these things but that is as far as it goes.
I’ve already played with this and returned it, I think I was the first at my Best Buy to get one. DavidK made a great point Media Center so far is best way to go. These things will catch fire if they start giving people options other than Cable. I’ll wait and see if they iron out bugs first. If there is a cool app developed that I need to have; I can see myself using this for just that.
Video quality is poor compared to my Media Center PC. The Dell Zino has bad reviews so far, so build a unit that suits your needs.
Oh, one more point.
The future of TV is on the internet! That I believe will be true in the next 5 years or less.
I played with this today at Best Buy when I was purchasing my Happauge HD PVR to record PS3 and Wii games. It’s really cool. I can see this going places.
David does have a good point about the Dell Zino, but the interface on the Google TV is much better for the casual user. Not everyone wants a full blown PC, and google does a great job of blending the internet into the casual user experience.