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Re: Google TV

#421

Post by forgot-my-pw »

partiallypro wrote: post #192
Navarr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google TV is a launcher for Android TV, so far as I can tell. Android TV is not being rebranded, as it is the OS - but Google TV is the "Google Experience" on Android TV. To make this more complicated/interesting - Google renamed the Play Movies and TV app to "Google TV." I'm guessing so you can have Google TV on Google TV? Will the Play Movies app on my existing Android TV open the Google TV launcher like shown off…

Google is somehow worse than Microsoft at naming

Microsoft had terrible naming for Windows and Xbox products.

On the cloud side, Azure has way better service/product names than AWS: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/aws-prof...

Re: Google TV

#422

Post by dragonwriter »

buzzerbetrayed wrote: post #419
dragonwriter wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do I now have to pay a monthly subscription to keep using them? You don't. You can download paid and uploaded content from Google Play Music and use it anywhere. This has been supported since before Play Music even had a paid subscription service.

Yes, but then they have to somehow manage those files. They paid to have those songs readily available on any of their devices easily through Google Play Music. Now they have a bunch of random mp3 files that can't easily be played on any device. No exactly the same thing. Sure you can argue that the TOS said this or that when they bought the music.. but the fact remains: if they had bought the music on nearly any oth…

> they had bought the music on nearly any other music streaming service, they'd still have access to it easily on any device.

No, if they'd bought it on a wide number of other services, they'd also have had to switch to new services with different terms and features. Play Music isn't the only major store to have shut down over the years.

> Now they have a bunch of random mp3 files that can't easily be played on any device

Other than dedicated streaming devices, and devices that only handle dedicated physical media, pretty much any device that can play music can easily play mp3 files, random or not.

Also, the supported automated migration path (YouTube Music) does, in fact, play songs from the personal library ad-free without a subscription:

“You can play uploaded songs in the background on your mobile phone or on the web, ad-free and offline - even if you are not currently a YouTube Music Premium subscriber.”

https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/52908732?hl=e...

So other than you have to click a button to migrate, and you have to use an app and service with a different name, there's no substantive change here.

Re: Google TV

#423

Post by Tijdreiziger »

mavhc wrote: post #377
Tijdreiziger wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logitech has been in the home entertainment space for a long, long time (with their Harmony remotes, which did need software to make them work). In 2015 I'd certainly have placed more trust in a Logitech device in that space than an Nvidia one.

Are these the Harmony Remotes that required Silverlight?

IIRC, in the beginning they required a desktop application to be installed, and later Logitech released a new Silverlight-based version of said application on the web.

Of course, the application needed to communicate with the remote via USB, which I don't think was natively possible in the web browser at that time.

Re: Google TV

#424

Post by ChuckMcM »

AznHisoka wrote: post #375
ChuckMcM wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From last year: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/11/20908128/smart-tv-survei... but my source was a long time Roku employee who eventually quit after the monetization started getting "out of hand" (his words, not mine).

Are they actually selling the data directly to 3rd parties? Or just using it for targeted advertising? The latter is obviously occurring but not sure about the first.

My understanding (and to be clear, this is hearsay, I did not seek to independently verify it) is that they will sell viewing information to a channel provider. (so Amazon could find out how often you opened up Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video, or you started on Amazon, closed it, and then opened up Netflix, etc).

Re: Google TV

#425

Post by ninkendo »

umvi wrote: post #40

Ok, maybe I'm the only one, but I'm actually excited about this. It appears to be an aggregation service. Instead of individually searching across N platforms for content (hulu, disney+, youtube, crunchyroll, netflix, etc), you can now just use a single app (Google TV) which will allows you to search and stream across all platforms you are subscribed to. Furthermore you can cast stuff directly to chromecast from Goog…

If it's anything like Apple's TV app, it'll probably be awful.

The idea is sound: Let's use a common interface to all the content offered by the apps you already have installed.

But in practice (on Apple at least), it's awful. There's no telling whether you'll actually be able to view the content you see, or if it's just going to lead to some screen where you need to buy the content individually. Want to watch Family Guy? Oh it turns out YouTubeTV (your TV provider) has it but it's not donated to the AppleTV app, so you get a purchase link to buy an episode for $5, even though YouTubeTV actually has the same episode in your DVR library.

Want to watch the $sportsteam game that's on? Oh there's a link right there to watch it in the $sports_app app! Except that link takes you to a page that explains that you don't have the subscription necessary to actually watch the game. Or oops, it's blacked out in your area.

Or maybe you finally select something that's actually available to watch, so it links you out to the app that contains that content, only to have the app fail to support the appropriate intent/deep link, so you just end up on that app's home screen.

It ends up being this very hit-or-miss experience where anything you want to watch has like a 70% chance of actually succeeding, so you don't trust it, and it ends up being worthless.

Yes I'm bitter.

Re: Google TV

#426

Post by kevstev »

ketralnis wrote: post #32

I owned the Logitech Google TV which I bought for about $300 early in its lifespan. After about a year they shipped some really bad updates to it that made it so slow that it was essentially unuseable and removed several key features, and then never shipped another update to it again. Logitech and Google both lost interest in it and after not long all of the apps like Netflix and even Google's own Youtube stopped wor…

I hear you. Google nerfed my Nest Hello last year without explanation, while letting my other Nest products pretty much die on the vine, even if I want to pay $X/month to enable my multiple $150+ cameras to be useful.

There is just so much wasted potential there. We have a "legit" security system that my wife wants to turn on expensive $50/month monitoring on, and I have been fending her off saying look we have all these motion detectors and cameras in the house, Google will pull this all together and do it 10x better, but it seems that day is never coming.

Re: Google TV

#428

Post by ethbr0 »

mavhc wrote: post #376
ethbr0 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming parent was alluding to the "Live!" Windows days, where internet-enabled products suddenly became "{Product} Live!" Eventually, everything of consequence ended up with the suffix, and they finally dropped it. But say what you want about Microsoft. Somewhere out there there's a publicly accessible doc describing the naming. And probably a video too. * * https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/partners/vide…

I raise you .net Live! https://github.com/Azure-Samples/media-services-dotnet-live-...

My mind is blown. 365 degrees.

Re: Google TV

#429

Post by haltingproblem »

Why Google? Why? How is this different than Chromecast? What is the upgrade path from Chromecast.

There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup. Google PMs are high on adwords/adsense revenues trying to score points via product launches to get higher bonuses. That is an apt summary of Google's internal political economy.

Time to get an Apple TV and get off the Google ecoystem. sigh.

Re: Google TV

#430

Post by dragonwriter »

haltingproblem wrote: post #429

Why Google? Why? How is this different than Chromecast? What is the upgrade path from Chromecast. There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup. Google PMs are high on adwords/adsense revenues trying to score points via product launches to get higher bonuses. That is an apt summary of Google's internal political economy. Time to get an Apple TV and g…

> How is this different than Chromecast?

It's software that is included on the newest Chromecast. (And will soon be included in Android TVs.)

> What is the upgrade path from Chromecast.

It is included in the newest Chromecast, which is also the upgrade path for existing TVs that won't get it.

> There should be some law against Google launching products that invalidates existing products in their own lineup.

There should be a law against improved versions of existing products?

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