TiVo Launches $50 Streaming Video Player to Take On Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV

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It should. I've researched the specs on the SoC that this new Chromecast uses (the Amlogic S905X2) and it natively supports decoding MPEG-2 and can handle the .TS (transport stream) container that ATSC 1.0 OTA broadcasts are delivered in. (The Air TV Mini uses the S905Y2 chip which is the same except it does not have an ethernet input.)

I hope the Live tab in the new Google TV home screen will integrate OTA channels from available tuners. I know its live channel grid guide will show channels from YouTube TV.

 

Overall, I like what I see in the Google TV UI based on those photos and the video posted above. Except I'm sad to see that the "Play next" watchlist -- which had been just below the large "Staff Picks" graphical carousel of feature titles at the top of the For You tab -- has apparently been replaced with a "Top picks" row of suggested content titles.

I really like the universal watchlist in the Apple TV's TV app. Even the Google Play Movies and TV app for Android mobile -- which is conceptually similar to the Google TV UI -- has a watchlist feature. Not sure why they didn't include one in Google TV unless it was just because they couldn't get enough of the major apps to support it. (All of them except Netflix do on Apple TV.)

 

Seems even stranger that they didn't include a universal watchlist in Google TV considering the Chrome browser-based Kaleidoscope project they're building that apparently seeks to do that: Chrome Kaleidoscope - Watch Your Video Streaming Services on One Page - Chrome Story

I did notice that at the bottom of Google TV's main For You tab, you can click to select exactly which streaming services you want Google to provide recommendations from on the For You tab. So at least you shouldn't be shown a bunch of stuff from services you don't pay for or care about. That's good.

 

There is a tab at the very right side that is called “Library” That is where your watch list will be, but I’m not sure if it will only be through Movies anywhere service, it asks you to sign in

 

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So I took a trip to Walmart and got my hands on the new chromecast! But unfortunately I was not allowed to purchase just yet. It wasn’t on the floor shelves so I asked the Walmart dude working there if they had it in stock. He said we have it right here, he then pulls me to the side and opens the locked shelf behind the counter. He let me look and hold the box. He was even cool enough to let me snap this pic. He told me they will go on sale on September 30th, the same day as the Google event.

 

The Tivo stick is the same processor as the Air Stick too, but Tivo screws with the HW capabilities. We shall see if Goggle does the same.

 

It’s actually S905X3

Chromecast with Google TV gets full unboxing [Gallery] - 9to5Google

 

From what I've read the S905X3 is supposedly around 15% more powerful than the S905X2. And the S905X3 uses less power.

 

So is this google device going to force hdr on all content like the TS4K does? If not I'm in.

-Guru

 

Close. Per this report from Android TV Guide on Twitter today, it's actually the S905D3 (a same-gen sibling to the S905X3):


Everyone (including myself) had been expecting the previous-gen S905X2 based on the firmware that had leaked out earlier this year.

So this chip will be a bit faster than what we had been expecting. Plus the Gen 3 line of chips have a AI accelerator that should make for faster processing of voice requests to Google Assistant. (The new Gen 4 line supports AV1 decoding. Alas, that didn't make it into this device. But I'm sure those would've been too costly for Google to put in a $50 device.)

Don't think there's much difference between the -X3 and -D3. From what I can gather, looks like the D series SoCs are intended for TV boxes with more than one tuner. Not sure why Google is using those chips in the Chromecast and Nest Hub.

 

Yeah, this is one of the questions I'm concerned about.

Also wondering if it will, in fact, support Dolby Vision HDR as had been reported based on the earlier build firmware leak. We know things have changed since that build because the actual product is shipping with a new SoC. So other aspects may have changed too. The SoC in the device can certainly support Dolby Vision but it's an optional feature that Google would have to license from Dolby and implement. And I haven't seen any reference to Dolby Vision on any of the photos of the product box or in any of the screenshots.

Another feature I wonder about is variable framerate. Can its output be set to automatically match the native framerate of the content its playing, as can be done on Apple TV and Fire TV?

 

The Library tab is where your collection of owned titles will be. When I refer to a watchlist, I'm talking about the queue of series and movies you've saved from across various streaming services to watch later. Something like what the TiVo Stream app on the TS4K tries to do, or what the ReelGood app does.

 

I sure hope they add that as a feature

 

Greetings. First time poster here although I've had a TiVo Roamio since 2014.

I purchased the TiVo stream 4K from Amazon. Unfortunately I realize it was made in China. I don't feel good about that. Most supply lines have moved to Vietnam and other places. Anyway, this is the personal nit.

So I got it set up today and set up was pretty easy. Although I had to take several tries to pair the remote to the unit. But all is well.

I'm mainly chiming in because I have this temporarily connected to a Samsung Q80R 4K television... Does not have Dolby vision, what supports HDR10 and HDR10+.

I find that the unit is outputting everything as HDR like others have reported. And my Samsung TV indicates it's receiving HDR. But the colors are not washed out or muted or faded or anything.

My critical testing was done using the Plex app to stream MKV Blu-ray rips. So I guess the TiVo is tone mapping SDR to HDR... And I'd imagine it's doing a pretty good job of it because my Samsung Q80R is handling the video just fine.


Edit:
The interface is pretty slick. Kind of makes the fire TV interface look like crap. In my opinion

It looks like the home screen being black was resolved. As soon as I powered up the unit it installed update (I think it was called...) 4896

 

Hmm, looks like a variable/native framerate feature may have to wait for an upgrade to Android TV 11. That appears to be a feature that Google has only just made possible with the new version of the OS. And for apps to make use of the feature, they'll have to target Android 11 (API level 30).

Frame rate | Android Developers

The TS4K runs Android TV 9 and the new Chromecast with Google TV is launching with Android TV 10, although I expect it will update to 11 before long.

 

I wonder if that extra bit of processing power - and the neural network accelerator - will be used for Stadia?

I agree, I don't understand the use of the "D" SoC, unless it was cheaper for them to buy. Or maybe they'll offer a USB-C tuner one day, haha.

 

YTTV is constantly freezing on me over the past week or so. The audio continues, but the picture is frozen. I can temporarily fix it by fast forwarding. YTTV Support couldn’t offer much help. Anyone else? I’m going to fire up my Firestick 4K to see if it happens there.

Not happening on any other video apps. Internet bandwidth is not a problem. Everything in the chain (router, TiVo Stream, etc) has been rebooted.

 

Mine was doing this to until I got an Ethernet adapter and that seemed to solve the problem so I think it was a WiFi problem. Another thing you can try in YouTube settings is to make sure quality is set to auto

 

Thanks. Happy that solved your problem, but I don’t see myself going the Ethernet route. It is set to auto - I also throttled it down to 720p over the weekend to no avail.

It only happens on certain channels, I think, usually cable stations. I watched CBS and FOX football on Sunday without issue.

 

YTTV works great on Firestick 4K on a known problem channel on TS4K.