Remember the Nexus Q or Chromecast? Me neither. Meet Google's Nexus Player

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Remember the Nexus Q or Chromecast? Me neither. Meet Google's Nexus Player

«‹›4 »

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

nerox posted:

Nearest Best Buy is like an hour away and none in stock according to the web. Google Play is 3-4 weeks as well.

It wouldn't matter you have more closer. I have about 15 Best Buys within a 20 minute drive and all are sold out completely and have been since the day of release. There isn't even a place on the shelf for it right now as far as I can tell.

I'm assuming Best Buy was the only retail partner for these things?

# ¿ Aug 6, 2013 23:15

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:46

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

The thing that bothers me is Google is once again shooting themselves in the foot with a hosed up product launch.

They announce this cheap simple streaming solution and everyone gets excited about it.

Then you can't buy it.

But here's the rub, once you get people excited for something they weren't sure that they needed, they will find a way to make it happen. So now, these same people are going to be buying up other media streamers because they have the streaming bug and Google will have lower adoption numbers than they could have had if inventory was anything close to what it needed to be.

I already have tons of ways to stream in my main entertainment area, but I was thinking of grabbing a Chromecast for my bedroom TV and returning the cable box. But now I can't get one. So I start thinking to myself "Well, this cable box is costing me $5.99 /month. Chromecast costs $35 and I can't get one for 3 months. So, if this is really the route I want to take for that TV, I could just buy a Roku now and it would cost me the same amount in the end."

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 21:21

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Rhyno posted:

The Nexus 4 was Play exclusive for months and just as hard to get at first.

The nexus 4 was a complex phone.

The chromecast is a cheap-rear end Marvell SoC stuck on a PCB with a little ram and two interface connections sandwiched between a cent's worth of plastic. Google should have been able to make enough to stuff in as a crackerjack prize.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 00:20

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

withak posted:

There is a good-sized chunk of aluminum heat sink in there too.

While I know JPMorgan is intentionally constraining aluminum supply to make money on commodities trading, I doubt aluminum shortage is the driving concern here.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 00:25

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

That only covers people who ordered early though.

For people ordering now, it's still 2-3 months which is silly.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 16:07

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Does the chromecast have a built in browser at all?

I'm basically wondering how it operates with click through agreements for hotel wifi systems.

Thermopyle posted:

That's not what I was asking. I understand why people want this thing. I don't understand why people have to have it Right Now and then complain when it's out of stock. Just wait until it's available!

Because it's very frustrating, in this day an age, for someone to show off a new product, showcase all it's features, and then say "naww, you can't have it yet." Also, google is the master of this.

I'm the same way right now about the Zenbook Infinity that Asus showed off earlier this year. I want it NOW, not Q4. Don't even tell me it exists yet if I can't buy it.

It's also just bad from a marketing perspective. You lose the buzz from your unveiling after they quietly make it back into stores months down the line.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Aug 9, 2013

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 18:03

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Eh, it's just best not to over-think it. Google made a product that's an impulse buy and I can't impulse buy it. It's as simple as that, frustration.

It's as much about scratching the impulse buy itch is it is getting the product itself.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Aug 9, 2013

# ¿ Aug 9, 2013 18:27

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Unless google comes to an understanding with the TV OEMs that lets them update the software themselves, I think its better that chromecast remains a standalone product.

To remain relevant, Chromecast will have to be constantly updated with new capabilities and feature tweaks, the last thing we need is 20 different versions from TV manufacturers who don't update their poo poo.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 16:41

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Wagonburner posted:

Maybe any google software on a tv could be sandboxed/VMed or something so it could be updated independently of the manufacturers stuff?

Oh, it certainly could, there's no technical reason why they can't do something like that. It's mostly a support issue. OEMs like LG, Panasonic, Samsung, or Sony aren't going to be wanting to field support calls over something Google screwed up in an update.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 17:09

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

michael knight posted:

I mean they already do for smartphones, that's the lesson learned from Verizon's initial blunder in turning down Apple's offer to handle iphone support themselves. I don't have an Android phone, but I know (from assisting users that insist on them) a bit about the delayed update system and support structure. They run the updates through their internal processes, add on their pieces of flare, and then push it out.

Smartphones have a lot shorter shelf life than TVs though. I don't see LG wanting to push a Chromecast update to a 6 year old TV in way down the line.

Whenever the API stabilizes and most of the bugs are worked it, it may just become an integrated features like Airplay, but I don't have the feeling that Google has any further plans than "look at this cool thing we did."

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 19:22

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

What's the movie?

Looks like Prometheus to me.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 13:50

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I think it's funny that he cites Amazon at the end there considering they've gone out of their way to NOT make their content available on Android.

All this manufactured controversy over this seems silly. If you want a $35 device that plays whatever you want on it, buy a Raspberry PI. Google is absolutely going to court and placate the big media platforms because exactly what they need to do to make this a success and make money.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2013 15:39

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Having hacks and workarounds available are also a bad way to start because it allows devs to do things the "wrong" way from the get-go. Better to close the holes now and postpone them until they have official API access than to have dozens of apps in the marketplace using workarounds that will get broken eventually.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 15:25

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I did manage to order one from best buy yesterday during the window that they had open. Shipped this morning so hopefully I'll have it before the end of the week. They already emailed over the Netflix code.

It's interesting that best buy is still able to do the Netflix promotion, I wonder what the allotment of the initial codes were between Amazon, Google Play, and Best Buy.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 23:42

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Chromecast ended up being the last missing piece in a puzzle I didn't realize I was trying to solve.

I've never really given any serious thought to cutting the cord. I have the top tier FiOS TV service and all of the premiums along with 2tb of DVR space. I have hulu+ and netflix subs, but there are some things that those don't cover.

iTunes and Amazon were non-starters for me as far as purchasing episodes because I would trade one constraint (stuff tied to my DVR) for another (stuff tied to whatever I used to play Amazon on the TV). There was no way to play either content on my mobile devices so it was never too enticing.

Well, now I have chromecast which means I can easily put Play Store content on the TV and all that same content works on all my devices (as does Netflix and Hulu+). Suddenly, cutting the cord isn't just a way to save money, it saves money AND gives me greater portability on content AND improves quality (no commercials or network bugs on play store purchased content.)

With the amount of money I would cut out from my FiOS service, I could purchase about 452 $1.99 episodes from google play, more if I bought full seasons since those are discounted. That amounts to twenty 22 episode TV shows a year (in reality, most of the shows I watch are 10 - 13 episode seasons.) Also, a good chunk of those shows will be on Hulu+, negating the need for purchase. About the only thing I'll miss is the ability to record tons of movies off of premium channels and HBO shows. However, for what I save, I could afford a few more rentals and I could just flat out purchase stuff like Game of Thrones on blu-ray.

So, in the end, this little $35 device was the game changer for me to make the leap to cutting the cord. Sure, I could have also done it with Google TV, but i would have never gotten around to buying a Google TV in the first place as I wasn't explicitly looking for a way to view Play Store content.

So, as soon as I deplete all of my current recordings on my DVR, I think I'm just going to cancel my TV service. I can get everything I need from Google for less.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 23:32

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I know I certainly didn't have to do anything special. I plugged it in, configured it via wifidirect with the chromecast app from the Play store, and then all my devices on the network (wired or not) recognized it. All I had to do on my desktop was just install the extension and I was off to the races.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2013 22:02

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

HBO can't even get their app working on 4.3, I assume chromecast support is a LOOONG way off.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2013 17:54

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

datajosh posted:

but at least they're better at it than the EPIX people.

Huh? I've never had an issue with Epix after upgrades. Right now, Epix is compatible with all my devices from 4.1.2 to 4.3.

HBO Go is especially annoying because 4.2.2 broke smooth playback on my Nexus 10 and HBO finally fixed it.... 1 week before 4.3 came out and caused it not to work at all. I just know they are going to fix it for 4.3 about 2 days before 4.4 comes out.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2013 18:28

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Athenry posted:

They won't do that because then people would pay the 5 bucks, blow through whatever new season they wanted to see and then drop. The point of a subscription is to keep people subscribed, if they're going to drop, they can buy the blurays.

People do that now though with their HBO sub, it just costs slightly more. I can drop and add HBO with a checkbox on my provider's website.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2013 16:58

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Pfft. Application support just recently grew by a whopping 33%!

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 15:28

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Hey look, HBO content on Chromecast!

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/07/hbo-original-series-google-play/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000601

Not in the way we were hoping right now, but a major coup for Google either way.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 19:20

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

A coup against who?

Sorry, I thought iTunes had the monopoly on ala carte HBO episodes, but it appears that Amazon has it has well.

Either way, it's a positive development and makes Play a more complete offering.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2013 19:51

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I was having an issue with Hulu last night on my PC where it would refuse to load the next ad without closing the browser and returning to it.

So, it think it's a hulu problem.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 17:24

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Pandora released the 5.0 version of their app today and it finally includes a tablet layout.

However, the more interesting thing is, the screenshots in the play store have the "cast" icon in the top bar. So, it seems like they are very close to enabling casting if their test builds have the capability.

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/10/30/pandora-releases-version-5-0-introduces-tablet-ui-to-android/

# ¿ Oct 30, 2013 16:23

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Mainly convenience.

Watching some thing on Netflix or Hulu plus is about the same effort as choosing a recording on a DVR. It's nice not having to boot up a sperate device and enter an app, hunting. and pecking with a remote on the TV.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2013 06:19

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Presumably the whitelisting of Pandora has happened and it now works with Chromecast.

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/10/31/its-official-pandora-now-works-with-chromecast/

# ¿ Oct 31, 2013 15:26

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Geno posted:

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/11/13/hbo-go-shows-up-as-supported-chromecast-app-in-google-support-page/

HBO Go incoming

Maybe sorta.

They may bring it to chromecast, but guess what app doesn't work on 4.4 just like it didn't work on 4.3 for 4 months!

So, I'm sure I'll get HBO Go support right now since my tablets now don't support the application!

# ¿ Nov 14, 2013 02:56

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

HBO Go chromcast is now live. They also appear to have fixed 4.4 compatibility.

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/11/21/hbo-go-on-android-now-supports-chromecast-thanks-to-latest-update/

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 15:01

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Only downside I can see is HBO Go over Chromecast doesn't use 5.1 audio, unlike the Xbox. Hopefully they update for that soon. That's likely a server side issue with sending the right audio stream per device.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 19:33

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Poopinstein posted:

Hmm, updated HBO Go on 4.2.2 and still no cast button yet. Tried uninstalling and re-installing too. Ah well, sooner or later!

My question; Do you think the Cinemax Go app get it by default since they're pretty much the same thing?

Be sure your chromecast is on before you launch it. Otherwise, the icon doesn't show.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 21:18

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Poopinstein posted:

Looks like no chromecast support for the Max Go apo yet. I gotta think its coming soon since its owned by HBO and the same app.

I wouldn't count on it. Max Go has always lagged several versions behind HBO Go.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2013 01:36

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

You know, I would kill for a chromecast version of Settlers of Catan.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2013 20:26

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

Is audio beamed? I seem to think when I tested mine I didn't get any audio from the tab.

It should work with audio. I was able to run pretty much any flash video over tabcasting. Framerate isn't 100% perfect. It chews through around 70% cpu on my i5-3570K doing it though.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2013 23:25

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

AlexDeGruven posted:

This would be amazingly awesome, but I think Cable and Sat providers would finally agree on something and spend about $350 Trillion on lobbying to stop it from happening.

Cablevision actually isn't for the attacks that have happened on Aereo. They still maintain that the service is illegal, but they don't like the way the networks are attacking it because it could mean the end of their own cloud DVR.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 21:29

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

DrBouvenstein posted:

I then just loaded up Netflix on my phone and cast that to the Chromecast and it worked fine, other than the quality being a little low, and then of course my phone's battery getting drained and trying to do other things on the phone being slow since the phone was doing the downloading and rendering..

Your phone isn't doing any downloading and rendering while Chromecast does netflix. It only acts as the remote control. The chromecast gets the video directly from netflix.

Quality should be just as good as the PS3 for netflix, it also shouldn't have any performance impact on your phone.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2013 17:29

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Different inputs on your TV may be calibrated differently.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2013 18:42

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

AllCast is functional again. Koush said it only took 20 minutes to update to use the official APIs.

http://phandroid.com/2014/02/04/allcast-chromecast-update/

# ¿ Feb 4, 2014 16:10

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

No, it's just a slow roll. It's not really device based, it's more account based. Eventually you'll get them.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 01:12

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

For them to release chromecast support, they'd have to create some sort of android app that has access to their video services. While I'm sure they could do one that only browses and doesn't play back, I still don't see them doing it anytime soon.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 20:58

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:46

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

withak posted:

They have an iOS app but no android app? That is weird.

Anyway, they should add it to their iOS app.

Doesn't their iOS app only work on the iPad and not phones?

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 21:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Remember the Nexus Q or Chromecast? Me neither. Meet Google's Nexus Player

«‹›4 »