Looks like my “friends” at Teamviewer are upgrading their software. For years, I provided my family with computer support over the phone. And, then, one day (drum roll please) TeamViewer waltzed in and said, “Why don’t we just let you operate their computer for yourself?” I have used their free non-pro version for about a year and a half. My family loves not having to decipher what I’m asking them to do. I love being able to just get on, get it done, and go on with whatever I was doing before my “service request”. Or better yet, to talk about what’s going on in the life of my loved ones. It was already a great product and I’m looking forward to testing the beta of TeamViewer 7.
Occasionally in life one has to tuck one’s tail between one’s legs and go skulking back. Saturday it was my day to do just that. In humiliation, I confess that I am no longer a cord-cutter. Why?
Not because I wasn’t getting the local stations well enough with my little $7 wonder of an antenna. I was pretty happy with its performance. Sure, occasionally weather or randomness would conspire to mess up a TV show, but my life doesn’t depend on that and I could accept it.
Not because I was dissatisfied with Windows Media Center as my DVR. I have a Tivo HD and have experience with DVRs from both Time Warner Cable and Comcast. WMC is by far the best interface for a DVR.
Was it unhappiness with XBMC as the portal to enough media to choke a horse? No, sir. The longer I use XBMC the happier I am.
I have at last conceded to cable company extortion for two reasons. First, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. No, I didn’t wake up with my HTPC mangled and hidden in my sheets. But for about $35 more than I was paying for internet they offered me digital cable. Second, they did this just as the floodgate of sappy Christmas movies on Hallmark were beginning to pour over the dam and the Steelers look to make the playoffs again.
There is a third reason as well. I wanted to play with the TW Cable app on my iPad. It streams some cable channels quite well but nothing local so it is more than a little disappointing. The guide doesn’t work either. It pops up a message to contact customer service which I’m pretty sure is an offer to stay on the line until they have a chance to upsell me while telling me that my app won’t work with the current DVR that they just installed.
Will I still be connected after the Super Bowl? Probably not. But at least when New York finds out there really is a Santa Claus and the Steelers are once again champions, I won’t have missed it.
I might have been the last guy to get the Android 3.1 Honeycomb update to his Sony Google TV. When I got home from work last night, my TV announced that an update was available and I jumped on that.
The style changed. When I hit the home key, live TV continues in the background and a row of customizable app icons appear across the bottom. Quite a different look from the old home screen. Select the ‘All Apps’ icon and a wall of app icons is displayed much like one sees on an Android phone. Spotlight is now mixed in with the apps and Bookmarks is a menu item within Chrome. TV&Movies is also available on the app wall.
Spotlight opens a wall of featured “TV optimized websites”. Some are free. Some are subscription based. Here is a good place to start looking for Amazon Instant Video, npr, the NHL site, tunein radio, Flixster, HBOGO, Revision3, and more.
I have some quibbles about the TV. Navigation is quite unresponsive and clunky. You won’t mistake this for a polished Apple product. Photos aren’t displayed in their native aspect ratio but are squared off in the Photos app. This seems like a major screw up to me. Strangely, pictures streamed from local media are shown properly. This would indicate that someone on their team knows how to do this. Hopefully, it will be fixed in a future update. A last nit to pick has to do with the guide. The guide loads quite slowly. Tivo and Windows Media Center are virtually instant and they’re advertisement free.
I find using Netflix and Amazon Instant Video to be quite friendly and responsive in contrast. While navigating the AIV website is fine, Amazon really needs to develop an Android app.
I use the Media Player app to stream media from my NAS, Orb, XBMC, and shared folders on my home network. It works quite well. I control my PS3 through the HDMI connection which integrates the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player quite nicely.
The next thing I want to try is side loading some apps not available through the Market. Specifically, I’d like to get last.fm and Google Music working on my TV.
It bears repeating that the remote is quite a nifty piece of work. About the size of a game controller, it is comfortable to hold. If you can thumb-type on your phone, typing on this will be a breeze. It is much easier to handle than a full keyboard like comes with the Logitech Revue. My recommendation for improving the next generation is to backlight the keys, but keep the form factor.
At last year’s price of $800 I didn’t think this TV was worth it. After all it doesn’t even have a DVR. But at $420 from CompUSA, I think it is competitively priced with other low end LED LCD TVs. The picture quality is excellent and the sound is adequate. Buy a Google TV product now at discounted prices or get the next generation hardware when it comes out in the near future. (The rumor is December.)
Moved the PS3 down to the family room last night. I’m streaming TV shows recorded on the HTPC through the PS3 to my new Google TV. I accidentally hit a button on the GTV remote and, behold, the PS3 was controlled. Yep, right through the HDMI. Guess I can leave the Harmony remote upstairs. Very sweet. I should have bought this GTV right after my Samsung TV crapped out on me.
I had gone into the PS3 settings to allow it to be controlled by HDMI but I thought that was just to allow it to be shut off. Turns out that several of the commands are functional. (Although further testing will be done to determine any limitations. I’m guessing there is no way to do ‘circle’, ‘PS’, ‘triangle’, etc.)
One weird thing was fast forwarding. The PS3 would only fast forward at 1.5x. It would display faster speeds but when I returned to ‘play’, it just bounced back to the point where I had first started fast forwarding. Even at 1.5x, commercials are way too long.
Thanks to a comment from +Justin S, I can even listen to my Google Music on my GTV, now. Of course, I’m still hoping that when the new version rolls my way there will be a Google Music app along for the ride.
last.fm plays well in the Chrome app which is also a big plus but still not an app, meaning I can’t stream last.fm music and watch slides from Picasa at the same time.
All-in-all, GTV just keeps moving up in my estimation.
How good does it really need to be? I’ve read a lot of criticism of Google TV. Leo LaPorte and Gina Trapani got it when it was new but never used it. My Google TV hasn’t updated to the new version yet. But I find it more than satisfactory already. I can easily find shows in the guide, listen to Pandora, watch Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. YouTube is awesome. Slideshows of my Picasa albums are dead simple to share. Hulu Plus or minus doesn’t really matter to me. It is so hamstrung now that it is irrelevant.
Leo has stated a few times on his shows that what it needs is the (out this week) Android app store. The few apps I tried besides the aforementioned gems were okay but fell short. For example Flixster had movie trailers but not local theaters and showtimes like it has on its website. In short, Google TV does everything I want except replace my DVR. So, if this new version makes the menus easier to navigate that will be great.
But I’m already happy with my Sony TV. I just got it Saturday for our second TV. It isn’t quite as nice as the Windows Media Center I use on my main TV. For one thing, it can’t record my shows. But it beats the crap out of the Tivo interface when it comes to doing anything besides watching TV. The remote has been dissed in several reviews but it falls easily to hand, is easy to use, and has a QWERTY keyboard right there when you need. It is the first remote in a long time that I liked better than the Tivo remote.
So, let’s cross our fingers and hope the update doesn’t mess up a great product.
