As long as they don't completely nix the support à la Spotify Car Thing I'm fine with it
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
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Makes sense. Smart TVs weren't common at that point, now you can't avoid them.
I don’t allow my TVs to touch the internet. I hadn’t realized how much they phone home until disabling upnp on my router locked the tv up and I couldn’t navigate the Home Screen without a terrible delay. The telemetry collection is out of control and they fingerprint everything you watch from a connected device. No thanks.
Still works better for traveling. Hotel smart TVs are even worse than the home models, but if you have an open HDMI port on it and can work out the wifi, you're in business.
Hmm, so, last month I began to have issues with my Chromecast for the first time. I have an old 3rd gen Chromecast attached to my bedroom television (not a smart tv) for the purpose of casting obnoxiously long video essays to fall asleep to. After like a decade of essentially hassle free operation, it suddenly stopped being able to maintain a connection to my phone. I cast a video, and after approximately 10 minutes, the cast disconnects and I get a message on my phone saying "this video cannot be played in the background". I've tried ever troubleshooting technique I can think of.
I know I shouldn't attribute to malice what can be explained by other causes, but boy, seeing this news today sure makes me think about things like planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolescence is built into googles processes.
They've created an environment where your primary method of advancing in your career is only creating new things and there's little to no options when choosing to support existing things. Some things have survived by chance and/or something to keep employees busy, but it's unintentional.
The Chromecast was one of the few things I really liked made by Google. I always have one in my travel bag and it's basically like bringing your own home theater to the hotel with you. I had a time where I lived in hotels and AirBnB's for almost a year and this thing was god send.
They have some other device which they want to sell which will replace it, but that one is big and clunky, not meant for traveling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSSI_Ht6Mis
Dammit. I like it for the same reason. Why does Google keep doing this?
well, it's just in their DNA. institutional inertia is a helluva drug!
Because they worship incompetence.
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I take my raspberry pi 400 with me ($70). I don't like to travel with expensive things. Once connected to a hotel tv, i have a full pc. I watch movies in 720p to have more fps. In case I have something important to do but no TV, I vnc to my phone.
Connecting a classic (non-Google TV) Chromecast to a new WiFi (or heaven forbid a hotel WiFi with a capture portal) was always such a pain. And casting over networks without mDNS is flaky at best and otherwise downright impossible.
By contrast, I've loved taking along my Chromecast with Google TV to hotels, along with:
- A VPN client installed it already,
- An Android phone that can create a WiFi AP while connected to the hotel WiFi,
- A Bluetooth speaker and my Bluetooth headphones paired to it so I get great audio as well.
This has been a complete gamechanger and a genuine upgrade over yesteryear's Chromecasts.
f
Family practically thought I was David Blaine when I got a first gen Chromecast back in the day.
It was magic. Still is tbh.
Cheez-Its. Cheez-Its
So what's the best android tv box nowadays? Still the Shield TV?
I have the latest chromecast with android tv (i think, who knows with these garbage model names), and it's always been quite sluggish to use, and I can't replace the home screen on it to one without ads since they locked down the bootloader.
So I'm looking for one that's a bit snappier, and preferably with an unlockable bootloader, or at least the ability to replace the default launcher.
Really, rebranding from Chromecast to Google TV Streamer? Who the fuck was the genius that greenlighted this?
Yep. Someone thinks the Google name has some crazy value.
I knew someone who worked at a really well loved local restaurant. One day a new manager came in and IMMEDIATELY wanted to change the name. According to him, you should change a restaurant's name every 2 years
Why would you ruin the recognition you already have? He was also planning on changing the name to be the exact same as a business down the street. I think he was an idiot
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Probably the same guy that greenlights unwanted UI changes in all their products.
they make 6.1 million dollars per day for their executive savvy
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Urgh.. We own three of these devices and this news really sucks because a set-top box isn't convenient for two of those TVs.
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Uggggggghhhhhh another one for the pile. I love Chromecasts but to be fair the latest one with Google TV was a sign that things were getting shitty soon. 22% more CPU for a YouTube machine? Who cares? A home hub that needs my TV to work? Who cares? It's like the tech industry regrets putting everything on your phone and now they want to separate it out again. Fuck off.
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