android tv review: just what your tv doesn't need - touch screen joystick

While much of this review will not go Google's way, you should at least admire the persistence of the brand.
Latest Android system
Smart TV platform
Android TV-
According to my estimation, Google has become a force that cannot be ignored in the field of smart TV for the third time.
Actually, if you include early and small-seen Android 4.
2 jelly beans try to introduce a few high-
Last year, Philips launched high-end television in some European regions.
Let's not forget the third outside-
Android TV box for those who are not interested in integrated solutions.
Unfortunately, however, for Google, while it has been successful with a relatively simple Chromecast streaming dongle, it has not tried to do a dedicated integrated TV operation before
Doing it on TV is so effective on the phone, in other words --
Great success has been achieved.
Google TV's debut, in particular, is widely regarded as a rather tragic failure.
However, the biggest benefit of failure and error is that you can learn from it.
So my expectations for the new Lollipop are really high.
When I first used Android TV on a new Sony TV, its version 0 (
75 x9405c recently tested).
Not the best starssadly Android TV feels wrong when you take your eyes.
While most TV brands are now moving their smart TV platform to the smallest design located on top of the TV pictures you are watching, bringing up Android TV on Sony TV, you can see that the Android TV main menu occupies the entire screen.
In this world, we all take more
Android TV refuses to let us continue watching TV while browsing its menu, which for granted makes it feel excessive
Compared with the lower-key smart TV platforms such as LG's webOS and Samsung's new Tizen platform, this approach is more fashionable.
In the face of the wisdom of modern smart TV, it will also fly around, it will bring you a lot of content options.
The main screen consists of seven horizontal shelves with any four shelves displayed at the same time on the screen.
There are icons on each shelf that scroll almost endlessly to the right, providing links to apps, content sources, and games.
It is clear that Android TV hopes to show very clearly from the beginning that it will not suffer from the shortage of content that so many other smart TV services have suffered over the years.
In a way you can't blame it for wanting to sing and dance on how many apps it carries;
After all, content enrichment is arguably the most compelling reason why TV makers like Sony adopt the Android TV platform.
After all, Android has been supported by a huge app --
Develop the community, so it will most likely "benefit" from the third community"
Party apps are supported than any proprietary Sony Smart TV platform.
As others in the TV world have realized, the problem is that while a lot of content initially looks like an advantage, it is actually a disadvantage. Most people -
There may be exceptions. I'll talk about them later.
I don't want the TV operating system to be messed up by a bunch of clunky apps.
Part of the reason is that TV is essentially a relatively passive and shared device compared to smartphones and tablets, and part of the reason is that so far, no TV interface has yet been able to search and browse a lot of content like a smartphone or tablet.
This is also a simple fact.
Most people, I will argue.
On a platform that is as open as Android TV, you will find many apps that are, politely, niche interests.
Or not so polite, many people are either pointless, rubbish, or both.
So the last thing for TV users (
Not a smartphone or tablet)
What is needed is to have to wade through piles of garbage in search of occasional gems.
To Google, to be fair, it's not just about making every app on the Android smart TV and tablet platform available on your TV.
It introduces a filter system to eliminate applications that are not suitable for the TV environment.
For example, games that rely on touch screen control.
But there doesn't seem to be any real attempt to filter them based on how useful the app is for a typical TV audience.
Unfortunately, this often rather vague, non-centralized approach is too obvious on the top "shelf" of the Android TV home page.
This shelf is designed to provide recommended content
The link to the Android TV material believes that based on a fairly limited assessment of your app's usage habits, you will be interested.
The recommended content can include links from YouTube videos and news videos (
If you have a compatible news feed app in the list of apps you downloaded)
Direct links to tutorial videos and movies.
While it may sound like a good idea to suggest shelves in principle, the reality is a huge disappointment.
The engine used to fill the shelves does not apply to each application in the application Assembly;
Does not include any analysis of the TV programs you watch;
And does not support any personalized regulations, which means there is no way for different members of your family to build their own personal referral shelves that suit their needs.
Some of the items on the recommended shelves also feel more than just advertising --
For example, my test sample is very keen to push me to get a movie through Google's own movie streaming store.
The end result of all this is that it is suggested that the feeling on the shelf is at best not concentrated, and the worst is dictatorship --
Millions of miles from the laser.
Just like focusing on recent and favorite content on the LG webOS engine home page.
I think over time it's possible for Google to get its suggested home with a firmware update, but frankly, for now, it's a microcosm of all the issues with Android TV.
So, if the top shelf of Google TV is more or less bust like, then maybe the second shelf will show the platform in a more useful way? Sadly, no.
Known as featured apps, as the name suggests, the second Android TV shelf is designed to draw attention to apps you may have missed, or apps that have recently been added to the Android TV platform.
But I 've never felt that these featured apps are specifically tailored to my own interests, which means that it feels like Android TV just tells you what it thinks you should do, instead of trying to give you quick and easy access to what you might really want to access.
Android TV has more or less wasted two key shelves at the top of the home screen, and its third shelf has dropped one more.
Oddly enough, this is just a long list of icons that access various inputs from the TV-
The remote control of Sony TV can achieve this goal faster and more directly.
The redundancy of this shelf is only because it doesn't even try to order the input list based on the recent usage history.
Only when you enter the fourth shelf of Android TV, simply called the app, will the system do anything to let you know why it is.
This shows all the apps you download to your TV
In other words, you have shown what you want --
Even ordering them based on how recent they are used greatly increases the chance that the first app shown is the one you really want to access.
This shelf is also important as it takes the portal icon to Google's store where you can download other apps to put on your app shelf.
Given the relative usefulness of app shelves, it's a real shame that Android TV doesn't offer the facility to "locate" your favorite app to the left side of the shelf.
What's more, Android TV refuses to let you customize its layout in any way, which means you can't choose to move the app shelf to the top of the main page, and the suggested shelf above messed up.
The Android TV store is trying to help you navigate through these apps by dividing the large number of apps offered into four "theme" shelves, as well as splitting movies and music into many different genres.
However, out of the first four theme shelves, there are three dedicated to different types of games, and dozens of titles have put a burden on the shelves.
It seems to me that this further demonstrates Google's lack of understanding of what most people really want to do on smart TV --
Especially when there may be a large number of games, Android TV currently does not have so many video streaming services (
In any case, on a global scale)
As you expected in 2015 for the smart TV system.
For example, users in the UK will not currently be able to get support for any way to capture
Television services of major terrestrial broadcasters
That's probably why Sony added a separate "youview"
Set up a TV platform in the UK with Android TV.
To be fair, the quality of some of the games offered through Android TV is surprisingly good, with decent graphics and, in some cases, full joystick support.
But in my opinion, serious players will certainly prefer the superior experience of using a dedicated console, while casual players may prefer to play games on personal devices such as mobile phones or tablets.
It's also worth mentioning that many of the games offered by the Google Store are gigabytes in size, meaning before you fill up the 16 gb space offered by Sony TV, you don't need to download a lot of them.
Before you ask, insert the space that the USB storage device cannot expand.
Now, for the good news so far, it can be said that I am not very impressed with Android TV.
But fortunately, it has some advantages.
First of all, it provides some value as an additional component in the Android home.
Particularly popular is Android TV's support for Google Cast (
For example, it can be used for streaming videos of apps available on the smartphone/tablet Android operating system that are currently not available on Android TV).
In addition, you can access and play multimedia content stored on your Android phone in a simple way.
If you have a TV that supports NFC technology, such as the Sony 75X9405C I tested Android TV, you can even connect your personal smart device to the TV by touching the TV remote control.
It's great to see that Android TV does not take a blocking approach to alternative operating systems.
For example, I have no problem setting up a Bluetooth connection to share content with Apple devices, and it is worth noting that some iOS apps also support cast.
Nevertheless, the Android TV system is inevitably at its best with other Android devices, so its compatibility with external devices may not be very appealing to the owners of other smartphone/tablet ecosystems.
In fact, when we discuss the topic of different operating systems, I think it is possible that even the name Android TV has an Apple fan running on the mountain;
In today's tough TV market, no TV brand will be willing to encourage this.
Even like Sony, TV brands themselves invest in Android platforms for their smartphones and tablets.
Good news back (
It wasn't long before I got back to the negative, did I? ! )
, I was pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the speech recognition feature provided by Android TV.
It recognizes more accurately than ever before what I said
Television voice control system, and quickly become a valuable short
A cutting tool for searching for content and applications.
I should also say that although I am completely
Screen control method for Android TV menus that are provided at least in high Graphic Standards with photos
Resolution graphics.
Finally, as discussed earlier, I am usually concerned about the wave of apps that may arise in the Android development community, which also has the potential to provide some gems, the gems may never end up on "narrow" platforms like LG's webOS and Samsung's Tizen.
There will undoubtedly be some people who like Android TV.
I think it might even be a smart TV dream come true for the kind of person who doesn't have to share TV with many peopleif any! -
Others, who already know and understand the Android ecosystem very well, and don't mind spending more time searching in the app ocean than your typical smart TV users. (
Even though I can't help but think that even such users may find themselves starting to wonder why they end up doing the same thing on TV, they can already do their other smart devices on TV faster.
Especially considering the existence of Google's own Chromecast system!
Also, it's worth noting that I wrote this review as someone who uses Android and iOS devices a lot in my home. )
Android TV does take a step forward than Google's previous attempt to mark the world of integrated smart TV;
At the very least, it will work harder not just to treat your TV as a big smartphone anyway.
Android TV is also likely to improve over time with firmware updates, slowly giving up the feeling it's bringing now --
Including some system crashes during my test
This is an early beta, not a finished product.
However, from the perspective of a typical TV audience/home, Android TV is stuck in many classic, now outdated smart TV traps, which is inevitable.
First of all, it painfully lacks a custom/personalized choice.
In the face of the less, more, and higher quality paths that most smart TV systems have learned to adopt, it will also fly.
It is more interested in telling you what kind of person it thinks you should be, rather than providing you with shortcuts that you actually get. Its full-
The screen presentation makes it impossible for you to browse as you continue watching the TV.
It is a valuable thing to incorporate live TV into its ecosystem.
Finally, in general, it still seems that most people want to use TV in the same way as using a smartphone.
The bottom line is that Google seems to be paying little attention to the way the smart TV world has developed over the last few years, not even, and I believe a lot of TV users will find the clunky, authoritarian, excessive Android TV system
The complicated, perhaps worst, is the exclusive of the pain.
If you are interested in this article, you may also want to check out my recent article about the identity crisis that is currently plaguing the smart TV world.