Personal Reviews

[Greg C]

We have read professional reviews about the Nexus Player... it would be great if some of you would post your impressions in this thread.

 

[mloebl]

So far over all pretty happy with it. Interface is snappy and video looks pretty good. I got it primarily for Plex video, and it definitely looks better than the Chromecast in terms of quality to me. I've watched some video via Plex, Youtube, and such. Complaints are minor so far;

1. Not a big one but remote does feel pretty cheap. However for $99 my hopes weren't too high anyways
2. The bigger annoyance is the HDMI-CEC. I feed my a/v thru a surround receiver. With the Chromecast I'd just have to hit the cast option, it would auto kick over to the port and start playing. With the Nexus Player, I haven't figured out a decent way to do this without casting first (more on this) or using my receiver remote that I never use. Ideally (since it may not know it's not active), I'd love to hit a sequence on the remote OR from the Android remote and have it automatically switch over.
3. It could be my Unifi network (I have 2 access points with their version of roaming), and I find it sometimes just doesn't show up as a Chromecast option. Seems to be missing about 1/3 of the time and not quite sure why.
4. The button for voice commands I find is weird it spots. Sometimes I hit the button and get instant response, other times I feel like I have to hit it a couple times before it seems to begin listening.

Overall, #2 is really the only "major" annoyance, however it's not the end of the world and hopefully something that can be changed via firmware. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it and fits my use well.

-Mike

 

[crackdd]

I've had some setup issues initially:

• long loading screen that lead to a power cycle when first plugged in;
• connect google account via pin didn't work, so had to type in u/p;

Also have had at least one crash so far (was when I was doing voice search outside of all apps -- device just froze).

Things I like:

• user interface
• voice search works great
• youtube's auto-play feature (seems to play related content after I watch something)

Things I'd like to see improved/changed:

• remote feels a bit cheap, at least when compared to FireTV
• limited apps (obviously it just launched, so this will get better --hopefully!)
• no Amazon Instant Video (at least yet)
• Plex requires a Plex Pass in order to use

 

[Greg C]

I've had some setup issues initially:

• long loading screen that lead to a power cycle when first plugged in;
• connect google account via pin didn't work, so had to type in u/p;

Also have had at least one crash so far (was when I was doing voice search outside of all apps -- device just froze).

Things I like:

• user interface
• voice search works great
• youtube's auto-play feature (seems to play related content after I watch something)

Things I'd like to see improved/changed:

• remote feels a bit cheap, at least when compared to FireTV
• limited apps (obviously it just launched, so this will get better --hopefully!)
• no Amazon Instant Video (at least yet)
• Plex requires a Plex Pass in order to use

I read in other posts in this forum that some people experienced a long boot tume. They said a factory reset fixed it. Thanks for your review.. I appreciate it.

 

[booboolala2000]

Clean and easy. Very minimal. The two games I have tried have been fine. Table Top Racers and PAC Man. Haven't got my controller yet. Everything seems very straightforward. Nothing really hidden. Its quick and snappy most of the time. The cheap remote seems to take awhile to register any input after not using it for ten minutes or more. Voice search for me is awkward. I've only had it a day so its a little different than Google Now. Video playback and casting is easy. Haven't paired any BT devices yet. Headphones would be great.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Greg C]

Clean and easy. Very minimal. The two games I have tried have been fine. Table Top Racers and PAC Man. Haven't got my controller yet. Everything seems very straightforward. Nothing really hidden. Its quick and snappy most of the time. The cheap remote seems to take awhile to register any input after not using it for ten minutes or more. Voice search for me is awkward. I've only had it a day so its a little different than Google Now. Video playback and casting is easy. Haven't paired any BT devices yet. Headphones would be great.

Posted via the Android Central App

Thanks for your review. The following link is to Google's Android TV remote. Several forum members use it and say it works great:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...d=com.google.android.tv.remote&token=3Ixc0sGd

 

[Greg C]

Finally received mine! Here are my thoughts:

Set up was incredibly easy... took 5 minutes to be up and running. The build quality of the Nexus Player is very well done.. it is heavier than my Roku. People have commented on the remote being "cheap." I don't think so. It's got some style to it.. as far as remotes go. I don't understand why a remote has to look "cool" or whatever. It's a remote and does what it is designed to do. Besides... I use the Google Android Tv Remote Controller. As far as the Nexus Player having Android 5.0..you would never know it. The interface is completely different as is expected since it's for a TV. The YouTube and Netflix apps are much better and smoother on my Nexus Player than on my Roku. The Nexus Player is definitely short on apps.. but the ability to cast / mirror helps make up for it. I use the Chromecast app to cast. Casting a video straight off the web is sub par. The video is very choppy. I contribute that to MY Internet and wifi. I will continue to use my Roku for apps that that Nexus Player doesn't have... yet. I do like the Nexus Player more than my Roku and I highly recommend it. I really think Google got this one right. If developers feel Google will back this device than I think we will see alot of good apps. I want to reiterate that I highly recommend the Google Android TV Remote app for smartphones. It works great and has voice search as well. You can find the link for it in the thread right above mine.

 

[shn'g]

Finally received mine! Here are my thoughts:

Set up was incredibly easy... took 5 minutes to be up and running. The build quality of the Nexus Player is very well done.. it is heavier than my Roku. People have commented on the remote being "cheap." I don't think so. It's got some style to it.. as far as remotes go. I don't understand why a remote has to look "cool" or whatever. It's a remote and does what it is designed to do. Besides... I use the Google Android Tv Remote Controller. As far as the Nexus Player having Android 5.0..you would never know it. The interface is completely different as is expected since it's for a TV. The YouTube and Netflix apps are much better and smoother on my Nexus Player than on my Roku. The Nexus Player is definitely short on apps.. but the ability to cast / mirror helps make up for it. I use the Chromecast app to cast. Casting a video straight off the web is sub par. The video is very choppy. I contribute that to MY Internet and wifi. I will continue to use my Roku for apps that that Nexus Player doesn't have... yet. I do like the Nexus Player more than my Roku and I highly recommend it. I really think Google got this one right. If developers feel Google will back this device than I think we will see alot of good apps. I want to reiterate that I highly recommend the Google Android TV Remote app for smartphones. It works great and has voice search as well. You can find the link for it in the thread right above mine.

This is a good review and has a lot of what I would say in it as well. I have had the box for 4 or 5 days now and am getting a good taste for what it can and can't do. The apps are limited but I'm sure they will grow. I didn't really buy the device for gaming and didn't get a controller with it but am surprised at how much fun I am having with games just with the remote. I wish the whole game of badlands was free but I mean I did get $20 play credit and xmen for free so what else do I want. Saying the device feels finished is far from true, but it is very responsive and the potential is huge. Having the voice search alone is amazing. I am from Canada so don't have or care about amazon content and am happy with what google offers. I use plex a lot so was interested in what it could do. I just bought a brand new Airport Extreme router and thought that it would be able to handle anything I threw at it, but after trying and reading many things plex needs some work. I am able to stream full movies in 720p and most work good in 1080 but I have had many pause and other issues with freezing so I will be glad when that is fixed. (the voice search with plex also is so nice and saves a lot of time when you have a certain movie or tv show in mind) I have tried getting xbmc up and running, and it does run but I cant find my external drive to load movies to it so its almost useless to me. I have a mouse and keyboard and hooked that to the OTG cable and it worked amazing which is so nice to have the option to do that.
I think if we get the support from developers over the next 6 months to a year this device won't leave my living room for many years. If not than we will see but even with what it does now I am happy with it.

 

[Greg C]

This is a good review and has a lot of what I would say in it as well. I have had the box for 4 or 5 days now and am getting a good taste for what it can and can't do. The apps are limited but I'm sure they will grow. I didn't really buy the device for gaming and didn't get a controller with it but am surprised at how much fun I am having with games just with the remote. I wish the whole game of badlands was free but I mean I did get $20 play credit and xmen for free so what else do I want. Saying the device feels finished is far from true, but it is very responsive and the potential is huge. Having the voice search alone is amazing. I am from Canada so don't have or care about amazon content and am happy with what google offers. I use plex a lot so was interested in what it could do. I just bought a brand new Airport Extreme router and thought that it would be able to handle anything I threw at it, but after trying and reading many things plex needs some work. I am able to stream full movies in 720p and most work good in 1080 but I have had many pause and other issues with freezing so I will be glad when that is fixed. (the voice search with plex also is so nice and saves a lot of time when you have a certain movie or tv show in mind) I have tried getting xbmc up and running, and it does run but I cant find my external drive to load movies to it so its almost useless to me. I have a mouse and keyboard and hooked that to the OTG cable and it worked amazing which is so nice to have the option to do that.
I think if we get the support from developers over the next 6 months to a year this device won't leave my living room for many years. If not than we will see but even with what it does now I am happy with it.

I bought a keyboard and mouse as well. I haven't used either yet as the Google Android TV Remote app does what I need. I do hope apps will be released that I can use the keyboard and mouse for.