What's special about the Nexus Player?

[too lame to come up with a good username]

Pretty simple thread. What makes the Nexus Player better than Chromecast?

 

[Aquila]

I was pretty excited about it when we were hearing the ideas behind it. I preordered one 6 seconds after it was available and it was set to ship 10 days from now. When I read the reviews I realized this is just a much prettier Google TV. It has to have apps specially made for it and currently there are less than 100 apps. Reviews also mentioned bugs in the software and an issue with Bluetooth disconnecting randomly (for the remote) - the Chromecast is awesome, I have two - I thought this would be just like it only more and better... needless to say, I cancelled my order.

 

[Wilberries]

I'd have to agree with you, I pre-ordered as soon as it was available. I am looking at something more than chromecast as I want XBMC on it and don't want to cast and navigate it from my phone.

I am not concerned about app support as more apps are being added everyday and there will be thousands in no time. I am sure the software glitches will be ironed out, as its a strategic platform for android. Also from what I know Google has opened up the voice search to devs so I am sure this will evolve into many apps being supported from a single search.

Any android app can be sideloaded, but from what I understand a launcher like chainfire or sideloader need to be used with non-certified apps. This is where my hesitation comes into play. It seems that ATV is a full implementation of Android L, just that the leanback launcher is being used as the UI, if that is the case I can live with it. As long as it's not a crippled or limited version of L.

The alternative for me is a generic android box which is Android 4.4 and will be locked in there forever. The issue with these devices is they can be flaky both h/w and s/w.

So after thinking it through I am keeping the order in for the NP, they have a 15 day return policy, although I will have to eat the shipping if I return. I'll put it through its paces and decide then.

 

[booboolala2000]

Considering canceling my order as well. No memory on here for apps and games. Reviews are Meh. Google has given me way too much time to consider this. It was an impulse buy that I am now considering unnecessary. Have all the Chromecast I need. So don't see the point for streaming.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[P_Devil]

I wanted a dedicated Google device, something that wouldn't require input from my tablet or smartphone to access content. There are many times when I'm done looking at screens (I stare at an LCD monitor everyday at work), I just want to relax and watch a show on Netflix or Hulu without having to access it through two different devices. Having a dedicated, GUI driven OS and remote with the Nexus Player was really appealing.

I am OK with the lack of dedicated apps now as more are going to come out. I am also OK with the quirky software as it will be updated over time. The first line of Roku players were wonky as all get out and I had nothing but trouble with my first Apple TV and getting AirPlay to work (along with not having Netflix crash) but Apple eventually fixed those issues.

My biggest gripe was not wanting to pay shipping along with tax from the Play Store. A $100 device turned into a $125 purchase. But, if I can find it in a retail store or if Amazon were to eventually sell it, I would buy one.

 

[tonyr6]

I cancelled my preorder last week. Now that the Fire TV finally has the updated Netflix app I no longer need the Nexus player.

 

[NoYankees44]

It is really sad that Google entered the market with a device that was flawed on the hardware side. 8gb of storage and generally limited otherwise is just a pill that is too big for me to swallow. I said from announcement that I would get one asap, but this is just not enough. I really hope the platform takes off and we are talking about how great this is next year, but device just has too many compromises and does nothing more or better than its competitors.

Sent from my XT1096

 

[Greg C]

Yes... 8 gb of storage is on the low side as is the 1 gb of ram. However... the Amazon Fire TV has ONLY 8 gb of storage and 2 gb of ram. The processor is 1.7 ghz compared to the Nexus Player's 1.8 ghz. The fact is the Nexus Player has better specs. It will also be running Android 5 compared to Amazon's version of Android 4. 0. Also being a Nexus device it will receive future Android OS updates. Where are the updates for Amazon's Fire TV? Oh.. there hasn't been any. Of course there aren't many app for the Nexus Player... it's just been released. Gameloft just added 10 games for it. Roku 3 is also on the short side as far as specs. I have a Roku 3 and I can tell you that out of the "1500" apps and channels.. MOST are worthless. Look at all the apps in the Google Play Store. How many are really worth the download? The Nexus Player has the full support of Google.. I trust Google will come through snd make it a success.

 

[P_Devil]

Although the Nexus Player does have better hardware, you can't compare the CPU in the SoC in the Fire TV and Nexus Player on a direct GHz for GHz level. The Fire TV uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC with an ARM CPU. The Nexus Player uses an Intel x86 CPU. Each one handles instructions differently and it hasn't been until recently when Android has been able to take advantage of the x86 playtform specifically with the way Intel's CPUs take advantage of instructions from the OS (and Android's pretty poor multi-threaded instruction handling).

So it isn't the extra 0.1GHz that makes the Nexus Player better, it's the way the CPU handles instructions compared to the ARM Qualcomm Krait CPU in the Fire TV. That's why the Nexus Player may have been over-equipped (especially for its needs) with 2GB of RAM. Intel has shown off reference Android tablets running Atom CPUs with 1GB of RAM compared to Snapdragon 805 SoCs with 2GB of RAM and the Atom still loads things faster.

 

[Wilberries]

Nice thing about the Intel chip (believe its the Z3560) is that it is 64 bit architecture and XBMC was originally written for x86 so I am hoping it will rock on the NP.

 

[Dudefella123]

I would get a fire TV over a Google player. Much faster menu navigation.

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 ™

 

[tonyr6]

I would get a fire TV over a Google player. Much faster menu navigation.

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 ™

I agree now that the Fire TV has the up to date Netflix app. If you asked me last month I would have swayed the other side.

 

[P_Devil]

Nice thing about the Intel chip (believe its the Z3560) is that it is 64 bit architecture and XBMC was originally written for x86 so I am hoping it will rock on the NP.

The only thing I'm not sure about is whether or not Google/HTC/whoever has unlocked 64-bit mode in the firmware and Android TV is running in 64-bit mode. Wintel Atom tablets are nice but manufacturers are locking the 64-bit CPUs down to 32-bit mode and they are all pre-installing the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1. It's not that big of a deal now but it will be once programs and apps are released in 64-bit only. I just hope Google/HTC didn't do the same thing with this. It's not a big deal now but it could be in the future.

 

[too lame to come up with a good username]

Hmm... so I think the Nexus Player's advantage over Chromecast is that, instead of just casting your phone, tablet or laptop to a screen, the Player is a device of its own, so you can multitask and do some other thinks you can't with Chromecast. And developers will have to design apps specifically for the Player, so that's good. Even though there are very few apps available right now, the platform will probably get better over time. I don't really think the processor is a compromise. Unless you were expecting it to have a Tegra K1 processor, it has good enough power under the hood. I think it has a lot of potential, but... WOW, that internal storage. Only about 6 GB is actually available. Do not want.

 

[tonyr6]

Nexus advantage over the Chromecast is that it has dial band 5ghz WiFi.

 

[Greg C]

I would get a fire TV over a Google player. Much faster menu navigation.

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 ™

How do you know this if you haven't tried it?

 

[bhop42]

Exactly! I have an ADT-1 and have setup and used many Amazon Fire TVs. The Android TV interface is slightly faster and more intuitive than the Fire TV. This is with the Tegra 4 and the Intel processor is faster/more efficient than this.

 

[ultravisitor]

Nexus advantage over the Chromecast is that it has dial band 5ghz WiFi.

 

[Geodude074]

Considering canceling my order as well. No memory on here for apps and games. Reviews are Meh. Google has given me way too much time to consider this. It was an impulse buy that I am now considering unnecessary. Have all the Chromecast I need. So don't see the point for streaming.

Posted via the Android Central App

Agreed as well.

8 GB of memory just isn't enough. I have my PC connected to my TV with 8 TB of memory and that's barely adequate. No point of streaming content when the content is physically located on my drive. I can watch all four seasons of Game of Thrones with no WiFi.

 

[thatguy97]

I'm going to wait for more competitors to make android TV devices for Netflix this is great but I want room for local content and using USB otg isn't the way

Posted via Nexus 7 2013 or verizon Galaxy S5 or maybe one day through my moto 360