Tuesday, August 6th 2024
Google Discontinues the Chromecast, Announces the Google TV Streamer
Today, Google has announced that it will discontinue all of its Chromecast products, as the company is transitioning to the Google TV Streamer, which offers a very different form factor to its Chromecast products. Over the past 11 years, Google has sold some 100 million Chromecasts over a handful of different generations of products with quite different feature sets. The most recent addition launched in 2022 and Google has promised to continue to support the latest generations of Chromecast devices for now, although the company didn't say for how long.
The Google TV Streamer moves away from the HDMI dongle design, which some might see as a mistake by the company, but those wanting a set-top-box type device will on the other hand be pleased. The white (porcelain) or grey (hazel) slate isn't the most attractive design maybe, somewhat due to the choice of colours by Google, but it's what's on the inside that counts, right? Although Google didn't reveal the CPU used, the company claims the Google TV Streamer is 22 percent faster than the Chromecast with Google TV, comes with 4 GB of RAM and more importantly, it has 32 GB of built-in storage, compared to 8 GB for its latest generation of Chromecast devices.
Another great addition is a Gigabit Ethernet port, at least for those that have a network port near their TV, especially as Google stuck with 802.11ac/WiFi 5 for the wireless connectivity, in addition to Bluetooth 5.1. However, the company is also pushing for the Google TV Streamer to become a home automation hub, as it not only supports Matter like the recent Chromecast devices, but it can also act as a Thread border router. The HDMI port supports HDMI 2.1a and offers HDR 10+ and Dolby Vision support, as well as Dolby Atmos sound output. Power is via USB-C port, although it should be noted that Google lists this port as data capable without going into any further details. The remote control has been given a find my remote update and the Google TV Streamer is equipped with a physical button on the back for this purpose. The updated remote and the ability to connect Bluetooth headphones directly to the Google TV Streamer are likely to be other appreciated quality of life additions. Finally, Google has integrated support for its Gemini AI technology that is said to help deliver things like reviews and breakdowns of content, for those that are into those kinds of things. The Google TV Streamer has an MSRP of US$100, which is twice that of the 4K Chromecast with Google TV and it'll be available from the 24th of September.
Source:
Google
The Google TV Streamer moves away from the HDMI dongle design, which some might see as a mistake by the company, but those wanting a set-top-box type device will on the other hand be pleased. The white (porcelain) or grey (hazel) slate isn't the most attractive design maybe, somewhat due to the choice of colours by Google, but it's what's on the inside that counts, right? Although Google didn't reveal the CPU used, the company claims the Google TV Streamer is 22 percent faster than the Chromecast with Google TV, comes with 4 GB of RAM and more importantly, it has 32 GB of built-in storage, compared to 8 GB for its latest generation of Chromecast devices.
49 Comments on Google Discontinues the Chromecast, Announces the Google TV Streamer
The recent evolution of chromecast into google tv now with this format change from the dongle to a proper set top box is not terrible, now it has a reason to exist at least.As I understand it the previous version was very memory starved, which this one improves. In terms of processing power it's not like this will do much more than decode various streams which hw media decoders take care of.Seriously!? How is everyone willing to accept that when DisplayPort is simply free? Only reason I can think of is the complete bullshit claim from MPEG LA they're owned a license fee that would make it more expensive than HDMI, I can't find concrete information on it so lawsuits should still be ongoing.I'd rather TVs kept being just TVs instead of trying to bundle everything. I have an android TV because I wasn't able to find a dumb tv and the thing never got an update and the interface is bad and laggy. The only thing I do with it is change the source to the isp set top box because none of these morons seems to know how to properly implement hdmi cec.
www.displayspecifications.com/en/display-finder
Check this site if you want to find a bunch of them.
also why dont these things allow users to hookup an external hdd to store some shows etc on....
I hope this device has HDMI audio pass though as well for Dolby 5.1 and DTS.
Fast forward to 2024, and nearly all TVs have comprehensive functionality that includes support for Google services, because consumers now demand it. While the Chromecast is still useful to some consumers (like me) it's not serving Google the way it did originally, thus it is being morphed into advancing Google's other initiatives, like connected home.
I'm happy to see the wired gigabit ethernet port. Hopefully the SOC can handle high-bitrate 100mbps+ media.
Hence why they are a "consortium".
They could at least starting mixing it up with a couple of each so players are still compatible and to get the ball rolling, but I get the point the cartel could take revenge on the licensee.
For an apple TV knockoff with a harder to say name and ppl will have to get new devices!!
And this constant changing of staple software and hardware isn't good for the mood or the environment
Nice move there Google. Very smart indeed.
- Be as fast or faster than Nvidia Shield
- Have 4K upscaler like Nvidia Shield has
- Support those HDR formats and Dolby Atmos + higher bitrate audio streams without issues
If these three are not met, for that price, it's DOA. There's already a lot of devices in that market for cheaper and many TVs already have built in Chromecast support (albeit, not that amazing but people still use it).The Verge has talked to Google about the reasoning behind the TV Streamer and the main reason for the trade-offs is that Google doesn't think they can sell a device for more than $100.
www.theverge.com/2024/8/7/24215275/google-tv-streamer-chromecast-gemini-interview
Sure, the shield starts at 150$ and this goes for 100$, but why even make the comparison then? And why try to play in a middle ground where they can't compete with better options and are easily undercut by loads of cheaper options? Google is such a weird company :shadedshu:
However, why Google has to charge twice as much as Amazon is something of a mystery, as doubling the RAM and quadrupling the eMMC isn't going to double the price of the device.