Nexus Player-Want one?

youngblood · 16-10-2014 10:55pm #1

So who wants a Nexus Player??

http://www.google.com/nexus/player/

It's a puck-shaped device that plugs into your TV via HDMI and it's small - measuring just 120x120x 20mm, it's dinkier than a DVD, though substantially thicker.
Forgoing any kind of physical media playback, it's designed exclusively to stream and download video and music from both the internet and your own home network. So it's a Netflix player then - right?
Right, but it's so much more than that. Nexus Player runs a brand new TV-optimised version of Android 5.0 (Lollipop) which means it'll eventually be compatible with a huge assortment of Android apps in the Google Play store. So once developers have gotten to grips with it, it could yield some very interesting applications.
The key uses to start with, though, aside from streaming music and movies, is gaming. The box is manufactured for Google by Asus, which is also making an optional gamepad. And with 8GB of internal storage, there's space to download games for playing on your TV.

Dozen Wicked Words · 17-10-2014 3:25am

If you can sideload games and entertainment apps on to it (rather than from the play store) then I'm definitely interested, game controller looks decent too.

dahat · 17-10-2014 7:48am

Will this be XBMC compatiabile? A real tempter if so.

jester77 · 17-10-2014 7:55am

Lack of Ethernet is a big no no for me.

IrishStuff09 · 17-10-2014 7:56am

I'm definitely temped alright, although I've yet to fix my Nexus 4 and get a Moto 360, so I'll probably look around for it after Christmas/New Year or whenever its out.

v638sg7k1a92bx · 17-10-2014 9:44am

Would you need one of these if you already have a chromecast?

advertsfox · 17-10-2014 10:12am

dahat wrote: »

Will this be XBMC compatiabile? A real tempter if so.

That won't take long - once it does arrive, I will be very interested.

Telchak · 17-10-2014 10:14am

Maggie Proud Sprint wrote: »

Would you need one of these if you already have a chromecast?

I bought a Roku because I find using the phone as a remote control very awkward, especially when I want to pause something quickly. I mostly only use the Chromecast for iPlayer now, and will definitely be replacing both with one of these as soon as I can.

Still no word on a UK & Ireland release date?

dahat · 17-10-2014 10:56am

advertsfox wrote: »

That won't take long - once it does arrive, I will be very interested.

You would imagine these will be very popular then. No Ethernet not an issue as this box would likely be a second box for upstairs for me.

advertsfox · 17-10-2014 10:59am

dahat wrote: »

You would imagine these will be very popular then. No Ethernet not an issue as this box would likely be a second box for upstairs for me.

Chatting to a friend of mine about the lack of ethernet here, makes sense from a form factor view, cost of extra hardware and the fact that Chromecast has been handling it's content quite well with WiFi only. I'm personally ok with it, I guess I'm just used to using Ethernet on tethered devices

Ste- · 17-10-2014 11:04am

You could always use usb to Ethernet. Also there's already an x86 android xbmc build. So hopefully doesn't take much to get it working.

advertsfox · 17-10-2014 11:07am

Ste- wrote: »

You could always use usb to Ethernet. Also there's already an x86 android xbmc build. So hopefully doesn't take much to get it working.

Have both working with my own MK808

It has 1 micro USB on it but it will be fine with Wifi 802.11AC 2×2 (MIMO).

Still haven't seen the ports though:

Connectivity
802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO)
Bluetooth 4.1

Ports
18W DC power
HDMI out (1920x1080@60Hz)
Micro USB 2.0

Atomic Pineapple · 17-10-2014 11:09am

Going to http://www.google.com/nexus/ and the Player has been removed from the line up? What gives?

advertsfox · 17-10-2014 11:11am

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Going to http://www.google.com/nexus/ and the Player has been removed from the line up? What gives?

Its at the top of the page next to Nexus 9 6 5 Player

http://www.google.com/nexus/player/

Atomic Pineapple · 17-10-2014 11:38am

It's not coming up for me.

See attached.

ThisRegard · 17-10-2014 11:46am

Why are people having issues with no ethernet ? Unstable broadband in the house ? I've never had issues with either Chromecast at home, one in the living room near the router, the other connected to a homeplug in an external office, both are rock solid.

jester77 · 17-10-2014 11:57am

ThisRegard wrote: »

Why are people having issues with no ethernet ? Unstable broadband in the house ? I've never had issues with either Chromecast at home, one in the living room near the router, the other connected to a homeplug in an external office, both are rock solid.

Because ethernet is rock solid. I've CAT 7 all around my house, never have to worry about fumbling with wifi and trying to get signal to certain corners of the house. Wifi is fine for mobile devices and causal surfing, but I will never rely on it for gaming or streaming HD content.

ThisRegard · 17-10-2014 12:03pm

jester77 wrote: »

Because ethernet is rock solid. I've CAT 7 all around my house, never have to worry about fumbling with wifi and trying to get signal to certain corners of the house. Wifi is fine for mobile devices and causal surfing, but I will never rely on it for gaming or streaming HD content.

I use it for gaming and streaming HD content, no issues, no fumbling.

OSI wrote: »

Try streaming 1080P SBS 3D with decent audio over wifi to the Chromecast and see how that goes for you.

I'd love to try if I had the equipment that required such things

caolfx · 17-10-2014 12:08pm

Hmmm what advantages does the Nexus player have over, say, a train, which I could also afford Apple TV - which is what I currently have..

CinSoots · 17-10-2014 12:32pm

SuperOito wrote: »

Hmmm what advantages does the Nexus player have over, say, a train, which I could also afford Apple TV - which is what I currently have..

There is a an almost 100% chance that at some stage you will be able to sideload apps and/or XBMC onto it and then you can play pretty much anything you can think of on it. The Apple tv is very limited in what it can play especially if you dont get it from iTunes.

Do a bit of googling and you will find out what wonderful apps are available to Android that cant be used on ios or Apple TV!!!

advertsfox · 17-10-2014 3:27pm

SuperOito wrote: »

Hmmm what advantages does the Nexus player have over, say, a train, which I could also afford Apple TV - which is what I currently have..

Development (app support will be huge) - price - open source OS - accessories - compatibility with not just Android devices (ala Apple TV and iPhone / iPad only).

advertsfox · 17-10-2014 3:39pm

OSI wrote: »

Well to be fair on that front, I can stream from my Android handset to the Apple TV with abandon.

True, same as saying you can get Plex on Apple TV but I mean more from the out of box experience.

AlanS181824 · 18-10-2014 2:12am

Interesting to see the Nexus 5 still listed, wonder will it incur a price decrease any time soon?

jonski · 18-10-2014 2:25am

I'd be interested to see the price on this to see if it will be cheap enough as second box , I already have the Ouya connected to my main TV and it does everything I need but one for the TV upstairs would be handy .

AlanS181824 · 18-10-2014 2:44am

jonski wrote: »

I'd be interested to see the price on this to see if it will be cheap enough as second box , I already have the Ouya connected to my main TV and it does everything I need but one for the TV upstairs would be handy .

It's apparently 99$ so direct conversion as they always do it'll be €99.

CiDeRmAn · 18-10-2014 9:01am

The UK and Irish sites have the 9, 6 and 5 on display.
Only the US site has the player.

IrishStuff09 · 18-10-2014 9:12am

Link to Google Play for whenever its available..

https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_player

Kenny Logins · 29-10-2014 4:36pm

I think I want one. There doesn't seem to be much detail on them yet though...

Kenny Logins · 04-11-2014 12:47pm

Preview here - http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/3/7149505/google-nexus-player-review

Telchak · 14-01-2015 6:59pm

Got my Nexus Player a couple of days ago and been using it fairly frequently.

The UI is nice and intuitive, and apps are very quick to open and exit (except for the standard Netflix television app, as it's not native).The Leanback Launcher will become very frustrating once more apps start rolling out, so hopefully they have some organisation features in the pipeline. The suggestions for what to watch next are a bit random, would be nice if each app let you decide what to send to it (like new YouTube subscriptions instead of 'What to Watch' videos).

Have some problems with Plex videos stopping, but I think that's a problem with the app rather than the Nexus as I haven't noticed it in other apps. Emulators run nicely, though unfortunately I have no controller to play some N64!

Very nice device overlall

Atomic Pineapple · 14-01-2015 7:49pm

Where did you manage to pick one up?

Telchak · 14-01-2015 8:18pm

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Where did you manage to pick one up?

Ebay, for a bit of a premium

corkie · 22-03-2015 1:05am

Google Nexus Player available for pre-order from amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk link - £79.99

For the people that have one already there is a factory Android 5.1 image available (released during the week).

Edit: I have a chromecast, so not in the market for a TV console.

There are other options which should be available soon: -

Shield Console
Razer Forge TV

steve_r · 22-03-2015 11:35am

I'm looking forward to this. I've gotten great mileage from the Chromecast, so much so that I was thinking of buying another for other tvs.

I might just get one of these, and use the chromecast as a portable solution.

Fallschirmjager · 23-03-2015 11:23am

has anyone tried this with a usb to ethernet link? sorry not having a native Ethernet port is a big no no for me as all the existing xbmc/kodi installations i have experienced terrible issues with wifi (and no its not the wifi before you ask) and i also wired the house.

just want some word of mouth experiences with it from here.

also any mount points to strap it to the back of a tv? (other than the old reliable duct tape!)

Ste- · 23-03-2015 12:48pm

Fallschirmjager wrote: »

has anyone tried this with a usb to ethernet link? sorry not having a native Ethernet port is a big no no for me as all the existing xbmc/kodi installations i have experienced terrible issues with wifi (and no its not the wifi before you ask) and i also wired the house.

just want some word of mouth experiences with it from here.

also any mount points to strap it to the back of a tv? (other than the old reliable duct tape!)

They work. have read about people on the net doing this.

TheDoc · 23-03-2015 3:30pm

jester77 wrote: »

Because ethernet is rock solid. I've CAT 7 all around my house, never have to worry about fumbling with wifi and trying to get signal to certain corners of the house. Wifi is fine for mobile devices and causal surfing, but I will never rely on it for gaming or streaming HD content.

Yeah the above.

Wifi is fine for casual uses, but when you want to stream 1080p, to be honest even 720p in proper quality it will struggle.

I moved away from all these boxes and small devices, and just bought a HTPC, custom built, and it was a brilliant investment. Was circa €300 and I'm sorted, where I was spending more then that on every little neat device to come out where I would "hope" it would do what I wanted.

Providing a "media centre" device, without ethernet, is just negligent imo. The chase to tablets, small devices and the likes has skewered what was always the rule of thumb. Wifi is a pretty horrendous technology, and you should always opt for cable.

I settled for homeplugs in the new house, not arsed running ethernet from downstairs upstairs, but over the summer I will be. While pings are fine, I'm loosing 150mbps from the plugs.

Will keep a close on eye on what happens with this as I'm always into the latest gadgets and gizmos, if it can be rooted and messed about might provide a wealth of options.

ThisRegard · 23-03-2015 4:16pm

TheDoc wrote: »

Yeah the above.

Wifi is fine for casual uses, but when you want to stream 1080p, to be honest even 720p in proper quality it will struggle.

I don't necessarily agree, Youtube and Netflix stream in 1080p faultlessly over my Wifi directly from the router and homeplugs in 1080p on laptops, consoles and chromecast. 4K streaming for Netflix requires only 15Mb/s, 7 for Super HD.

nedd · 23-03-2015 5:25pm

I would love one of these, I used to have a Logitech Revue Google TV box and it was great.

Using my Samsung Smart TV with Plex for everything now.

I have to say that I have homeplugs set up and there is a noticeable difference between Cable and WIFI. For this box not to have ethernet is a real shame.

mass_debater · 23-03-2015 5:49pm

It's not just speed, wireless is half duplex, the radio in your router only talks to one device at a time, in one direction at a time. It must stop sending to receive. It's a no-brainer to use cables as they do at least gigabit full duplex ie send and receive at the same time.

ThisRegard · 23-03-2015 7:41pm

I'm not saying it's as good as wired, but it's more than sufficient for 1080p streaming, even with multiple devices connected, broadband speed depending obviously.

mass_debater · 23-03-2015 8:00pm

ThisRegard wrote: »

I'm not saying it's as good as wired, but it's more than sufficient for 1080p streaming, even with multiple devices connected, broadband speed depending obviously.

Just about. Add some other device with a weak signal streaming a 1080p Youtube vid at the same time and it'll grind to a halt. To cope with our bandwidth needs of the future everything static will need to be cabled, wireless should be for mobility. It's a crazy decision by Google to go wireless only.

corkie · 23-03-2015 11:16pm

Looks like amazon jumped the gun!

The amazon link I posted has been removed from the site!

Did anyone pre-order it?

There is another listing for it but at a higher cost!

corkie · 26-03-2015 11:31pm

Nexus Player now available again from amazon.co.uk

Suppose to be available from the google store in the UK as well! According to this!

People should read reviews and decide if they want it!

There are other options which should be available soon: -

Shield Console
Razer Forge TV

god's toy · 27-03-2015 7:39am

From what I'm reading the Nvidia shield tv (player) kicks the butt of the Google one so I wont be running out to buy this one.
http://www.droid-life.com/2015/03/04/nvidias-shield-is-the-only-android-tv-set-top-box-youll-need/

Was looking forward to having one but the reviews are just not very good for it right now.

ThisRegard · 27-03-2015 11:38am

The Shield will most likely be more than double the price of the Nexus Player, and not everyone wants gaming functionality.

god's toy · 27-03-2015 9:10pm

You can buy it with or without the controller for those who do or don't want to game.

Sure even the base model will be probably 40-50 Euro (according to Nvidia's own press event) over the nexus but when you compare what your getting for the money its not even a fair fight.

nexus-player-specs

nvidia-shield-android-tv-specs

But yea some will buy the nexus no matter what and that's fine too.

redmond08 · 26-04-2015 12:11pm

Ordered one of these from Amazon, really looking forward to getting it. Going to use it mostly for Netflix US, Hulu Plus and Kodi. Will post what I think of it when it arrives.

corkie · 15-05-2015 10:03pm

Razer Forge TV Launches without Netflix support!

[Lame] Razer's Forge Android TV Launches Without Netflix Support, According To Early Buyers

Also some question over it's chromecast ability?

Posting in this thread because no threads for the Forge!

corkie · 29-05-2015 8:09pm

Nvidia Shield Android TV now available for purchase!

From nvidia

or from amazon.com

Buy an NVIDIA SHIELD between May 28 and August 19, 2015 and get a $30 Google Play credit + 3 months of unlimited Google Play music.

Not available through amazon.co.uk yet.

Looks like it has support for 4K Ultra HD content from your favorite apps like Netflix*

Pro version (500gb) will be released on June 12, 2015 which also includes the above promotion + Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

god's toy · 29-05-2015 9:52pm

Can you order the US one for europe? Bet they won't be giving us 30 euro for play over here.... Be cool if they did!

Have the controller now already so just have to justify the extra 100 smackers for the pro version.

Nexus Player-Want one?

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