Nexus Player-Want one?

youngblood

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

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

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

jester77

Lack of Ethernet is a big no no for me.

IrishStuff09

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

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

advertsfox

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

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

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

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-

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

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

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

advertsfox

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

It's not coming up for me.

See attached.

ThisRegard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

jonski

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

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

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

IrishStuff09

Link to Google Play for whenever its available..

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

Kenny Logins

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

Kenny Logins

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

Telchak

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

Where did you manage to pick one up?