Google Chromecast with Google TV vs Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max

I already liked the WebOS on the LG TV, and was curious to see how this new Chromecast would fare. Well, yesterday was the last day I'll be using it as my go-to device. The Chromecast is insulting; it's supposed to suggest movies and shows based on what you like, NOT on who pays Google the most. I've clicked on the "don't show services I don't use" toggle, but Google doesn't care

Want my advice? This is the worst piece of crap I've seen that's got a Google and netflix certification on it. Don't buy it. The Amazon fire stick leaves this shit eating dust anytime, it's just way much faster and works fine, despite me thinking FireOS and the Amazon AppStore to be inferior.

So yeah, a little disappointing (as licensing limitations usually are) for the audience/user. Google's marketing of this device/platform as an aggregator of all the streaming services should be much clearer about this limitation. Also to note - the remote itself is slippery and hard to hold on to. Do yourself a favor and get one of the cheap silicone covers to help (sold here on Amazon of course)

Being an all Apple household I have to say this device impressed me quite a bit. I purchased a Firestick Lite over a year ago to take with me for travel but it had a bit of lag and seemed to have network drop outs on hotel WiFi (I know hotel WiFi is less than desired but it was annoying). In December this device was on sale for over half off and I decided to try it out. This was after I had gotten the previous Firestick 4K which was a decent product but I found out it for whatever reason cannot get the latest software (but the "less capable" Firestick Lite can, baffling I know)

I recently discovered making a speaker group of my Chromecast on Google home means I can listen to Spotify and watch the slideshow of my dog pictures on the TV.

Amazon bundles the latest version of its Alexa voice remote with the new streaming stick. Aside from the usual playback buttons, there are also dedicated TV controls for power and volume. And you’ll also find four branded shortcuts for Prime Video, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu. (These can technically be reprogrammed, but it’s quite a process

The UI is pretty good and I think it's pretty easy to navigate and find what you need. Overall it's a pretty cheap and decent solution. It gets the job done.

I do wish the live channels could be arranged by preference, maybe there is a way and I just haven't figured it out. Here is what I am not crazy about, the menu or landing page. The Home, Find, Live in my opinion should be at the top of the page horizontal or vertical. This would allow for more apps to show as opposed to 6 and should simply scroll with no need to drop to an apps area (3 little squares)

Why is the Bluetooth audio on the Chromecast with Google TV so bad. Don’t get me wrong, it’s better than not having any Bluetooth connectivity, but the amount of time I’ve spent reconnecting my AirPods over and over again while my food gets cold is ridiculous. It’s either too loud, too quiet, or the volume doesn’t change with the slider. It is very rarely correct, and when it is it’s after about 5 minutes of tinkering

All the episodes of Jack Ryan were available on prime , on my smart tv’s prime app this didn’t happen, only season 2!?! 2. Sound and video were improved even though I had supported apps on my smart tv, and I cannot begin to tell you how much improvement I saw on Dolby Atmos support, especially Disney Plus and HBO Max , which had the apps on my smart tv but their Dolby Atmos sound was much better on the fire stick max 4k! Also Dolby Atmos support on the apps on the smart tv wasn’t perfect as Disney Plus didn’t have that support (for a certain period of time until it got updated) until I upgraded to the Fire Stick 4k Max! Then I had the best possible support for audio and video! Multichannel PCM is technically better than Dolby Digital Plus but I much prefer Dolby Digital Plus because the decoding will be done by the bitstream transferring to the soundbar/receiver rather than the streaming device decoding the signal for you and sending it via PCM. Dolby Digital Plus can be louder and I just prefer it over multichannel PCM. Firestick 4k Max will pass bitstreams while Apple TV’s Dolby Mat decoder will only passthrough Dolby Digital 5

Been waiting for YEARS to be able to stream video on one device and have the audio play on another, can finally do it through Bluetooth. No need for cables across the room anymore. Reason for 4 star is that audio has a minimal stutter every now and then. Might get fixed in an update

NO TETHER - NOR PLACE TO ATTACH ONE There's not even a tether. At least in the old days if you were going to design a tiny terrible product you would at least have an attachable wrist tether and hope it would compensate for something. I would attach it to a larger lanyard - preferably one that glows in the dark and/or has an internal LED. THERE's ONLY ONE Just throwing this out there: Old TVS used to come with a PAIR of remotes