Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by move-on-by 2094 days ago
Oh boy, let me tell you about my LG Google TV (55GA7900). It was awesome when it was brand new, I really enjoyed being able to install various apps (this is pre-roku days where it wasn't common place). After a couple years, they moved on to Android TV - but everything still worked and they still pushed out some occasional updates. Well, a few more years went by and it became EOL. LG pushed out one final update which fixed a few things and disabled the update feature altogether (Android 4.2.2). Well guess what? The update was junk and made it where you could not scan for over-the-air channels. The scanner would just crash and no channels would be found. There was no way to go directly to a channel or manual add channels - scan only. So here I was with a smart tv that couldn't even watch TV over the air. I'm sure LG was also to blame, not just Google, but I sure wouldn't buy or recommend a google TV. Looks like they are now switching back to Google TV and the poor folks who were duped into getting an Android TV will be the next to experience abandonment.

More info on Google TV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_TV
5 comments
olyjohn 2094 days ago
I have an LG Roku TV, and I can't manually add over-the-air channels. It's maddening that I can let it scan for 30 minutes and it won't add all the channels. And the Roku remote doesn't have a number pad, so you can't just punch in a channel number either. Also, there is no control to delete a WiFi network. So the only way to kick this thing off my WiFi is to change my WiFi password.
link
throwaways885 2094 days ago
Google TV is software which runs on Android TV devices made by Google. It's not a replacement of Android TV. It's akin to Windows Media Center running on Windows XP.
link
basch 2094 days ago
Google TV was a predecessor to Android TV. Source I have one of each in the house, but also the wiki article in the post you replied to. Google TV may have run on top of Android, but it was its own Shell. The OS was still useful until a youtube update killed youtube on it. The TV came with a full keyboard on the remote.

The new Google TV is more akin to iPad OS and iOS splitting, where the TV and Phone variant can have their own identity, but from the looks of it, its starting out as just a single android app, and not a full on shell fork.

link
throwaways885 2094 days ago
Yes I know. My point was that Android TV is already an operating system in itself (which already has it's own TV features), and Google TV is a rebranding of the software running upon that OS. Namely, the new home screen app.
link
basch 2094 days ago
Is that the case? Or is Google TV an app that you click from the Android TV home screen? I thought in this context Google TV is more akin to Prime Video or The Roku Channel. Can you escape the Google TV app and get back to the old Android TV launcher? Can you install the new Google TV app as an app on older Android TV, or is it an OS upgrade?

Maybe the line is so blurred between shell/launcher and app now that its a distinction without merit. They can just keep nesting shells inside apps recursively, ad infinitum.

I have the Google TV app on my phone already (the Movies & TV app auto updated.)

link
move-on-by 2094 days ago
According to this article, it looks like another rebranding, which is exactly what happened 6 years ago when Google TV was rebranded to Android TV. Its a simple way to drop support for existing devices.

https://www.xda-developers.com/android-tv-rebrand-google-tv-...

link
northwest65 2094 days ago
In my country consumer protection laws say they would have to give you a new TV if the TV stopped displaying TV channels, even after all those years.
link
clintonb 2094 days ago
I had that TV years ago. I went through three of them before giving up and buying a Sony. Mine crashed every couple hours. LG sent a repair person to replace the main board. This fixed the crashing, but broke the tuner.

Given this happened twice, I sensed there was an issue with the complete model line and bailed. I actually boycotted LG products for a few years as a result of this experience.

link
move-on-by 2094 days ago
Perhaps you just got the latest broken update when they replaced the board. It was certainly a software issue and if you were lucky and had already done a successful scan, then there was a way to work around the bug: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/help/help-lg-google...
link
cobookman 2094 days ago
It's why I like a dumb tv with seperate 'smarts' as an external attachment.

I generally keep my TV much longer than I keep a laptop/computer.

link