Google Chromecast with Google TV (2020) The Chromecast with Google TV offers all functionality of the Chromecast Ultra with the option to install Android TV apps and operate the device with its own remote control. The promised content aggregation does not (yet) work flawlessly, although this may be because the Chromecast with Google TV is not yet officially for sale in the Netherlands and has not yet been optimized for the services used here. Our preliminary conclusion is therefore that it is a good alternative to the equally expensive Chromecast Ultra, but that you should not buy the device (yet) for the promised functionality where Google TV seamlessly brings together content from different services.

Google released a new Chromecast ‘with Google TV’ on the market. In addition to the standard cast functionality that we know from previous Chromecasts, the new model has its own interface, you can install apps on it and a remote control is included for the first time. This makes the Chromecast with Google TV potentially an interesting all-round media player that you can buy for about seventy euros. However, Google promises more, because the new Google TV must be able to display content from different services in one clear overview, so that you never have to wonder whether that one movie or series can be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney +. The Chromecast with Google TV is not (yet) available in the Netherlands, but it is easy to order from German or French stores.

Seven years ago, Google introduced the Chromecast, a small HDMI dongle that makes it possible in two different ways to play image and sound via WiFi on a TV with a smartphone or computer. By means of screen mirroring you can send the complete image of a smartphone as a video signal to the Chromecast and in the same way you can use the PC also convert a tab of the Chromebrowser in its entirety to a video stream that is shown by the Chromecast on TV. Another more common option is to send video streams, audio streams and photos to the big screen directly from apps via the Google Cast protocol, where the Chromecast itself connects to the service that delivers the content after a command from a smartphone app, and the smartphone actually only serves to start and stop content, and to adjust the sound volume. As a refined remote control.

The first Chromecast cost around fifty euros in the Netherlands and turned out to be a great success. The device only supported 802. 1n Wi-Fi at 2.4GHz and was therefore succeeded after two years by a model offering 5GHz functionality there to added. In 2016 Google released the Chromecast Ultra, which supports 4k, hdr and 802. 11 ac offers wifi and is sold for around eighty euros. In 2018, another regular non-4k Chromecast followed, which is limited to 1080 p, but also a 802. 11 has ac-radio on board and is still for sale for around forty euros.

The appearance of the several generations of Chromecast changed, but in all cases the basic concept remained the same. They were small devices without a remote control and also without their own interface, so that they could only be controlled from an external device such as a smartphone.

The first Chromecast out 2013, the Chromecast Ultra out 2016 and the new Chromecast with Google TV

More than just casting With the ‘Chromecast with Google TV’ that concept changes. The new Chromecast is somewhat larger than all its predecessors, but it is still an HDMI dongle that you hide behind your TV. The device offers all the functionality that previous models also offer, including 4k video, hdr output and of course the Google Cast and screen mirroring functionality that we are used to from Chromecasts.

Cast functionality is now no longer the only thing the device offers. The ‘with Google TV’ part of the new Chromecast means in practice that the new device now has its own interface and is therefore also supplied with a remote control for the first time. We will discuss what Google TV exactly is later in this article, but as a technical basis the Android TV platform is used that we also encounter in smart TVs from Sony and Philips. Android TV apps can therefore be installed natively on the new Chromecast. The advantage of this is that you do not need a smartphone, tablet or PC to start content.

There are Android TV apps for well-known services such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney +, Videoland, Ziggo Go, Pathé and NL See that can be installed natively on the Chromecast and with which you can search and play content with the remote control. In addition, you can also play local media from, for example, a nas with apps such as Kodi and Plex, with which the new Chromecast is in theory a full-fledged media player. The device also costs just under seventy euros and therefore seems a formidable competitor for, for example, the popular Shield media players from Nvidia.

Specifications The heart of the new Chromecast is an Amlogic S 905 X2, a quad-core processor with four Cortex-A 53 cores at up to 1.9GHz and one Mali G 31 MP2 GPU. The device also has 2GB of ram and just over 4GB of storage memory. As mentioned, it supports 802. 11 ac-wifi at 2.4 and 5GHz, and has Bluetooth 4.2. Ethernet is not available as standard, although Google promises to come with an optional power adapter with built-in Ethernet connection.

Video signals can be output in up to 4k resolution at sixty frames per second, with support for HDR 10, HDR 10 +, HLG and Dolby Vision. On the audio side, the device can output signals in PCM audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital + and AAC format via HDMI. Dolby Atmos via Dolby Digital + is also possible, but Dolby TrueHD, and therefore Atmos via Dolby TrueHD, cannot be output as bitstream, while DTS and DTS: X can.

The supplied remote control communicates with the Chromekast via Bluetooth 4.2 and has a built-in microphone for Google Assistant. The remote control is very compact and has a limited number of buttons. Besides a round d-pad with a button in the middle to confirm choices, there are buttons for Back, Google Assistant, Home, Mute, YouTube, Netflix, Power, Input and Volume.

Not yet official in the Netherlands Google released the Chromecast with Google TV earlier this month in the US and a number of European countries, but not in the Netherlands. At the time of writing, it is also not known whether, and if so when, the device will be officially released in the Netherlands. Inquiries from Tweakers at Google did not yield an answer to this question. We still wanted to get started with the new Chromecast and therefore ordered a copy from the French Fnac, which delivered the device to our Dutch home address within a few days for just under eighty euros, including shipping costs.