[RockerC]

First have to wait until if and when Google releases this new "Google TV" launcher/UI app to third-parties, and then wait until if and when Nvidia upgrade existing Nvidia Sheild TVs to Android 10 and the new "Google TV" launcher/UI app.

Who knows, maybe Google has released Android TV 11 by then as Google released Android 10 for Android TV in December last year but Nvidia has still not released an upgrade of Android TV 10 for Nvidia Sheild TVs.

I had missed that Google on 22 September 2020 actually released Android TV based on Android 11 for OEM developers (third-party Android TV manufacturers):

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...id-tv.html

Google is usually good at eating their own dog food but Android 11 for is so far only available as a system update rollout to Google's ADT-3 ADT-3 Developer Kit devices today.

It has by the way now been confirmed that "Google Chromecast with Google TV" ships with Android TV based on Android 10.

Android 11 on Android TV brings new features such as:

• "Auto Low Latency Mode" (automatically disables displays/televisions graphics post-processing if use HDMI 2.1 or later)
  
• "Low latency media decoding" (which I assume is primarily meant for cloud-based game streaming services like Stadia, but could maybe also be used by Kodi's RetroPlayer core?)
  
• "Extended gamepad support" (adds native support for some additional third-party gaming controllers)
  
• "HAL implementation of HDMI CEC" (maybe something that Kodi's libcec can hook into?)
  
• "Media CAS (Media conditional access systems)" and "Tuner Framework" (maybe something Kodi's hook into for use in a new PVR client for Android TV box tuners?)
  

I guess based on just those new features in Android 11 for Android TV we assume this is why Google did not yet add Stadio support for this new "Google Chromecast with Google TV" dongle.

They first really need to release an upgrade of Android 11 for it before they add support for Stadia in order not to get bad reviews and even more users complaining about high latency.

[RockerC]

hmm, does this new "Google Chromecast with Google TV" dongle not ship with 64-bit (arm64-v8a ABI) version of Android TV operating-system? 

If so then it feels like Google does really not like eating their own dog food on this new device.

I read that Google still requires that all Android TV apps using native code must support 32-bit in order to be Android TV-compliant in the Google Play Store for Android TV.

This 32-bit requirement for apps, however, goes in the opposite direction to the Google Play Store on other platforms than Android TV, because as of 2019 Google requires that Android app native code developers updates their apps to also have 64-bit in order to remain on (non-TV) Google Play Store. For non-TV platforms.

Google has even gone as far as to say that 32-bit devices should be phased out before the 1st of August 2021. That is, Google has said that after August 1 2021 the Google Play Store will no longer install 32bit-only apps on 64-bit devices, but again that requirement does not yet apply to Android TV.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/01/16...be-64-bit/

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...droid.html

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...4-bit.html

https://developer.android.com/distribute...lop/64-bit

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...mance.html

Hardware should at least support ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set for AArch64 architecture (ARM64) as S905D3/S905Y2/S905X2 SoCs are based on ARM Cortex-A53, though they are also fully backward compatibility with ARMv7 (AArch32).

32-bit or 64-bit probably does not matter to Kodi as a pure media player but it does matter for some game emulators, like example the Wii/GameCube emulator Dolphin who chose not to support 32-bit because of performance.

https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2018/08/14/...f-android/

https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#what-o...-supported

64-bit builds of Libretro emulator cores in 64-bit RetroArch (RetroArch64 for Android) also tends to have about a 10% performance boost on average in comparison to 32-bit builds on the same emulator cores.

https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retro...lay-build/

Kodi's Game API for RetroPlayer also happen to use these same Libretro emulator cores as game cores so should get the benefits of the same performance boost when running on 64-bit Android.

PS: For reference, the more traditional Nvidia Shield TV Pro does ship with 64-Bit of Android TV but I read that the tube-shaped Nvidia  Shield TV dongle ships of 32-Bit of Android TV for unknown reasons.
 

Downloaded v19 Alpha 1 32-bit. Or, should I use a different version/build?

Noticed you are testing the 64-bit version of Kodi for Android, so I'm guessing that means that the 64-bit version of Kodi for Android does not even work on this new "Google Chromecast with Google TV" dongle, or does it?

[wrxtasy]

32-bit or 64-bit probably does not matter to Kodi as a pure media player but it does matter for some game emulators, like example the Wii/GameCube emulator Dolphin who chose not to support 32-bit because of performance.

I would think Google cares little for 64bit Retro gaming Apps, when they have a paid for games streaming service waiting in the wings called Stadia.

They don't care about HD audio either, nor auto refresh switching. There is no NTFS support either.

What they do care about is Adverts in YouTube and selling you content and making deals with Subscription video streaming Apps providers. Content discovery in the Google TV launcher is a major focus.

This is firmly an - online streaming - dongle.
Trying to put a square plug into a round hole and turn this device into something like a Nvidia Shield is not going to work on a $50 streaming device developed and sold by a search and advertising company !

[lightsout]

32-bit or 64-bit probably does not matter to Kodi as a pure media player but it does matter for some game emulators, like example the Wii/GameCube emulator Dolphin who chose not to support 32-bit because of performance.

I would think Google cares little for 64bit Retro gaming Apps, when they have a paid for games streaming service waiting in the wings called Stadia.

They don't care about HD audio either, nor auto refresh switching. There is no NTFS support either.

What they do care about is Adverts in YouTube and selling you content and making deals with Subscription video streaming Apps providers. Content discovery in the Google TV launcher is a major focus.

This is firmly an - online streaming - dongle.
Trying to put a square plug into a round hole and turn this device into something like a Nvidia Shield is not going to work on a $50 streaming device developed and sold by a search and advertising company !

Sad but true, and it is a shame, I just need a cheap device that runs android and can play my UHD rips straight into a TV with no AVR. I have Coreelec devices but would like something that is an all in one (streaming apps and local).

[RockerC]

I would think Google cares little for 64bit Retro gaming Apps, 

I of course understand that Google doesn't care about emulators, etc., but the fact is that some higher-ups at Google have published these policies and statements that say that all Android apps must migrate to 64-bit sooner or later.

Just read:

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...droid.html

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...4-bit.html

https://android-developers.googleblog.co...mance.html

https://developer.android.com/distribute...lop/64-bit

https://developers.google.com/ar/64bit

I guess it could just be that the independent team behind the "Google Chromecast with Google TV" project did not get that message or simply choose to ignore it if it hurt their department's deadline or budget for that specific project.

[hdmkv]

Next, tried Dolby Vision using my Vizio. I haven't kept up with local DV playback development much, but none of these MakeMKV samples play in DV, only HDR10. I assume Kodi 19 doesn't yet support DV in MKV. Also, sideloaded ExoPlayer off Google Play, recalling reading somewhere it played DV files, but the app kept crashing when trying to open on GTV. Any suggestions for testing DV MKV's?

Anyone get DV to work, whether w/local media or streaming? I don't subscribe to Netflix, so tried 'Bosch' season 2 & later and 'Jack Ryan' (believe both are supposed to be in DV) to see if DV might work for Prime Video, but my Vizio shows "HDR10+"... odd as this TV only supports Dolby Vision, HDR10 & HLG, and will usually just display HDR10 for my local HDR10 clips. Also getting same w/YouTube clips. Also read on AVS Forum that GTV does support VP9 profile 2.

Prime Video 'Jack Ryan' Playback via GTV:


Prime Video 'Jack Ryan' Playback via Shield TV; no DV either:


Maybe 'Bosch' & 'Jack Ryan' on Prime are not in DV? They are according to this.

Edit: Had no idea that Vizio had added HDR10+ support for my TV model. But, still odd that supposed DV content is indicated as HDR10+.

[noggin]

Hmm - just tried playing Jack Ryan S2 and Bosch S6 on my Apple TV 4K, nVidia Shield TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.  All of them played in HDR10 not DV. (I have a DV TV and AVR and watch Netflix and Apple TV+ stuff in UHD DV HDR)

[droidkid]

I couldn't get SMB to work; kept getting this error...


NFS did work, but was only able drill into some (not all) of my Synology & QNAP shares and add folders.

Audio Test Results:
- Standard DD & DTS 5.1 all play fine
- Dolby TrueHD & ATMOS both play in PCM 2.0
- DD+ 5.1 & 7.1 both play perfectly
- DTS-HD MA 5.1, 7.1 & DTS:X all play in DTS 5.1
- PCM 5.1 & 7.1 play in PCM 2.0

Video Test Results:
- As we already know, no refresh rate switching nor resolution switching
- 1080p/23.976 plays at 59.94 (and in my case in 2160p as that's what my Google TV dongle is set to)
- VC-1 1080p/23.976 & 29.97 play in slo-mo, stuttery (w/latter faring worse)
- All my UHD 23.976 rips play at 59.94 (same rez Google TV dongle is set to), but HDR works; however only at 8-bit depth (vs. 10-bit as it's w/my nVidia Shield TV, Zidoo Z9S & Vero 4K+)
- Sony Camp 2160p/59.94 plays properly & in HDR, but again at 8-bit depth

As has been mentioned already, the Refresh Rate app doesn't work. Even when I tried to assign a specific button from a secondary remote. BTW, my Fire TV voice remote paired & worked perfectly with the Google TV Chromecast.

This device is promising, even w/the A/V shortcoming at this point, because:
- The performance is quite snappy. Not Shield TV level, but fairly close, which is impressive given it's 1/4 the price
- Browsing my Kodi library (of 3,000+ thousand movies/shows) was quite fast
- Wi-fi performance is excellent. Haven't done an iperf3 test yet, but my BD/UHD rips played fine for 10-15 minutes of testing (I have Netgear Mesh wi-fi). Still, I've ordered this USB-C ethernet hub (hopefully it'll work) to compare wired vs. wi-fi

Overall, I both like and dislike the Google TV UI. It's clearly targeted for premium app users, for purposes of aggregating & curating content across services. The Apps section is really secondary. The UI is slick and fairly intuitive, but less useful for us local media fans and customizers. The remote is quite nice, very responsive, easy to use, but no info/context type button. I really missed the Android TV UI after a while, especially the channel rows populated with my Kodi playlists, and being able to get to favorited apps and full settings easily.

Going to hold on to this for a while and see what improvements Google pushes out in the coming weeks/months and what magic other devs might be able to make happen.

Canada doesn't get the new Chromecast until the 15th. I'm going to be using this to replace my old Android boxes. Has any one got SMB to work? I really need these to work with SMB to I can watch my media from my file server

[FXB78]

I couldn't get SMB to work; kept getting this error...


NFS did work, but was only able drill into some (not all) of my Synology & QNAP shares and add folders.

Audio Test Results:
- Standard DD & DTS 5.1 all play fine
- Dolby TrueHD & ATMOS both play in PCM 2.0
- DD+ 5.1 & 7.1 both play perfectly
- DTS-HD MA 5.1, 7.1 & DTS:X all play in DTS 5.1
- PCM 5.1 & 7.1 play in PCM 2.0

Video Test Results:
- As we already know, no refresh rate switching nor resolution switching
- 1080p/23.976 plays at 59.94 (and in my case in 2160p as that's what my Google TV dongle is set to)
- VC-1 1080p/23.976 & 29.97 play in slo-mo, stuttery (w/latter faring worse)
- All my UHD 23.976 rips play at 59.94 (same rez Google TV dongle is set to), but HDR works; however only at 8-bit depth (vs. 10-bit as it's w/my nVidia Shield TV, Zidoo Z9S & Vero 4K+)
- Sony Camp 2160p/59.94 plays properly & in HDR, but again at 8-bit depth

As has been mentioned already, the Refresh Rate app doesn't work. Even when I tried to assign a specific button from a secondary remote. BTW, my Fire TV voice remote paired & worked perfectly with the Google TV Chromecast.

This device is promising, even w/the A/V shortcoming at this point, because:
- The performance is quite snappy. Not Shield TV level, but fairly close, which is impressive given it's 1/4 the price
- Browsing my Kodi library (of 3,000+ thousand movies/shows) was quite fast
- Wi-fi performance is excellent. Haven't done an iperf3 test yet, but my BD/UHD rips played fine for 10-15 minutes of testing (I have Netgear Mesh wi-fi). Still, I've ordered this USB-C ethernet hub (hopefully it'll work) to compare wired vs. wi-fi

Overall, I both like and dislike the Google TV UI. It's clearly targeted for premium app users, for purposes of aggregating & curating content across services. The Apps section is really secondary. The UI is slick and fairly intuitive, but less useful for us local media fans and customizers. The remote is quite nice, very responsive, easy to use, but no info/context type button. I really missed the Android TV UI after a while, especially the channel rows populated with my Kodi playlists, and being able to get to favorited apps and full settings easily.

Going to hold on to this for a while and see what improvements Google pushes out in the coming weeks/months and what magic other devs might be able to make happen.

Canada doesn't get the new Chromecast until the 15th. I'm going to be using this to replace my old Android boxes. Has any one got SMB to work? I really need these to work with SMB to I can watch my media from my file server

As wrxtasy said previously, Google don't care about your local media. I'd keep your Android boxes or look elsewhere rather than relying on Google to cater to your needs.

[hdmkv]

Hmm - just tried playing Jack Ryan S2 and Bosch S6 on my Apple TV 4K, nVidia Shield TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.  All of them played in HDR10 not DV. (I have a DV TV and AVR and watch Netflix and Apple TV+ stuff in UHD DV HDR)

I do subscribe to ATV+, but there's no app on Google Play store for it. Did try mp4 & ts DV samples via Kodi 19 (as opposed to just DV MKV's before), but got only HDR10. Not a Plex fan & don't want to bother w/installing the necessary Plex server to my NAS or PC in order to test DV.

So, a new test I just conducted over wi-fi was playing high bitrate Birds & Jellyfish files:
- Up to Birds 90Mbps play fine, no issues
- Up to Jellyfish 120Mbps play fine, but 140+ exhibit buffering & stutter (not surprising given the iperf3 results I posted earlier)

Tried this USB-C gigabit Ethernet adapter off Amazon, but GTV didn't like it, so couldn't test wired playback nor adoptable storage results...





This damn dongle is quite fussy about power. Also tried this USB 3.0 ethernet adapter w/a USB-C to USB 3.0 cable & had the same power error issue.

[wrxtasy]

I couldn't get SMB to work; kept getting this error...


NFS did work, but was only able drill into some (not all) of my Synology & QNAP shares and add folders.

Audio Test Results:
- Standard DD & DTS 5.1 all play fine
- Dolby TrueHD & ATMOS both play in PCM 2.0
- DD+ 5.1 & 7.1 both play perfectly
- DTS-HD MA 5.1, 7.1 & DTS:X all play in DTS 5.1
- PCM 5.1 & 7.1 play in PCM 2.0

Video Test Results:
- As we already know, no refresh rate switching nor resolution switching
- 1080p/23.976 plays at 59.94 (and in my case in 2160p as that's what my Google TV dongle is set to)
- VC-1 1080p/23.976 & 29.97 play in slo-mo, stuttery (w/latter faring worse)
- All my UHD 23.976 rips play at 59.94 (same rez Google TV dongle is set to), but HDR works; however only at 8-bit depth (vs. 10-bit as it's w/my nVidia Shield TV, Zidoo Z9S & Vero 4K+)
- Sony Camp 2160p/59.94 plays properly & in HDR, but again at 8-bit depth

As has been mentioned already, the Refresh Rate app doesn't work. Even when I tried to assign a specific button from a secondary remote. BTW, my Fire TV voice remote paired & worked perfectly with the Google TV Chromecast.

This device is promising, even w/the A/V shortcoming at this point, because:
- The performance is quite snappy. Not Shield TV level, but fairly close, which is impressive given it's 1/4 the price
- Browsing my Kodi library (of 3,000+ thousand movies/shows) was quite fast
- Wi-fi performance is excellent. Haven't done an iperf3 test yet, but my BD/UHD rips played fine for 10-15 minutes of testing (I have Netgear Mesh wi-fi). Still, I've ordered this USB-C ethernet hub (hopefully it'll work) to compare wired vs. wi-fi

Overall, I both like and dislike the Google TV UI. It's clearly targeted for premium app users, for purposes of aggregating & curating content across services. The Apps section is really secondary. The UI is slick and fairly intuitive, but less useful for us local media fans and customizers. The remote is quite nice, very responsive, easy to use, but no info/context type button. I really missed the Android TV UI after a while, especially the channel rows populated with my Kodi playlists, and being able to get to favorited apps and full settings easily.

Going to hold on to this for a while and see what improvements Google pushes out in the coming weeks/months and what magic other devs might be able to make happen.

Canada doesn't get the new Chromecast until the 15th. I'm going to be using this to replace my old Android boxes. Has any one got SMB to work? I really need these to work with SMB to I can watch my media from my file server

The easiest way to Share files from a Windows / Linux / Mac / NAS file server setup to Kodi is using Zeroconf, see here to see how that is done
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2971806

And if your file server supports it use NFS instead of SMB due to less network overheads and it consequently being faster.

[azg64]

Hmm - just tried playing Jack Ryan S2 and Bosch S6 on my Apple TV 4K, nVidia Shield TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.  All of them played in HDR10 not DV. (I have a DV TV and AVR and watch Netflix and Apple TV+ stuff in UHD DV HDR)

I do subscribe to ATV+, but there's no app on Google Play store for it. Did try mp4 & ts DV samples via Kodi 19 (as opposed to just DV MKV's before), but got only HDR10. Not a Plex fan & don't want to bother w/installing the necessary Plex server to my NAS or PC in order to test DV.

So, a new test I just conducted over wi-fi was playing high bitrate Birds & Jellyfish files:
- Up to Birds 90Mbps play fine, no issues
- Up to Jellyfish 120Mbps play fine, but 140+ exhibit buffering & stutter (not surprising given the iperf3 results I posted earlier)

Tried this USB-C gigabit Ethernet adapter off Amazon, but GTV didn't like it, so couldn't test wired playback nor adoptable storage results...





This damn dongle is quite fussy about power. Also tried this USB 3.0 ethernet adapter w/a USB-C to USB 3.0 cable & had the same power error issue.

Several USBC hubs work according to this Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comm...urce=share

[droidkid]

I couldn't get SMB to work; kept getting this error...


NFS did work, but was only able drill into some (not all) of my Synology & QNAP shares and add folders.

Audio Test Results:
- Standard DD & DTS 5.1 all play fine
- Dolby TrueHD & ATMOS both play in PCM 2.0
- DD+ 5.1 & 7.1 both play perfectly
- DTS-HD MA 5.1, 7.1 & DTS:X all play in DTS 5.1
- PCM 5.1 & 7.1 play in PCM 2.0

Video Test Results:
- As we already know, no refresh rate switching nor resolution switching
- 1080p/23.976 plays at 59.94 (and in my case in 2160p as that's what my Google TV dongle is set to)
- VC-1 1080p/23.976 & 29.97 play in slo-mo, stuttery (w/latter faring worse)
- All my UHD 23.976 rips play at 59.94 (same rez Google TV dongle is set to), but HDR works; however only at 8-bit depth (vs. 10-bit as it's w/my nVidia Shield TV, Zidoo Z9S & Vero 4K+)
- Sony Camp 2160p/59.94 plays properly & in HDR, but again at 8-bit depth

As has been mentioned already, the Refresh Rate app doesn't work. Even when I tried to assign a specific button from a secondary remote. BTW, my Fire TV voice remote paired & worked perfectly with the Google TV Chromecast.

This device is promising, even w/the A/V shortcoming at this point, because:
- The performance is quite snappy. Not Shield TV level, but fairly close, which is impressive given it's 1/4 the price
- Browsing my Kodi library (of 3,000+ thousand movies/shows) was quite fast
- Wi-fi performance is excellent. Haven't done an iperf3 test yet, but my BD/UHD rips played fine for 10-15 minutes of testing (I have Netgear Mesh wi-fi). Still, I've ordered this USB-C ethernet hub (hopefully it'll work) to compare wired vs. wi-fi

Overall, I both like and dislike the Google TV UI. It's clearly targeted for premium app users, for purposes of aggregating & curating content across services. The Apps section is really secondary. The UI is slick and fairly intuitive, but less useful for us local media fans and customizers. The remote is quite nice, very responsive, easy to use, but no info/context type button. I really missed the Android TV UI after a while, especially the channel rows populated with my Kodi playlists, and being able to get to favorited apps and full settings easily.

Going to hold on to this for a while and see what improvements Google pushes out in the coming weeks/months and what magic other devs might be able to make happen.

Canada doesn't get the new Chromecast until the 15th. I'm going to be using this to replace my old Android boxes. Has any one got SMB to work? I really need these to work with SMB to I can watch my media from my file server

The easiest way to Share files from a Windows / Linux / Mac / NAS file server setup to Kodi is using Zeroconf, see here to see how that is done
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2971806

And if your file server supports it use NFS instead of SMB due to less network overheads and it consequently being faster.

Interesting I just built a file server with OpenMediaVault on my Raspberry Pi but I setup an SMB share maybe I'll give NFS a shot, In the past I've always used SMB shares so this is new to me.

[hdmkv]

Lon's review. He likes the new GTV UI more than me.

[RockerC]

Should maybe note that the upcoming upgrade to Android 11 for Android TV will contain a new Generic Kernel Image (GKI) which should bring additional device drivers.

https://source.android.com/setup/start/a...ase#kernel

Android 11 release introduces Android Common Kernels (also known as the  AOSP common kernels or ACKs) though which Android TV 11 kernel version release is unclear?

https://source.android.com/devices/archi...oid-common

Should hopefully have many more peripherals​​​​​​ drivers for USB hub chips, wired network adapters, Wi-Fi adapters, storage controllers, and more. 
 

Several USBC hubs work according to this Reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comm...urce=share

Still not a cheap solution but at least there are few USB-C hubs that feature integrated 1Gbps Ethernet adapters for those wanting wired Gigabit network.

Works:

Utaxo 8-in-1 USB C Hub: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RWG8M15/ (Confirmed by 2 DPs that it works and supports Ethernet and storage - FAT32 is the only supported format by CCGTV)

Anker USB C Hub, PowerExpand 8-in-1 USB C : https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerExpand...B087QZVQJX

Partially works:

TOTU USB C Hub,9-In-1 Type C Hub (ethernet and peripherals only - no storage): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FX2...UTF8&psc=1

Don't Work:

Aukey 5-in-1 with Ethernet (latest version ethernet drivers not supported): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089M7...UTF8&psc=1