Love the platform but the apps are terrible!
Example: the PBS streaming app wont start were left off! I try to watch something on Nova and maybe have to leave halfway through. When I come home and start watching again it starts from the beginning! Ughhh!
Not only does the PBS app not remember where you were at, but you can't hold FF to get back to where you were, you need to click FF to jump ahead 5 or 10 seconds. It could literally take hundreds of clicks to get back to where you were previously.
I'd like to know where the fuck the Amazon Prime Video app is. Still not compatible with my NP.
The one I hate the most is Amazon Prime Video. Not only do I hate navigating through it, but if I'm watching something and I pause it long enough for the Google screensaver to come on, it just closes itself. I have to start the process all over again.
For all the other apps, I usually just cast from my phone, so I never have to deal with the ATV versions of the apps.
The Plex app will automatically quit the player if the TV goes in screensaver mode... It remembers where you paused, but that's annoying anyway...
Agreed! I bought an Nvidia Sheild for PC-to-living-room gaming, and every single review out there talked about how it was also the best media streaming device. What the reviews failed to mention is that the media companies ignore their apps on the AndroidTV platform. The AndroidTV versions of Hulu, Plex, YouTube, PBS, just to name a few, are way worse than their versions on Roku, Xbox, etc., and updates are few and far between.
My theory is this: Since AndroidTV runs on TVs, and TVs mostly have low CPU resources and long use lives with little to no OS updates, updating apps doesn't make sense either because newer/bigger apps will be laggy on TVs. So the ecosystem stagnates.
I use the PBS app 4-5 times a week and never have an issue with resuming where I left off
Android TV Apps really will not shine until:
a) Google gets the App developers onboard to actually integrate Apps properly into the Android TV OS. The current ATV Nougat recommendations row is an embarrassment, as is ATV apps support outside of the USA.
b) Google get Apps developer onside (good luck) to use a feature like Frame rate matching across the entire OS. An example here is Frame rate matching which works across all Apps on a platform like the new Apple TV 4K.
Results = silky smooth video playback Worldwide with all Apps & ALL frame rates, not just USA-centric 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94fps ones.
c) Google get their shit together and actually implement auto colorspace matching for mixed SDR / HDR viewing usage on the Android TV OS AND Apps use such features. How this is not working on a premium 4K HDR capable platform like the Shield bewilders me.
d) Google actually manages to get Android TV Apps developers onboard to use the new dynamic content features that will come with Android TV - Oreo (good luck !)
Market share of Android TV has a LOT to do with getting Apps developers interested in implementing OS features. Android TV is playing catchup compared to other media streaming Operating Systems, ATV is coming from a long way back.
YouTube is the worst Android TV app built by a $500 billion company with 20K+ devs which also happens to be the same company which built Android TV platform.