What I Use: Chromecast with Google TV (Premium)

We recently switched from Roku to the Chromecast with Google TV, and now I’m sorry I waited for so long. To be fair, it wasn’t entirely my fault, as we couldn’t use this device fully without Apple TV+ support. But with that out of the way, I finally made the move.

As you may recall, Google launched Chromecast with Google TV in September 2020 and despite delivering numerous improvements over the Chromecast Ultra, it arrived with a lower price, costing just $49.99. I knew I wanted one immediately. I’ve always been a fan of Chromecast but have long felt that Google needed to evolve the platform to include an interactive user interface and a dedicated remote control, just like other streaming boxes.

And that’s exactly what Chromecast with Google TV provides. Google TV is the new name for Android TV, and it’s much improved over its predecessor. And it ships with a remote control, a small remote control to be sure, but better the Apple TV remote, and much better than being forced to use a smartphone app. What’s not to love?

I wrote about my initial impressions of the Chromecast with Google TV last October and not much has changed since then from a UX perpective. The Google TV interface is clean and devoid of advertising, a rarity in the Google space, and it’s my favorite TV interface by far. And now that Apple TV+ is finally available, it offers access to all of the services I want: I don’t care about Apple TV+ original content all that much, but I have several hundred movies purchases in Apple’s ecosystem, and now I can access them all on the device I prefer to use. (Well. Almost all of them, as I’m still waiting on Apple TV+ for Android.)

The inability to access Apple TV wasn’t the only reason I had delayed moving to Chromecast with Google TV. The other issue is my TV. As you may recall, we had a little lightning incident last August, and the TV hasn’t worked properly since then. And as it turns out, one of the problems I had been experiencing with the new Chromecast was related to that: I’d test watching content via the device and the HDMI input would suddenly switch over the Roku midstream for no obvious reason.

The Samsung smart TV I use---which is the same as the one you see behind Brad on First Ring Daily---has a breakout box with four HDMI inputs, one of which is labeled as HDMI-ARC, for HDMI Audio Return Channel, a way for multiple inputs to use the same audio controller (like our Sonos Beam soundbar). For a long while, I had had the Roku on HDMI 1, the Apple TV on HDMI 2, and the Fire TV Stick on HDMI 3, but when the Chromecast with Google TV arrived, I swapped out the Fire TV Stick for that.

And, as noted, it never worked completely right. So with Apple TV+ arriving on this platform about a month ago, I decided to unplug the other devices and just use Chromecast with Google TV on HDMI 1 and see how it went. A month later, I can report that it works just great, and I’ve never expe...