Podcast #1159: Apple TV vs Google TV

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast

On this week’s show we have an AppleTV and a native GoogleTV comparison from a listener. We also read your emails and take a look at the week’s news.

News:

• Samsung is helping to bring AirPlay to more hotel rooms
• NBCUniversal to Offer 400+ Hours of 4K HDR Olympics Coverage on USA Network, a Record
• Turns out Netflix makes more money if it just acts like regular TV

Other:

• Handcrafted in the USA - Vintage Reclaimed Maple & Elm Speakers
• Doitforme.solutions
• Apollo Group TV

Apple TV vs Google TV - John Lyman

Around Thanksgiving the finance committee allowed me to purchase a new Hisense U7K 75” 4K TV. However, once I got the TV setup and ready to go, something weird happened with my Apple TV that I had been using on the TV in that room. Max just stopped working. I did all the troubleshooting to no avail. I decided that I would give the built in Google TV a shot to see if that could be a long-term solution. Over the course of six months I went back and forth with the two platforms and took notes. I thought I would write up my findings for everyone.

A few caveats:

1. This is my first experience with Google TV
2. The Google TV is the built in version on my TV
3. I live in the Apple ecosystem and I have owned every Apple TV from the 1st gen to the current. So, I do know the Apple TV a lot better, but I did my best to be fair.

User Interface

Apple TV: The user interface is very nice, it seems lighter, crisp and clean. You can easily design the Home Screen the way you would like it laid out and create folders. I have a folder for my main TV/Movie apps, then one for sports, another for movies, etc. Because you can customize the Home Screen it is very easy to navigate to where you want to go.

Google TV: When you open it, you are at the top of google TV page with their offerings and everything is laid out in rows. The App icons seem smaller than apps on the Apple TV and smaller than the “Google Recommended” apps. You must scroll past those to get to your apps. I have not found a way to rearrange the main page so I can move my apps above the recommended offerings. You can move your apps in the order you would like but it is not as nice. I did try to find out if you can use folders on Google TV and it does not look like you can. The interface is what it is.

Remotes:

Apple TV: The metal Siri remote in my opinion is one of the best remotes out there. I can control 98% of what I need to use from that one remote. The other 2% is for those times I can’t find a digital copy of a movie I own and need to use the Blu-Ray or tweak the picture of the TV. Very quick to navigate with the remote around the Apple TV. Also, the iPhone companion remote is really good too.

Google TV: The remote that came with the TV controls my HT gear and if I used Google home I’m sure the remote's mic would give me voice control of lights and thermostat similar to the Apple remote. Additionally, I find swiping over the touch-enabled clickpad much easier than clicking up/down/left/right buttons on the TV’s remote. I didn’t have luck setting up the iPhone remote with the TV, this is probably a me item and I didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.

Apple TV+ vs Google TV’s Home app:

Both apps have a lot in common, like Movie/TV suggestions, an area for your purchased content, etc. Apple’s implementation is self-contained and can be placed anywhere on your home screen. Google’s version is fixed at the top of the screen and you must scroll down the screen to get to your apps.

Picture quality, audio and App Responsiveness:

So the last test was to actually watch some video to see if there was any difference.

The setup:

• Internet – AT&T 1.0 GPS fiber, using a TPLink Mesh router – delivering 300 Mbs to the TV
• Denon AVR-X3200W receiver – running Dolby Atmos
• Speakers – RSL home theater package, 12” RSL speedwoofer and mirage omni-directional Atmos speakers

I set up both the TV and my Apple TV for Dolby Vision and started watching content on both services. One thing I couldn’t do was turn on Dolby Vision for the Google TV which shocked me. The TV did auto switch and even though HBO Max said the movie was in Dolby Vision it would only do HDR. I tried to figure out the issue but couldn’t quickly find an answer. I quickly realized that any movie purchased from the Apple store was of higher quality than those from any of the streaming companies both in picture and sound.

I watched a few scenes from the latest Aqua man as there were some really dark scenes with good color and then some Star Wars. With the Google TV setup to use HDR and the TV in the Movie preset, the picture was good. The AppleTV produced a little bit better picture with the same TV preset. The AppleTV sounded better too. I could hear some additional sounds on the AppleTV that I couldn’t hear while using GoogleTV.

The biggest difference was App responsiveness. When opening an app on the AppleTV, its click and it opens. GoogleTV took a few seconds. Then clicking the play button would buffer for about 10-20 seconds before playing and the picture was lower resolution for a few seconds. The video on the AppleTV started right up and I didn’t notice any picture issues.

Built in vs Stand Alone Box

Built in OS strengths:

• Built into the TV
• Pretty easy to setup right out of the box
• Integrated into the TV and remote

Stand Alone Strengths:

• Both hardware and software designed for a singular purpose
• Not TV dependent
• You can take it with you when you travel
• If new features are not supported due to hardware limitations you can buy a new STB

Built in OS weakness:

• If new features are not supported due to hardware limitations you are stuck
• Hardware more likely designed for the TV and the OS a secondary
• If you have multiple TVs with different OSes you will have an inconsistent experience
• May cause you to stay within a manufacturer’s product line to keep the same OS within the home
• Can become slower than the stand-alone devices over time

Stand Alone weakness:

• They cost extra
• Hard to switch eco-systems due to cost of devices if you wanted to

Summary:

I was really surprised by a few things after doing the comparison. The first being the lack of Dolby Vision on the Google OS built into my Hisense TV. The option was not available for the Google Home app. I usually leave the TV in Dolby Vision on the Apple TV as I find the picture pretty good with all content and I’m not a fan of my TV’s auto switching (going black for a few seconds).

The second was the difference in app responsiveness and picture start up times. The Apple TV was quicker in both aspects. The last was the difference in the quality of purchased movies from Apple versus the streamers and purchases from Amazon. Streamers and Amazon were inferior to the same content from Apple. I did not compare streamers and Amazon versus Google using native apps on the GoogleTV.

Bottom line I believe an Apple TV is like a well-made German car, over engineered, nice looking with features you didn’t know you wanted until you lose them. Google OS is your typical mid-range SUV that everyone makes, most people drive and they all look similar and they get the job done of getting you from here to there.