Review on 📺 TiVo Stream 4K – Streamlining All Apps and Live TV on a Single Screen – 4K UHD, Dolby Vision HDR with Immersive Dolby Atmos Sound – Android TV-Powered Plug-In Smart TV by Lucia Brown

UPDATE. Google has released a major feature update for the Google TV Home app, which acts as a control panel for Android TV and populates it with ads. What was once a nice clean interface is now literally filled with ads. The home screen alone is now 1/2 full of Google's promotional slideshows that you can't turn off. The only way to go back is to uninstall the core component updates and then disable the updates, which of course means you'll never get any other toolbar bug fixes. Unfortunately, Android TV was a great platform, but like many others, it was killed by greed. This is not the case with TiVo, Google has destroyed EVERY Android TV with this horrible ad-filled nonsense. Apparently, it's not enough for them that Google gets a huge 30% discount on every single purchase made through the Android Store platform. In addition, new updates have broken the integration of Sling TV AirTV2. None of my AirTV2 channels show up in the TiVo guide anymore, so now I either pay $5 for Locast added to the guide or just throw the TiVo guide together and just use the Sling TV app directly. So many promises and TiVo didn't hold back after 6 months before launching. "After getting my Android TV (Sony A800H), I was happy to ditch my flash drives and Fire TV Cube in favor of the TiVo Stream 4K. At first the impression was the same, but then I noticed some shortcomings. Firstly, you cannot remove or even move the TiVo Stream or Netflix app from their #1 and #2 positions in the favorites list. Even Fire TV lets you send malware to the background. The streaming app supports only a few services, making it almost unusable, but the ones it supports, like Sling TV, work well with recent fixes that integrate Sling TV AirTV 2 OTA feeds into TiVo's guide. Very cool. In addition, TiVo has fixed some early compatibility issues with applications. In the first few months after launch, Vudu UHD was not only compatible with HDX and lower versions, now both HDR and UHD playback works flawlessly. There are also some strange issues with some apps. With some downloaded apps developed for Android TV, like Japan TV and iSakura, I have graphical problems, e.g. B. that menu bars are not displayed. Now, of course, you can blame the app maker, but that doesn't fix the issue, and I don't have these issues on any of my other Android TV 9 devices (including the Fire TV). There is something in the TiVo Stream for Android build that affects the compatibility of some apps. In addition, most functions of the remote control are limited. Features like "Skip" aren't supported in the vast majority of apps, and the buttons can't be remapped, rendering most of the included remotes unusable. But I'm hoping that will change over time because one of the things I really miss about these streaming boxes are full-featured remote controls. Finally, Google Assistant's ability to search within apps is really terrible. This isn't a stream issue, it's an Android TV issue. The Fire TV is much better at finding content in apps. With Android TV, you still have to search for something yourself, as Google always directs you to Youtube search results. The TiVo Stream app helps with this, but again, it only works with a few services, so no content will be pulled from Epix or Showtime unless subscribed to through the Sling TV service. Other services like Philo and Youtube TV are simply left out completely. There's no such thing as a perfect streaming device that does it all, but the TiVo Stream comes close. It's fast, and it's Android TV, which means a more open platform, including Peacock TV and HBO Max. The only missing app I've seen is Apple TV+. Others, like AT&T TV, may not be available on the Play Store but can be easily downloaded. As mentioned, while many of the remote's features have poor support in apps, it's still very handy thanks to the CHANNEL NUMBER BUTTONS, which make it much easier to find channels in some live TV apps. Some apps, like AT&T TV Now, recognize the number keys as letters, like on a phone, allowing you to jump straight to parts of the guide that you would otherwise have to endlessly scroll to get to. This is particularly useful in live TV applications with multiple channels + OTA integration. Overall, the TiVo Stream 4K is a good start and should only get better over time.