Android TV: Then, Now and Forever

Introduction

The journey of design and development of the audiovisual devices is unprecedented in its own way. You seldom find a gadget getting evolved year by year and a whole industry working on adding features to it. Also, new technologies are instantly incorporated to quench the thirst of telly enthusiasts. So this major shareholder of a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry is always there to provide with innovations to its loyal followers.

There is a markedly huge different between the television set of the early 20th century and the one we use to see now a day. The evolution in the television itself would have been of no use if the feed in signal has not been revolutionized.

In the early days, a simple coaxial cable brings the signal from antenna to television set with all the system working on the analog technology. With the passage of time, the digitization of the content signal brings endless possibilities for the designers. The inception of set top box and HD content were the major breakthrough in improving the viewer’s perception of looking into the future.

With ever-improving picture quality and incorporation of advanced technologies like OLED and QLED, it is essential to have the content with would be detailed enough to put all these television set capabilities to use.

Also, the enhanced user friendliness and diversified viewing options incorporated by revolutionary smart TV concept have made it even more fulfilling for consumers. In such an enthralling environment of competitiveness comes the product great precedence and innovation i.e. the android TV.

As the name suggests, this smart TV engine is based on the world famous and well reputed Android software which is the basis of most of the modern day mobile operating systems. This version of android is tailor made to handle and work on the television streaming devices. With this ever-improving platform and breathtaking features, android TV is the dream comes true for any audiovisual entertainment addict.

The all-powerful google engine working in its background makes searching through on-demand TV services a child’s game. In such a short period of time, this smart TV technology has left behind many a giant of the market and is destined to be the ultimate success story in modern digital entertainment industry

History

Android being an open source and considered to be based on Linux is a well-established name in the field of operating systems. With more than one billion android based devices sold in 2013, the widespread popularity of this platform is unprecedented. About three years ago, Android TV had been launched as a smart TV platform by Google. It was a successor to the earlier effort in the smart TV industry, the Google TV. The first device to employ android TV was co-developed by Google and Asus and was named as Nexus TV.

Google was unable to break into the living rooms of masses despite having a strong brand name and technical expertise in the field of novelty and creativity. A couple of reasons behind the lack of success were inexperienced in this market and extremely strong competitors in the shape of Samsung and LG.  Then came the first success story in the form of Chromecast, which lead to proper recognition of Android platform in the smart TV industry.

2015 was the year of major breakthrough for Android TV. As the major shareholders of smart TV market LG and Samsung have opted for rather smooth running smart TV systems, Sony decided to adopt Android TV as the core platform of content provision for its new line of television sets.

With the unprecedented experience of Sony in the television industry and creative pedigree of Google, Android TV has touched the sky with a huge success. They offered connectivity with other android devices and strong features like YouView and Sony’s Discovery system which proved key to this major success. Also, the amount of content on offer was rare and attracted many consumers.

With ever improving user experience and enhanced features, Android TV continued to break the shackles and is a major competitor in the market now a day. The likes of Apple TV, Fire TV, and Web OS are threatened by its popularity as the likes of Philips and Sharp followed Sony by incorporating Android TV in their TV sets.

Features

There is no shortage of new and improved features when it comes to products offered by Google.  Android TV is no exception in this regard. Simple to learn and use, you will find this generation of smart TVs to be extremely user-friendly and super attractive.

When you turn it on, you’ll find a number of rows which can be navigated to select the desired option. So you can view a YouTube video or look for your favorite season on Netflix or a movie on Google Play app.

Talking of enhanced usability features, the Android TV is backed by an extremely efficient voice search capability. If you have the suitable hardware to make it listen to you, it will comply accordingly. If you don’t want to buy the extra hardware, then go for Sony’s One-Flick remote which has a built in mic to convey your voice to the smart TV.

The voice commands include the most elementary ones like simply starting a television program or movie, or doing some google styled searching for both information and content.

As announced at CES 2017, Google is going to introduce Google Assistant in the upcoming Android TVs. So the state of the art AI engine will make you feel playing a Sci-Fi movie as all the controls would be possible with your voice and your TV would understand your preferences to act accordingly.

With the whole Google play store at your disposal, you can have the privilege to access your favorite games on your all in one home entertainment system. Similarly, the availability of content such as movies and TV channels is unprecedented.

Latest Models

After Sony, many other brands joined hands with Google to get the maximum out of this wonderful Smart TV platform. It did not limit itself to visual content only; rather the gaming companies also enhanced the diversity for this OS by introducing various set-top boxes. A few of the latest entrants in the market powered by Android TV are lined up below:

• Sharp AQUOS
• Sony Bravia TVs
• Xiaomi Mi Box set-top box
• Nvidia Shield set-top box/console
• Razer Forge TV set-top box

Future Predictions

Just as Android OS have taken over almost all the brands of mobile phones by storm, it can easily be foreseen that Android TV system has a very bright future ahead if not identical to its cell phone counterpart. At the same time, Google has many exciting plans to push harder the already rolling stone of Android OS based televisions and set-top boxes.

The biggest advantage Google has with Android TV is the open source nature of this platform as it blows away all the limits of what you can expect from the system and the process can be driven by one’s imagination.

A groundbreaking success, on which Android TV can ride swiftly towards success, is bringing the Android games to the big screen.

So rather than buying separate hardware by spending a considerable chunk of your hard earned money, you can have the privilege to play your favorite Android game with the gamepad controller which comes as an extra add-on with most of the Android TV boxes. Additionally, these devices are compatible with other conventional hardware like wireless keyboard and mouse. So the system can replace an entertainment PC with the much better user experience.

In short, this can be assured that the Android TV box can be taken as a reference of what to expect next in the field of home entertainment systems. This platform has blown away the cliché that the ideas of entertainment are just watching your favorite channel, or movie on cable TV, or wait for the repeat telecast if you have managed to miss it.

Rather you have a complete control on a magical device which can show you your favorite television content without any time bounds, can bring to you your favorite movie on demand instantly in high definition picture quality, let you surf the internet while leaning on your comfortable couch and can turn into an amazing music jukebox to entertain your soul.

So surely there is much more to come from the makers of Android TV as Google is looking forward to innovating and invest in this fantastic platform to revolutionize the very concept of entertainment.