Hey people,
Mid of December Philips started rolling out an update to its 2016 and newer Android TVs.
Version 8, also knows as Android Oreo brings an updated home screen that is more focused
on content and brings more customization options.
Philips was the first company to bring Android TV platform to the market back in 2014.
First TVs were based on version 4 and in 2015 version 5 arrived with an updated interface
that was kept through versions 6 and 7.
Version 8 is the first major update and I was quite excited to try it out.
I tested Android Oreo on Philips TV from 2016, model 65PUS7601 which got the update over
the internet.
My first impressions were positive.
That’s because new layout is focused on bringing content from different services to
the main menu, which is something people who mostly use TV to watch content from video
on demand apps will appreciate.
The new layout is organized in different channels that you can add or remove as you like.
Only the top two lines are fixed.
The first one contains buttons for voice and text search, inputs, settings and the current
time.
Below is the row with installed apps that you can arrange as you want.
The home menu can end right here, but if you press the customize channels button, you can
add more content.
First one is Play Next which is similar to the recommendation channel on the previous
Android TV versions.
Here you can select from which services you want recommended content to appear.
Unfortunately, for some reason, I wasn’t able to see it on the home menu.
Next are the channels from different services which will display the actual content.
You can get recommendations for example from Netflix or Google Play Movies, but also display
videos from channels you are subscribed to on YouTube.
There is also a How to section from Philips which links to useful tutorials on Philips
TV YouTube channel.
Once you add the channels, you can arrange them on the home screen or easily delete them
if needed.
There is also a button to directly open each app for a particular channel.
As you can see, the home screen is again focused only on content from the internet.
There is no option to add Live TV channels, most often used inputs or network places.
So the updated home screen is the main difference in the new Android TV 8.
Practically all other menus look the same as before and the interface is still in Full
HD that is upscaled to the Ultra HD resolution.
Now let me talk about the actual performance.
Unfortunately, this is the area where I was not so impressed and I will tell you why.
First, TV needs about 14 seconds to load from standby which is much slower than the best
Smart TV platforms on the market.
But, this is not the biggest complaint I have.
For me, the most frustrating issue is stuttering of video and audio in many video on demand
apps.
The best example is Amazon Prime Video app.
Regardless of resolution, you won't be able to get smooth playback there - I noticed sound
popping and picture skipping in Grand Tour in Ultra HD HDR as well as in for example
Back to the Future in Full HD.
If you open settings menu during playback, this will also cause issues in audio and video
so definitely further optimization is needed here.
YouTube was better in this aspect, but it also jumps frames now and then during Ultra
HD playback.
It doesn’t support HDR and videos in 50 or 60 frames per second are limited to 25
or 30 fps.
Similar to YouTube, playback of 4K videos through the Vimeo app (vimio) was also not
without frequent stuttering and some videos were displayed as weird stripes.
Take a look.
Netflix was the best in terms of playback, without any video or sound issues even with
Ultra HD HDR content.
Bluetooth connectivity is still plagued with playback issues.
As soon as you connect Bluetooth audio device, the picture will start skipping and sound
will be popping and skipping as well.
In addition, the sound will be out of sync.
Seems to me like the hardware built into this TV is barely able to take care of playback
with built-in speakers and Bluetooth is simply too demanding for processing.
That’s really disappointing.
Finally, I do not like the fact that multitasking still does not exist on new Android TVs.
For example, you cannot listen to music from USB or network while browsing menus or have
YouTube playback while watching live TV.
Once you open the home menu, everything will stop and for the most apps, you won’t be
able to quickly get back and continue watching whatever you were watching.
You will need to open the app again and search for the content.
So despite improvements to the Android TV platform, seems to me that the underlining
software from Philips is the biggest issue here.
Even when I disabled background apps in the Developer menu, the behavior was still not
good enough for quick and stable navigation throughout the interface.
Regarding Android TV platform itself, for me, the main issue is lack of any real customization.
There is no option to revert to the Android 7 layout, to change wallpaper or to select
a more compact menu that would not occupy the entire screen.
I think that Google should take a look at how LG, Samsung or Panasonic are designing
their home screens and then add some Googliness to make something really good.
And that’s it for this video, thanks for watching.
Let me know what is your experience with the new Android TV 8 and which improvements would
you like to see.
Till next video, goodbye!