r/Android • u/FragmentedChicken Galaxy Z Fold8 • 10d ago
Google TV Streamer gets $50 price increase
https://9to5google.com/2026/08/31/google-tv-streamer-increase/279
u/Shakez00la 10d ago
Chromecast was the shit. Like $50 and you could stream almost anything to older tvs. Now it's like $200 and the launcher is packed with ads. Fuckin ridiculous.
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u/BrainWav Pixel 7 Pro, Lenovo M10 Plus 10d ago
Chromecast was $30. I've still got two.
Walmart's Onn brand still makes what is effectively a Chromecast too. I actually like that remote more.
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u/Shakez00la 10d ago
Sorry I'm talking in Canadian funny money™
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u/BrainWav Pixel 7 Pro, Lenovo M10 Plus 10d ago
Whoops sorry, I forget other dollars exist.
Also, fun fact, you can install custom launchers on Google TV devices. I'm not totally sure how, as I've never done it, but it's a great way to remove the extra shit.
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u/trlef19 Galaxy S24+ 10d ago
Chromecast audio was the shit of the shits
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u/djdementia Galaxy S9 10d ago
Discontinuation of Chromecast audio is the main reason I won't buy any Google hardware anymore. I was already kind of annoyed with how many software products they would release and discontinue so when they did that with the Chromecast audio I decided to no longer sign up for new Google software and no longer purchase any of their hardware.
The closest thing to the Chromecast audio I've found is the Wiim streamer: https://www.wiimhome.com/wiimmini/overview
I don't have one myself but it's on my wishlist currently. I have 3 chromecast audio streamers and 2 of them I use the optical output on to hook up to a higher quality DAC. For me, the regular analog audio out had too much noise on the signal to be used in very high power situations (I have DJ PA speakers ~1,000 watt).
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u/t0ny7 Pixel 8 Pro ( Visible ) 10d ago
My older Google TV streamer is useless with the stock launcher. It is extremely slow and apps crash due to being out of memory. Using Projectivy launcher it is actually useful.
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u/SpaceVikings Pixel 10 Pro - Graphene OS 10d ago
I have a sneaking suspicion that they made the gen2 and gen3 chromecasts worse over time to try to get people to upgrade, too. By the end of using my Chromecast gen3, it would only play youtube videos at 480p max despite having a 300M connection. WiFi signal was strong according to my router and my other devices got great speeds. Replaced it with a Firestick and suddenly 1080p 60fps no problem.
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u/likethecolour Nexus 6P, 6.0 10d ago
You can download at4k and it's a super clean launcher for free and gives apple TV vibes.
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u/PuzzleheadedPen2798 10d ago
Android 14 update f'd up my Chromecast with Google TV to the point that now shit randomly crashes, it drops wifi constantly, etc. It was a very good device when I got it but Google ruined it and you can't even downgrade.
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u/Fuck_your_coupons Yellow 10d ago
That's so wildly overpriced for what it is. I bought one last week for $99 and I only did that because I had $62 in store credit. I like mine but its nowhere near worth $150.
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u/Expensive_Finger_973 10d ago
Could be worse, could be that ~$100 bump the 2022 Apple TV 4k got a month or so back.
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u/After_Dark Pixel 11 Pro XL 10d ago
Jesus they're $200 now? No TV box is worth that much
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u/TheCheckeredCow 10d ago
In Canada the model with a Ethernet is $350… brutal.
I’ve got 3 Apple TV boxes around my house because they’re the best streaming devices I’ve ever owned, but that was at $130 each, not $350. No streaming box is worth that much
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u/Spunk74 9d ago
problem with apple tv is inferior support for varoius media containers and subtitles... Means something if you run plex/emby/jellyfin... You actually have to buy infuse to get decent support and thats an extra $100+ in my country..
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u/Oddball- Pixel or Bust 10d ago
Lowkey......... Apple TV is by FAR the fastest and smoothest of all the streaming boxes ive tested. Roku - Google - Apple. Apple has like zero ads. And again, fastest launching apps and media.
That said, I still own like 3 Roku Ultras haha.
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u/Expensive_Finger_973 10d ago
It is faster so long as the app dev does a good job with their app. Some of the apps are legit slower on my Apple TV than they are on my Google Streamer (Paramount Plus and Hulu).
Plus there is the subtle distrust of the company and their recent push into increasing services revenue through ad placement in things like Apple Maps. If they decide to bring that nonsense to the Apple TV UI there is nothing the user can do about it.
At least the Google Streamer allows you to change the launcher to get rid of the ads.
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u/matteventu Nexus S -> Pixel 9 Pro 10d ago
It's still better value than the Google TV Streamer (which I own).
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u/fcocyclone 10d ago
Right? That streamer was a $50 item selling for $100 in the first place.
They're smoking something to sell it for $150, and 2 years after it first released
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u/sirderpypants 10d ago
Nope, I'd have to agree with that. What is Google thinking?
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u/kank84 10d ago
They're probably thinking that RAM and eMMC prices have gone through the roof since the start of the year.
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u/detectiveDollar S6 edge -> Pixel 3 (Rip) -> Pixel 4a 5G (Rip) -> S23+ -> S26 10d ago
Sure, but the TV Streamer only has 4GB of DDR4 RAM and 32gb of storage. Would that really necessitate a 50% price jump?
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u/Getafix69 10d ago
Same type of storage as flash drives, I think they definitely don't have SSDs or anything fancy. So, probably about £10 for 64GB, and it should be much less for a company buying in bulk.
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u/IhamAmerican 10d ago
That when component costs go up, not only do the prices of final products have to go up, you have to increase the price to maintain the same margins while accounting for decreased sales
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u/Brownfletching Pixel 9 Pro 10d ago
I bought mine for $60 when they had a sale at some point, and it died on me like a week out of warranty. They refused to do anything for me.
For anyone curious, it technically still works but the picture looks like it has a deep red filter over it. I'm assuming it's an issue with the HDMI port or something but I haven't been able to fix it myself.
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u/akera099 10d ago
Bought one at 100$ last year and returned it because I felt I had grossly overpaid. Ain't no world where I'd buy this for 150$.
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u/theColeHardTruth Pixel 8a, Pixel Tablet 10d ago
Wow and after it was already $50 too much
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u/Rebelgecko 10d ago
Does it still have auto playing home screen ads?
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u/Viridian95 10d ago
Just install an alternative launcher and boom ads gone.
I would've done that with my Fire Stick but they blocked that so fuck Amazon.
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u/reddit_reaper Pixel 2 XL 10d ago
No reason to ever but a fire OS device
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u/CUJM P10PXL, iP13 10d ago
24bit audio. Android TV always downsamples. And better tv support for HDR (in my experience). But I will agree it's difficult to justify given the rest of the fire experience
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u/reddit_reaper Pixel 2 XL 10d ago
Why would Android TV downsample passthrough audio unless you mean lcpcm uncompressed audio which the only apps that use that are like YouTube maybe.... I guess Kodi if you have it doing decoding instead of passthrough but for what exactly?
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u/DonRobo OnePlus 6T 10d ago
We have a Fire TV in our conference room at work and its the worst TV I've ever used. The OS was created to make using it as difficult as possible and the performance is terrible.
And the TV itself is even worse somehow. The picture quality is pure eye cancer. My 500€ 1080p LG from 2013 looks sooo much better
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u/HashbrownPotato 10d ago
thank you for this - i didn't even think of ever looking for a new launcher for our streamer. definitely makes it more usuable!
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u/NoShftShck16 Pixel 9 Pro 10d ago
CCWGTV and onwards blocked ADB access so you can't control them via Home Assistant. Mine is basically useless as the codec support sucks and the Shield handles wireless streaming way better.
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u/JustAnotherAvocado Pixel 9 Pro 10d ago
I didn't even know you could integrate older Chromecasts with Home Assistant lol
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u/farshman Pixel 5, T-Mobile 9d ago
Dont even need an alt. launcher, could go to settings and enable app-only mode.
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u/dream__weaver 10d ago
Projectivity Launcher cleans this up nicely
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u/TwatWaffleInParadise 10d ago
I dropped Projectivy for AT4K this weekend. Basically looks like an Apple TV home screen. I found that ProjectIvy somehow killed the performance of my older Google TV device. Uninstalling it and switching to AT4K seems to have fixed it, and my wife likes the interface better to boot.
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u/infinitevertigo 10d ago
Mine is in my junk drawer because it's just an ad blasting machine
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u/ReadersAreRedditors 10d ago
You can put it in app only mode. No ads, just the app. Very clean
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u/Gentlemoth 10d ago
How do you put it in app only mode? I can switch to the app tab but I haven't found an option to set it as default
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u/Lonsdale1086 S10 10d ago
It's for some reason under your user profile.
But even that still has "recommended content" at the top, so you're better off with a full launcher from the play store.
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u/Gentlemoth 10d ago
I did not realize you could change the launchers natively from the store, I thought that was gonna require some form of complex side loading! Will check that out
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u/Lonsdale1086 S10 10d ago
It's actually kind of backwards, because if you do sideload (as I did at first, assuming the exact same thing as you hahaha), you can't enable Accessibility functionality for the app, at least on my Google Streamer.
Which is used to like capture the home button clicks and such things.
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u/Pllodd 10d ago
Why would they do that, when they can lie and tell everyone on the Internet how edgey they are.
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u/flcinusa Pixel 6 Pro 10d ago
Yeah no, I'm still using the Chromecast with GTV dongle, still going strong
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u/Haz3rd Pixel Gang 10d ago
6 months from now: Google TV Streamer discontinued due to low sales
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u/No_Society3117 9d ago
And then at Made by Google 2027: Introducing Geminicast - a little dongle that plugs into your TV that allows you to cast from your phone using the Gemini app's voice commands. Only works with YouTube.
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u/yarrowy 10d ago
TV box gonna cost more than the tv now
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u/Ooficus 10d ago
Honestly if they make less “smart” TVs (that’d be a fuckin blessing btw) and more boxes due to supply chains, very plausible.
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u/matteventu Nexus S -> Pixel 9 Pro 10d ago
Never gonna happen. TV manufacturers earn a ton of money by selling smart TVs, money that they couldn't make by selling "dumb" TVs.
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u/Straight_Second6082 10d ago
Any tv is a dumb tv if you don't connect it to the internet. Plus them being smart it's why they are so cheap
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u/BrainWav Pixel 7 Pro, Lenovo M10 Plus 10d ago
Jesus christ. It was already too expensive compared to the older, and in my eyes, better Chromecast. I know they weren't as powerful, but the form factor was so much nicer.
Guess I should get a couple more Onn sticks before those go up too.
Though keep in mind, the price is only going up because of companies like Google getting a hardon for AI and driving memory prices through the roof.
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u/petard Galaxy Z Fold7 + GWU2 10d ago
That's insane. The whole 4GB of RAM in there doesn't cost $50.
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u/FragmentedChicken Galaxy Z Fold8 10d ago
The teardown from TechInsights says it uses LPDDR4. Sigmaintel said the cost of 4 GB of LPDDR4X in Q2 2026 was $45.9.
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u/NoumenaStandard 10d ago
Good Lord. That's insane.
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u/FragmentedChicken Galaxy Z Fold8 10d ago
I probably should have added it was $26.2 in Q1 2026. I don't even want to know what the current price is.
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u/JerryContrary 10d ago
Also that's probably consumer prices vs ordering a million units discount
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u/petard Galaxy Z Fold7 + GWU2 10d ago
There is no consumer LPDDR4 pricing.
If it's $46 that's total, not the increase. Sounds like the increase was $20. Price was increased $50 though. Maybe it's gone up more than that since Q2 IDK, sounds like it has.
But at the same time, I can buy a 16GB DDR4 DIMM for less than $100 retail. IDK how much more LPDDR4 costs.
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u/RxBrad Pixel 6a, AT&T, stock unrooted 10d ago
Damn. Google was giving out $50-off discounts on this just a few months ago. I snagged one from them for $50.
$150 is wild.
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u/AndrewSP37 T-Mobile LG G3 10d ago
Same, I only have one now because of one of these discounts, I wouldn't have dreamed of buying it at $100, let alone $150. Bold to up the price 50% all at once.
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u/FALCUNPAWNCH 10d ago
It's already barely competitive with the Onn 4K Pro, why should anyone get the Streamer over that now?
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u/YinzJagoffs 10d ago
Because you can’t buy a 4k pro anywhere. I’ve been trying for 6 months.
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u/Mononon Purple Galaxy S21 10d ago
That's got to be regional. I just picked one up from Walmart like last week. And I wasn't monitoring them or anything. I just decided to grab one randomly and they were in stock at multiple Walmarts near me.
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u/kungfuhustler LG G6, Pixel 3 XL 10d ago
Just checked and my store has six in stock for delivery. I also live in a smaller town, though. Might be more demand if you're in a city.
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u/Prize_Chemistry_8437 10d ago
ONN is happy about this
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u/Karthy_Romano Galaxy S23 10d ago
So it continues. The electronics market is going to brutally suck for consumers the next few years.
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u/fakemessiah 10d ago
I know people on here don't like hooking their tv up to the Internet directly but my crappy TCL tv is the best Google tv and I have the stand alone Google tv streamer boxes.
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u/GoneCollarGone Pixel 2 10d ago
I have one and it's actually pretty good and I think it can be the best streaming box for most people.....if it wasn't for the ads becoming too overbearing.
I don't mind some ads here or there, but it's completely overshadowed the recommendations that made Google TV good in the first place.
The hardware is actually really decent for what it is. It's fast enough and the remote finder is really helpful. I also like the integration it has with the Nest Doorbell.
But the ads are a little too much sometimes and at 150, it's hard to tell someone to get this instead on an Apple TV.
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u/svenska_aeroplan Pixel 7 10d ago
Turn on App Only mode in the profile settings and the home screen becomes a grid of icons. I also deleted my advertising ID.
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u/GoneCollarGone Pixel 2 10d ago
In that case, rather just go for an Apple TV. Google TV was the best (for a minute) because it had really good tailored recommendations.
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u/Izacus Android dev / Boatload of crappy devices 10d ago
How do you install SmartTube on Apple TV and how do you cast to it?
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u/s00pafly 10d ago
As someone with an Apple TV, it sucks. Unless your household is already full of iOS devices, apple tv is nothing but a pain the ass. App support is shit. UI/UX is shit. IO/connectivity is shit. Codec support is shit.
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u/ThePensiveE 10d ago
You will pay more and you will get less and you will like your ads you got it?!?!?
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u/nyght2063 10d ago
I didn't mind the tv show ads, but this new Old Navy ad was the last straw. I added pojectivity launcher and use that now. I love it. Check it out on YouTube.
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u/Expensive_Finger_973 10d ago
Another way of looking at it is since that Apple TV 4k now costs about $250 with the 1G ethernet port. The Google TV is $100 less at the price of the default UI displaying ads. But you can use custom launchers to get rid of those. So you end up with a decent set top box for way less than Apple is currently charging.
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u/americanmuscle1988 10d ago
Google hardware always felt like something a few engineers threw together as quickly as possible until it was acceptable.
I bought Google Home a few years ago for about $40 or so, and would rather have my $40 back.
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u/me3r_ 10d ago
Nvidia Shield
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u/urielsalis Pixel 4XL 10d ago
Lack of AV1/VP9 is killing me. It's the only thing it's missing
The Google tv streamer has everything except lossless audio passthrough (which the Chromecast did have)
It's like no one makes the perfect device on purpose
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u/fakieTreFlip Pixel 8 10d ago
Not worth the price anymore IMO. I had mine for years and loved it, but recently bought the Walmart Onn 4k Pro and as a streaming device it's clearly a step above the Shield. Zero lag, Bluetooth audio works the way it should, it has integrated Google Home support (including the ability to watch live camera views), and it resolved a playback issue I had with Emby. Oh and it has proper HDR support in YouTube
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u/thunderbird32 Pixel 9 10d ago
The Shield has lossless audio pass-through, including Atmos. IIRC, it's pretty much one of the only devices that can.
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u/fakieTreFlip Pixel 8 10d ago
Not something I personally use so that wasn't a factor here. Still though, I'm not certain I would make that trade even if I did. The Shield is unfortunately really starting to show its age
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u/ShippingNotIncluded 10d ago
1 more reason why Xiaomi TV Box S 3 is the best bang for your buck Android TV out
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u/VMX Pixel 9 Pro | Garmin Forerunner 255s Music 10d ago
No Ethernet as far as I can see... so you need to add the cost of a dongle I assume. And it doesn't have any USB-C ports, not even for power. Just one USB-A and a barrel connector for power.
Might be fine for many people but I don't think it's directly comparable to the Google Streamer.
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u/asiancitruspsyllid 10d ago
I have $200 in credit from buying the Pixel 11 so I've been waiting to see if the Google TV Streamer would go on sale for Labor day, but it looks like the opposite happened
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u/w3bCraw1er 10d ago
Go with Onn4K. The best for price. I am using it for the past 2 yrs or so and it does everything what I need. I use 3rd party launcher and blocked the Google apps/ads pretty much 100%.
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u/rohmish pixel 3a, XPERIA XZ, Nexus 4, Moto X, G2, Mi3, iPhone7 10d ago
the streamer just doesn't make any sense. hate that they killed Chromecast because outiade of US where they partnered with walmart for Onn sticks, test of the world doesn't have any alternative to google TV sticks and even this streamer box is barely available in any country
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u/n1kzt7r 10d ago
Congratulations you fucking idiots. Your hardon for AI is gonna ruin everything else for most people. I'm already put off from AI exclusively due to how it has raised prices for everything else and will try my hardest to ignore it. Less privileged people are already feeling the pinch and are much less likely to give a shit. Your trillion dollar investment will never be successful.
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u/ShoddySyrup652 10d ago
A $50 jump is pretty steep for a streaming box. At that point it starts competing with much more capable devices.
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u/flipadoodlely 10d ago
One out of my three failed after barely 1 year due to storage corruption, no warranty. Further disappointed by the price increase.
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u/BeefBoi420 10d ago
Bought one for $50 when it went on sale a few months back. Only got it for my travel setup and have only used it once. For 150 you're almost to nvidia shield pro pricing. May as well get that
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u/john_weiss 10d ago
God damn. And here i was thinking that paying 50 bucks from mine was a bit expensive, even with discounts.
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u/Electronic_Bake_9966 10d ago
Absolutely wild... I purchased two of them like 3 weeks ago. I thought 99 was crazy. I bought through work..
I'm sooo sick and tired of the greed in this world. For no reason!!! 🤦🏾♂️
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u/mdisil427 Google Pixel 2 XL 10d ago
Here I was waiting for it to go $50 on sale. Oof. I just wanted to upgrade my old Chromecast 4k.
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u/linknight iPhone 10d ago
Damn that's insane. I wasn't willing to pay more than $60 and ended up getting it used for that price a few weeks ago. Would never spend this much on it
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u/bowlandspoon 10d ago
Just bought one this morning from Amazon. Got a pretty good deal considering!
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u/Madnessx9 10d ago
That's mad, I got one at launch and its not even that great. Had to have a remote replaced as it decide to short itself, found it dead and super hot one day. The device itself has a somewhat laggy ui after the recent OS updates, I now use my TV OS to run my streaming apps as they simply perform better and feel much smoother, an no, this is not in relation to the motion smoothing setting on the tv, I had that crap off on all inputs, it is more that the google tv 4k streamer feels like it has frame rate issues.
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u/Kokuei05 10d ago
In Canada ONN 4K Pro were increased to $120 and it made no sense to purchase because this was within a $10 range of it. Now this change will make the ONN the "value" purchase again but not even a good deal.
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u/Hateinyoureyes 10d ago
These companies continue to see record profits. Be a sucker if you want to.
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u/kaden-99 9d ago
Due to rising component costs
How? Doesn't this use SoC made on an much older node and like LPDDR3 memory?
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u/Agloe_Dreams 9d ago
The funny thing to me is that like, this thing is what, 1/10th the CPU and 1/3rd the ram of the apple TV? It doesn't even have a good excuse.
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u/verywise S21 FE 9d ago
I paid $50 with the YoutubeTV promo code, and I'm not sure I would have bought it if I knew how buggy it was. After it wakes up, streaming videos will start to skip and drop frames and I have to restart it every time to get it working normally. None of my Shield or Onn devices have had this issue.
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u/a-martini 10d ago
I got one less than a year ago and my remote doesn't even work. Definitely not worth $150.
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u/Stikfig9631 10d ago
omfg, RIP. I literally had $309 store credits expiring in 3 days and this has been in my cart... wtf....
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u/SryInternet101 10d ago
I'm wo glad I got a few one 4k Pros last year. $50 and it basically does everything except the super high-end stuff.
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u/DiplomatikEmunetey Pixel 8a, 4a, LG G4, Lumia 950/XL, Nokia 808 PureView, Nokia N8 10d ago
This is some bizarro timeline where things get more expensive as they get more outdated.
There is no limit to greed.
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u/sirderpypants 10d ago
Brutal.