Which would you get? We bought two TS4Ks, but they are just barely within the Amazon return window. I am leaning on returning them, as the CwGTV seems to be a more polished experience, though on the other hand we will get the Google TV launcher officially at some point in the future.
Edit: have decided to return Tivo’s and purchase Google’s device
Reports are saying the chromecast with googletv is a newer SoC, + google support so in theory it's the better one.
Overall I like the Chromecast best but I wish they would have added channel +/- buttons on the remote like Tivo did. I actually paired the Tivo remote to the Chromecast to see if it would work and it does. The channel buttons work for YTTV, the apps button functions as the Home button. Maybe there's some way to use button mapper app to program the YouTube & Netflix buttons as channel +/- on the Chromecast remote?
I have the Tivo Stream 4k. I was excited to replace my firestick and liked i could add storage to the Tivo. I closed slot of the built in apps and customized it. I use a lot of apps that need to be side-loaded so I put filelinked on it right away. I'm not a tech genius by any means but know enough to get me by.
My issue is my Tivo locks up or goes blank several times a week. Sometimes more than once a day. I have to unplug and re plug. So annoying to say the least. As much as I didn't want to re do all the customization I did, I performed a master reset. This DID NOT solve it.
So, im looking for something else. I'm not sure what to get.
I just picked up a Tivo Stream 4K on sale from Amazon. I'm using it to replace the Xiaomi Mi Box (3) we had in the bedroom. Overall there's nothing new as far as the Android TV OS goes, however the Tivo Stream app is pretty nice. I like that is shows Movies and TV shows across all of your streaming services. I also like the Numbered buttons on the bottom of the remote. This is great when you use the LIVE Channels app. You can just type in the channel # for your local and Pluto TV channels versus scrolling the entire guide.
I have both and if curation and finding content are the big selling points for you, then Google TV may be your preferred bet. If curation is not your thing and you want to get to the app grid more quickly or you want to tinker and customize more, the Tivo is probably going to me more to your liking.
Google is a little prettier and it's probably a little smoother to operate but unfortunately I fall into that latter camp and I'm finding I like the Tivo a little better because I can tinker it more to my liking. Right out of the box, the Tivo is a little locked down to but that is easily amended by disabling an internal app. Then you can do a lot of customizing. Do some more complicated tinkering and you can even remove Tivo's apps (which while the Tivo Stream app is nice, it is a monster size wise. I didn't go crazy and remove the Tivo apps but I did remove most of the feeds I didn't care about and replaced them with some Haystack feeds. I also downloaded a button mapper so I could tinker with the remote buttons. So now I have quick one button clicks to get to my OTA TV/DVR app (Tablo) and a TV tracking app I use in addition to being able to calling up Tivo's app if I ever wanted to.
Google doesn't allow much customization. Basically, you can rearrange the order of apps so you can have the ones you use most appear on the screen and you have the option of removing *all* the recommendations and having an app only mode. Unfortunately, app only mode also removes *all* access to Google assistant. In a complete lack of common sense, it also annoyingly kept to displaying a small subset of loaded apps on a single line instead of providing a grid that would have made use of the space freed up by removing recommendations. I'm still trying to decide if the way they implemented apps only mode is just lazy programming or deliberate (so that one will stick with the default mode). I'm strongly leaning towards the latter. Since I didn't want to lose all assistant functions but did want a quick way to an app grid, I ended up keeping default mode and installed a launcher app that would provide an app grid. Then, I moved that app to be first in line. It works, but it is ridiculous that I had to go to that much trouble to do something that should have been so simple to provide out of the box
Looks like you already made the decision and the right one in my opinion. I have both, and the TS4k has been problematic for me. When it works it is nice, but it keeps glitching one way or another (hangs, reboots, etc). The software side seems to have issues.
Does TS4K allow HDMI recording? CC has had this locked in the past
I have both. There's pros and cons to each. I would put the new Chromecast (CC) above the TS4K right now. I like the new interface more on the CC in general. I do miss the app rows and being able to customize rows on the TS4K. It feels like I have to dig for my frequently watched content a little more on the CC than the TS4K, but maybe the CC will get better in that regard. The CC has "always on" HDR out of the box, but unlike the TS4K, this can be disabled in the CC settings to properly match the content you're watching. Tivo still hasn't provided a fix for that yet. The amount of supported services on the CC already dwarfs what services can be linked with the TS4K: https://9to5google.com/2020/10/01/google-tv-streaming-services/ . I hardly ever use the Stream app because I don't like to have to go into the app to find stuff. I don't know if it was possible for TiVo or not, but I feel like the Stream app shouldn't have been an app, but the main interface like how the CC's interface is. The interface on the CC is actually what I thought I'd be getting with the TS4K when I bought it. I haven't really dug into a spec comparison, but I thought the TS4K was pretty snappy when I bought it, but the CC seems REALLY snappy to me. Overall, I think the CC feels a lot more polished. I have been giving TiVo the benefit of the doubt with a lot of the issues it had at launch, but I'm losing my patience. I bought two TS4Ks like you, but I'm way out of the return window. With what I've seen so far, I'm planning on selling one of the TS4Ks and keeping the CC. If TiVo doesn't resolve their issues soon, I'll probably sell the other one as well. Let me know if you have specific questions.