Vizio's New Co-Star Steals Boxee Blind, GoogleTV, Built In Web Browser, Online Games

**HITech1** · August 15th, 2012, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by neveroffline

Those who ordered their new Vizio Co-Star on the 24th of July, your order is shipping.

Just got my tracking number.

Got mine too, music to my ears, boyaaaaaaah ....!

**neveroffline** · August 22nd, 2012, 07:10 PM

Got the new VizioCoStar today and ran it through the paces.

Remote leaves a lot to be desired with it's weight and size, but it surprisingly works better than the remote on my new Sony GS7 (where you need to hit FN to control volume first on your AVR). It also has rubber buttons which I prefer vs the hard plastic buttons on the Sony front.

Setup was a breeze, and it's much nicer than other GTV devices both in appearance and time taken.

The entire UI Interface has been updated. For example the Home screen is on the left and holds way more icons than it could horizontally. Notifications are lower right, which I'm not sure I love since that is where I typically put Picture in Picture, but we'll see. I do like the top right notifications for Network though.

I have none of the bugs I found on the Sony on this one, with the exception that ADB spam is still there, just not as bad on this device, and only Developers see that anyways.

Mitty and our other apps work great as expected.

No IR Blaster on the device itself, it's built into the remote, so that does mean aftermarket remotes on the Play store won't work completely, but I don't use those.

Overall, I'm much more impressed with this one VS the past GTV devices I still have.

PS: It's tiny. Entire package weighs 2lbs.

1GB RAM
4GB Flash built in for storage, same as the new Sony GS7.
Same Armada 1500 Dual Core 1.2GHZ Marvell as the new Sony GS7.

**winedog** · August 22nd, 2012, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by neveroffline

Got the new VizioCoStar today and ran it through the paces.
.....
Same Armada 1500 Dual Core 1.2GHZ Marvell as the new Sony GS7.

Are you able to run the android for XBMC app on it? If so, how does that perform?

**neveroffline** · August 22nd, 2012, 09:27 PM

No, as has been said countless times before by myself and others, XBMC does not run on Google TV Devices. This is due to the lack of NDK support.

**HITech1** · August 23rd, 2012, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by neveroffline

Got the new VizioCoStar today and ran it through the paces.

Remote leaves a lot to be desired with it's weight and size, but it surprisingly works better than the remote on my new Sony GS7 (where you need to hit FN to control volume first on your AVR). It also has rubber buttons which I prefer vs the hard plastic buttons on the Sony front.

Setup was a breeze, and it's much nicer than other GTV devices both in appearance and time taken.

The entire UI Interface has been updated. For example the Home screen is on the left and holds way more icons than it could horizontally. Notifications are lower right, which I'm not sure I love since that is where I typically put Picture in Picture, but we'll see. I do like the top right notifications for Network though.

I have none of the bugs I found on the Sony on this one, with the exception that ADB spam is still there, just not as bad on this device, and only Developers see that anyways.

Mitty and our other apps work great as expected.

No IR Blaster on the device itself, it's built into the remote, so that does mean aftermarket remotes on the Play store won't work completely, but I don't use those.

Overall, I'm much more impressed with this one VS the past GTV devices I still have.

PS: It's tiny. Entire package weighs 2lbs.

1GB RAM
4GB Flash built in for storage, same as the new Sony GS7.
Same Armada 1500 Dual Core 1.2GHZ Marvell as the new Sony GS7.

Awesome review, but something I'm not getting, you rate the Vizio Co-Star over the Sony-GS7 ....(lol) Oh! I know the Co-Star is better too ...! I re-posted your post here in this thread http://www.googletvforum.org/forum/v...xperience.html .....

**HITech1** · August 25th, 2012, 10:50 AM

Vizio has a winner with the Co-Star, their is still several issues that still needs attention, overall the Co-Star is just awesome ... This is the kind Web browser, Internet ready streaming media player, that I have been looking for a long time ... I can access NetFlix, YouTube, ALL my movies via DLNA without changing HDMI ports or without connecting another media box ...

Plus you can top it off with everything being integrated into live TV, a smooth as silk transition, you don't have to jump through hoops to navigate to your media ... I did not find this type of ease with the Roku XS, WD Streaming Media player or Boxee Box, it's just not their with any of those media boxes .... Another thing, I don't need a million apps that nobody wants ...!

OnLive gaming service is the cherry on top of the molt shake, OnLive is another feature that makes the Vizio Co-Star stand head and shoulder above ALL streaming media players that's on the market today ...