Exploring Android televisions and STBs

After the success of Android mobiles and tablets, Android started expanding its territory towards other hardware platforms. Television became the next target, as the concept of smart TV was already in the market. Thus, a television set became interactive through Android. Google has released a few additional accessories for Android televisions to increase the user experience.

The first Android television device launched for consumers was the Nexus Player on November 3, 2014. The specification of this is as follows:

• Intel Atom Z3560 1.8 GHz quadcore processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 8 GB Flash storage
• Android 5.1.1 Lollipop

Here's what it looks like (image source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H1rp1fboU6g/VX2Huu6ClyI/AAAAAAAA3hA/5te4NZ65Tgg/s1600/nexus_player.jpg):

This was the first kind of Android television device, very similar to Google TV and comparable with Apple TV also.

Apart from Nexus Player, there are a few more Android-enabled STB devices:

• Freebox Mini 4K: This is a 4K capable TV STB, originally offered by a French ISP with fiber modem.
• Forge TV: This is a television/microconsole with high hardware specs, which was announced by Razer on January 6, 2015. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, 2 GB RAM and 16 GB of Flash storage.
• Shield Android TV: This device was announced by NVIDIA on March 3, 2015. This claims to give tough competition to the eighth-generation consoles. This hardware set comes with an NVIDIA-branded game controller.
• OgleBox Android TV: This device mainly provides region-based content in Australia. It was announced in March 2015.
• LG UPlus Android TV: The Korean telecoms company LG UPlus introduced an Android TV on U+ tvG 4K UHD and U+ tvG Woofer IPTV STBs.
• Arcadyan BouygtelTV: In June 2015, a French telecom company, Bouygues Telecom, announced an integrated STB codenamed "Miami" based on Android TV.

Besides these STB/console-based Android devices, many television manufacturers are targeting the launch of Android television sets. Sony, Sharp, Philips, LG, Samsung, and other companies are migrating to Android. Philips has announced that 80% of their upcoming television models will be running on Android (image source: http://www.techdigest.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kogan-smart-tv-may-2013.jpg):

Let's take a look at the specifications of an example smart TV:

• Model: VU 32K160M LED TV
• Operating system: Android v4.4 KitKat
• Processor: 2.0 GHz octacore GPU with Amlogic quadcore S802 ARM Cortex processor CPU
• Display: 32" LED screen (1366x768 px) with achromatic technology and full color optimizer, which provides a world class viewing experience for images, videos, games, and so on
• Design: The model is covered in A+ grade pure prism panel which makes pictures more sharp and detailed. And it is surprisingly thinner than the common smart TV models. Its dimensions are 29 inch x 19 inch x 7 inch, and it weighs 7.3 kg.
• RAM and storage: The Vu 32K160M TV has 2 GB DDR3 RAM and 8 GB NAND Flash storage.
• Video: It plays 1080p videos @60fps, and supports various file formats.
• Connectivity: Vu TV supports Bluetooth v4.0, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet. It lets the user browse their favorite sites and check mails from the TV screen. It has three USB ports and two HDMI ports.

This specification is good enough to attract a game developer to get active with his/her next game.

Google has also released an Android TV development kit called ADT-1. This hardware development kit was given to application developers during Google I/O (image source: http://chezasite.com/media/2014-post-icon/adt-1-android-tv-reference-design-1920x1080.jpg):

One of the things that early Google TV devices were criticized for was under-performing specs. Thankfully, Google has tried to remedy that, as they came out the gate strong with some pretty impressive specs:

• Tegra 4 chipset
• 2 GB RAM
• 16 GB of internal storage
• 2×2 MIMO dual-channel Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Ethernet port
• HDMI port
• Android L developer Preview

Android TV is fully unlocked out of the box, so Google is inviting developers to come up with anything they can to help this platform. It's far too early to tell what will be the result of such openness, but it should not take long for developers to explore and develop for this device.