Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before I review, I just want to say that Amazon is awesome. They upgraded me to free overnight shipping right before Christmas. Although Ontrac lost my package, Amazon shipped another one out to me and I had it in two days. Their customer service is great. Keep it up Amazon! I was really looking forward to this device from Hisense. I waited for it to be released for a couple of months and it wasn't available just a week before Christmas, so I ended up with a Roku 2 XD. My intent was always to gift it to my mom, but I also wanted to check out Google TV for myself. One potentially cool feature that this box appears to support is the integration of live tv into the search function. It has a HDMI in, which you connect from your Cable box or Satellite service. However, this feature is useless if you are a cord cutter, like me ( and like I'm setting my mom up to be - saving her over $100 a month ). This box would have much more value if it supported over the air HD broadcasts via a built in HD tuner. GTV = Google TV. GTV supports Netflix, as does the Roku. GTV doesn't support Hulu Plus. Roku does. GTV doesn't support NBA League Pass. Roku does. GTV supports Youtube, Roku does not. GTV has Chrome (I'll elaborate more on this), Roku does not have a web browser. Pulse remote is busy. I had some problems early on with typing letters repeating themselves rapidly. It was a problem, although they may have fixed this with an update? The touch pad is pretty cheap feeling and it doesn't work that great. Navigating in general can be awkward at times, especially with options and going backward. I could live with the remote and I like that it has a keyboard on it. My mom hated the remote. The Roku remote is extremely simple and my mom loves it. It's a bit too simple for me, but if you want a keyboard, Roku does have a nice little app for that, which speeds up searching, etc. One hardware issue worth noting is that the WIFI on the Pulse wouldn't be connected when I would turn on the device. Not sure if it was just a speed issue. I often had to go into settings and connect. With Roku, it is always connected right away. ( note that the Roku box doesn't really power off ) Both devices are slow, compared to a computer or to a newer tablet/phone running Android. Web browser: First of all, websites block content from being displayed on this browser. I would prefer that it worked just like a computer, but it does not. The main reason I would want a browser on my big screen would be to access flash content on sites that I normally would watch on my computer. I could not access Hulu, NBA, CWTV etc. If I want to use a browser for anything else, I'd rather do it on a computer, laptop or a tablet/phone. The browser is VERY SLOW, even with high speed internet. Apps / App Store / Google Play: Yes, it's nice that Google Play is available, however, Apps have to be made specifically for Google TV to work right. I wanted to install Firefox, like I can on a tablet/phone, but it wouldn't work. I wanted to install the League Pass tablet app ( which I actually can run on my phone and it works ), but it wouldn't work right ( I had to side load it to even try it ). I'm pretty sure Google TV runs on a older version of Android. Compared to Jelly Bean, Google TV feels awkward, clunky and second rate. Bottom line is that it doesn't compare to the experience you get with the current phone/tablet Android experience. Roku of course does not compare to Android either, and it is simplistic and slow at times. However, the quality is always good, the WIFI always works and the setup is a snap. For my Mom, Roku wins hands down. ( She's older and not super tech oriented ) For me, I'd rather have plain Android Jelly Bean on my TV than Google TV. In an ideal world, I'd love a box that had a HD Tuner built in that allowed you to incorporate OTA HD channels while in Android ( and maybe even a hard-drive DVR function for recording live OTA broadcasts?). There are already Android 4.1 boxes available for your TV, and more are coming out. (Wise TV devices look promising ) With them you can get all the tablet apps to run. You can install multiple browsers and run any flash content in the browser. You can get Hulu regular for free ( commercial supported ). I'm not going to say that's a better option for my mom ( or you ), but certainly it is better than Google TV is right now. UNLESS you are hooked into cable or satellite and you want Google TV as your search interface for live programming. Then, Google TV might just be for you. Google TV is not right for me or my mom. That's too bad, because I really wanted to love it! I'll keep my eye on GTV and perhaps in a year or two I'll try it again. Meanwhile, I'm going to get Android 4.x on my big screen monitor that also happens to have a HD TV tuner built it! ;)