Google Home

[chicks]

Picked up a Google Home "air freshener" on their $99 Black Friday deal. Been comparing it as a kitchen radio to the Echo and Sonos Play:1.

I placed it in on the breadbox on the counter, below a cupboard, with hard tile behind and below. A challenging acoustic environment. The Echo sounded too muddy there, had to move it to a more open spot. The Home sounds a good deal better, clearer, and uses the wall for bass reinforcement without getting boomy. No comparison in SQ to a TruePlay-tuned Sonos Play:1 in the same spot, of course, but the Sonos doesn't yet have voice control (coming soon). The Home sounds about as good as my Tivoli One or Sangean WR-11, although they look much better than the Home, IMO.

My experience mirrors this review:
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-echo-vs-google-home-which-sounds-better/

Google definitely has an edge over Amazon at understanding my utterances. I listen to a lot of foreign artists, whose names Alexa simply can't comprehend, but Google can, at least half the time. Google also understands context, so sequential questions can be asked. For example, ask for the weather, then ask "how about in Hawaii?". Google will understand that the context is weather. Alexa will have no clue. Google also excels at finding information from the web.

Home comes with a free 6-month trial of YouTube Red, which appears to also include Google Play Music. Supposedly only for new subscribers , but working for me as a former subscriber. Casting to Chromecast devices via voice command works well, including music and videos from YouTube. Haven't tried multiroom voice control yet, as I've given away one of my Chromecasts. It was OK when I tried it a while ago, though Sonos has nothing to worry about.

Home automation is very limited right now. Echo definitely has the edge in this area right now, connecting to many devices directly or through apps like Yonomi.

Another nice feature about Home is that control is instantly available on any phone or tablet running the Home app, in the notification area, whenever Home is playing something. The Alexa app isn't as readily available, and of course doesn't support casting.

 

[uofmtiger]

Thanks for the review. The skill set (compared to the echo) is limited right now, which is why I don't have one, but the YouTube Red deal made it worth buying at that price if you have an interest in commercial free Youtube or Google Play Music. I am sure Google will eventually add more skills as things develop.

The conversational aspect of the device is praised quite a bit, but it hardly comes into play in my normal use. How often do you ask it to tell you the weather where you are now and also in Hawaii? Most people only care about the weather where they are. Siri has this type of conversational feature, but I rarely find a need for it. I don't know about you, but I don't sit around having a conversation with my devices. I am sure the Echo will get better in that area, though. It is a necessary component because reviewers are calling it a shortfall in the Amazon system.

The main upside, from my perspective, is the Casting feature, especially for music. The problem, right now, is that Casting isn't currently built into receivers, so unless you have an amp or receiver that can sense the signal and come on automatically, you still have to turn the device on manually. Of course, if they added skills that can turn on devices and go to specific inputs (like the Harmony or Simple Control Skills), then you could do it all with voice.

I am going to stick with the Echo for now and just wait and see how these things develop. The eventual upside to the Google setup will be how it takes advantage of the apps on your phone (or the Android ecosystem). As they learn how to fully utilize that strength and add more skills, they could eventually lead this particular market. It is why I think Apple will eventually be in this market, as well. It is a convenient/inexpensive way to get people into and take advantage of your ecosystem.

 

[chicks]

Infinite loop, lol. I won't need to try this...

 

[drew_t]

For anyone who might be thinking about trying one of these out, Google has a promo going at the moment which equates to buy a Google Home, get a Chromecast or Chromecast Audio for free.

 

[uofmtiger]

I ended up getting a Google Home mini. I have mentioned my aversion to having a Google always listening device in the home, but I am a tech geek at heart (which anyone that has seen my blog knows). It was $29 and I also got a $10 Best Buy gift certificate, so it got so cheap that my curiosity outweighed other factors.

I tested it out last night and I really liked it for some things and not so much for others. I connected it to my Hue Bulbs and I was able to turn the kitchen lights blue, but when I wanted white, it said it was still learning. It also doesn't see iDevices or iHome devices. I have similar issues with Alexa, so I had to setup skills using another app (Yonomi) to get white. Siri does white without an issue, so I was able to change it back without going into an app.

In the list of devices I can cast to in the Youtube app (for example), I can cast directly to my Samsung TV. However, I don't see it in the Home app. That was disappointing. However, I connected it to my Nvidia Shield and asked it to play "IamJake's latest Youtube video on the ShieldCast". It played something called TK Jake or something like that. I tried it again and got the same result, despite being subscribed to IAMJAKE. It did work with some Youtubers that just use their names for their sites, but it required me to tell it where to send the video every time. I do like the music feature since I have Google Play Music. It was extremely fast and accurate with the two albums I tried. It also controlled fast forwarding for Youtube at a pace faster than picking up a remote.

If you have a curious kid around, it can answer questions on just about any subject faster that Siri or Alexa. I think that is its most unique skill. You will get the "I am still learning" response on occasion, but it can field a lot of questions.

I have it next to my favorite spot on the couch so I can just flip off the mic when I am not using it. I still have to mess around with it a little more and find out if there is a way to add my Samsung TV to its list of devices, but I am still deciding whether I will use it more in my office or in the living room right now. My Office has a TV with Casting that shows up in its list, so that may be the deciding factor. I will try both rooms and see where I end up using it the most.

 

[uofmtiger]

Last night, I started my Tidal trial and set it up for Hi Fi. I Casted the audio to the Home, just to play a song for my girlfriend and it stuttered like crazy. I also went into the Home app over the weekend and it was asking me to set the thing up again. Sheesh!

I still think it was worth $20 for casting Google Play Music to other devices I have around the house and for asking the occasional random question, but if someone was deciding between this and the Dot, I would recommend the Dot unless they were specifically getting it for its Casting features.

 

[drew_t]

^ Maybe a firmware update was pushed out?

 

[uofmtiger]

^ Maybe a firmware update was pushed out?

The Amazon Echo typically just updates the device without my input. I am not saying that is the right approach, but if I have to go through the setup and re-input the wifi info (which by the way it couldn't find any routers until I rebooted the app multiple times.) they should tell me why.

So far, I am not very impressed, but then again, most people won't already have an Echo in the house to compare it to. The music casting feature is still its best feature, and for $20, I would buy it again. Just a lot of things don't work the way I expected them to.

 

[chicks]

Interesting. I tested casting Tidal HiFi to the Home air freshener last night for a few minutes, no buffering issues, worked great, but Roberta Gambarini sounded like she was singing underwater. Switched Tidal to cast to the kitchen Sonos One; what a HUGE improvement in SQ. Truly night-and-day difference.

 

[uofmtiger]

Interesting. I tested casting Tidal HiFi to the Home air freshener last night for a few minutes, no buffering issues, worked great, but Roberta Gambarini sounded like she was singing underwater. Switched Tidal to cast to the kitchen Sonos One; what a HUGE improvement in SQ. Truly night-and-day difference.

I think the issue I had was prior to an update (see my post above). I tried it last night and it worked like a charm. Personally, I will never use the Home Mini as my primary listening device because its sound is pretty bad, though louder than I would expect. They should have put an aux or bluetooth output in the thing. However, I was still happy to get it working after the issues from the prior day.

I am leaning toward just putting it in my home office. I prefer the Dot for most of my use cases and will be more likely to use the Casting feature in my office since that TV supports it. I prefer using the Samsung TV's Youtube app over the Nvidia Sheild, so I don't think it is as useful in the living room.

I prefer the Dot for my main rooms since it can control my receiver and TV by voice. I will still keep a Dot in my office,as well. However, this was a $19 experiment and I should eventually get that much use out of it....just hope they eventually get more smarts when it comes to YouTube requests. When I ask for "IamJake" (which I subscribe to) and they put on "TD Jakes" which I have never watched, it seems like that could be resolved fairly easily.