Ask Lemmy

I find the dedicated remote the Google TV ones have quite handy, and it makes it a bit more of a tv-like experience when I'm binge watching stuff.

As for extra features, the remote has a microphone so you can access the Google assistant. They're also full Android devices so you can install apps directly onto them such as games and use the remote as a controller, though I'm not sure how many are supported since I haven't tried that yet. Perhaps more usefully if you have a suitable USB hub and webcam you can use it for video calls, or plug in a harddrive and watch videos from that. Other than that if you're happy with second generation one, I don't think you're really missing out on much.

There is no should.

You can use it with a remote to browse apps and get suggestions, or cast from a phone. You have to decide if you want that or not, no comparison website will do it for you.

I went from generation 1 to 2 only when apps refused to work.

The 3. Generation doesn't do any features different for me.

I've had some issues with temperature shutdowns and unreachability on all of them, maybe not so much on 3. genenation. It may be the cause of your issue, but I'm not sure.

I mostly had that issue on gen.2 but I've also swapped phones and moved my WiFi in between so I'm not sure. When I had gen.2 on our primary TV, it would fall out after many (8+) hours, at which point the dongle would be smoking hot. I could usually fix it by cooling it (waving it out the window 😃 )but eventually I upgraded to gen.3 and haven't had that issue since then.

My old Chromecast died and I bought the new one. It actually lets me turn off my old TV remotely without the actual remote. I can turn it off on my phone. That's worth getting a new one for me.

I still have another old Chromecast, but that one is connected to a newer LG TV that I can turn off using the LG app, so it doesn't matter to me.

Wourdn't bother unless you want advertisements or AV1 support (not available on 4k model)

I'm curious about the next gen chromecast as well. I heard/read that it could manage h265 content as well as it having google tv which you can use for IPtv.

I did away with everything and networked my 65inch display and I stream everything from VLC. I'm done with casting and Google/apple branded things. Too many ads

The newest Chromecast with "Google TV" has a remote and runs Android TV.

I find the UX of a remote and an TV interface much better than casting things from my phone. But you can still cast with it, of course.

I loved my first gen Chromecast, but I can't recommend the newer ones. I got the 4k model. Aside from the fact that it draws enough power I can't plug it into the TV's USB... it just isn't capable of streaming 4k without frame skips. And no, it's not my fiber internet, the router, or the streaming service. I have a Sony TV with Android TV and it streams 4k just fine. The Chromecast was unwatchable for me, probably downgrading to 1080p would fix it, but then I didn't need to pay extra for the 4k model, and I could have just plugged the standard model into the TV.

I have a chromecast ultra. I never made the hop to Google tv because I wanted to hardwire my ethernet cord, and Google tv requires an adapter.