Vizio Co-Star Pre-Orders Open: $100 for the Next-Gen Google TV
by Ganesh T S on July 24, 2012 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Google TV
- Vizio
The Vizio Co-Star VAP430 made a big splash when it was unveiled to the public during the 2012 CES. With the buzz around the VAP430 having been maintained right through the first half of the year, the time has now come to officially open the pre-orders. The unit will initially be available for order through Vizio's own online store starting today. The cost of the unit is $99.99 with free ground shipping while supplies last. As of press time, it appeared that the units would ship out starting on August 14th. Each order was restricted to a maximum of 2 units.
The low price point (almost a third of what the original Google TV Logitech Revue's price) may well serve to popularize Google TV this time around. 3D capability is an addition, but we believe that fad has run its course. However, the addition of OnLive gaming services is definitely a hard-to-ignore positive selling point. The size of the Bluetooth remote (with a mini keyboard on the back and touchpad capabilities) is also amenable to the modern-day living room, unlike what we had last time around with the Revue. Being an officially sanctioned Google TV device, Google Play Store access is available. Google TV's official guidelines call for continuing to inter-operate closely with the consumers' existing STB / DVR infrastructure. With a HDMI input port capable of overlay operations, the Vizio Co-Star fulfills the requirements. The full specifications of the VAP430 are available here for your perusal.
Source: Vizio
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d33pblue - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link
Does anyone know if this unit is compatible with Hulu?JNo - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link
Those buttons look tiny and indistinct.Tactile appreciation of where buttons/functions are is so important on these devices and OEMs seem to forget that. I want to be able to play, pause etc with*out* looking at my control. This remote looks painful in that regard.
laytoncy - Tuesday, July 24, 2012 - link
I'd like to know if it supports Hulu as well and not just Hulu Plus. Also, as far as media players go from the Google App store (or whatever it is called) how is GTV Box? I saw it mentioned somewhere. I'm waiting to see if XBMC will ever be released for Google TV. I know there is Plex but I'm partial to XBMC. I don't like having to run a "Plex Media Server" and prefer just a connection via SMB or NFS of my choosing.Alecthar - Saturday, July 28, 2012 - link
XBMC just announced XBMC for Android, which they hope to have available on the Google Play store upon completion. The real issue is full hardware support for the device, but I foresee the Co-Star being fairly popular, and would bet on them making full hardware acceleration a priority for the device.agent2099 - Monday, July 30, 2012 - link
would something like this replace a logitech harmony remote? With both IR and bluetooth it's interesting as seemingly this could also work as a PS3 remote and you wouldn't need the $30 adapter like you do with the logitech.Silenus - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
Am I the only one thinking that a rooted and custom ROM'd OUYA would make a far better GoogleTV than this GoogleTV?!KineticHummus - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
possibly, but the thing about google tv is that it has an hdmi input to put an overlay over dish/cable content. The ouya doesnt have an hdmi input, only output, so that would be impossible. Other than that, I do believe that the ouya might make a much better media streamer since the Tegra 3 chipset is 1: better than what is in the vizio, and 2: has alot of support from 3rd party media applications as well as better codec support. Thats assuming that the processor is what is detailed here: http://androidandme.com/2012/07/news/vizios-99-goo... also, the gpu is a Vivante core which to the best of my knowledge hasnt been used yet in anything mainstream, and will probably keep developers of things such as xbmc to the ouya.