Make Revue more enjoyable

[aliciakds88]

Hi all,

I'm just looking to make my Revue experience more enjoyable. I don't pay for cable TV and don't plan to, so right now my Revue is basically a terribly buggy and full-of-fail Chrome/Netflix box.

I'm rather new to this community and I just recently learned that the Revue can be rooted.

My questions:

I've updated my Revue. I understand the UART1 exploit is unavailable to me now. Is there no way to reset it to factory settings so that I can root my Revue?

This aside, are there any other things I can do to make my Revue experience suck less? Cause it really, really sucks and I regret the purchase entirely right now. Right now I've only gotten whatever updates the box has shoved down the pipe my way. I don't care if there's any chance of my box bricking beyond all hope and repair.

I'd *love* to be able to use Hulu. Or at least have a not-painful DLNA experience. I've tried setting up my desktop as a DLNA server in a few different ways, but I've had minimal success (it worked for like a week, then it just stopped recognizing newly added media on the server, then it just stopped loading media from the server, period).

I'm not stupid, just lazy. I realize these questions are probably often asked, so a collection of links to relevant reading material will suffice.

Help a gal out!! Thank you :DDD

[gottahavit]

First: usually it's useful to be specific about what issues you are having. What DLNA server are you using? What media type are you trying to play? Other than HULU what other issues are you having with the revue?

That said I'll give you what little feedback I can:
HULU: Just not gonna happen, if you bought this for HULU you should have read a little more first
DLNA: Your audio MUST be either stereo or AC3, it will not play DTS, DTS-HD or True-HD. It also will not play MPEG-2(DVD) at all. Seeking with DLNA is problematic on this device. It will however play almost any MPEG-4/VC1 video codec, if you meet the audio requirements.
NETFLIX: works about as well as any other device.
FLASH: problematic due to sites like HULU and the Network sites. When the sites let it work, it works well.

Honestly I don't think having root as it was would help much, even with root the HULU playback was extremely unstable.

unfortunately the revue does nothing very well except netflix and browsing, for a 100 dollars you get what you pay for(a toy).
On the other hand the Sony GTV is a VERY nice device. it suffers from none of the DLNA issues of the Revue, plays HULU(with root) and has been far more stable.

good luck

[aliciakds88]

Sad to hear the Sony GTV is so much superior. I bought my TV and and Revue at the same time because the TV was a little nicer and it was cheaper as a whole (plus I like the full keyboard). I definitely wish I shelled out for a HTPC of some kind, or did more research.

As far as DLNA goes, at first I just used WMP and shared it with built-in windows stuff. Eventually, though, my Revue stopped recognizing new media on the server and then stopped even playing what it did see. (Logitech Media Player sees the stuff, but it just refuses to play anything).

I tried TVersity and had even less success. So at this point I'm using flash drives to move from my PC to the Revue.

What *is* the deal with Hulu anyway? It seems completely ridiculous that it's not a part of GTV seamlessly. I tried switching my User Agent string in the Chrome settings, but that didn't work.

Even Netflix and Browsing are pretty spotty on this hunk-o-junk. Chrome gives me the "Aw, snap!" Just about every other page load and Netflix frequently tells me something along the lines of "unable to load video. Please try again later." which usually means I can't watch netflix on the Revue that day.

So it's pretty terrible even as a glorified Netflix box.

[Koofteh]

Funnily enough the reason I bought a Revue just recently is because I was so let down by the smart TV features on my 2011 Bravia TV. It's my first and last Sony product.

It doesn't have the GTV platform but advertised all the same features, except they are all gimmicks short of maybe the Netflix app which I haven't tried since I'm not a member. My biggest thing was DLNA which also was useless, and I spent a month tweaking my network and media server. By the time I realized the TV was the problem it was too late to get my $2900 back.

Long story short I was stuck with an expensive TV that I didn't even use... it sat unused for 6 months until I picked up a Revue for next to nothing. I freaking love this thing! It does everything the Sony TV advertised but failed to do... sure the device feels cheap for something that's meant to retail for $300, sure the interface is a bit laggy and you get the occasional force close... but I get HD Youtube, I can watch TWiT and CNET on Chrome (no Hulu is Canada anyway) and there's some novelty in running Android apps and games.

The TV takes around 2 minutes to boot up so you do anything, with Revue I just turn on the TV and all my features are ready to go. Being able to use my phone to turn off the TV is something I like that the Sony Android remote doesn't have, I like pushing links from my Android phone, nice when you want to 'sling' a video or something from a 4" to 60" screen. Oh and the K700 keyboard - flimsy as it is, it's worth the price I paid by itself. Sony gave me a plain old remote, they actually expect you to type with a numpad... such a joke, at least Samsung put a small keyboard on their remotes.

So yeah, I don't get all the negativity with the poor Revue. I guess if I had shelled out hundreds of bucks, and then had the manufacturer not only push a major software upgrade but also slash the price by a third I'd be royally pissed off too. But for less than $100 I don't see how you can go wrong, I came close to buying one a few times but the staggering negativity turned me off... glad I picked one up, I actually use my expensive TV now.

[sug83]

I feel the same as Koofteh, but with one change, I have 40" Sony Bravia TV without any internet options and smart tv...i paid for it about 3y ago 700$...and now with Revue it is really smart sony tv.

I dont use netflix or hulu (i am a resident of Poland) but all options with dlna, youtube, additional apps like gtvbox give me all i want from a smart tv.

Logitech Revue made my TV look much younger and better than the new slim models

[Jarhead]

The problem with Hulu is they thought google would add all their own advertising and make money off of Hulu's service. Same as all the major networks (abc, nbc etc). So Hulu blocked the Android platform in general. I think you can now get the Hulu+ service though, not sure cuz i don't see a point in Hulu when you can get all the same content from anywhere else on the internet for free.

[gottahavit]

You can get all the Hulu and Hulu+ from somewhere else on the internet for free? please add links.

[Jarhead]

Not hulu, the content.

[famewolf]

I posted this on slickdeals.net in a thread about tigerdirect offering the revue for $99 new.....but the content might help those here think a little "outside the box".

here are some of the apps i have found that work well with the revue (that don't come with it)

Airdroid (control your revue via web browser from anywhere in house..upload/download files etc)
AppBrain App Monitor (useful to find out what apps have upgrades that you sideloaded as normal google play will consider them "incompatible" and not show updates)
Amazon Appstore - Required to run some of the free App of the day's from Amazon.
aTorrent - Fully torrent client with option to download to usb attached HD's
Autorun Manager - Limit some things from starting on boot
Autoshare - Setup auto upload to dropbox or any other scenario where you want one click "sharing"
eBay - obvious
ES File Explorer - app backup...provides access to Dropbox, Box, Sugarsync, Skydrive and Google Drive and alot more.
ezPDF Reader - Past Free Amazon app fo the day
Flipboard - using touchpad on keyboard and button for dragging is a tad ackward but it works.
imo.im - Connects to all the instant messaging sites and lets you IM
Mint.com - Monitor your finances from app
Mizuu Lite - pulls in screen art and descriptions for tv shows and movies on local usb hd...basically it's xmbc for revue
Moon+Reader - Ebook reader
Officesuite Pro - Full office suite..another previous Amazon App of the Day
Overdrive Media - Check out ebooks from supporting libraries
Pulse News Reader - Going back and forth with this and flipboard...Pulse works well with keyboard interface.
Remote Media Center - Controls my Media Center HTPC in other room via "Remote Potato" running on htpc...search for shows...schedule..browse epg etc
Rotation Locker (*important*) This is a free app that makes it possible to run many of the listed apps...how? it locks the revue into "landscape" mode....on phones it's either in portrait or it's in landscape...on the revue with 1280x720 it returns that it's in "default" orientation and alot of apps freak out because they don't know if it's in landscape or portrait...this forces everything to work as landscape and it works well.
Slice - Package tracking
Tapatalk - Yep...do your forum posting/reading
Tubemate - Download youtube vids and play later (useful for watching HD vid on slow internet)
Google Voice - Send/receive sms from your revue...shows notification of missed calls to main phone too.


Hope some of these intrigued your interest.
Don't forget you still have a version of the Chrome web browser with flash to go to any website that supports that...I regularly go to subsonic on my htpc and stream music to the revue....and it comes with netflix, pandora etc....you may want to check out app uSound for downloading music to the revue..have it on my phones but have not tried it on revue yet.

The problems with Hulu are because of HULU..not the revue and are the same for ANY device that tries to access hulu content....they block access to hulu free content to ANYTHING but a desktop web browser....if you want access...change the user agent to a default one and the content will probably become available but it's just as easy for me to torrent the eps to a usb hd and watch locally with no commercials then to deal with hulu.

[jbloggs]

Great info, famewolf. I will try some of those on my Sony NSZ-GT1.