Considering returning my Sony NSZ GS7 in favor of the Vizio Costar

Hello All,

I recently purchased the Sony because the Vizio is not available for sale yet.

I think the Sony is OK, I'm not over thrilled with it. I think it has potential and could be better than my apple tv 2nd gen or my WDTV Live Hub, however it's got some bugs and quirks... I like it almost enough to keep it but that $200 price tag compared to the Vizio's $100 cost may be a deciding factor.

Is there any compelling reason to stick with the Sony vs. the Vizio at double the price?

 

I got the Sony because they have more experience with Google TV and Android in general, and I'm hoping that will lead to faster updates and better support. That's just a guess though. Vizeo could turn into the Asus of GoogleTV and nail it on their first attempt.

 

All a guess at this point but I would keep the Sony NSZ-GS7. The differences in hardware are the Sony has 8GB flash storage rather than 4, 2 USB ports rather than 1, optical audio out, and what looks to me to be a better remote with backlighting. Software is a guess at this point but and educated guess, I know from Blu-ray experience that Sony is very good with timely and proper firmware updates and I know from my experience with the first generation Google TV devices, Sony was the best in that regard. I have read Vizio is among the worst with Blu-ray player firmware updates, along with several others selling cheap Blu-ray players but I have no first hand experience with Vizio Blu-ray players. I consider the chance Vizio does as well as Sony over the long run with firmware updates, zero, and I consider that a very important part of the product support, the most important.

 

I have the Revue and have been envious of the first rate updates given to 1st Gen Sony users. Also Vizio with a 1st device is a bit iffy for me. Still Sony needs to add the TV and Movies App that accepts Canadian postal codes to make me run to the store and buy this product. That issue alone is a deal breaker for me especially when I see what they are doing with Xperia and TV.

 

Good points Chris and redpandaalex, thank you.

I guess we have to get used to these companies releasing products before they have everything ironed out much like cell phones...
the problem is they may give up and discontinue to support for thier hardware and we are stuck with a $200 brick.

I can see that the Sony would cost more with the added memory and USB port and optical audio out, but I'm not sure I would need any of that
I doubt I'm going to load 8gb of apps, I'm not sure why I would need the optical audio out when it's already using HDMI.
Another problem I found is that my 1tb WD Passport hard drive is not recognized by this device either.

I'm going to keep the Sony for another week and see how it goes, I can still return it then.

 

I would keep the Sony. It has better codec support, better remote, better support, ...

I am not an Android user but I really like the Sony. They have been updating their Plex app and it's now at a point that Direct Play works for almost everything.

philip

 

If your decision comes down to trying to save money, preferring to have a $100 brick rather than a $200 brick, I don't know what to tell you, my thought is I would rather have a $200 device that will work better than a $100 device and be worth the premium. I have to use optical audio since I have 3 systems and only one has HDMI audio processing and even it uses all of my available HDMI inputs for other things and little or nothing about Google TV benefits from using HDMI for audio compared to optical, in fact my Revues have properly working optical audio and Logitech has never gotten the HDMI audio to work properly so even if I could use HDMI for audio, I wouldn't. In my main system, HDMI is used for Blu-ray, HD DVD, SACD, DVD-A, all of which offer audio which can't be handled over optical, bandwidth requirements are too great. I know from long term experience options are best with home audio video equipment.

We are not going to be able to download 8GB of apps, no matter what, but I don't know how much storage can be allocated to apps with either device. I do know there is no way on earth that having 8GB of flash storage can be worse than having 4GB of flash storage and chances are good something positive is possible with the extra storage, I sure know that has been the case throughout my years of using computers and computer like devices, more storage has always proven to be of benefit over the long run. My first gen Sony NSZ-GT1 with 8GB of flash storage does run slightly better than my Logitech Revue with 5GB of flash storage, the additional storage may or may not play a part in that, I don't know how to tell. Despite all of the complaints I read about the Revue, I like mine although the future status is cloudy, nothing about Logitech's situation makes me believe we will see any further updates or bug fixes so the slightly better NSZ-GT1 eventually I expect to be much better and ultimately maybe be the only one of the two that works well enough to use. There is nothing about Sony v. Vizio that makes me think the second generation of boxes will result in a different situation.

 

I currently own both boxes, I posted my experience using both Vizio and Sony boxes in another thread (http://www.googletvforum.org/forum/vizio-co-star/6058-costar-vs-sony-gs7-hands.html) Now after few more days of using Sony, I am almost certain that Sony is a better product and I will most probably keep the Sony box. However, if you are going to use the box occasionally and don't mind dealing with few quality and other issues of costar, you would be fine using costar. I still think costar is a great product for a $100 device.