GoKawiilC. Scott Brown / Android Authority
For the past five years or so, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K has been my trusty streaming companion. Everything was going fine until maybe a year ago, when I noticed the interface had gotten quite sluggish, switching between apps became a chore, and the buttons on the remote would sometimes stop responding. Having outlived its usefulness, I decided to ditch it and get the Google TV Streamer earlier this year.
Google launched the TV Streamer in 2025 as the successor to the Chromecast with Google TV. The main perks of the new model include improved performance, an Ethernet port, and Google Home integration — all super-useful features that I wanted and that were missing on my old Fire TV 4K. Setting it up was very easy with the Google Home app, and the interface’s fluidity was a refreshing upgrade from the clunky Fire TV software.
I was thrilled with my new purchase, and everything was roses — until it wasn’t.
Have you faced any issues with your Google TV Streamer? 10 votes None. I absolutely love it. 40 % A few, but nothing to get mad about. 20 % I have constant software issues. 10 % My only issue is the price. 30 %
Like many Google products, the TV Streamer is prone to developing weird issues
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
A few weeks into using the Google TV Streamer, I noticed a strange issue where the box would randomly refuse to wake from sleep. I’d turn my TV on using the Streamer’s remote and just get a blank screen — the kind you get when no input source is detected. If I pressed the Home or any other button on the remote, my TV’s input overlay would change for a second, as if it had detected a source, but would then switch back immediately and display nothing.
My first thought was maybe it was the HDMI cable, so I swapped it with others that I know for sure work, but still no dice. The only way out of this was to unplug the USB-C power cable from the TV Streamer, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in. And just like that, things would go back to normal once the box rebooted. This wasn’t a consistent issue, but it happened often enough to annoy the heck out of me.
Software glitches seem to be part and parcel of the TV Streamer experience.
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