VIZIO Co-Star review

I’m sorry that this is a little late, but I’ve been having technical difficulties, and also, one of my animals died. But once I moved my Co-Star to the front of my house, it worked perfectly, and I’ve never been happier to sit in front of the television.

Initial thoughts:
Co-Star is a very nice device. Everything is light, and it doesn’t take much to understand. For $99, I really can’t complain about much. I believe that for the money that I spent on this device, I got what I paid for. Sure, there are some things that could possibly be improved, but they’re certainly not deal breakers.

Set-Up
I did have a small issue with the remote when I was doing the set-up. You have to press two buttons on the remote for the bluetooth connection to work. I did that, and it still said it was searching for the connection. I was stuck on the screen for about seven minutes before I got tired of waiting and restarted the set-up. After that, it worked quickly.

Overall, though, set-up is quick. All you need to do is press a few buttons, set up the blue-tooth remote, and connect your Co-Star to your WiFi.  Once the device got set-up, I was immediately prompted to update it, which took a little while. After that, though, everything was running fast.

So, there you have it for the set-up, after a tiny hiccup, everything started up well.

Remote:
People have been bashing on the Co-Star’s remote. While it is a little bulky, it’s really not that much bigger than my DirecTV remote. There are some things that bug me a little bit about the remote, though. Sometimes you need to press the buttons harder for the remote to actually recognize that you’re pressing them. There is also the issue with the FN key. I learned pretty quickly that the FN does not stay in FN mode. You need to press and hold the FN key whenever you wish to type in numbers. The numbers portion of the remote is a little tricky. Sometimes the FN key does not want to type out numbers. For example, say you press FN + M (which is the number 8). Sometimes the remote does not register the FN button, and instead puts in the letter M. This can be a hassle when typing out passwords or long strands of numbers.

Aside from those small issues with the QWERTY keyboard, everything else about the remote is great. The trackpad works well. It’s sensitive to the touch, and it mirrors your movements well. The buttons feel nice to the touch, and I haven’t really been mistakenly pressing any wrong buttons at all.

The gyroscope that the remote comes with works really well. It’s really easy to flip the remote over, and there isn’t any lag between the trackpad side and the qwerty keyboard side.

Co-Star
This is my first Google TV experience. Overall, it has gone pretty well. While there have been some hiccups along the way, my experience has been great. The first thing I checked out when I got through the initial set-up process was the YouTube app. After being upset that there wasn’t any support for Google Movies and TV, I did a little research and found out that I could access my rented movies on the myYouTube section under “rentals”. Aside from some buffering here and there, it went pretty smoothly.

Once I got things set up, I turned my Co-Star off for a day. When I came back, everything was working pretty quickly and accurately. Aside from some internet errors (due to my bedroom being a cave of internet dis-connectivity), I’m positive that this little box can work hard.

Apps

So far, I’ve downloaded Redux, Pandora and a few other useful apps from the Play Store. While it is true that the Google TV version of the store does not currently support Google Movies & TV, I have heard that by side-loading them, you can get them to work. I haven’t tried side-loading yet, but I may do so soon. I have tried out Netflix, Plex and OnLive, so far. These apps performed well (with a few hiccups due to my internet connection).

The Google TV app is really nice, as well. You can search for things on TV, shows and movies. It really is a useful app and it brings all of your favorite things together. When I first opened the app, I had the option of going through and rating a bunch of movies that I may or may not have seen. Based on these movies, the Google TV app spit out a bunch of suggestions and options for me to watch. Switching over from all of your apps to your TV and channels is seamless, and it works fast. Once I figured out how to set up the TV to the Co-Star to the DirecTV box, everything just clicked. It was awesome that the app worked so well, and I’ve really been enjoying the experience.

Final Thoughts and Updates:

During my time that I have owned my Co-Star, I came across the Google Music update. With this update, you can now use Google Music on the Co-Star (which wasn’t available before). I updated it and have been enjoying listening to the music from my phone and Google Play playlists. Also, it has been stated that Google Movies & TV will be available for Google TV sometime this fall. This is good news, because that means that you will not need to side-load the app.

I’ve had a really awesome time playing with the Co-Star. It really is an awesome product, and it really does work extremely well. For the $99 price, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by all the features and the swiftness of the unit. I would strongly recommend this product, but of course, it may not be for everyone. This device runs on the internet, so if your internet connection isn’t so hot (like mine was), then you should probably fix that up before you go out and buy yourself one.

Thanks for reading the review, guys. I appreciate you waiting on me, and I’m sorry that my internet and personal life hates me.