5 Best Video Players for Google TV

Videos are the lifeline of any TV because a TV is as good as a giant mirror, or, in fact, a really bad one. More so than that, a good video player is quintessential in ensuring the video-watching experience stays intact. Not having the right video player can undoubtedly make or break your leisure time. Unfortunately, standalone TVs don’t let you change the media player, or any other app for that matter.

Thankfully, Google TV does, credits to the presence of the Google Play Store, which houses tens of thousands of apps. This gives you the much-needed choice of the right video player for your Google TV to enjoy your time on the tee. With numerous video players available, here are our recommendations for the five best video players for Google TV. Tune in to know more.

Why Do You Need a Video Player for Your Google TV?

Going forward, this must be an obvious question arising in your mind, and you would be right to think so. After all, if your Google TV can run videos well, why do you need a video player separately? The answer lies in the fact that the default video players on most Google TVs are sub-par, to say the least. They lack features, don’t support most of the codecs, and often come with poor user interfaces.

Like on smartphones, Google on TV also allows installing apps from the Google Play Store, which is an undisputed advantage in this case. Third-party video players for Google TV pack a lot more utilitarian features, support the majority of video and audio codecs, and generally offer a more likable user interface. Plus, there’s no harm in giving one a try and seeing if it’s a worthy replacement for your TV’s existing video player.

5 Best Google TV Video Player Apps

VLC Media Player – Most Reliable Option

Let’s get this straight: no one is a stranger to VLC, in fact, it’s certainly the most popular media player in the industry by a long stretch. VLC is present on almost all possible platforms, including televisions. Like many other video players, VLC Media Player for Google TV is incredibly well-optimized despite rocking a not-so-beautiful-looking but straightforward interface. So, you get to enjoy impeccable performance and native integration of features such as voice control, hardware acceleration, and optimized controls for TV remotes.

VLC Media Player for Google TV supports a truckload of codecs, including ones that have become ancient relics. It also supports a host of playback controls, including changing and downloading subtitles, switching between audio tracks, and playback speed controls. VLC can playback audio and video files from local or connected storage drives. Despite the user reviews complaining about the occasionally buggy interface and broken controls, we still think VLC Media Player is a strong contender because it’s entirely free, open-source, and gets the job done well.

Just (Video) Player – For the Minimalists

If you are a fan of open-source apps like us, you’re in for a treat with this minimalist video player for Google TV. The name speaks for its minimalism, and also its interface, which follows a no-nonsense approach of including only the absolute necessities. For starters, there is no interface as the app opens directly into the video player itself, where you must select the file you wish to play. With only a few UI elements to take care of, the app is quite responsive as per user reviews.

Just Player is no slouch in terms of playback support, either. Apart from the standard playback codecs, the video player supports .avi, .mkv, .mov, .flv, .wmv, WebM, HEVC, and many more. It is also capable of playing HDR10+ and Dolby Vision videos on supported hardware, which is an underrated advantage. The best part is that Just Player is entirely free of charge with no adverts or paid tiers. It’s astounding considering how flawless the app experience is compared to most other video players for Google TV.

Kodi – For the Power Users

The open-source streak continues with Kodi, but it’s way more than that. Kodi isn’t just a video player; in fact, it houses a host of other things, or an “ultimate entertainment center software,” as Kodi likes to call itself. Long story short, the app supports playing not just videos, but also TV shows, movies, music, PVR, games, and photos. Of course, you must access your own or third-party content since Kodi doesn’t own any of it. Additionally, Kodi supports add-ons and skins, which further elevate the experience.

As a video player, Kodi supports a plethora of formats, including MP4, WMV, MKV, AVI, MOV, FLV, and many more. A small disheartening thing about Kodi is its interface, which is too outdated. The icons, color scheme, layout, and overall interface design in general are not very good to look at. User reviews also mention the interface being unintuitive, which is a liveable con. Like Just Player and VLC, Kodi is also a free-of-charge app that does a lot more than being just a video player.

NOVA Video Player – Best Overall

Nova Video Player is another highly regarded and possibly even the highest-rated video player for Google TVs on the Play Store. It, too, is an open-source app that’s free to use without any adverts or paid upgrades available. The interface is strikingly similar to VLC’s, making it equally simple and straightforward to use. Thanks to the support for hardware-accelerated video decoding, performance isn’t an issue with Nova Video Player. It can not only play videos from local storage and external devices such as pen drives and hard drives, but also from servers and NAS.

Nova Video Player supports the majority of video formats, including MP4, WMV, MKV, AVI, FLV, and more. It additionally supports many subtitle formats, namely, SRT, SUB, ASS, and so on. It automatically groups files into dedicated sections such as movies, animation, videos, and more, making them easier to access. Nova Video Player also supports Dolby Vision playback and allows tweaking the preferred audio language, variable refresh rate settings, and more, making it a must-have recommendation from our end.

MX Player  – Most Polished App

MX Player is a widely popular media player available on Google TV. The highlighting features include MX Player’s rather clean-looking interface and an appreciable feature set. Unlike others, MX Player isn’t an open-source app; hence, you may encounter occasional adverts depending on your region. As per many reviews, the interface isn’t the fastest and sometimes buggy, but it’s not a massive issue. On the other hand, MX Player supports a variety of video formats, including MP4, MOV, FLV, AVI, MKV, 3GP, and more.

MX Player’s feature set includes hardware acceleration, multi-core decoding, support for subtitles, and more. It could have been even more if MX Player Pro, another popular video player app for Google TV from the same company, hadn’t been bought out by Amazon, which later decided to discontinue the app indefinitely. Regardless, we have what we have, which is a worthy video player for Google TVs that’s free and doesn’t miss out on anything alarming.

Elevate Your Google TV Experience With These Video Players

As mediocre an experience as Google TV has to offer compared to its mobile operating system counterpart, installing a third-party video player is the only right thing to do. On top of that, the bundled media players that come with Google TVs are borderline bad for the experience they offer. Among all of them, Nova Video Player, VLC Media Player, and Just Player are video players we wholeheartedly recommend. On the other hand, Kodi and MX Player are more suited to power users.

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