Samsung Introduces HomeSync Android TV at Mobile World Congress 2013

At Mobile World Congress 2013 this week Samsung has introduced HomeSync Android TV. No, it’s not a soap opera about artificial humans, it’s a set-top box for your home theater system that runs on Android Jelly Bean. We don’t usually see set-top boxes unveiled at Mobile World Congress, but in this era of crossover technology Samsung has decided to do show off the versatility of the Android operating system. Samsung promises your ‘droid phones or tablets (not just Samsung) will be able to take control and stream media to its glossy little home-cloud bridge that’s no bigger than a wireless router.

With HomeSync, Samsung is filling the Android gap covered by Apple TV in the Apple ecosystem. Anyone familiar with the Android operating system will be at home with the ‘droid 4.2 powered media streamer. It nestles itself into your home entertainment system with HDMI and a digital optical audio output and it can connect to all your household gadgets with built-in Ethernet, Wi-Fi and a bevy of input/output options.

Processing Power

• 1.7 GHz dual-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• 1TB built-in HDD

Input/Output

• HDMI – 1080P video                       
• Optical digital output
• USB 3.0
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Wi-Fi
• Ethernet
• NFC (Near Field Communication)

The box is powered with a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM and a includes 1TB of built-in storage. The device puts out 1080P video and multi-channel digital audio via digital-optical and HDMI.

Because it’s an Android device, we can expect the out-of-the-box features are just the beginning of what people will do with this box. Android should take a bit of an edge over Apple in what its developer community will do to unlock the capabilities of the box. HomeSync will connect directly to the Google Play Android Store where it will download apps, media and games.

HomeSync Android TV features

• Screen mirroring. Lets users project their little screen (from any Android tablet or phone) onto their big screen. This is probably great for showing guests pictures and home movies—for about five minutes. Trust us, by then your guests are ready to strangle themselves to escape! In a demo someone was trying to demonstrate playing a game on their phone while mirrored to the big screen. This makes no sense, and the fact that there’s a slight delay between phone and TV is the least of your reasons never to bother trying to play a game on the big screen from your phone.
  
• Remote Control. Here’s a pretty cool feature you’ll actually use: turning your Android phone into a HomeSync remote. Using the phone’s accelerometer you control an on-screen cursor on your TV to navigate HomeSync. 
  
• Separate, Secure Accounts. You can create up to eight separate accounts for separate media-spaces on its hard drive with up to eight separate phones. You also have the option to encrypt your personal account to keep your personal media from the prying eyes of other family members.

There is no word on pricing yet, but Samsung is aiming at an April release date.

Since this was only a pre-launch announcement at a high profile event like MWC 2013, there is much we don’t yet know about the device’s capabilities. But that hasn’t stopped the criticism already being lobbed at HomeSync Android TV by those that believe they’re restricted to playing back only purchased Play Media. But there is no reason to suggest this will be the case.

Because it’s built on the Andoid platform (like any smartphone or tablet) we’re only a free downloadable app away from complete UpNp and near universal file-type compatibility. Until we hear otherwise (in April) we should assume you’ll be streaming all your ripped CDs and crazy FLAC, AVI, MP4 MKV files to the device from your household PCs, external hard drives and wherever else you can bring the media. Not supporting this function in an effort to use Android as the basis for a closed (Apple style) media ecosystem controlled by Samsung would be a grievous misstep.

Conclusion

We can’t give a definitive conclusion until we can get our hands on a working device. But if you’re in love with Android and have yet to pick up a media center for your home theater system this won’t be a bad choice. It’s likely to run all your ‘droid apps at a nice snappy pace with its processing power. That means you’ll get a more usable version of the Netflix app than the bare-bones, snail’s pace version that came built-in to your Blu-ray player or Smart TV.

Presently HomeSync runs the current iteration of Android Jelly Bean. The only downside with some Android devices is that there is no guarantee it will be compatible with future versions of the OS (which are very hardware-dependent). We’ve already seen Ice Cream Sandwich devices that won’t upgrade to Jelly Bean. Considering this is a first generation peripheral. Buy HomeSync for what it can do today without counting on upgrading to tomorrow’s Android OS and features. As in life itself, tomorrow’s upgrades aren’t guaranteed.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.