Audio Video News

Vizio today announced enhancements to the SmartCast App it introduced earlier this year and announced that Google Play Movies & TV will be integrated into the app.

Updates to the app will enable search results and programs to load more quickly and make it easier to find content, according Vizio. On-screen navigation has been improved and viewers are able to adjust settings, navigate apps, and access menus and playback controls more quickly. A new Android widget also provides easy access to power, play, pause, and volume controls even when a SmartCast tablet remote or Android mobile device is locked.

Other updated features include a Quick Start mode that enables SmartCast displays to turn on automatically over Wi-Fi when a Chromecast session is initiated so streaming to the TV screen starts right away.

Google Play Movies & TV—which offers new movies, classic films, and next-day TV shows for rental or purchase—will be fully integrated into the SmartCast app, allowing viewers to browse selections along with other integrated catalogs for a more seamless browsing experience. Vizio said the integration will occur in the future but no timeline was given. “Soon consumers can easily search Google Play’s expansive library of movies and TV shows alongside selections from their other favorite apps,” explained Vizio’s Matt McRae. “This process streamlines content discovery so consumers can easily find and tap to cast their choice to the big screen.”

With the SmartCast app viewers can search and browse content by genre across multiple apps and then choose the app or source to play the selected program as well as stream content from their mobile devices to the TV. Chromecast is also built into all SmartCast TVs, which lets viewers use Chromecast-enabled apps to “cast” content to Vizio SmartCast-enabled P-Series, M-Series, and E-Series TVs.

For more information, visit vizio.com.