Meta Portal TV - Big Screen Smart Video Calling for Group Calls on Your TV

I am a professional A/V Integrator and company owner. So I wanted to demo this myself before recommending it to my clients. I had ours installed within 5 minutes and on our first video chat. Our Portal is connected through the HDMI input of a Denon AVR and the video is shown on a new 75" Sony UHD-TV. We have had a few calls that were pixelated or where the calls were dropped, however I believe that was most likely a reception issue originating from the person(s) we called. Both parties we called live in rural areas or areas that have poor cellular and Ethernet reception. I am quite pleased with the video quality when WiFi strength is good and how effectively the camera adjusts to Zoom and Pan thus accommodating people moving about in the room. If I make a Portal call from my couch the camera zooms onto me and any movements. If my wife enters the room the camera immediately zooms out to get her into frame until she sits next to me on the couch, then the camera zooms in closer to include us both in the video call. Using a Sony Smart TV and enabling HDMI-CEC I can be watching Netflix from the Sony Netflix app and all I have to say is "Hey Portal Call Mom" The Portal responds and begins the call. Once the call begins the Sony TV automatically switches from Netflix to Portal TV. This is perfect for the older generation who are not technically savy. A great way to stay in touch with kids, parents, grandparents and friends afar. We have used the Story Telling feature with our 2 year old grandson who loved the interaction with us. Only Con I have is that it has no hardwired Ethernet connection, only Wi-Fi. When we first installed Portal TV we had Xfinity 300mbps Wi-Fi, last week we upgraded to Google Fiber Gigabit so I again I am certain that any video issues we are experiencing are actually originating from whom we called. It may be they do not have their mobile device camera set at the highest resolution, poor celluar and or Wi Fi reception. I have not tried any of the included streaming apps on the PortalTV as we use the apps from our Sony UHD TV. For the price this a wonderful device, for my many deaf and hearing impaired friends this is AWESOME, as it does have a hand held remote so speaking commands is not necessary.

I was skeptical about how different the Portal TV would be from other web style cameras. I was impressed with the Portal TV. It is more than a camera. It has apps that can be downloaded to it like Zoom and supports other platforms like WhatsApp for staying in contact with family and friends remotely. The Alexa support is also very convenient. The camera quality is very good and how it picks up the voice of who is talking and positions the camera slightly to focus in on that individual is pretty cool too. There are other cool built-in features that work with the camera as well, like a photo booth for taking pictures or making fun family videos.

Great prodect and a great seler thank you so much.

It handles it's primary function of video calls OK enough. The way the camera tracts people within it's field's range is pretty cool. And it's nice that now I have a large screen to see our grandchildren, but at times it seems a bit grainy compared to the first generation smaller portal I used to have. Also, I miss the touch screen capabilities of the original portal for doing things like selecting a subject to stay focused on. The available applications seems to be very limited as well. I could swear the 1st gen had a lot more apps to choose from. I do watch Amazon Prime through it, which so far works flawlessly, but it would be nice to have a browser, maybe utube.. or come on, this is a facebook product so how about facebook on it? I do have to admit that story time is a lot of fun with the youngest in our family. :) Alexa is OK on this.. handles my home automation OK enough, and MUCH clearer audio than my 3rd gen Echo Dot, but is a bit cumbersome in some aspects. If I want to see my Ring Doorbell video I can't just say to show me the front door. First I have to say "hey portal, show me the home page." This changes the HDMI port to the correct one for portal, as well as turn on the TV if its off. Once I have the portal screen showing then I can say "Alexa, show me the front door." and by that time I've already walked to the front door to see who's there. If I just tell Alexa to show me the front door it'll say OK, but nothing happens until I activate portal first. Frustrating. The HDMI-CEC control is also interesting. Yes, it will turn on my TV while switching to the portal port.. however; I can't use it to switch back to my cable-box's HDMI, control volume or turn the TV off. Perhaps there are commands to do this, but I haven't found them yet.

Good

I have seen a lot of reviews saying that you can't enable drop-in for a grandparent. I found a way to pull this off, it took a little work though. First I setup zoom on this device. Then I made a new zoom account, with a unique username and password just for this device specifically. I logged in to the account on my computer. A computer and installed software is necessary for some of this. You can get to advanced settings directly from logging into the zoom website to avoid the software, but its a bit cumbersome. Since "advanced settings" and "contacts" are not in the same area, you'll need to add/edit contacts elsewhere. If you already use zoom on a computer, you can just switch back and forth easier than other ways. Then I went on zoom and added my personal zoom account to the device contact/my friends list, and vice versa. Then I had to go onto the zoom settings on my computer, then to the advanced settings at the bottom which redirected me to the zoom website for the advanced account settings. I enabled "Auto Answering group". Also took off a few of the restrictions from the account. Allowing everyone (me on other end) to share screen without permission, white board, etc... basically giving them nothing they need to press or allow for me on my end. Then I went back to contacts, clicked my name and added myself to "auto answer group". Then on the device I opened the zoom app and left it there to see if it would work. Then I went back to my personal account on my phone, to contacts, to their name and pressed the little video icon and it connected automatically. Also did it from my computer by clicking "meet with video" and it also worked. I then setup a wifi IR blaster to allow me to control their television remotely, so that I would be able to turn on their television and switch inputs from my house. Its a lot of work to begin with. But once its all setup its really cool. Especially how the portal automatically zooms and follows the people on screen. So that everyone is in view.

I WANT to love this thing, but they make it sooo hard... As we've made the purchases we push through and use, and enjoy them... but I'd be hesitant to really recommend someone buy one... Next Generation maybe? Positives: Bought these for myself, mom, and sister, and father in law... We use it almost every weekend and love how it connects the family. We have young kids and the grandparents get to see them run around, and now the kids recognize their voice etc. After you're done its ALMOST like you sat next to them on the couch and had a good chat... Now very good during COVID isolation as well... The AR is fun for kids and adults and the story time thing is cool. Negatives: They had such a strong chance for a GREAT product, but the negatives are almost to the point where I'd be iffy about actually recommending this to someone. Making and Connecting on calls - Linking up multiple people is for some unknown reason, always a pain... You can sign in through Facebook Messenger AND/OR WhatsApp... BUT if you want too add people to calls they need to be signed into the same thing (Messenger or Whatsapp), and you can only ADD someone to call, you can't combine a received call... I bought the ones that hookup to your TV, so I'll admit this is partially due to that, but you effectively need to call ahead, make sure everyone has their TV's to the right input, and is signed into the right service. As my sister said this morning, you come near to starting a family fight while trying to get the call going asking why someone isnt signed into the right service (see below). Also while combining calls (specifically for having 3 people on a call, it just shows the middle of the field of view of the camera and cuts off the sides... My mom inevitably can only see me in the center of the picture and misses my kids running around, and I in turn see my mom well centered, but only see my sisters cat which is situated between her and her husband... Set-up - It should be easy, but its not... Initial set up is KIND OF intuitive, but its not as simple as many other things... Its not impossible, and even after initial set up things don't always seem to stick... I (the tech knowledgeable 30 something) inevitably spend sometime face-timing or phoning the person on the other end to help them re-sign into something (even I've experienced being randomly signed out of profiles). Image Quality, Zoom, and following - We're all used to HD or 4K... and this is definitely not that quality... In a wide field of view the 12 mp camera does fine BUT when it "Zooms" in on you its only digital zoom so picture quality degrades quickly... The camera follows you nicely for big motions but sometimes seems to kind of have some ADD and randomly goes "Squirrel!" and zooms to another part of the room or just decides it doesn't like someone and won't include them in the picture... You can choose someone for the camera to focus on, but honestly having the OPTION just being able to manually control where the camera is looking would be super nice.. AR only tracks (3) faces which is kinda lack luster... even in a family of 4 someone is left out...

A couple Christmas ago my mom and I bought portals for all the members of our extended family. We used them for our annual gift exchange to talk virtually. They worked perfectly. We could see everyone in the room. We could zoom in on specific people opening presents. It was like we were all really together. We have also used it for some of its filter functions to entertain nephews and nieces from afar. It has a lot of the same filter games you get on Facebook messenger. But it has the added functionality of story mode where you can read a book and it transposes your face on the characters. Very interactive and engaging for kids. I can’t wait to see what more functionality they add. We like it so much, we are buying more this year for other family members.