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.

I have been away from family and friends for most of my life - that is the price to pay when leaving a country....so during the years I always invested in every possible thing to have a better virtual connection, 4K cameras, good microphones, etc. I have to say that Portal TV is really great and it gives a wonderful experience, it really looks like you are with the other person. The "cameraman" effect as I like to call it, is amazing. The camera follows you around the room and when you stop and you sit down for example and you start talking the camera zooms on you. This is really an amazing feature. I really like it, and I am using it on my 4K TV and the details are amazing.I would definitely recommend it for being a little bit closer to family and friends.

(This review is for "Portal TV" since there are reviews for multiple types of Portals mixed together here)The main reason I got Portal TV was that it connects to grandma's huge flat screen TV. We're talking heads which are 3-4 feet tall on her screen when we video chat with her. And it's in her living room where she normally sits. This permits her to see her family. Priceless.But it's really hard to set this device up for her so she can easily use it.Grandma has terrible vision and is really really bad with gadgets, especially remote controls. Asking grandma switch video inputs on her TV remote as opposed to her normally used satellite TV remote is beyond ridiculous. The Portal TV remote is so small I don't think she can even see it. Besides, the buttons on it a camouflaged by being the same color as the case. Even I couldn't see the buttons. Also, another small remote is guaranteed to be lost within a day or two. So using the Portal TV remote is not an option.Her TV wasn't new enough to auto-switch to the Portal TV HDMI feed when answering a call (ie. when Portal answers a Facebook video call). And even if it was, the TV wouldn't auto-switch back which would effectively disable her TV watching. That's her main entertainment in life right now. Cutting it off is beyond unacceptable.So instead I bought an HDMI auto-switch (HDMI Switch SGEYR 5x1 HDMI Switcher 5 in 1). But the Portal TV device doesn't turn off it's HDMI output after it hangs up on a Facebook video call, so the HDMI switcher won't auto-switch back to her TV channels. I ended up setting up a powerstrip on the table near where she sits. The Portal TV device gets it's power from the powerstrip. Before we want to do a Facebook Portal video call with her, we call her on the phone and tell her to turn on the powerstrip (it's big enough that she can see it). We wait two minutes for the Portal TV device to powerup, then we call her on Facebook video (note, you have to use "Messages" in Facebook.com. The Facebook Messenger app on Windows doesn't seem to have a video call option. Yeah, that's not confusing). She answers by saying "Hey Portal, answer" and then once connected, "Hey Portal, camera on".So I got it to work, but is was a huge hassle to setup. The Portal TV device really needs an HDMI switch that can switch to Portal TV video to answer a Facebook video call, then auto-switch back to the TV when done.Call Quality:My mom has old DSL internet service that is pretty slow. Her Portal TV device is connected via good strength WiFi (there is no ethernet port). Portal TV does a very good job of handling the low bandwidth connection. She sometimes looks a little grainy/pixelated, but the video and audio never drop out. She says that her image of us looks very good.The microphones on the Portal TV device seem to do a good job of locking in on her voice.The Portal auto-zoom on person talking seems to work fairly well, but it occasionally decides to zoom in on Grandma's walker, rather than grandma. But it's smart enough to keep grandma in the frame, so it's mostly humorous rather than a real problem.In summary, really cool device that does a good job handling low bandwidth connections and looks fantastic on the big screen.