Razer's Forge TV/console/box thing, which runs Android TV, has started shipping to pre-order buyers, and they're not liking what they find once they kick back to watch some Netflix... because they can't.

Attempting to find Netflix on the Play Store is a no go, casting from your connected phone won't work, and even sideloading the Android TV Netflix v2 APK (and even with rooting and build.prop edits) won't get you around this issue. The only solution is to sideload the standard phone APK, which then reverts to 480p only mode and uses the tablet UI, which is of course terrible on a TV.

When asked, Razer customer support provided a variety of responses to users, but this one was the most encouraging:

"There are plans to have Netflix on the Forge, hopefully in the near future. Although I can't go into specific details why it isn't currently, we are working with Netflix to hopefully get setup to allow Netflix on the Forge. Thank you very much, have a wonderful day!"

Razer at least seems well-aware of how ridiculous this problem is, so that's a start. But currently, there's no ETA for Netflix on the Forge, and that's obviously going to frustrate buyers. Being launched in the US by an American company, there's also not much of an excuse here - Netflix is insanely popular in America, and an Android TV box really does have to support it to be worth your while if you're a subscriber.

Whether Razer, Netflix, or Google is to blame, we simply don't know (it could, of course, involve multiple parties).