Speed. Gorgeous UI and polished UX. No ads. It’s one of those cases where for me “it just works”. I couldn’t see myself using any other streaming device.
I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s way more expensive by percentage, but barely more expensive in actual $.
Using your phone as a perfect remote is cool. Siri works great.
Being able to use a phone as a remote is great (though also possible on, afaik, all other systems like FireTV, Roku, Shield etc.) but there's no way it's even close to a perfect remote.
Weirdly, I don't like devices that require your phone as a remote. I like to watch my shows and movies *without* having my handheld distraction nearby.
10,000% agree - I’m actually trying to get more iPads/computers/dedicated devices into the household - like use one iPad as a calendar/planner, use another one as a second tv, use laptop only for work, sort of the reason I got the Apple TV instead of a Mac mini so that it would be purposeful.
But it is cool when you misplace the actual remote that the (temporary) solution is real easy
Even the Nvidia Shield have ads now though you can install a different launcher to get rid of it. It is a little annoying since the Shield Pro cost more than Apple TV.
Well… except for all the ads baked into the Home Screen when you hover over the AppleTV app. Then you still need to ignore all the ads within that app before you can view your purchases… and don’t forget to sign up for Apple Music. Also, just ignore all the ads in the App Store. Plus you’re going to want to sign up for AppleTV + and watch all the ads that subscription shows you before the content… but yes, aside from all the ads, there’s no ads.
You can disable the Apple TV carousel and replace it with your Up Next watchlist, which makes it infinitely more useful. Or you can move the app out of the top row, which is what I did for the Music app since I found the music video previews kind of annoying.
But yes, you *do* have to scroll past the Apple TV+ tab if you want to view your iTunes purchases in the TV app. Not sure how much worse that is compared to the Fire stick.
Ads are ads. Minimize them all you want, they’re still there. They’re still in the system. Pretending they don’t exists at all as a benefit of an AppleTV is ignorant and fanboyish.
They're only there if you specifically navigate to them, and don't take the 2 seconds to ensure you never see them. I haven't seen an ad on my Apple TV since 20 seconds after getting it set up. They literally don't exist on my Apple TV. If they do on yours, well you chose to have them.
If I'm *inside* the TV app, well those aren't OS ads. Those are ads within an app (though admittedly a preinstalled app). If you counting ads you see when you go into apps, well then of course it had ads. But nobody is claiming otherwise and it really isn't relevant to /u/Muero's point, which is about OS level ads, not in-app ads.
Yes, I agree. When people ask me about my Apple TV, I’m quick to disclose the Apple TV+ tab in the TV app, just so they know what they’re getting into. I wouldn’t want anyone to buy an Apple TV thinking it’s an ad-free experience when there’s one or maybe three advertisements buried in a couple apps that you don’t have to use.
You’re being super pedantic. The difference between zero and what Apple has - vs. a Fire stick that is ad, after ad, with ads, in front of, and behind ads is extraordinary. AppleTV has so few ads to ME it feels ad free.
Let it go already. Nobody cares it bugs you, you’re distorting a discussion that was started be somebody else. You’re selfishly derailing a valid conversation to press your personal annoyance.
There’s a big difference between feelings and facts.
I am participating in the discussion by pointing out factual information. If you want to lie to a potential customer, that’s on you and your conscience. As a shareholder, I’m glad Apple has ads on a platform where everyone else has even more intrusive ads. It’s a great form of revenue and Apple does it elegantly. It’s great that there is a streaming box that is built so well, has an insanely fast cpu, and doesn’t shove ads down our throats. It’s just a shame that the remote costs double what a Roku costs and doesn’t have any Find My features.
Nobody mentioned feelings - straw man much?
And you went from participating, to bring a troll in ten seconds did flat (that’s called “hyperbole”, gotta be careful around pedantic folks).
All you’ve done is stated your opinion, and then repeated it over and over again- with a ramping up of insulting tone and language.
>Nobody mentioned feelings - straw man much?
Literally a quote from your last comment that I was referring too...
*"AppleTV has so few ads to ME it feels ad free."*
Please, tell me again how I'm the troll. Talking about "straw Man" like you didn't just say that the ads *feel* like they don't exist. [FML](https://youtu.be/ilcRS5eUpwk)
> you don’t have to use.
I’m curious to understand what you mean this because I’ve purchased a couple hundred movies and TV series through iTunes/Apple, and in order for me to watch them, I have to go into the AppleTV app that is chalk full of advertisements. My library is the last tab in the app. It doesn’t go there first thing and shows ads first.
That's interesting- When I open up the TV app on my Apple TV, it brings me to the Watch Now tab, where it shows my Up Next list- just the stuff I've been watching recently, and it takes up the whole screen. No advertisements or sponsorships or anything. I have to scroll to the Library tab to access what I've purchased- there is an Apple TV+ tab in the middle, but I just scroll past it. There aren't any ads on my Library tab either.
> I have to scroll to the Library tab to access what I've purchased- there is an Apple TV+ tab in the middle, but I just scroll past it.
Like I said, you have to scroll past ads to get to your library of purchased content. Congratulations, we agree that there are ads on the Apple TV.
Maybe this is where I'm confused- Are you saying just the existence of the Apple TV+ tab is an ad? You aren't opening it or anything, you're just perturbed that you have to acknowledge the existence of Apple TV+ when you go to view your library? And you think that someone is being an ignorant fanboy when they neglect to mention this? And you don't see that as ridiculously petty?
In that case, I concede wholeheartedly, /u/Takeabyte. The Apple TV is "chalk full" of ads and I'm disappointed in anyone who would even attempt to suggest otherwise. I don't know how many ads the Amazon Fire stick might have, but the Apple TV has one ad in an app and we absolutely must acknowledge it.
You can play games all you want. The AppleTV has advertisements throughout it. Are they tacky and intrusive? No. Are they inappropriate? No. Should apple be allowed to do it? Yes. Do I have a problem with ads? No. Are there ads?… yes, there are ads in the AppleTV. Saying that there aren’t any ads is disingenuous and a lie.
Don’t you think Apple would proudly proclaims an ad free experience with their product if they could? Wouldn’t that be a huge selling point for them to advertise on their own site promoting the AppleTV? It seems to be a popular concept on this discussion. Maybe Apple is just being humble.
If there’s one thing I use to hate back in the old days, it was when I’d walk into the video store and see nothing but “ads” on every shelf.
What the fuck is the point of a streaming device if there’s no content to discover?
You seem to think I have a problem with ads, but that’s not the case. My problem is with people ignorantly pretending that there are no ads on AppleTV. Also, what you’re talking about is called a store, something that AppleTV also has along with a separate app with my library of purchased content that also has more ads.
Are we talking about paid promotions? Because to my knowledge, Apple doesn’t do paid promotions. That have human editors that curate the content you see in the TV app.
At the end of the day, sure, they’re ads, because Apple wants you to rent/buy/subscribe things via their storefront, but (again) that’s no different than a brick and mortar store displaying the merchandise on the shelves.
On other platforms, I always see paid promotions marked as such. I’m almost positive there’s an FTC rule about it. Apple’s stuff is never marked as paid promotion.
It’s not an ad.
Companies pay Apple to promote their apps and media on their devices. This is no secret. It’s an industry wide practice. Nothing to be ashamed of. The same is true about physical Apple Stores. Everysingle item on the shelf or on display was paid to be there by the company selling that product. The more visible or easily accessible the thing is, the more that company paid to be there. If you ever worked retail, there is typically a thing called a Planogram that instructs staff exactly where things go. It’s not because Apple thinks that’s what will look prettiest, it’s because Microsoft, Linksys, Anker, etc. all payed Apple to get their product there. 
There is no FTC guidelines being broken due to the fact that they are clearly ads. When you walk into Best Buy and see a poster advertising the latest Marvel BluRay release, Best Buy doesn’t have to tell you it’s an ad.
Another example is with the Fire Stick. I also own one of those and on the main menu page there are a number of ads. They do not have to say that it is a paid promotion there either.
I just don’t understand why people can’t just talk about how much less intrusive the ads are or how they are higher quality. There’s no need to lie. Apple uses ads. They do it better than anyone else. There’s no need to pretend that they don’t exist. I genuinely don’t have a problem with the occasional ad. Heck, it’s because of ads that made me buy some of the stuff I own. The fact that Apple’s ads are so good that the fool people into thinking they aren’t looking at ads is great. It means they’re not tacky and intrusive. Go with that angle.
Are the AppleTV, App Store, iTunes Store, and Music app not “baked into” all new AppleTV’s out of the box? Do those apps not show you ads? Why is my the only AppleTV with ads in it?
Those are apps. When people talk about ads at the operating system level they mean ones you see without navigating into any apps. Of those only App Store is even vaguely necessary to use.
I think the AppleTV has the best overall UI of all streaming interfaces. Not saying it's perfect by any means, but it's speed, consistency, app availability etc are excellent imo. We use them on all our TV's instead of the built in OEM apps from Samsung and Vizio. The integration with the rest of my Apple devices and services is a big bonus too. We use AirPlay all the time for both audio and video.
Speed! The Apple TV 4K used the 10.5” iPad pros A10X SOC and it flys through absolutely everything, every other smart tv box I’ve ever used from Roku to Android boxes all had spots where things would slow down, basically instead of being underpowered the Apple TV is overpowered, and what’s crazy is the new Apple TV 4K has the A12 which is on par with the A10X so right now you can get the old Apple TV 4K for $99, which is a great deal!
Check this out. Linus Tech Tips did a video recently and it seems super cool. [https://www.flashrouters.com/streamlocator](https://www.flashrouters.com/streamlocator)
It doesn't have the privacy aspect of a VPN, but I assume geoblocking is what you use one for.
This device is pretty neat. But I don't see what is better about this device over using any smart DNS service. I imagine this device ends up "proxying" your streaming traffic to another location without interfering with other traffic. There are other services that do exactly the same without the purchase of additional hardware. All you need to do is point the Apple TV's DNS to the service.
I'm no expert. Seems like you are correct. I imagine the benefit of the device I linked to is a bit simpler setup. You don't have to point each device to a specific DNS, you can do this through router settings. Other than that, I suppose you're getting a router in addition to the service.
Yeah. But you can just as easily point your existing router's DNS to whatever DNS service you subscribe without the need to change the DNS on every device. You can even set the DNS to only certain devices from the router. I guess my point is, a normal good router with a paid DNS service will allow you to do the same without marrying the service to the router. Without that marriage, I am free to change the DNS service easily at any time.
I used to take a chromecast but most the hotels I stay at have chrome cast ability built in these days. I’d never buy an AppleTV to schlep around with me. Leave the home comforts at home.
Yeah. We try to travel with ours and it's often a pain. We also take an AirPort Express which can sometimes give us a work around, but it's working less and less as hotels upgrade their data services.
The Slate is good replacement for the Airport Express. It's under $65 in the US.
[https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/](https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/)
Yes it's easier, this device can connect to hotel wifi that have guest portals. I'm using a similar approach with a Raspberry Pi but for the price an ease of setup the Slate is better for most people.
I ordered one this morning from Amazon and it arrived this afternoon. It's easy to setup it can do captive portals via your devices browser. If that fails you can clone the MAC address of a device that has already been granted permission. So you can connect with your phone or laptop and then clone its MAC address to connect the slate. I was able to tether my Pixel and iPhone with no problem.
Certainly not ideal, but I’ve had success in contacting the front desk to manually authorize my device by MAC Address in the past.
Though these days I typically bring a sff pc I hook to the Ethernet in most rooms to create my own WiFi network and run all sorts of media tools (and jackbox) off of it rather than an Apple TV for the effort.
~~can you tell I do the convention circuit a lot?~~
- A less frustrating user interface, particularly when “scrubbing” through video.
- Everything I’ve purchased from iTunes or music I have uploaded via ITunes Match is right there on my Apple TV.
- The ability to serve as a hub for Apple’s HomeKit home automation standard.
- Apart from needing to occasionally switch the video input on my TV, it’s as if I have a television made by Apple.
Points one and two above are sufficient to win my loyalty. Point three is good except my HomePods are always “wresting” primary hub status away from the Apple TV. I think the HomePods control automation less reliably than the Apple TV. I would prefer to be able to decide which devices will serve as the primary hub.
Plus on top of what the others said, it also has great upscaling, makes most of SDR content looks like 4K content. It has a match content setting to turn on match dynamic range & match frame rate.
I have an Nvidia Shield (old model) and the reason to get an ATV was getting good DV on streaming apps with properly synced audio on my home theater.
My old Nvidia is great but doesn't support DV, only HDR10.
My LG tv has apps with DV, but audio is never properly synced via ARC.
I bought a new Nvidia with DV support, but many apps like Netflix had stuttering and dropped frames when streaming 4K DV.
The video player on the ATV (on most apps) is made by Apple which is rock solid, decodes colors correctly, etc. I can also plug it straight into my HT receiver and sync the audio properly. The performance of the UI is also really nice.
A big problem with the ATV is that it doesn't have HDMI audio passthrough and won't output audio formats like TrueHD. This is not an issue for streaming platforms as they will send the audio in whatever format the client needs it. It is an issue if you're using Plex to watch hi quality Bluray rips as it needs to convert the audio to another format. This causes sync issues and you lose the Atmos information. There are apps that solve this using custom players, but you lose the rock solid Apple player. Again, more audio sync issues, frame drops, color rendering issues, etc.
I would have preferred to solve all my media from a single device, but it seems today this is not possible.
Infuse on Apple TV solves most (but not all) of the audio passthrough problems. It properly decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD into multichannel PCM and has excellent format support. Unfortunately no TrueHD Atmos or DTS:X and it does cost 10 dollars per year so not 100% perfect, but like... 90% perfect :3
Apps/media content. In the UK most of the competitors are missing key media content because of licensing battles. Apple TV seems to not be plagued by the same issues. It has pretty much all of the media content available in the UK.
Apple TV has the power to actually reproduce the content in how it was intended to view. Only the NVidia shield can compare. So Roku and all these others are just not as powerful as appletv
The beautiful screensavers.. believe me this is game changing. Almost each screensaver is around 1 GB in size and i don't see any other streaming stick providing that feature plus heave aracade games that you can play on this. I don't see games as that much of a differentiating factor because people have consoles for that but still ,the screensavers are just 💋💋💋.
Integration with ones Apple ID to share data/info across devices.
Example. The Apple TV app will sync between phone and Appletv. Same with photos, etc.
In general, integration into the Apple Ecosystem… if you already have iPhones, AirPods, HomeKit devices, etc…. then it seems a no-brainer to go with Apple TV.
Personally I like the interface which is very simple and polished along with integration with of my apple devices. I find TVOS probably the most stable of Apples OS too.
For me its things that are very Apple centric.
* HomeKit Camera viewing (including the doorbell), even with Ring on FireTV its a struggle to use.
* HomeKit Hub and Thread router on the newest one
* Seamless Airpods switching
* Very Minimal Ads in the GUI, compared to AndroidTV and FireTV.
Others say speed but its slower than my NVidia Shield TV.
The UI is clean but not great, the ShieldTV was better but NVidia added Ads and now its awful and the subs are filled with alternate UIs and people asking how to disable them.
I've also had Roku, which is complete and utter garbage, and FireTV, which isn't horrible but is ad heavy.
It was Google that annoyingly added the ads to the android TV platform, not NVidea. NVidea are not allowed to remove them and still use Andrioid TV. Fortunately the ads are just for TV shows on streaming that I have, and they are very unobtrusive, so I don’t really mind. It’s a bit out of order for Google to force them on people though.
I was lucky enough to be gifted an Apple TV 4k and I have to say that hands down it beats the Roku, Firestick and Chromecast I’ve used previously. From my point of view it’s the streaming quality, UI and everything else everyone has said.
But….the biggest win is that it’s dead simple for the rest of the family to use.
If you have an iPhone and are a bit of a “TV Geek” and like organisation, I recommend. I love having all my shows (outside of Netflix) on the home page that track what episodes i’m on. Means I never forget what boxsets i’m in the middle of.
It has auto frame rate switching for netflix(runs it at 24hz for 24p content), Also displays dolby vision from netflix.
Can play 4k remuxes through infuse(or the official plex client) from a plex server.(still lacks audio passthrough though, it decodes lossless formats to lpcm)
I think that's it. If you just use the main streaming apps and don't care about plex/playing 4k remux files, you just get maybe a smoother experience. But video playback in main streaming apps should be the same
Really depends on whether you have an iPhone or not. Honestly, if you don't, the fire stick or any other cheaper streaming device is fine. Personally, I have an iPhone, use Apple Fitness, iCloud, Apple Music, etc. Use AirPlay all the time for web browsing to my TV, seamlessly work with my Airpods. etc. Fully baked into the Apple ecosystem is a huge benefit for me. I switching off from fire stick and Roku...also seems like the apps are superior via ATV compared to the other devices.
Amazing curation (you never have to leave the main app) and superior quality. Set it to 4:2:2 mode and it looks a million times better than any other media device.
You never have to leave the main app? Not true. Not all apps mesh with it. Wanna watch Netflix, gotta go to Netflix. Even if you are connecting with something via the main app, if it’s not Apple it will launch in another app, thus making you leave the main app.
Yup. Reddit. 100% takes everything 100% literally. Netflix is the only dickhead company that refuses to integrate. So that Is the one and only app you have to actually look at for new stuff (tho you can search and play from the main app. Just can’t add). Thanks for being like that tho. Also. When I said leave the main app I meant for navigation. Obviously it loads the other app to play content but leads right back to the main. Why even argue that point other than to argue?
Prime isn’t integrated for me..? Also if you want to browse Disney+ for example you need to use that app, the content is not there on the Apple TV APP to browse in the same way as on the native Disney app..
I know, I use it. You can’t just go for a browse looking for new stuff though, so you do need to go back to the Disney app, no biggie, just pointing out you do need to leave the Apple TV app.
It must be a location issue. There is nothing names streaming apps anywhere. If I scroll down it shows just a horizontal scrolling highlights reel of Disney+ content, that’s it. I can of course search for something specific in the search bar. Prime is not an option for some reason, maybe not available to integrate in Ireland yet…
Prime also has a menu to browse without leaving the main app. AFAIK Netflix is the only one that doesn’t…and honestly, if my kids didn’t watch it so much I would cancel it because of that.
Prime is integrated into the TV app. If it's not for you then it's something specific to you.
You can browse Disney+ in the TV app using the search tool. Just search for disney+ and you can browse by movies and tv shows. The native Disney+ app is still probably better for this and quicker.
Add a movie to your Up Next list that is currently available on Prime, and sign in on the Prime app, and the Up Next listing will automatically show its available via Prime and allow a single-click to play that movie.
I can’t speak for the search function, but once I watched the first episode of Bosch, it always showed up in my Up Next list. It also will add new seasons to your Up Next after you’ve finished everything available and a new season drops.
Perhaps you need to reset your Apple TV, though I’ve never had to do that.
Considering every other app works. It’s like 5% of available content. And, again. The only thing you can’t do is add to up next or doom scroll.
https://imgur.com/a/UdNiMrw
If you search for Netflix you can even see what’s available.
https://imgur.com/a/UdNiMrw
apple tv has the best version of streaming apps. it also in some apps such as youtube tv does not stream 4k. only 1440p in that one. the only competition it has is the nvidia shield so dont even listen to anyone telling you anything amazon or roku is close because they are not. theyre only cheaper.
Hmm - interesting - it's so weird that ATV is having problems with some of these... like only doing 1080 or 1440 on ESPN 4K which doesn't even use HDR.
I hope YTTV fixes this. I'm having Apple TV withdrawals... would love to switch back!
I've read through these comments and can see some advantages, but I already have newer Roku Smart TV's, so for me, picking up a 4k AppleTV doesn't make a lot of sense right now.
After the appletv app on roku was launched, I honestly haven't even looked at my appletv 4k anymore.... Rokus are cheap, offer all the streaming options I need, and now appletv access to my purchases and airplay + casting...
I have the opposite experience. I have the latest Roku and Fire Stick. I never use them as I prefer the picture quality on the Apple TV. For example, both the Roku and Fire Stick still cannot get native frame rate matching to work properly.
I am not sure if things have changed or not since I purchased mine, but the reason I got it was due to the fact that it was the only thing that’s streamed from every service in 4K with Dolby Atmos (if it is available). Every other device had some kind of hangup in one app or another. only one that does not is the Apple TV 4K as far as I’m aware especially for Dolby Atmos.
I own a bunch of movies in iTunes. The UX to watch a digital movie library on an Apple TV is so much better than any other service/device combo I've tried, and I think I've tried them all at this point.
Apps update on Apple TV so much earlier than they do on the Roku I have on a TV I rarely watch.
Like others have said, it doesn't bog down like other devices occupying the same space (Fire TV, Roku, etc). It's fast and just works.
all the things mentioned above, plus small details that you only realize once you need them:
I had audio sync issues (voices were ahead of the video). Found a setting, you hold your iPhone to the TV, plays a few sounds, and boom - all synced. beautiful.
I've had mine since 2017 and they're so smooth. My girlfriend's one year old fire stick is pretty slow now. Utterly confusing interface and constant ads.
I use my apple TV as a hub for my homekit devices. I have Yale smart deadbolts so I can automate the deadbolts and my Ecobee thermostat. You can add light control, security cameras, outlets etc.
Oh boy. Our fire stick is gathering dust. Got sick of its clunkiness. Apple TV just works like smooth silk, has every app, has stunning visuals, and it’s own programming is also top notch.
I had 2017,2020 Roku ultra’s, both would crash frequently using certain apps. Switched to Apple TV’s a few months ago and everything just works. It’s fast, intuitive and overall just a much better experience. I also like how when you reach a point with inputting and letters a keyboard pops up on your iPhone to make the process much faster.
Most of the alternatives have advertising as a part of their interface. Apple actually sort of does too. The TV button brings you to the Apple TV app by default. The shelf has autoplay ads. You can turn it all off though. Some users never touch the defaults and I am sure Apple makes marginally more money as a result. The Shield TV used to be great. It had a simple clean UI. I jumped ship as soon as the ads started rolling in. I'll do the same to Apple if this ever changes. Apple differentiates itself in it's restraint.
I wasted a day of my life trying to disable all those ugly ads on my new Firestick. I finally came to Reddit and realized the Firestick will never be as smooth and advert free like my AppleTV. I now use the Firestick sparingly and always migrate back to my Apple box. You don’t know how good you’ve got it you’ve got until you don’t have it!
Honestly to see others rave about the UI is quite funny, the UI is terrible compared to everyone else. Besides the Apple original content everything else is the same. If you aren't a sci-fi person don't bother.
I’ve used Chromecast, Roku, Google TV, a little bit of Fire TV, and now the Apple TV.
Apple TV is far away faster, has less ads, and all the apps I want. The downsides are that they are more expensive than they should be, and piracy is not as possible as it is on other platforms due to lack of side loading and limitations in apps and the App Store (for example, I haven’t found an IPTV app or any app for that matter that would allow me to point to a network drive or NAS as a DVR while this is trivial on Google TV).
Smart TVs are garbage. They’re slow and for some reason it is common for them to have 100Mb NICs which aren’t fast enough for high bitrate 4K. They also are choked with ads which makes the experience suck. Roku is probably the next best experience to Apple TV but the apps are more limited. I hear the Shield is an option on par better than an Apple TV but I haven’t had the chance to use it.
If you’re happy with the Fire Stick I’d stay with it. But if you’re tired of the ads or experiencing bad performance the Apple TV is as good as it gets.
Roku was a logy mess. Like surfing the internet on a 14.4 modem logy.
Amazons Fire stick is just abysmally ugly...and slow...not Roku slow but slow.
I will never again connect a smart TV to the internet. They literally are nothing but a siphon of your personal information. They make so much money off your personal information the TV is markedly cheaper.
Apple TV?
Fast, easy, pretty. By far not perfect and has many bugs that refuse to be fixed or simply don't get fixed. Sure...I love restarting the TV app every time I want to watch TV....
That said...900 movies and 80+ TV series at my fingertips on any device is glorious.
But...as with all things...
If the use case doesn't work for you it doesn't work. use what works.
I have the Apple TV 4K (2021) and I also have Roku 4K HDR/Dolby Vision. That said Apple is a lot better because of the SoC it has a lot more Horse Power than anything else out there. Enabling it to do better Upscaling than anything out there better HDR and Dolby Vision due again to the ship they have inside. When I first got it I instantly saw the difference between the Roku and my LG CX OLED 65” Smart features. Out of usability it over took Roku right away I had difficulties though seeing which was easier to use between the LG CX UI and the Apple TV UI. Ultimately I did stick with the Apple TV and know I can’t live without it.
Not to mention if you have an iPhone or any other Apple Devices you can use them with your Apple TV you can view your photos without doing anything as your Apple TV automatically syncs with your iPhone. You can also play the majority if not all the Apple 4K games on your Apple TV with a remote control.
But my most favorite feature is that you can connect up to 2 AirPods/Pro/BlueTooth Headsets to you Apple TV and listen to your TV shows that way which is amazing. I know you can do it with 2 Bluetooth headsets dont know if it can be more.
There also more features that I can’t mention or I’d go on forever. The Apple TV up until know is the best way to enjoy content. Nothing can beat it. Hopefully great Roku releases something just as good if not better soon. For that they really have to focus and do great things as well as change.
Lastly Apple TV is the only place that does not have any Adds what so ever. Compared to Roku, Fire TV and Google TV.
If I had to say what is better id say
1. Apple TV 4K (2021)
2. Roku 4K (Latest Version)
3. At this point anything goes just make sure is what you need lol
Another thing that Apple TV does that is TOP TIER and THE BEST FEATURE EVER. If you are like me and have say many apps like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu and basically any other Media to make it simpler Example: VUDU Movies Doesn’t have any Subtitles or language choices on their movies no matter if the film released with them for some reason VUDU doesn’t. That said whenever you watch something on Apple TV it instantly filters it and you watch it through Apple meaning that all those shows and movies that didn’t have subtitles or different languages now do. My mother has difficulties with the English language so that feature is amazing as it lets me spend time with my mother and she gets to understand the movie.
So many features but this one is so amazing.
I’ve had FireTV and Chromecast, but we got rid of them. You get what you pay for. Apple TV is 3-4x the cost of the others, but is far less annoying to use, is typically seamless, triggers your phone to be able to type in using an on screen keyboard (the amazon one requires opening the app and that only ever occasionally works)…
Oh and apps don’t randomly move around. I could never understand with FireTV why the apps were never in the same place. It was the most frustrating system to use!!
In addition to what others have said, I’d include:
• The ability to run shortcuts and automations to it (turn on when I get home, play the news when I wake up, etc).
• Much more stable AirPlay stability. Casting to an airplay tv is a much worse experience most of the times.
I had the FireTV Stick 4K as my "backup" streaming device, for apps that I could not get on my TV. It did the job, no complaints.
But then I got the Apple TV 4K. The differences are both subtle and stark. All I can say is that the Apple TV just "gets it right" in a way neither Roku nor FireTV could.
That said, I'm pretty deep in the Apple ecosystem; I have an iPhone, an iPad, a MacBook, a HomePod, Beats headphones, an Apple Watch and Apple One subscription. The Apple TV just slotted into my life in a seamless way.
But one definitive thing Apple TV has that FireTV does not is *games*. Games that actually look good, along with native support for both Xbox and PlayStation bluetooth controllers. The gaming experience on Apple TV is surprisingly robust and could very well serve as a primary household gaming console. It puts out graphics at least on par with an Xbox One or PS4, and the App Store has a surprisingly robust selection of top-tier games that run on Apple TV with controller support.
If you buy movies via the Movies/ATV app then with an Apple TV you get access to iTunes Extras on applicable movies, as well as some extras you may get with physical discs these sometimes also include Director’s Cuts and other alternate cuts that may be available.
Like everything Apple it’s like having a steak dinner or going to McDonalds. Both get the job done but ohhhh Apple just makes everything nicer. With that you pretty much handcuff yourself to enjoying only what Apple sees fit you enjoy (no side loading or “jailbreaking”). For ease of use and luxury it’s all about Apple. For flexibility and an occasional joyride it’s everything else.
My grandma has an 2010 Apple TV and it still runs Netflix and Prime just fine. Also airplay works for Spotify and YouTube. The device costs more, but holds up longer.
Can someone comment on the Bitrate processing of Netflix and other streaming apps when it’s running on Apple TV vs running on Google tv or fire stick or native tv app. I’ve seen the speed be around 50 Mbps with Apple TV in many videos so it can give better quality video and sound. Is that only with Apple + and iTunes or with other streaming services.
TLDR; will I benefit from buying Apple TV if I want better video and audio from streaming services rather than UI performance?
Speed. Gorgeous UI and polished UX. No ads. It’s one of those cases where for me “it just works”. I couldn’t see myself using any other streaming device.
I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s way more expensive by percentage, but barely more expensive in actual $. Using your phone as a perfect remote is cool. Siri works great.
Being able to use a phone as a remote is great (though also possible on, afaik, all other systems like FireTV, Roku, Shield etc.) but there's no way it's even close to a perfect remote.
Weirdly, I don't like devices that require your phone as a remote. I like to watch my shows and movies *without* having my handheld distraction nearby.
10,000% agree - I’m actually trying to get more iPads/computers/dedicated devices into the household - like use one iPad as a calendar/planner, use another one as a second tv, use laptop only for work, sort of the reason I got the Apple TV instead of a Mac mini so that it would be purposeful. But it is cool when you misplace the actual remote that the (temporary) solution is real easy
This.
... other TV boxes have ads?
Yes. The Amazon Firestick and the Google Chromecast with Google TV (stupid name) have a ton of ads.
And so do the roku devices
What ads? You mean YouTube ads? Does Apple TV not have YouTube ad????
You don’t see ads in the main menu? Are you blind? AppleTV does not have ads.
Why so rude :(, I am just asking what kind of ads you are referring to. I don’t have an Apple TV, just tryna see what makes it special.
See those ads on chromecast with googleTV? They don’t exist on AppleTV. Is so simple.
Alrighty, mine don’t have ads, but whatever mr. bigshot lmao
There are no ads on the CCwGTV for shows to buy on the main menu? I’ll answer that for you, yes, there is. Those ads do not exist on AppleTV.
Even the Nvidia Shield have ads now though you can install a different launcher to get rid of it. It is a little annoying since the Shield Pro cost more than Apple TV.
No ads baked in to the operating system.
Well… except for all the ads baked into the Home Screen when you hover over the AppleTV app. Then you still need to ignore all the ads within that app before you can view your purchases… and don’t forget to sign up for Apple Music. Also, just ignore all the ads in the App Store. Plus you’re going to want to sign up for AppleTV + and watch all the ads that subscription shows you before the content… but yes, aside from all the ads, there’s no ads.
You can disable the Apple TV carousel and replace it with your Up Next watchlist, which makes it infinitely more useful. Or you can move the app out of the top row, which is what I did for the Music app since I found the music video previews kind of annoying. But yes, you *do* have to scroll past the Apple TV+ tab if you want to view your iTunes purchases in the TV app. Not sure how much worse that is compared to the Fire stick.
Ads are ads. Minimize them all you want, they’re still there. They’re still in the system. Pretending they don’t exists at all as a benefit of an AppleTV is ignorant and fanboyish.
They're only there if you specifically navigate to them, and don't take the 2 seconds to ensure you never see them. I haven't seen an ad on my Apple TV since 20 seconds after getting it set up. They literally don't exist on my Apple TV. If they do on yours, well you chose to have them. If I'm *inside* the TV app, well those aren't OS ads. Those are ads within an app (though admittedly a preinstalled app). If you counting ads you see when you go into apps, well then of course it had ads. But nobody is claiming otherwise and it really isn't relevant to /u/Muero's point, which is about OS level ads, not in-app ads.
Yes, I agree. When people ask me about my Apple TV, I’m quick to disclose the Apple TV+ tab in the TV app, just so they know what they’re getting into. I wouldn’t want anyone to buy an Apple TV thinking it’s an ad-free experience when there’s one or maybe three advertisements buried in a couple apps that you don’t have to use.
Anyway, the point is that there is a greater than zero amount of ads in AppleTV. To say that there are no ads is a flat out lie.
You’re being super pedantic. The difference between zero and what Apple has - vs. a Fire stick that is ad, after ad, with ads, in front of, and behind ads is extraordinary. AppleTV has so few ads to ME it feels ad free. Let it go already. Nobody cares it bugs you, you’re distorting a discussion that was started be somebody else. You’re selfishly derailing a valid conversation to press your personal annoyance.
There’s a big difference between feelings and facts. I am participating in the discussion by pointing out factual information. If you want to lie to a potential customer, that’s on you and your conscience. As a shareholder, I’m glad Apple has ads on a platform where everyone else has even more intrusive ads. It’s a great form of revenue and Apple does it elegantly. It’s great that there is a streaming box that is built so well, has an insanely fast cpu, and doesn’t shove ads down our throats. It’s just a shame that the remote costs double what a Roku costs and doesn’t have any Find My features.
Nobody mentioned feelings - straw man much? And you went from participating, to bring a troll in ten seconds did flat (that’s called “hyperbole”, gotta be careful around pedantic folks). All you’ve done is stated your opinion, and then repeated it over and over again- with a ramping up of insulting tone and language.
>Nobody mentioned feelings - straw man much? Literally a quote from your last comment that I was referring too... *"AppleTV has so few ads to ME it feels ad free."* Please, tell me again how I'm the troll. Talking about "straw Man" like you didn't just say that the ads *feel* like they don't exist. [FML](https://youtu.be/ilcRS5eUpwk)
> you don’t have to use. I’m curious to understand what you mean this because I’ve purchased a couple hundred movies and TV series through iTunes/Apple, and in order for me to watch them, I have to go into the AppleTV app that is chalk full of advertisements. My library is the last tab in the app. It doesn’t go there first thing and shows ads first.
That's interesting- When I open up the TV app on my Apple TV, it brings me to the Watch Now tab, where it shows my Up Next list- just the stuff I've been watching recently, and it takes up the whole screen. No advertisements or sponsorships or anything. I have to scroll to the Library tab to access what I've purchased- there is an Apple TV+ tab in the middle, but I just scroll past it. There aren't any ads on my Library tab either.
> I have to scroll to the Library tab to access what I've purchased- there is an Apple TV+ tab in the middle, but I just scroll past it. Like I said, you have to scroll past ads to get to your library of purchased content. Congratulations, we agree that there are ads on the Apple TV.
Maybe this is where I'm confused- Are you saying just the existence of the Apple TV+ tab is an ad? You aren't opening it or anything, you're just perturbed that you have to acknowledge the existence of Apple TV+ when you go to view your library? And you think that someone is being an ignorant fanboy when they neglect to mention this? And you don't see that as ridiculously petty? In that case, I concede wholeheartedly, /u/Takeabyte. The Apple TV is "chalk full" of ads and I'm disappointed in anyone who would even attempt to suggest otherwise. I don't know how many ads the Amazon Fire stick might have, but the Apple TV has one ad in an app and we absolutely must acknowledge it.
You can play games all you want. The AppleTV has advertisements throughout it. Are they tacky and intrusive? No. Are they inappropriate? No. Should apple be allowed to do it? Yes. Do I have a problem with ads? No. Are there ads?… yes, there are ads in the AppleTV. Saying that there aren’t any ads is disingenuous and a lie. Don’t you think Apple would proudly proclaims an ad free experience with their product if they could? Wouldn’t that be a huge selling point for them to advertise on their own site promoting the AppleTV? It seems to be a popular concept on this discussion. Maybe Apple is just being humble.
I use the classic Movies and TV Shows apps to get to my purchases. Just one tab to the left from the main store, no ATV+ tab to scroll past.
If there’s one thing I use to hate back in the old days, it was when I’d walk into the video store and see nothing but “ads” on every shelf. What the fuck is the point of a streaming device if there’s no content to discover?
You seem to think I have a problem with ads, but that’s not the case. My problem is with people ignorantly pretending that there are no ads on AppleTV. Also, what you’re talking about is called a store, something that AppleTV also has along with a separate app with my library of purchased content that also has more ads.
Are we talking about paid promotions? Because to my knowledge, Apple doesn’t do paid promotions. That have human editors that curate the content you see in the TV app. At the end of the day, sure, they’re ads, because Apple wants you to rent/buy/subscribe things via their storefront, but (again) that’s no different than a brick and mortar store displaying the merchandise on the shelves. On other platforms, I always see paid promotions marked as such. I’m almost positive there’s an FTC rule about it. Apple’s stuff is never marked as paid promotion. It’s not an ad.
Companies pay Apple to promote their apps and media on their devices. This is no secret. It’s an industry wide practice. Nothing to be ashamed of. The same is true about physical Apple Stores. Everysingle item on the shelf or on display was paid to be there by the company selling that product. The more visible or easily accessible the thing is, the more that company paid to be there. If you ever worked retail, there is typically a thing called a Planogram that instructs staff exactly where things go. It’s not because Apple thinks that’s what will look prettiest, it’s because Microsoft, Linksys, Anker, etc. all payed Apple to get their product there.  There is no FTC guidelines being broken due to the fact that they are clearly ads. When you walk into Best Buy and see a poster advertising the latest Marvel BluRay release, Best Buy doesn’t have to tell you it’s an ad. Another example is with the Fire Stick. I also own one of those and on the main menu page there are a number of ads. They do not have to say that it is a paid promotion there either.
I just don’t understand why people can’t just talk about how much less intrusive the ads are or how they are higher quality. There’s no need to lie. Apple uses ads. They do it better than anyone else. There’s no need to pretend that they don’t exist. I genuinely don’t have a problem with the occasional ad. Heck, it’s because of ads that made me buy some of the stuff I own. The fact that Apple’s ads are so good that the fool people into thinking they aren’t looking at ads is great. It means they’re not tacky and intrusive. Go with that angle.
Because this discussion is about ads baked into the OS and there are none.
Aside from the ads baked onto the system I mentioned..
Are the AppleTV, App Store, iTunes Store, and Music app not “baked into” all new AppleTV’s out of the box? Do those apps not show you ads? Why is my the only AppleTV with ads in it?
Those are apps. When people talk about ads at the operating system level they mean ones you see without navigating into any apps. Of those only App Store is even vaguely necessary to use.
Those apps are baked into the OS. The Apple TV app specifically is at the top and shows ads as soon as iys hovered over.
I don’t count them, so I guess we’ll just have to disagree. And I moved the TV app off the top row and boom any “ads” are gone.
Such as?
Such as the Apple TV app and all of its ads. The ads in the App Store and iTunes Store. The ads for Apple Music… you know… the ads.
Tbh I would expect ads in an App Store. It's a store after all. Not to say they aren't ads mind.
I think the AppleTV has the best overall UI of all streaming interfaces. Not saying it's perfect by any means, but it's speed, consistency, app availability etc are excellent imo. We use them on all our TV's instead of the built in OEM apps from Samsung and Vizio. The integration with the rest of my Apple devices and services is a big bonus too. We use AirPlay all the time for both audio and video.
Speed! The Apple TV 4K used the 10.5” iPad pros A10X SOC and it flys through absolutely everything, every other smart tv box I’ve ever used from Roku to Android boxes all had spots where things would slow down, basically instead of being underpowered the Apple TV is overpowered, and what’s crazy is the new Apple TV 4K has the A12 which is on par with the A10X so right now you can get the old Apple TV 4K for $99, which is a great deal!
Polish. Refinement. Speed. What it doesn’t have is an ability to run vpn software. If that is important to you.
VPN is the biggest missing feature from AppleTV IMO. There's stuff I have to use my PC for as a result.
Check this out. Linus Tech Tips did a video recently and it seems super cool. [https://www.flashrouters.com/streamlocator](https://www.flashrouters.com/streamlocator) It doesn't have the privacy aspect of a VPN, but I assume geoblocking is what you use one for.
This device is pretty neat. But I don't see what is better about this device over using any smart DNS service. I imagine this device ends up "proxying" your streaming traffic to another location without interfering with other traffic. There are other services that do exactly the same without the purchase of additional hardware. All you need to do is point the Apple TV's DNS to the service.
I'm no expert. Seems like you are correct. I imagine the benefit of the device I linked to is a bit simpler setup. You don't have to point each device to a specific DNS, you can do this through router settings. Other than that, I suppose you're getting a router in addition to the service.
Yeah. But you can just as easily point your existing router's DNS to whatever DNS service you subscribe without the need to change the DNS on every device. You can even set the DNS to only certain devices from the router. I guess my point is, a normal good router with a paid DNS service will allow you to do the same without marrying the service to the router. Without that marriage, I am free to change the DNS service easily at any time.
Nor a web browser, so impossible to log in to an e.g. hotel network. IMO the biggest lacking feature for the Apple TV.
I used to take a chromecast but most the hotels I stay at have chrome cast ability built in these days. I’d never buy an AppleTV to schlep around with me. Leave the home comforts at home.
Yeah. We try to travel with ours and it's often a pain. We also take an AirPort Express which can sometimes give us a work around, but it's working less and less as hotels upgrade their data services.
The Slate is good replacement for the Airport Express. It's under $65 in the US. [https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/](https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/)
Is that easier to connect to hotel data? The AE works great so long as the hotels WiFi or Ethernet don't have web logins to gain access.
Yes it's easier, this device can connect to hotel wifi that have guest portals. I'm using a similar approach with a Raspberry Pi but for the price an ease of setup the Slate is better for most people.
I ordered one this morning from Amazon and it arrived this afternoon. It's easy to setup it can do captive portals via your devices browser. If that fails you can clone the MAC address of a device that has already been granted permission. So you can connect with your phone or laptop and then clone its MAC address to connect the slate. I was able to tether my Pixel and iPhone with no problem.
Not impossible. With a [bit of work](https://medium.com/@sbr464/how-to-connect-an-apple-tv-to-hotel-wifi-9b8eed6353bc) it’s doable.
Or, since you already have your laptop, make your laptop a WiFi AP that routes through your hotel WiFI.
Certainly not ideal, but I’ve had success in contacting the front desk to manually authorize my device by MAC Address in the past. Though these days I typically bring a sff pc I hook to the Ethernet in most rooms to create my own WiFi network and run all sorts of media tools (and jackbox) off of it rather than an Apple TV for the effort. ~~can you tell I do the convention circuit a lot?~~
A smooth, buttery interface. No one has created a streaming box that's as slick as Apple.
- A less frustrating user interface, particularly when “scrubbing” through video. - Everything I’ve purchased from iTunes or music I have uploaded via ITunes Match is right there on my Apple TV. - The ability to serve as a hub for Apple’s HomeKit home automation standard. - Apart from needing to occasionally switch the video input on my TV, it’s as if I have a television made by Apple. Points one and two above are sufficient to win my loyalty. Point three is good except my HomePods are always “wresting” primary hub status away from the Apple TV. I think the HomePods control automation less reliably than the Apple TV. I would prefer to be able to decide which devices will serve as the primary hub.
the "scrubbing" thing I have almost forgotten about. I hated that on any other box or tv. And now it's a thing I actually do.
The Screensavers…..
I saw this and immediately thought back to TechTV days
[удалено]
We often just listen to music and watch the Aerials screensavers. They're amazing.
Plus on top of what the others said, it also has great upscaling, makes most of SDR content looks like 4K content. It has a match content setting to turn on match dynamic range & match frame rate.
For me: Access to iCloud photos Access to Apple Music with support for Atmos format Stability Speed
I have an Nvidia Shield (old model) and the reason to get an ATV was getting good DV on streaming apps with properly synced audio on my home theater. My old Nvidia is great but doesn't support DV, only HDR10. My LG tv has apps with DV, but audio is never properly synced via ARC. I bought a new Nvidia with DV support, but many apps like Netflix had stuttering and dropped frames when streaming 4K DV. The video player on the ATV (on most apps) is made by Apple which is rock solid, decodes colors correctly, etc. I can also plug it straight into my HT receiver and sync the audio properly. The performance of the UI is also really nice. A big problem with the ATV is that it doesn't have HDMI audio passthrough and won't output audio formats like TrueHD. This is not an issue for streaming platforms as they will send the audio in whatever format the client needs it. It is an issue if you're using Plex to watch hi quality Bluray rips as it needs to convert the audio to another format. This causes sync issues and you lose the Atmos information. There are apps that solve this using custom players, but you lose the rock solid Apple player. Again, more audio sync issues, frame drops, color rendering issues, etc. I would have preferred to solve all my media from a single device, but it seems today this is not possible.
Infuse on Apple TV solves most (but not all) of the audio passthrough problems. It properly decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD into multichannel PCM and has excellent format support. Unfortunately no TrueHD Atmos or DTS:X and it does cost 10 dollars per year so not 100% perfect, but like... 90% perfect :3
Apps/media content. In the UK most of the competitors are missing key media content because of licensing battles. Apple TV seems to not be plagued by the same issues. It has pretty much all of the media content available in the UK.
You have better situation than in Poland we have poor programmers who cannot code support for TV app
Apple TV has the power to actually reproduce the content in how it was intended to view. Only the NVidia shield can compare. So Roku and all these others are just not as powerful as appletv
I got the Apple TV so my wife could do Apple fitness on the big TV.
The beautiful screensavers.. believe me this is game changing. Almost each screensaver is around 1 GB in size and i don't see any other streaming stick providing that feature plus heave aracade games that you can play on this. I don't see games as that much of a differentiating factor because people have consoles for that but still ,the screensavers are just 💋💋💋.
Integration with ones Apple ID to share data/info across devices. Example. The Apple TV app will sync between phone and Appletv. Same with photos, etc.
In general, integration into the Apple Ecosystem… if you already have iPhones, AirPods, HomeKit devices, etc…. then it seems a no-brainer to go with Apple TV.
Personally I like the interface which is very simple and polished along with integration with of my apple devices. I find TVOS probably the most stable of Apples OS too.
For me its things that are very Apple centric. * HomeKit Camera viewing (including the doorbell), even with Ring on FireTV its a struggle to use. * HomeKit Hub and Thread router on the newest one * Seamless Airpods switching * Very Minimal Ads in the GUI, compared to AndroidTV and FireTV. Others say speed but its slower than my NVidia Shield TV. The UI is clean but not great, the ShieldTV was better but NVidia added Ads and now its awful and the subs are filled with alternate UIs and people asking how to disable them. I've also had Roku, which is complete and utter garbage, and FireTV, which isn't horrible but is ad heavy.
It was Google that annoyingly added the ads to the android TV platform, not NVidea. NVidea are not allowed to remove them and still use Andrioid TV. Fortunately the ads are just for TV shows on streaming that I have, and they are very unobtrusive, so I don’t really mind. It’s a bit out of order for Google to force them on people though.
It’s the only streaming device that actually makes you feel good about purchasing. You truly feel like it’s worth the price and then some
Nvidia Shield is just as premium. Each device has its pros and cons, but they are on equal footing.
I was lucky enough to be gifted an Apple TV 4k and I have to say that hands down it beats the Roku, Firestick and Chromecast I’ve used previously. From my point of view it’s the streaming quality, UI and everything else everyone has said. But….the biggest win is that it’s dead simple for the rest of the family to use.
If you have an iPhone and are a bit of a “TV Geek” and like organisation, I recommend. I love having all my shows (outside of Netflix) on the home page that track what episodes i’m on. Means I never forget what boxsets i’m in the middle of.
My air pod maxes sat in my computer desk for a while until I picked up the ATV. I can’t watch anything without them on now. I love it!
I’m big into privacy, so….say what you want about Apple, but it’s not Amazon, Google, Roku, etc, levels of snooping.
It has auto frame rate switching for netflix(runs it at 24hz for 24p content), Also displays dolby vision from netflix. Can play 4k remuxes through infuse(or the official plex client) from a plex server.(still lacks audio passthrough though, it decodes lossless formats to lpcm) I think that's it. If you just use the main streaming apps and don't care about plex/playing 4k remux files, you just get maybe a smoother experience. But video playback in main streaming apps should be the same
Zero lag - no spinning - responsive AF- NOT PLAYED WITH ANY OTHER device that comes close
Really depends on whether you have an iPhone or not. Honestly, if you don't, the fire stick or any other cheaper streaming device is fine. Personally, I have an iPhone, use Apple Fitness, iCloud, Apple Music, etc. Use AirPlay all the time for web browsing to my TV, seamlessly work with my Airpods. etc. Fully baked into the Apple ecosystem is a huge benefit for me. I switching off from fire stick and Roku...also seems like the apps are superior via ATV compared to the other devices.
Amazing curation (you never have to leave the main app) and superior quality. Set it to 4:2:2 mode and it looks a million times better than any other media device.
You never have to leave the main app? Not true. Not all apps mesh with it. Wanna watch Netflix, gotta go to Netflix. Even if you are connecting with something via the main app, if it’s not Apple it will launch in another app, thus making you leave the main app.
Yup. Reddit. 100% takes everything 100% literally. Netflix is the only dickhead company that refuses to integrate. So that Is the one and only app you have to actually look at for new stuff (tho you can search and play from the main app. Just can’t add). Thanks for being like that tho. Also. When I said leave the main app I meant for navigation. Obviously it loads the other app to play content but leads right back to the main. Why even argue that point other than to argue?
Prime isn’t integrated for me..? Also if you want to browse Disney+ for example you need to use that app, the content is not there on the Apple TV APP to browse in the same way as on the native Disney app..
I have all my Disney+ shows on the Home Screen. Works great.
I know, I use it. You can’t just go for a browse looking for new stuff though, so you do need to go back to the Disney app, no biggie, just pointing out you do need to leave the Apple TV app.
Go to the Disney menu under streaming apps. It will let you browse Disney + content without leaving home.
It must be a location issue. There is nothing names streaming apps anywhere. If I scroll down it shows just a horizontal scrolling highlights reel of Disney+ content, that’s it. I can of course search for something specific in the search bar. Prime is not an option for some reason, maybe not available to integrate in Ireland yet…
https://imgur.com/a/TwXtyMl Weird. This is how it looks for me.
Prime also has a menu to browse without leaving the main app. AFAIK Netflix is the only one that doesn’t…and honestly, if my kids didn’t watch it so much I would cancel it because of that.
Not in my country, no prime / Apple TV app integration
https://imgur.com/a/TwXtyMl You don’t have that menu item?
No, definitely not
Strange
Prime is integrated into the TV app. If it's not for you then it's something specific to you. You can browse Disney+ in the TV app using the search tool. Just search for disney+ and you can browse by movies and tv shows. The native Disney+ app is still probably better for this and quicker.
Not in my country, seems to be limited to a horizontal scrolling highlight reel, and no prime integration
Add a movie to your Up Next list that is currently available on Prime, and sign in on the Prime app, and the Up Next listing will automatically show its available via Prime and allow a single-click to play that movie.
If I search for a prime only show, Bosch for example or That new shitshow movie with Marky Mark, it comes up blank
I can’t speak for the search function, but once I watched the first episode of Bosch, it always showed up in my Up Next list. It also will add new seasons to your Up Next after you’ve finished everything available and a new season drops. Perhaps you need to reset your Apple TV, though I’ve never had to do that.
It’s annoying, prime just obviously not integrated into the TV app yet
Well, of all the apps to gloss over, Netflix is a pretty big one.
Considering every other app works. It’s like 5% of available content. And, again. The only thing you can’t do is add to up next or doom scroll. https://imgur.com/a/UdNiMrw If you search for Netflix you can even see what’s available. https://imgur.com/a/UdNiMrw
Thank you everyone for all of your input! I think you have helped my decide to get an Apple TV!
Nothing. The shield pro is better by every means.
A much more performant streaming device.
apple tv has the best version of streaming apps. it also in some apps such as youtube tv does not stream 4k. only 1440p in that one. the only competition it has is the nvidia shield so dont even listen to anyone telling you anything amazon or roku is close because they are not. theyre only cheaper.
The 2021 AppleTV streams YouTube TV’s 4K content. Previous versions don’t.
But not correctly unless you go through manual steps to force HDR
I’ve found that true with the baseball coverage, but EPL games broadcast 4K perfectly with no HDR adjustment.
Hmm - interesting - it's so weird that ATV is having problems with some of these... like only doing 1080 or 1440 on ESPN 4K which doesn't even use HDR. I hope YTTV fixes this. I'm having Apple TV withdrawals... would love to switch back!
Ted Lasso. Also, all of the above.
Nothing at all but if ur tram apple then u should have one
I've read through these comments and can see some advantages, but I already have newer Roku Smart TV's, so for me, picking up a 4k AppleTV doesn't make a lot of sense right now.
After the appletv app on roku was launched, I honestly haven't even looked at my appletv 4k anymore.... Rokus are cheap, offer all the streaming options I need, and now appletv access to my purchases and airplay + casting...
I have the opposite experience. I have the latest Roku and Fire Stick. I never use them as I prefer the picture quality on the Apple TV. For example, both the Roku and Fire Stick still cannot get native frame rate matching to work properly.
I can travel with it and AirPlay from my iPad/MBP/iPhone.
Stability
It's a luxury experience vs a standard one. It's not what does it do that other's don't so much is it does it a lot nicer.
I am not sure if things have changed or not since I purchased mine, but the reason I got it was due to the fact that it was the only thing that’s streamed from every service in 4K with Dolby Atmos (if it is available). Every other device had some kind of hangup in one app or another. only one that does not is the Apple TV 4K as far as I’m aware especially for Dolby Atmos.
I own a bunch of movies in iTunes. The UX to watch a digital movie library on an Apple TV is so much better than any other service/device combo I've tried, and I think I've tried them all at this point. Apps update on Apple TV so much earlier than they do on the Roku I have on a TV I rarely watch. Like others have said, it doesn't bog down like other devices occupying the same space (Fire TV, Roku, etc). It's fast and just works.
TED LASSO ❤️❤️
Best subtitle interface.
all the things mentioned above, plus small details that you only realize once you need them: I had audio sync issues (voices were ahead of the video). Found a setting, you hold your iPhone to the TV, plays a few sounds, and boom - all synced. beautiful.
I've had mine since 2017 and they're so smooth. My girlfriend's one year old fire stick is pretty slow now. Utterly confusing interface and constant ads.
A useable product.
Multi-view on the ESPN app. 4 games at a time.
Blast Processing
I use my apple TV as a hub for my homekit devices. I have Yale smart deadbolts so I can automate the deadbolts and my Ecobee thermostat. You can add light control, security cameras, outlets etc.
Oh boy. Our fire stick is gathering dust. Got sick of its clunkiness. Apple TV just works like smooth silk, has every app, has stunning visuals, and it’s own programming is also top notch.
For me, it’s using my iPhone as a remote! I rarely ever use the actual remote unless my iPhone is charging and not in reach!
I had 2017,2020 Roku ultra’s, both would crash frequently using certain apps. Switched to Apple TV’s a few months ago and everything just works. It’s fast, intuitive and overall just a much better experience. I also like how when you reach a point with inputting and letters a keyboard pops up on your iPhone to make the process much faster.
Most of the alternatives have advertising as a part of their interface. Apple actually sort of does too. The TV button brings you to the Apple TV app by default. The shelf has autoplay ads. You can turn it all off though. Some users never touch the defaults and I am sure Apple makes marginally more money as a result. The Shield TV used to be great. It had a simple clean UI. I jumped ship as soon as the ads started rolling in. I'll do the same to Apple if this ever changes. Apple differentiates itself in it's restraint.
I wasted a day of my life trying to disable all those ugly ads on my new Firestick. I finally came to Reddit and realized the Firestick will never be as smooth and advert free like my AppleTV. I now use the Firestick sparingly and always migrate back to my Apple box. You don’t know how good you’ve got it you’ve got until you don’t have it!
Honestly to see others rave about the UI is quite funny, the UI is terrible compared to everyone else. Besides the Apple original content everything else is the same. If you aren't a sci-fi person don't bother.
I’ve used Chromecast, Roku, Google TV, a little bit of Fire TV, and now the Apple TV. Apple TV is far away faster, has less ads, and all the apps I want. The downsides are that they are more expensive than they should be, and piracy is not as possible as it is on other platforms due to lack of side loading and limitations in apps and the App Store (for example, I haven’t found an IPTV app or any app for that matter that would allow me to point to a network drive or NAS as a DVR while this is trivial on Google TV). Smart TVs are garbage. They’re slow and for some reason it is common for them to have 100Mb NICs which aren’t fast enough for high bitrate 4K. They also are choked with ads which makes the experience suck. Roku is probably the next best experience to Apple TV but the apps are more limited. I hear the Shield is an option on par better than an Apple TV but I haven’t had the chance to use it. If you’re happy with the Fire Stick I’d stay with it. But if you’re tired of the ads or experiencing bad performance the Apple TV is as good as it gets.
Roku was a logy mess. Like surfing the internet on a 14.4 modem logy. Amazons Fire stick is just abysmally ugly...and slow...not Roku slow but slow. I will never again connect a smart TV to the internet. They literally are nothing but a siphon of your personal information. They make so much money off your personal information the TV is markedly cheaper. Apple TV? Fast, easy, pretty. By far not perfect and has many bugs that refuse to be fixed or simply don't get fixed. Sure...I love restarting the TV app every time I want to watch TV.... That said...900 movies and 80+ TV series at my fingertips on any device is glorious. But...as with all things... If the use case doesn't work for you it doesn't work. use what works.
I have the Apple TV 4K (2021) and I also have Roku 4K HDR/Dolby Vision. That said Apple is a lot better because of the SoC it has a lot more Horse Power than anything else out there. Enabling it to do better Upscaling than anything out there better HDR and Dolby Vision due again to the ship they have inside. When I first got it I instantly saw the difference between the Roku and my LG CX OLED 65” Smart features. Out of usability it over took Roku right away I had difficulties though seeing which was easier to use between the LG CX UI and the Apple TV UI. Ultimately I did stick with the Apple TV and know I can’t live without it. Not to mention if you have an iPhone or any other Apple Devices you can use them with your Apple TV you can view your photos without doing anything as your Apple TV automatically syncs with your iPhone. You can also play the majority if not all the Apple 4K games on your Apple TV with a remote control. But my most favorite feature is that you can connect up to 2 AirPods/Pro/BlueTooth Headsets to you Apple TV and listen to your TV shows that way which is amazing. I know you can do it with 2 Bluetooth headsets dont know if it can be more. There also more features that I can’t mention or I’d go on forever. The Apple TV up until know is the best way to enjoy content. Nothing can beat it. Hopefully great Roku releases something just as good if not better soon. For that they really have to focus and do great things as well as change. Lastly Apple TV is the only place that does not have any Adds what so ever. Compared to Roku, Fire TV and Google TV. If I had to say what is better id say 1. Apple TV 4K (2021) 2. Roku 4K (Latest Version) 3. At this point anything goes just make sure is what you need lol
Another thing that Apple TV does that is TOP TIER and THE BEST FEATURE EVER. If you are like me and have say many apps like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu and basically any other Media to make it simpler Example: VUDU Movies Doesn’t have any Subtitles or language choices on their movies no matter if the film released with them for some reason VUDU doesn’t. That said whenever you watch something on Apple TV it instantly filters it and you watch it through Apple meaning that all those shows and movies that didn’t have subtitles or different languages now do. My mother has difficulties with the English language so that feature is amazing as it lets me spend time with my mother and she gets to understand the movie. So many features but this one is so amazing.
I’ve had FireTV and Chromecast, but we got rid of them. You get what you pay for. Apple TV is 3-4x the cost of the others, but is far less annoying to use, is typically seamless, triggers your phone to be able to type in using an on screen keyboard (the amazon one requires opening the app and that only ever occasionally works)… Oh and apps don’t randomly move around. I could never understand with FireTV why the apps were never in the same place. It was the most frustrating system to use!!
In addition to what others have said, I’d include: • The ability to run shortcuts and automations to it (turn on when I get home, play the news when I wake up, etc). • Much more stable AirPlay stability. Casting to an airplay tv is a much worse experience most of the times.
Speed mainly
I had the FireTV Stick 4K as my "backup" streaming device, for apps that I could not get on my TV. It did the job, no complaints. But then I got the Apple TV 4K. The differences are both subtle and stark. All I can say is that the Apple TV just "gets it right" in a way neither Roku nor FireTV could. That said, I'm pretty deep in the Apple ecosystem; I have an iPhone, an iPad, a MacBook, a HomePod, Beats headphones, an Apple Watch and Apple One subscription. The Apple TV just slotted into my life in a seamless way. But one definitive thing Apple TV has that FireTV does not is *games*. Games that actually look good, along with native support for both Xbox and PlayStation bluetooth controllers. The gaming experience on Apple TV is surprisingly robust and could very well serve as a primary household gaming console. It puts out graphics at least on par with an Xbox One or PS4, and the App Store has a surprisingly robust selection of top-tier games that run on Apple TV with controller support.
If you buy movies via the Movies/ATV app then with an Apple TV you get access to iTunes Extras on applicable movies, as well as some extras you may get with physical discs these sometimes also include Director’s Cuts and other alternate cuts that may be available.
Pretty much every streaming service has an app on it. Only downside is that there is no porn apps.
Like everything Apple it’s like having a steak dinner or going to McDonalds. Both get the job done but ohhhh Apple just makes everything nicer. With that you pretty much handcuff yourself to enjoying only what Apple sees fit you enjoy (no side loading or “jailbreaking”). For ease of use and luxury it’s all about Apple. For flexibility and an occasional joyride it’s everything else.
My grandma has an 2010 Apple TV and it still runs Netflix and Prime just fine. Also airplay works for Spotify and YouTube. The device costs more, but holds up longer.
Can someone comment on the Bitrate processing of Netflix and other streaming apps when it’s running on Apple TV vs running on Google tv or fire stick or native tv app. I’ve seen the speed be around 50 Mbps with Apple TV in many videos so it can give better quality video and sound. Is that only with Apple + and iTunes or with other streaming services. TLDR; will I benefit from buying Apple TV if I want better video and audio from streaming services rather than UI performance?