Joseph Rosensteel has an outsider but savvy perspective on the updates and technology around Apple TV. Definitely a worthwhile read. I’ve experienced a lot of this frustration myself — I have a large library of things bought through iTunes, I like the interface of the Apple TV (though I liked the old one a little better), and Airplay is handy, so I want to love the Apple TV. The market is so bad right now that most review sites like Wirecutter recommend Roku, which for me came with a branded remote button for a service that is out of business (Rdio) and has an interface that feels DOS-like.
And surprisingly, the TV app, while available on iOS, is not available on the Mac. Wha what? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just like the lightning port…..
There are many issues when it comes to alt tv options. Whether it’s apple, roku, or chromecast (which I own). Becoming a cord cutter is great for people who do not watch much tv or very selective programming and certainly limited sports. With programs like Apple tv or Google play, I can’t see myself paying per episode or season pass. It’s too expensive. And your stuck in their eco system which especially apple, set many restrictions on how you can use what you bought.
With hbo you get to pay for access to all the network programming. Cbs is starting this as well but it’s still limited. Until it’s proven you can purchase tv channel packages (commercial free or very limited), especially for me, sports, it’s still cheaper for me to stick to Directv and use my chromecast to get content from my devices to a tv.
I’ve tried Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick (amongst others) – but my current favourite is the NVIDIA SHIELD
:-\
While Roku’s interface may be a bit on the cartoony side, it still offers a really solid experience with support for all the most important content providers. Other boxes are always missing one or two of the main ones. Roku seems to have everything, except of course iTunes, coupled with a really solid experience.
I feel creepy saying this but the Fire-stick is cumbersome but seem to working pretty ok.
It’s not for the easily frustrated, and you will lose a week playing with all the apps. But one app in-particular is hacking the system, call the kodi app. I believe its torrent based. I have been able to find movies, tv shows, sports and live tv. In that order movies and tv shows are super easy to find and almost always works 99.9% will sports and live tv comes in about 95%.
I don’t have experience with the others so I can’t compare. And I’m coder so my threshold for pain (meaning trying things to make it work) is really unrealistic so it’s hard to recommend.
I have both, actually 3 devices. Apple TV 3rd and 4th and Roku. Roku has one great feature – the headphone jack for personal viewing late at night, otherwise it’s very dated. I will be swapping out the Apple TV 3rd gen for Roku. The Apple TV 4th gen is just a weak upgrade from Apple. It needs to be rebooted at least once a week. The interface is lively / jumpy. Other than MLB, it gives me all the network news I need, iTunes plus Netflix and a few other pay services. Apple TV is especially handy if you have an iPhone or iPad with AirPlay a cool feature that can be frustrating when it doesn’t work.
Roku’s interface is DOS-like, meaning it’s clean and fast? I haven’t tried Chromecast, but it feels faster than Apple TV and it’s light years ahead of any builtin “Smart” TV interface.
I’m trying to un-apple myself and go back to Win10/xbox, but I find my massive iTunes collection keeps me coming back. Is there any provision anywhere/somewhere/some how that will allow me to transfer my movie entitlements from iTunes? I want to do this legally. I know I can make copies, but prefer the up-n-up.