Apple tv

[yankebabie]

Anyone have Apple TV. Can you tell me how it works. Do you love it or hate it? Thinking of cutting the cable cord and looking into my options first.

 

[ceemys]

Love it!!! It is a little box that has tons of apps. hulu +, netflix, disney, etc. Even itunes radio. I can stream from my ipad to the TV so all of us can watch the same program. I can even stream from my phone if watching a youtube video. Best Christmas gift I ever got!

 

[alymae1010]

I have an Apple TV because I wanted to stream HBO Go, and at the time, Directv would only allow this with Apple TV, not Roku (not sure if this has changed). Anyway, I prefer our Roku because they have the Amazon Prime app, which is huge for us. We also don't have any other Apple products, so the interface between them didn't matter to us. I think both are good products, but it really depends on what you plan to stream from (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc).

 

[cschaaf]

We have both AppleTV and Roku and like them both.

There are pros and cons to each:

AppleTV
Pros:
Slicker interface
Apple ecosystem integration
stream from iPad/iPhone
stream from PC using iTunes
Use iOS device as remote

Cons:
Poor remote (but the iOS Remote app makes up for it)
No AmazonPrime

Roku
Pros:
AmazonPrime channel
Much better remote

Cons:
Remote app for iOS is poor
Ugly (IMO) interface
We didn't get the one with the Ethernet port - wish we would have, it's easier to set up when travelling with it

 

[wiigirl]

We have both, I love my Roku better.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We have AppleTv and it is pretty cool. I don't see how it could ever replace having cable/satellite though.

We mostly use it for streaming Netflix and HBO GO. It will also stream music from the computer. It kind of works with my iPhone. For some reason, it will play for a while then quit when using the phone for the AirPlay.

 

[princessfionasmom]

I have apple TV and my whole family loves it. The kids want an apple tv in their rooms instead of cable. We use it for netflix, renting new movie releases thru iTunes, listening to our music library on our surround sound while viewing my 3000 plus photo library on the TV. We also watch HBO go and we airplay from iPad or iPhone if we have something we want everyone to see. I have a sony TV in my bedroom and hate the interface so I rarely use it. My sister has a Roku and wishes she had the apple tv instead even though she claims to hate apple products. The apple store had a deal a few weeks ago where you got a $25 iTunes gift card with the purchase of an apple tv but that's over. The apple store return policy is 14 days so you can always buy it to try it out and return it if you really don't like it.

 

[cschaaf]

We have AppleTv and it is pretty cool. I don't see how it could ever replace having cable/satellite though.

We mostly use it for streaming Netflix and HBO GO. It will also stream music from the computer. It kind of works with my iPhone. For some reason, it will play for a while then quit when using the phone for the AirPlay.

If you are looking to replace cable, a Hulu subscription will go a long way. They show the most 'next day' stuff.

 

[Anna114]

We have AppleTv and it is pretty cool. I don't see how it could ever replace having cable/satellite though.

We mostly use it for streaming Netflix and HBO GO. It will also stream music from the computer. It kind of works with my iPhone. For some reason, it will play for a while then quit when using the phone for the AirPlay.

As I was reading the responses this what kept cropping up in my head. We have 4 Apple TV's so needless to say we love it.. it's certainly not a replacement for my DVR if you are a big TV watcher. If you sit down every so often then it might work. I can't imagine not getting my local news.

One thing my husband did was take an external hard drive and make a server for all of our movies. That works out great! We use it all the time to watch our movies.

 

[Swimalie]

As I was reading the responses this what kept cropping up in my head. We have 4 Apple TV's so needless to say we love it.. it's certainly not a replacement for my DVR if you are a big TV watcher. If you sit down every so often then it might work. I can't imagine not getting my local news.

One thing my husband did was take an external hard drive and make a server for all of our movies. That works out great! We use it all the time to watch our movies.

Same for us. We use it for music during dinner but since we don't subscribe to a movie service, we don't use it to watch tv much. We still have cable tv watching.

We also have an external hard drive for our movies so we access them through the Apple tv. We got ours in Dec and have used it almost daily since but again, for music mostly, not tv watching.

 

[The Princess]

Have apple tv and love it!!!!

 

[aprilchem]

We also have two Apple TVs and love them. However, be forewarned that you cannot use the apps like Disney, Disney Jr., HBO, etc. unless you also subscribe to a cable service. We use it mostly for streaming iTunes content, watching Netflix, and streaming stuff off our iPads (like games) to the TV.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

I just purchased the Apple TV but have the ROKU. I personnally like the Roku better as it has more channel options. However, the Apple TV will let me Airplay from my Ipad, which has enabled me to stream from the couchtuner website so that I can keep current on shows from AMC, TNT and also shows from Showtime (Homeland), HBO (Game of Thrones).

I cut the cable cord 4 years ago and don't miss it at all. Between Netflix, Amazon Prime and Huluplus and now couchtuner, I don't ever need cable again. I also have a HDTV antenna for OTA stations.

 

[Lizzybean]

Love our Apple TV. I prefer it over our smart tv, ps3, and smart Blu-ray for streaming. We have several iPads and iPhones in our house though, so the airplay option is something we love.

 

[ZiPaD3doDAH]

I’ve had an Apple TV for a couple of years now and LOVE IT.

I use it to:

- watch Netflix
- watch movies in my iTunes
- stream photos from my mac photo library
- stream music from my iTunes

There are also many cool apps of services you have to pay extra for such as Hulu, HBO Go, Disney Jr, etc.

Target sometimes list these in their ads with an extra $10-20 giftcard

They had this deal about 2 weeks ago

 

[j2thomason]

I've had Apple TV for several years now. It's one of the best tech purchases I've made in years. We watch Netflix, YouTube and some network tv on it. My favorite thing to watch on it is the Dis Unplugged....never miss an episode!

 

[Praying Colonel]

I have an Apple TV and love it, but our family's in the Apple "walled garden" (Macbooks, iPads, iPhones ) so the integration works really well for us.

Things I like best about it:

--We can take whatever's on our Apple devices and throw it onto our TV through the Apple TV;

--Netflix works really well on Apple TV. Picture seems to have more clarity than when we access Netflix through our BluRay player;

--I can run sound from my iPhone to our sound system via Apple TV while still having the video feed from another source. That allows me to avoid Dick Vitale and other annoying announcers and listen to the audio feed from my local announcer while watching sports on TV;

--Cool screensaver on our TV from the iPhoto feed on our MacBook.

If we didn't have all Apple stuff, I'd probably get a Roku because it has more channels/apps than Apple TV does.

 

[speniner]

We have an Apple TV and use it primarily to stream Netflix. We had a Roku temporarily, but found the signal was not as good as the Apple TV in the same location. The delay was so bad, we returned the Roku.

 

[sunnyday123]

Can someone give me a dumbed down explanation of these different devices? I would really like to dump cable, but would I get channels like HGTV, DIY, etc?

 

[cschaaf]

Okay, here is my crack at it.

Devices:

All of these devices (Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast & certain TVs, DVD players, Gaming systems, etc) have streaming capabilities.

Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast are dedicated devices whereas the DVD players also, obviously, can play DVDs and game systems can play games, etc.

IMO, the dedicated devices work better. I've tried a few TVs with clunky interfaces (Sony and Samsung in particular), two or three DVD players, XBOX360, PS3, and Wii.

I have no experience with Chromecast, so I can't speak to it well.

Channels

As far as content, each device has a number of 'channels' that it supports. Those channels hold the content. Some channels are free for the devices, some are not. Some are available on all streamers, some are not.

For instance, to the best of my knowledge, Hulu and Netflix are available on just about every streaming device you could find. HBOGo is widely available, too.

Other services like Amazon Prime, and provider specific channels like Cinemax, Showtime, A&E, etc are not available on all devices.

If a network does not have their own streaming 'channel', they will often sell their content to another streaming channel provider - typically Hulu or Amazon for current TV shows.

So, in order to determine which device will work best for you, you need to figure out which streaming channel provides the content you are interested in, then find the streaming device that supports those 'channels'.

For the most part, Roku has a wider range than Apple TV. Roku has a ton of 'channels' - most are moderately useful at best, but they do have things like Amazon and A&E that I know of.

Content:

So, the next logical question is - How do I know what channel has my favorite shows? I use http://www.canistream.it/. Takes a bit of clicking around to drill down to what you want, but it's a good resource.

Once you figure out which of those channels have your favorite content, then you need to figure out which streamer supports that channel. Google is probably your best bet there.

Cut cable?

Lastly, as someone said above, I don't think any of these will really let you 'cut the cable cord' unless you are willing to stop watching some things that you currently watch. You can probably find most of the 'big 4' network programs (you can do those over-the-air as well), but the 'smaller' networks (like the ones you mentioned) may not be provided anywhere else.

I have both Roku and AppleTV devices with subscriptions to Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix in the family, and we still end up watching a lot of things through cable (either DVRd, VOD, or Live).

I hope I didn't make it more confusing - ask more questions if you need more help.