Roku vs. Apple TV vs. Amazon Fire?

[belle032]

My fiance and I decided to cut the cable cord! We kept our high-speed internet, but we were only using cable for March Madness and a few other channels. Finally figured out it wasn't worth the extra $60-$75 a month. (But I'll miss you HGTV and Bravo! )

I've heard about all these devices where you can stream from your laptop to the TV, but I'm in the dark about which one to get. They are priced pretty much the same so does it really matter which one I get? We have Hulu and I'll probably get Netflix, but we don't have Amazon Prime so I wonder if Amazon Fire would be pointless. We both have iPhones, but no iPad (yet).

What do ya'll think? Any advice?

 

[dawnhaze]

I own two Apple TVs and a Roku 3... They all do Netflix and Hulu Plus, and as far as other popular services: The Amazon Fire TV doesn't do HBO Go, the Apple TV doesn't do Showtime Anytime, but if you won't have a cable subscriber login, those don't really matter. The Apple TV also doesn't have Amazon Instant Video, but if you don't use that anyway, that's also a non-issue.

Roku is the most versatile and customizable. You can set it up to stream content from your computer or web browser rather easily. There are more 'channels'/apps you can download than I can count.

The Apple TV's best feature is the AirPlay streaming from iOS devices and the wireless screen mirroring on Macs. I believe it also supports AirPlay from iTunes on Windows PCs. It has a selection of pre-installed 'channels'/apps you can't really change manually, but some do get added periodically with software updates.

I don't have an Amazon Fire TV, but I've heard that the voice search and parental controls (FreeTime is pretty good on most Amazon devices) are both useful features. It's also supposed to support more games, if that's something you'd want. There's an app store for the device so I'd imagine there will be a good-sized large library of apps/'channels' for it eventually, but the selection isn't as extensive as Roku's yet.

 

[Skywise]

If your fiance has an XBox 360 or PS3 (or better) you pretty much have all the functionality you'll get from laptop streaming without needing the laptop and can play straight on the TV.

They all offer Netflix, Amazon on Demand, Hulu Plus, etc;

You might also look at a Roku. Apple TV is good for streaming off of iTunes and helps if you're already part of the Apple "ecosystem" (which it sounds like you are) but it doesn't offer all the streaming services like the others. On the other hand the others won't stream off of iTunes!

 

[pat fan]

Do you live where you can get local channels with an antenna? We do not, sadly. The Roku has a channel called "nowhere tv" and we get Boston news on the hour live. No commercials, just traffic cam (we have come to call it the traffic cam news and quite watching for an accident to happen as they are doing construction!). We can watch our actual local news on the laptop, but when I hook up and stream to the tv, there is no sound.Not sure what I am doing wrong, but the Boston channel seems to work better as it's right on the tv. There are lot's of other area's you can choose from, watch as many as you want! We just normally watch Boston as we are in Ma., although it can be fun watching other areas local news! (these are local shows, so no big-deal anchors, just normal folks!)

 

[belle032]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm torn between the Roku and Apple TV. I like the selection on the Roku and everyone says its super easy to use. But I like Apple TV because we sync it with our iTunes and use it for music and such. Might end up with the Apple TV, especially if the fiance invests in an ipad. I just wanted to make sure there weren't huge differences in them that would sway my opinion one way or another! I guess we can't go wrong with either, maybe we'll just see if we can get a good deal on one and go with that!

 

[abmitch01]

you gave up Bravo? you'd have to pry me away from Real Housewives, lol. It's crazy that they don't stream that

 

[belle032]

you gave up Bravo? you'd have to pry me away from Real Housewives, lol. It's crazy that they don't stream that

Haha I know! Real Housewives of the OC is totally a guilty pleasure! I don't care so much about the others, but it was a huge sacrifice giving that up! Same with House Hunters and Property Virgins. I love judging people's houses! I can't believe they don't stream any of it yet! It can't be too far off...fingers crossed!

 

[willowsnn3]

I came on to post a thread asking about Roku and saw this one. We're thinking about ditching the cable/internet/phone combo we have. I think dd pays around $180 a month
We have an elderly friend who has had Roku for a few months now and she loves it! We visited her yesterday and she gave us a quick demo and it looks great. Only thing is her son installed all of it for her and set it up so I'm wondering if anyone can give more detail as to what we need to set it up?? Would we have to attach antennas to our tvs? And I also saw that there is a Roku 'stick'. Does that have the same capabilities as the other Roku/

OP, sorry, I don't mean to highjack your thread.

 

[pat fan]

You can do it! No antenna's, it runs on wifi or you can plug your internet line right into the Roku if you'd rather. We have two, one plugged, the other wifi.

When setting it up, you really only need to know your wifi password, that's pretty much it.

 

[willowsnn3]

You can do it! No antenna's, it runs on wifi or you can plug your internet line right into the Roku if you'd rather. We have two, one plugged, the other wifi.

When setting it up, you really only need to know your wifi password, that's pretty much it.

Thanks! We're going to look into it. I think my friend said you need the antenna to get local channels?

 

[DisneyFun51464]

I have also been looking into ditching cable and getting Roku or AppleTV. My girls want cell phones but I can't afford them right now. I think if I cut the cable bill it will be possible.

I'm going to continue to read this thread for ideas.

Thanks!

 

[chewysmom]

Just chiming in to say that Roku was really one of the best things we've ever bought. It's awesome! I was afraid our internet speed wouldn't be fast enough to stream b/c we live in the middle of the woods and have super slow internet, but we really have no issues. It may buffer if ds is talking on xbox, I'm on the kindle, dd is on the laptop and dh is trying to watch roku all at the same time . Any other time, it's been fine.

 

[spima3]

DH keeps talking about getting rid of the cable, so I tried a free trial of Netflix. I think we watched it for a few days, but a few problems.

TERRIBLE streaming, constant buffering, it was so annoying to watch. That occurred even with on one else using the internet. Which is not going to work in the long term.

Also, lots there, but after a few days, went through the shows of interest. Also found when DD19 watched slasher type of programs, then those type of shows were more pronounced in the selections. Which no one else was interested in.

I would love to save the money, but unless we can fix the above issues, it isn't going to happen, much to DH's dismay.

 

[HM]

We recently bought an antenna (haven't attached it yet) thinking that we'd be getting rid of cable before long. We want to test out our reception on one tv before deciding. We'll be using our Xbox 360 for contectivitiy to the internet to get Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus when/if we do drop cable.

 

[ArmchairDetective]

DH keeps talking about getting rid of the cable, so I tried a free trial of Netflix. I think we watched it for a few days, but a few problems.

TERRIBLE streaming, constant buffering, it was so annoying to watch. That occurred even with on one else using the internet. Which is not going to work in the long term.

Also, lots there, but after a few days, went through the shows of interest. Also found when DD19 watched slasher type of programs, then those type of shows were more pronounced in the selections. Which no one else was interested in.

I would love to save the money, but unless we can fix the above issues, it isn't going to happen, much to DH's dismay.

THis is typically an ISP issue and not a Netflix issue. We stream 4k Netflix streams in glorious HD with not a hiccup. See here and check you r provider: http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/usa

Also, take advantage of setting up profiles and then each person gets their own queue and there is no bleed of preferences from one profile to another.

Roku is the way to go. We have 3 Roku3 that see daily use. Love those little boxes. The roku stick has less processing power than the roku3. I believe it's on par with the Roku2.

 

[team weasel]

We are Roku users and actually have two in the house. I think they are both second generation. I haven't cut the cable cord just yet because of HBO original programming. If I could figure out how to pay Roku directly for HBO, I would do it.

The only app we have buffering issues with is HBO Go, and that's hit or miss. Based on what I've read, that's not a Roku issue, but an HBO Go issue. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime and haven't had any issues with those.

 

[sherreis]

We just made the switch last month. On our family room TV we have Roku3 and an antenna for local programming. It's been working great. I am missing cable just a little- mainly the sports stuff, but, we're making do. The Roku was simple to hook up.

 

[spima3]

THis is typically an ISP issue and not a Netflix issue. We stream 4k Netflix streams in glorious HD with not a hiccup. See here and check you r provider: http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/usa

Also, take advantage of setting up profiles and then each person gets their own queue and there is no bleed of preferences from one profile to another.

Roku is the way to go. We have 3 Roku3 that see daily use. Love those little boxes. The roku stick has less processing power than the roku3. I believe it's on par with the Roku2.

Ok, so checking Netflix, our provider is rated at the bottom, Verizon. So does that mean we would have to switch providers?

Also, would you need Rokus for every TV in the house? What impact do these have on laptops?

I am assuming we would have to get the best and fastest service available?

 

[ZoeBell]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Roku. Even though it's only my daughter and myself using it and we only watch Netflix and Amazon Prime. I'm starting to venture out to see what other channels are out there. I admit the paying for movies or what not on there is annoying, which is why I've only started to venture out. I don't plan on paying for the channels with costs.

I wish I could cut the cable cord. Or at least go down to basic cable. But for sports purposes I can't.

 

[ArmchairDetective]

Ok, so checking Netflix, our provider is rated at the bottom, Verizon. So does that mean we would have to switch providers?

Also, would you need Rokus for every TV in the house? What impact do these have on laptops?

I am assuming we would have to get the best and fastest service available?

Well, if you want to watch Roku everywhere, yes. We have one in the living room, master, and DD's room. I'm not sure what you mean about impact on laptops. Do you mean bandwidth? We have a dual-band router and I have it configured so that computers are on the 2.4GHz band and all streaming devices (rokus, PS3) are on the 5GHz band.

As far as speed or tier required you can check that here: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

Now, your provider was likely throttling your connection to Netflix as they feel that Netflix should have to pay to use their lines to deliver service (http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/21/technology/verizon-netflix/?iid=EL). I believe Netflix has recently resolved that (http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/28/technology/netflix-verizon/), though. Are you on FIOS or DSL?