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Buying an Apple TV has been one of my best purchases. It's amazing having a box that just lets me get to my content rather than bombarding me with ads. It's al

by mdasen 2y ago

Buying an Apple TV has been one of my best purchases. It's amazing having a box that just lets me get to my content rather than bombarding me with ads. It's also amazing how much better the box is. The UX is fast and responsive given that it has an A15 processor (same as an iPhone 14, but 5 core instead of 6 core). Single-core Geekbench scores are over 10x competitive players like the Google TV Streamer and multicore are around 7x. Given that a Google TV Streamer costs $100 and an Apple TV costs $130, you're getting a lot more value for your money with an Apple TV. Even an Nvidia Shield TV is 1/6th the speed in single-core and 1/5th the speed in multi-core. The Apple TV is a bit over-engineered, but most players are woefully underpowered and it leads to a terrible experience using them. Plus, it's just so nice buying a product where I'm not bombarded by ads and UX anti-patterns trying to confuse me so I part with my money. And I spend less money on the box too. $130 for an Apple TV is a lot less than what I've spent on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast with Google TV, and Tivo Stream devices over the years - hoping one of them would work well.

lytedev 2y ago
Not an Apple TV, but I've had a similar experience with a cheap mini PC velcro'd to the back of my TV. A lot cheaper ($30), less plug'n'play, more software options. Pretty fantastic way to go!
- acureau 2y ago
  Same story here, I've got an old laptop and a wireless keyboard / trackpad combo. I haven't touched the TV interface since I set this up.
- andrewla 2y ago
  What do you use on the PC? Plex? Something else? I'm curious about this because it sounds appealing but I've found the software to be clunky and unreliable and often neglected by the streaming services.
ubermonkey 2y ago
Hard same. An underrated feature of the ATV is that it will reach out and prompt you to use a keyboard on your phone when you need to enter values onscreen, which is WAY better than the character-by-character selection you get with lesser devices. We got our Samsung on a Black Friday sale in 2019. It's capable of being online, and we briefly experimented with using those features -- not the streaming apps, but the ability to have it show art or amusing graphics when idle. Ultimately I decided whatever info that was leaking wasn't worth it, and so I blanked the wifi settings, which had the effect of freezing the "suggested movies" list in amber at that moment. Its job is to show whatever external input we use -- AppleTV most of the time, but there's also a cable box/DVR, a Blu-Ray player, and an Xbox. The whole setup runs through an AV receiver, and the sound comes out of the surround system, so we really only need a dumb panel anyway.
bbatha 2y ago
The apple tv app itself is pretty great as well, its really nice to have something that aggregates my "continue watching" list across most of my streaming apps, now if only netflix would integrate with it.
nerdjon 2y ago
Its funny, I regularly feel like I am under utilizing my Apple TV given its price since it can clearly do more than Disney+, Youtube, and connect to Dolphin. But thinking about it, the 2 I have I am pretty sure I bought in 2018 or something like that and they still work great. Zero pressure to upgrade. (which is likely not what Apple really wants). But it feels wild that my device released in 2017 is still getting software updates.
- mdasen 2y ago
  I think Apple likes having a bit of a premium, low-pressure position. One of the reasons I love Apple products for my relatives who aren't tech savvy is that I can just send them to the Apple Store when they have problems. I know the Apple Store isn't going to give them some high-pressure sales pitch to get them to upgrade an iPad that works fine for them or try to put some scummy anti-virus on their MacBook and charge them for it. Sure, people on HN might know how to avoid that, but I'm so sick of relatives buying a PC and then calling me 6 months later saying "I'm getting notices on my laptop that my computer is at risk and I need to subscribe to anti-virus," because it had a trial of some crappy AV. Windows keeps putting more ads into its system. It's just infuriating trying to help non-tech-savvy relatives in an increasingly user-hostile tech world.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cruffle_duffle 2y ago
I wish they’d just make a normal remote though. They at least got rid of that “glass plate” version for one with more actual buttons but even the new one is still sometimes frustrating to use. I mean yeah it’s our daily driver and we’ve adapted to it but still. Just make a normal remote, Apple. And while I’m at it, make the remote truly genuinely support the same level of “find my device” that something like an air tag has. It needs to beep. And it needs that “hot or cold” positional thing to nail it dead on like it does an air tag. And I guess if I’m going to complain I might as well also bitch about how the YouTube app doesn’t support 4k UHD or whatever the top end video format is. The TV’s YouTube all supports it just fine. But apparently Apple and Google would rather get into a pissing match about video codec support than just work. That all being said my Sony TV’s smart tv stuff isn’t some ad-laden hellscape at all. It’s responsive and fast and gets me where I’m going. Honestly don’t even need the AppleTV. I hear these horror stories about other people’s smarttv’s here and I can’t relate at all. At least on our living room TV. The bedroom Vizio on the other hand… it’s not ad-ridden but it is way underpowered and we only interact with the appletv on it. I think your SmartTV experience will vary wildly depending on the manufacturer and brand.
- nicholasbraker 2y ago
  I can highly recommend getting a remote from https://function101.com/pages/button-remote-for-apple-tv-home https://function101.com/pages/button-remote-for-apple-tv-hom... It's a "normal" remote which works with the Apple TV
brightball 2y ago
I have yet to have a bad experience with Roku. There's a lot of variety depending on what you want, but the UI has always been fast, effective and gets out of my way. Great app selection.
- andrewla 2y ago
  +1 for Roku as a general thing. Fast UI, very broad app support, good cross-app search capabilities. The downside, and I think the trend is unfortunately in this direction, especially given the article's comments about Roku's potential acquisition, is the increasing obtrusiveness of advertising, both for random shit and for Roku's own streaming offering. Hard-coded streaming service buttons on the remote. I want them out of the advertising business and the content business and in the hardware and platform business. At the very least let me buy my way out of the advertising model.

by mdasen 2y ago

lytedev 2y ago

Not an Apple TV, but I've had a similar experience with a cheap mini PC velcro'd to the back of my TV. A lot cheaper ($30), less plug'n'play, more software options. Pretty fantastic way to go!

acureau 2y ago
Same story here, I've got an old laptop and a wireless keyboard / trackpad combo. I haven't touched the TV interface since I set this up.
andrewla 2y ago
What do you use on the PC? Plex? Something else? I'm curious about this because it sounds appealing but I've found the software to be clunky and unreliable and often neglected by the streaming services.

ubermonkey 2y ago

Hard same. An underrated feature of the ATV is that it will reach out and prompt you to use a keyboard on your phone when you need to enter values onscreen, which is WAY better than the character-by-character selection you get with lesser devices. We got our Samsung on a Black Friday sale in 2019. It's capable of being online, and we briefly experimented with using those features -- not the streaming apps, but the ability to have it show art or amusing graphics when idle. Ultimately I decided whatever info that was leaking wasn't worth it, and so I blanked the wifi settings, which had the effect of freezing the "suggested movies" list in amber at that moment. Its job is to show whatever external input we use -- AppleTV most of the time, but there's also a cable box/DVR, a Blu-Ray player, and an Xbox. The whole setup runs through an AV receiver, and the sound comes out of the surround system, so we really only need a dumb panel anyway.

bbatha 2y ago

The apple tv app itself is pretty great as well, its really nice to have something that aggregates my "continue watching" list across most of my streaming apps, now if only netflix would integrate with it.

nerdjon 2y ago

Its funny, I regularly feel like I am under utilizing my Apple TV given its price since it can clearly do more than Disney+, Youtube, and connect to Dolphin. But thinking about it, the 2 I have I am pretty sure I bought in 2018 or something like that and they still work great. Zero pressure to upgrade. (which is likely not what Apple really wants). But it feels wild that my device released in 2017 is still getting software updates.

mdasen 2y ago
I think Apple likes having a bit of a premium, low-pressure position. One of the reasons I love Apple products for my relatives who aren't tech savvy is that I can just send them to the Apple Store when they have problems. I know the Apple Store isn't going to give them some high-pressure sales pitch to get them to upgrade an iPad that works fine for them or try to put some scummy anti-virus on their MacBook and charge them for it. Sure, people on HN might know how to avoid that, but I'm so sick of relatives buying a PC and then calling me 6 months later saying "I'm getting notices on my laptop that my computer is at risk and I need to subscribe to anti-virus," because it had a trial of some crappy AV. Windows keeps putting more ads into its system. It's just infuriating trying to help non-tech-savvy relatives in an increasingly user-hostile tech world.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

cruffle_duffle 2y ago

I wish they’d just make a normal remote though. They at least got rid of that “glass plate” version for one with more actual buttons but even the new one is still sometimes frustrating to use. I mean yeah it’s our daily driver and we’ve adapted to it but still. Just make a normal remote, Apple. And while I’m at it, make the remote truly genuinely support the same level of “find my device” that something like an air tag has. It needs to beep. And it needs that “hot or cold” positional thing to nail it dead on like it does an air tag. And I guess if I’m going to complain I might as well also bitch about how the YouTube app doesn’t support 4k UHD or whatever the top end video format is. The TV’s YouTube all supports it just fine. But apparently Apple and Google would rather get into a pissing match about video codec support than just work. That all being said my Sony TV’s smart tv stuff isn’t some ad-laden hellscape at all. It’s responsive and fast and gets me where I’m going. Honestly don’t even need the AppleTV. I hear these horror stories about other people’s smarttv’s here and I can’t relate at all. At least on our living room TV. The bedroom Vizio on the other hand… it’s not ad-ridden but it is way underpowered and we only interact with the appletv on it. I think your SmartTV experience will vary wildly depending on the manufacturer and brand.

nicholasbraker 2y ago
I can highly recommend getting a remote from https://function101.com/pages/button-remote-for-apple-tv-home https://function101.com/pages/button-remote-for-apple-tv-hom... It's a "normal" remote which works with the Apple TV

brightball 2y ago

I have yet to have a bad experience with Roku. There's a lot of variety depending on what you want, but the UI has always been fast, effective and gets out of my way. Great app selection.

andrewla 2y ago
+1 for Roku as a general thing. Fast UI, very broad app support, good cross-app search capabilities. The downside, and I think the trend is unfortunately in this direction, especially given the article's comments about Roku's potential acquisition, is the increasing obtrusiveness of advertising, both for random shit and for Roku's own streaming offering. Hard-coded streaming service buttons on the remote. I want them out of the advertising business and the content business and in the hardware and platform business. At the very least let me buy my way out of the advertising model.