Why Buy an Apple TV?

[Hansana]

Hello Lads.
What can you do with an Apple TV? Never had one.

 

[kch50428]

re:

Apple TV - Apple

 

[pkcable]

re:

Well have you had anything similar? Roku, Google TV, Chomecast, Smart TV, Amazon Fire Stick? Apple TV is pretty much Apple's version of it, HOWEVER because it's Apple it integrates very well with the Apple ecosystem. For example anything on your iPhone, iPad or Mac computer can be displayed on your TV with the Apple TV. Other than that is has channels you can watch most on demand content, BUT some live content, in particular if you have the lastest generation Apple TV and you subscribe to one of the streaming services DirecTV Go, or SlingTV.

 

[Hansana]

Re:

Apple TV - Apple

Thanks for that. I have a smart tv that provides me with some of those apps like Netflix you tube and stuff. Hmm maybe l get a second hand one just to try it out.

 

[Jeroen7]

I think the 3rd generation apple tv is still sold at some places. It's pretty cheap nowadays.
You don't have all the new siri feature and apps that the latest generation has, but it can give you a nice id of how it works.

 

[Michelle Haag]

I have the latest version Apple TV. I use it for Netflix, Hulu, CW, Youtube, and Beachbody On Demand primarily. I also stream shows from my Macbook Pro to watch on the TV. The kids sometimes use Dailymotion or other apps.

 

[sleepngbear]

Seriously thinking of grabbing one of these soon, with the intent of hopefully dumping my increasingly expensive cable. We watch a lot of old reruns (Seinfeld!!), some HBO and Showtime series, some live sports (NHL, college football), some news and weather, not a whole lot of first-run stuff, and basically no network or local junk. If we can be readonly sure ATV will satisfy our viewing needs and not need cable, we're in.


* Hi, Michelle! *

* Hi, Rich!! *

 

[pkcable]

I have the latest version Apple TV. I use it for Netflix, Hulu, CW, Youtube, and Beachbody On Demand primarily. I also stream shows from my Macbook Pro to watch on the TV. The kids sometimes use Dailymotion or other apps.

Still rocking a 3rd Gen here and loving it! AND I just got a Xaiomi Mi Box too!

Seriously thinking of grabbing one of these soon, with the intent of hopefully dumping my increasingly expensive cable. We watch a lot of old reruns (Seinfeld!!), some HBO and Showtime series, some live sports (NHL, college football), some news and weather, not a whole lot of first-run stuff, and basically no network or local junk. If we can be readonly sure ATV will satisfy our viewing needs and not need cable, we're in.


* Hi, Michelle! *

* Hi, Rich!! *

Hey Ed! Have you looked at the Xaiomi Mi Box yet? It's REAL cool, and besides being a full Android TV box it has a built in Google Chromecast. It also supports 4k! And a really cool program called Kodi can be downloaded RIGHT from the Google Play store!

 

[pwrof3]

Having recently sold my Apple TV, I would make sure you really need one first.
If you have cable or satellite hooked up to your main TV, then there isn't much for the Apple TV to do other than be a place to showcase photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad, or play a game, if that's your thing.

It basically hooks up to the various cable channels via apps, so you can watch those networks live or on demand. Now, if you have satellite or cable, your provider already has a lot of that available through your set top box.

If you have a TV in another room, you can save money by getting rid of the set top box on that TV and hooking up an Apple TV to it, and use the various channel apps to make the TV an on demand experience.

Personally, I only have one television, so I felt the Apple TV to be a bit redundant, although I enjoyed the picture viewing capabilities for when family visited.

 

[pwrof3]

It should also be mentioned that Apple TV does not hook up to any service that lets you buy videos or music outside of the Apple ecosystem.
For example, Amazon Video & Music and VUDU are missing.

 

[GlowingBlue]

- Stream whatever you're watching on other Apple devices to your Apple TV.
- Play games, especially good for multi player.
- Stream music from other Apple devices.
- And then you can activate subscriptions directly on your Apple TV, like: HBO, Netflix, MLB etc... choices are a bit limited on this one, but Netflix & HBO is more than enough for myself.

 

[alexsisk]

If you're in need of any serious power, or think you might be, I can tell you as a 9-year iPhone user, and the owner of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation Apple TVs (only have the 4th gen at this point) - it is relatively underpowered.

For the same price as the 64GB Apple TV, you can get the Nvidia Shield TV, which is like taking an Apple TV and attaching 35 jet engines.

That being said, Apple's tvOS is much better and more refined.

But seriously if you ever want to stream your own media in-house (Like with Plex, or Kodi) and compress videos using the latest compression technology (HEVC), you want the Shield.

If that doesn't matter to you at all, or made zero sense, carry on ;-) you will love the Apple TV.

 

[mattkerwin24]

I personally prefer the amazon fire stick...much easier to add Kodi

 

[alexsisk]

The Fire Stick and the Fire TV are amazing for their prices and capabilities. The Stick not being comparable, I looked at the Fire TV, but what pushed really the ONLY thing that pushed me away was that it only supports ~23-year-old Dolby Digital.

The Apple TV also supports only Dolby Digital, though they did recently add Dolby Digital Plus support.

Basically all Blu-Rays, should you choose to "archive" them, have either DTS-HD Master Audio (~90%) or Dolby TrueHD soundtracks. And now they're moving from a decade of those formats over to DTS:X and Dolby Atmos.

The Nvidia Shield won't decode these, but it will pass it through so that your receiver can decode them. Basically no other device will do that.

Oh, and the Shield allows Amazon, Netflix, VUDU.

 

[anon(631408)]

Ok, I recently cut DirecTV from my office. They gave me a very good discount to only have 4 TV's with the service. But I still want to have the TV in my office and I was thinking Apple TV would be a great addition to keep my TV on. What benefits would I be getting in my office? What stations come with it besides Netflix (which I do have an account)?

 

[pkcable]

Ok, I recently cut DirecTV from my office. They gave me a very good discount to only have 4 TV's with the service. But I still want to have the TV in my office and I was thinking Apple TV would be a great addition to keep my TV on. What benefits would I be getting in my office? What stations come with it besides Netflix (which I do have an account)?

If you have Sunday Ticket you can get this...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nfl-sunday-ticket-for-apple-tv/id1143776821?mt=8&at=10l3Vy

You can get Pluto TV also, which while not having many "mainstream" stations DOES have a few gems...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pluto-tv/id751712884?mt=8&at=10l3Vy

You can also get apps for many individual stations, such as AMC, TruTV, Spike, ABC, etc

 

[alexsisk]

You can use Netflix (which doesn't come with the Apple TV - you have to pay to subscribe) and of course you also have iTunes rentals/purchases of TV shows / movies.

Without a subscription to a standard television service, you won't find that you have access to most channels via their apps. (You can purchase individual subscriptions to CBS, HBO, Showtime, and a few more.)

You could also (or instead) choose to subscribe to Sling TV or PlayStation Vue, which offer many channels in packages for less than cable TV would cost.

 

[pkcable]

You can use Netflix (which doesn't come with the Apple TV - you have to pay to subscribe) and of course you also have iTunes rentals/purchases of TV shows / movies.

Without a subscription to a standard television service, you won't find that you have access to most channels via their apps. (You can purchase individual subscriptions to CBS, HBO, Showtime, and a few more.)

You could also (or instead) choose to subscribe to Sling TV or PlayStation Vue, which offer many channels in packages for less than cable TV would cost.

Good point often times you must validate a cable subscription before you can access some of these services. However the OTA channel networks like ABC, NBC and CBS should work.

 

[alexsisk]

Oddly enough, they want creds too. Like I mentioned, CBS is charging. ("CBS All Access") I guess it's the convenience of on-demand. With options for non-cable-company DVRs though, just grab a good antenna if you're cord cutting.

I need to retract my suggestion of PlayStation Vue and Sling TV. Vue is stereo only (couldn't spring for the 22 year old Dolby Digital technology, so they decided to keep it real old school and go for 84 year old stereo. And Sling TV only has partial surround support.)

 

[Lee_Bo]

Well, I can't really add anything that hasn't already been said.

I'm in the middle of "cutting the cable" and have a 1st gen connected to a smart TV and a brand new 4th gen connected to a dumb tv. For me it's having everything on my iPhone and iPad available on the Apple TV. Plus AirPlay Mirroring is a great feature.