[valliloves]

Hello,

We have been using the free roku player that came with our slingtv subscription last year with the trade off for paying two months of service up front. We cut the cable chord early last year. We see a bunch of issues with roku like buffering, volume loss and having to turn tv off and on to fix it, etc etc. At first we thought it was our internet connection, but had our ISP come out and upgrade our internet. Still the same issues.

We are looking into purchasing apple tv now; 3rd or 4th generation. The only thing we use our roku for is watching tv on sling and on amazon. Things like prime and the subscriptions we have with amazon. My husband does like to record things to watch them later, but that's it.

With that info given, can we buy the 3rd generation apple tv to handle that?

[robertk328]

Welcome to iMore!

I'd get at least the 4th gen Apple TV which is the newest other than the 4K. This would help 'future proof' you more (as much as that is these days with tech) and get the latest hardware inside. It will also allow apps which will include Amazon Prime Video and Sling.

[Rob Phillips]

Agreed with @robertk328 here. There’s a huge jump between the 3rd and 4th gen. The 3rd gen comes with whatever apps are loaded onto it. The 4th gen is the first Apple TV to run tvOS (an iOS variant designed especially for Apple TV) and it has an App Store giving you the ability to customize content to your liking.

[Just_Me_D]

Hello,

We have been using the free roku player that came with our slingtv subscription last year with the trade off for paying two months of service up front. We cut the cable chord early last year. We see a bunch of issues with roku like buffering, volume loss and having to turn tv off and on to fix it, etc etc. At first we thought it was our internet connection, but had our ISP come out and upgrade our internet. Still the same issues.

We are looking into purchasing apple tv now; 3rd or 4th generation. The only thing we use our roku for is watching tv on sling and on amazon. Things like prime and the subscriptions we have with amazon. My husband does like to record things to watch them later, but that's it.

With that info given, can we buy the 3rd generation apple tv to handle that?

Like the others, I would buy the 4th generation TV. The 3rd generation TV is 5 or 6 years old, depending on whether its Rev A or not.

[Lee_Bo]

Like everyone else has said, just get the 4th edition:

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-tv/ap.../apple-tv-32gb

[bakron1]

I own a 4th generation and have been more then pleased with the device. I also use my Apple TV mainly for my Direct TV Now app, Amazon Prime and an occasional movie from the Apple store.

[Frehley]

Like the others, I would buy the 4th generation TV. The 3rd generation TV is 5 or 6 years old, depending on whether its Rev A or not.

My beautiful girlfriend got my the 4th Gen Apple TV for my birthday last year and I was immediatly disappointed. No optical audio out...no way to pipe the sound to my existing sound system.

I continue to use the 3rd Gen to this day and have no issues. I specifically purchased a new audio receiver to accomodate the optical audio connection...and then the 4th Gen did away with the audio output. Will keep using as long as it works.

[Just_Me_D]

My beautiful girlfriend got my the 4th Gen Apple TV for my birthday last year and I was immediatly disappointed. No optical audio out...no way to pipe the sound to my existing sound system.

I continue to use the 3rd Gen to this day and have no issues. I specifically purchased a new audio receiver to accomodate the optical audio connection...and then the 4th Gen did away with the audio output. Will keep using as long as it works.

Under the circumstances you mentioned, the 3rd gen is definitely the correct choice.