Apple TV or Roku 3? ...

[speedmaster]

Not sure what one to get.


We have a Windows 7 box and a Mac Mini. 4 iPhones in the house, and an Airport Express router. So we're definitely in the Apple world. We buy songs on iTunes, but never movies or TV shows. We use Netflix streaming pretty much daily.


I've read several reviews of both devices and keep going back and forth.


I could see us occasionally renting a movie from iTunes I guess. But I wouldn't want it backed up with my regular iTunes data, do rented iTunes movies just stream?


Any advice on a compelling reason to get one over the other?


Thanks very much in advance,
Chris

 

[navychop]

Roku includes access to Amazon Prime Instant Videos. ATV doesn't. If this is of little interest to you, go with ATV. I'm happy with my Roku 2 XS.

 

[king3pj]

I have a Roku 2XD and the newest generation Apple TV. Like navy mentioned Roku does have the amazon prime instant videos app but that is only useful if you pay for an Amazon Prime account.

Our family does use both devices regularly in different rooms of the house. The Apple TV gets more use but that is mainly because of the room it is in. We rent all our new release movies from iTunes if were in the apple room or amazon if were in the Roku room. Except for random specials both services are usually the same price for PPV movies and both are cheaper than Dish PPV.

The vast majority of usage on both devices in our house is Netflix and MLB.tv. These services have slightly different user interfaces on each device but I would say that picture quality and ease of use are about equal on them. I would say they are slightly different but neither is better or worse.

The Apple TV only feature we use is airplay. Our household has 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, and an always on windows gaming PC that has all my music stored in iTunes. I pretty frequently will stream my music library from the PC to the Apple TV while I'm working on stuff around the house. Other people stream their separate music libraries from their iPhone or iPad. It is hooked up to an Onkyo audio receiver with outputs to two rooms so the airplay audio streaming is pretty handy for us. Occasionally we will also use airplay to put photos or videos from our devices up on the big screen for everyone to see.

The Roku only services we use are Amazon Prime, The IGN app, and HBO Go. HBO Go is supposed to be available on Apple TV soon so that last service will be a non factor in the future. Amazon Prime rarely gets used. Occasionally they will have something that Netflix doesn't but we can find most of their stuff on Netflix and we like that service better. We have several other video apps installed on our Roku so if a bigger variety in apps is important to you Roku is a better choice. The thing is, we find that most of these get opened once when we first install them and then never used again. Niche services like IGN would be nice but once HBO gets added to the Apple TV I will have everything I really need on it.

If your main use will be netflix and the occasional PPV rental you won't be disappointed with either device. I can say that our family uses the Apple only features more often than the Roku only features but that will change from person to person.

Edit: to answer your question, yes movie rentals just stream. The current generation Apple TVs don't have a storage hard drive. Everything is either streamed over your home network or over the internet. It can see all the music on your computer if it is on and running iTunes but you won't even notice this unless you go to the music section.

 

[mike123abc]

Edit: to answer your question, yes movie rentals just stream. The current generation Apple TVs don't have a storage hard drive. Everything is either streamed over your home network or over the internet. It can see all the music on your computer if it is on and running iTunes but you won't even notice this unless you go to the music section.

Actually it does have a drive in it (although SSD). I prefer the ATV over the Roku just because of that. When watching stuff from iTunes trick play works pretty good since it downloads the content to the internal storage. The same when watching Youtube content. It downloads the video to the internal storage. But, given that it only seems to hold about 4-5 hours of content I speculate it is an 8GB flash drive.

I am hoping the same will be true when it gets it HBO GO app.

 

[king3pj]

Actually it does have a drive in it (although SSD). I prefer the ATV over the Roku just because of that. When watching stuff from iTunes trick play works pretty good since it downloads the content to the internal storage. The same when watching Youtube content. It downloads the video to the internal storage. But, given that it only seems to hold about 4-5 hours of content I speculate it is an 8GB flash drive.

I am hoping the same will be true when it gets it HBO GO app.

Yeah you are right. There is a small amount of internal storage for buffer help. What I meant is that the new Apple TV is not like the original that came with a 40 GB (I think) internal hard drive meant for storing your media on the device itself.

On the current model you don't transfer your music and other media over to the Apple TV for playback. Everything is stored on the computers and iDevices in your home and streamed to the Apple TV over AirPlay or it comes directly from the Internet like Netflix and iTunes movie rentals.

 

[speedmaster]

Great thread and info, thanks, guys!

 

[TechWriter]

What I meant is that the new Apple TV is not like the original that came with a 40 GB (I think) internal hard drive meant for storing your media on the device itself.

The original (1st gen) ATVs are no longer manufactured by Apple, but are still available on eBay.

I've purchased two of the 1st gens that have been updated with 500GB drives. Now you have a media center for video, music, and photos.

Plus it can download an iTunes stream as well as stream video. However, it's 720p, not 1080.

I also use a 3rd gen ATV (1080p version) because it has AirPlay built in.

 

[lparsons21]

I have one of the originals too though it isn't connected to anything these days. I'll wait for winter and let it help heat the room!

But I would swear that thing did 1080p. Frankly I wish they had been able to put iOS on the original.

As to the movies and such from iTunes, I order them on my MacBook Pro and then stream in the house and always get great video/audio with no glitches. I've never actually tried streaming a 1080p movie directly on my ATV.

 

[king3pj]

I have one of the originals too though it isn't connected to anything these days. I'll wait for winter and let it help heat the room!

But I would swear that thing did 1080p. Frankly I wish they had been able to put iOS on the original.

As to the movies and such from iTunes, I order them on my MacBook Pro and then stream in the house and always get great video/audio with no glitches. I've never actually tried streaming a 1080p movie directly on my ATV.

I don't have the original but I stream directly from iTunes all the time. I know you can download to the computer first and then stream to the Apple TV but I'm curious why you would want to do that. I had to do it once to get a free rental because that was the only way to redeem it. When you do it that way you have to download the entire movie before you can start playback. That can take a long time. If you just start the stream directly from the Apple TV you still get 1080p and 5.1 sound but you can start playback immediately. I get a great picture this way with no buffering or glitches of any kind.

 

[lparsons21]

I do it the way I do out of habit more than anything else. In the past it was the best way because of buffering issues I suppose, or possibly having internet access that wasn't all that good. Oddly I don't even give a thought to streaming anything else.