Apple TV

[1977 1,743]

Due to the various factors that have made the purchase of newer films and releases on Blu-ray less attractive for me, I'm looking into getting an Apple TV device solely for the purpose of being able to stream purchased iTunes movies that I have downloaded to my PC onto my plasma tv. At this stage 4K is not available to me so I'm considering an older model as I'm price sensitive. 

 

Has anyone had any experience with these devices (good or bad) that they care to share?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I use an Apple TV. A bit pricy for a streaming box, but it fits into the Apple ecosystem well.

 

I use it to tether my smart devices in my home. The remote is terrible but I think the newest one fixed a lot of the designs flaws in the older models. I use my iPhone as my remote regardless. 

[Jay 37,370]

I have a major fan and big proponent of ROKU.  I think it's not only the easier to use with the best remote, but doesn't skimp on any power features either.  It's basically perfect for someone tech savvy like me and someone who just wants it to work without fiddling like my wife.

 

The Apple TV app works great on Roku, I know from personal experience because we had it last year for a few months when we watched Ted Lasso and Schmigadoon.  We never purchased or rented any movies through it, only watched the content that came with the monthly subscription, but I do believe it would have worked fine if we did; I believe it was all connected to my old Apple account (which I otherwise never use any more).

[Mr. Who 919]

I am a long time Apple user and the Apple TV 4K is my main device for viewing movies and shows (along with a blu ray player for discs).

 

The OS and interface is super smooth and the TV app combines all the different streaming services (except Netflix) into one watch list which you can access from the Home Screen. The 4K upscaling is good as well for lower res content.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

Along with the Nvidia Shield, which is an Android device, Apple TV is the best streaming device you can buy, period. Nothing else comes close.  
 

I own both a Shield and Apple TV, and every time I’ve used a Firestick, Roku etc. I found it to be a frustrating, laggy experience. And unlike any other streamer, the Apple TV is ad-free. And the UI is smooth as silk.

 

For me, if you can afford it, the Apple TV is a no brainier.

[1977 1,743]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I think I'm going to pull the trigger on an Apple TV. My main decision now is whether to go for a used 3rd gen model or the latest 4K unit, bearing in mind that I do not have a 4K display and don't think I'll be getting on any time soon.

[Mr. Who 919]

9 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I think I'm going to pull the trigger on an Apple TV. My main decision now is whether to go for a used 3rd gen model or the latest 4K unit, bearing in mind that I do not have a 4K display and don't think I'll be getting on any time soon.

Don’t get the 3rd gen as it is very old. The 4th gen or 5th (4K) are better purchases. 

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

👆This. 

Any of the 4K units are fine, but definitely stay away from the non-4K models.

[1977 1,743]

6 hours ago, Mr. Who said:

Don’t get the 3rd gen as it is very old. The 4th gen or 5th (4K) are better purchases. 

 

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

👆This. 

Any of the 4K units are fine, but definitely stay away from the non-4K models.

 

Any particular reason to not get an older model (at least 3rd gen that is)? There's quite a large price difference and it's not going to be my primary streaming device as I already have an Amazon Fire Lite stick (non-4K) for Disney+, Amazon Prime and Netflix.

[Jay 37,370]

With Roku, you'd only need 1 stick connected to your TV.  It plays Disney+, Prime, Netflix, AND Apple

[1977 1,743]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

With Roku, you'd only need 1 stick connecte to your TV.  It plays Disney+, Prime, Netflix, AND Apple

 

I looked into it based on your earlier post and unfortunately Roku apparently does not work in my country. It's a pity as that would have been an ideal solution for me.

[Jay 37,370]

Interesting!

 

So the main issue is that your Amazon stick won't play Apple content, and an Apple TV box won't play Netflix content?

[1977 1,743]

31 minutes ago, Jay said:

Interesting!

 

So the main issue is that your Amazon stick won't play Apple content, and an Apple TV box won't play Netflix content?

 

Well TBH I never thought to look into the possibility of the Fire stick playing Apple content but apparently it does! I need to verify this tomorrow but if I'm able to stream my iTunes purchases via the Apple TV app then I'm sorted.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

44 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

 

Any particular reason to not get an older model (at least 3rd gen that is)? There's quite a large price difference and it's not going to be my primary streaming device as I already have an Amazon Fire Lite stick (non-4K) for Disney+, Amazon Prime and Netflix.

 

The older model just isn't going to give you quite as smooth a UI experience as the 4K, which has a faster chip. And the 4K of course is going to be more future-proof. Can you find a used one?

 

Having said all that, even the 3rd Gen Apple TV HD is going to give you a significantly better experience than any of the "stick" alternatives, IMO.  I've tried both the Firestick and Roku as travel devices, and the cluttered, ad-ridden, often laggy UI's make them unacceptable to me.

[Jay 37,370]

13 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Well TBH I never thought to look into the possibility of the Fire stick playing Apple content but apparently it does!

 

What? You just assumed the Amazon stick wouldn't play Apple content!?

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

18 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Well TBH I never thought to look into the possibility of the Fire stick playing Apple content but apparently it does! I need to verify this tomorrow but if I'm able to stream my iTunes purchases via the Apple TV app then I'm sorted.

 

The 3rd+ Gen of Apple TV will play Netflix and pretty much any other streaming App.

 

Both the Firestick and Roku have the Apple TV app and will play Apple content. However you lose two things on the Firestick and Roku as far as Apple TV goes...you can play things you've purchased, but as far as I know you can no longer purchase content on the device itself. And if you have movies with special features, the Firestick and Roku won't play those, you'd need an Apple TV (or Apple device) to access those.

[Jay 37,370]

Oooh, that's really good info!

[1977 1,743]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

you can play things you've purchased, but as far as I know you can no longer purchase content on the device itself.

 

I primarily want to watch purchased movies, the loss of special features is a pity but not a deal breaker. I purchase on my iPad, MacBook or Windows PC so no issues there. My question now is can I stream iTunes movies that I have purchased and downloaded to my devices without using data, i.e. offline?

 

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

What? You just assumed the Amazon stick wouldn't play Apple content!?

 

Yeah pretty much. I assumed that Amazon and Apple are rivals so why would they play nice? Especially with Apple's penchant for locking people into their ecosystem.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

1 minute ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

I primarily want to watch purchased movies, the loss of special features is a pity but not a deal breaker. I purchase on my iPad, MacBook or Windows PC so no issues there. My question now is can I stream iTunes movies that I have purchased and downloaded to my devices without using data, i.e. offline?

No. You’ll need an Apple TV for that.

[Jay 37,370]

2 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Yeah pretty much. I assumed that Amazon and Apple are rivals so why would they play nice? Especially with Apple's penchant for locking people into their ecosystem.

 

We had no issues watching Ted Lasso through our Roku stuck.  Looked great  

[1977 1,743]

Thanks @Nick1Ø66for confirming. It's annoying that one cannot find these types of answers through an internet search. But then getting helpful feedback from other users is part of the joy of being in a community like JWfan.

 

[Jay 37,370]

I know my wife downloads Netflix content to her tablet for travel sometimes, but it seems like a lot of the other streamers are reluctant to offer that

[mstrox 6,651]

i don’t know what countries have the option, but MoviesAnywhere collects your movie purchases and then barfs them out into all the other services (for movies from most, but not all, of the major studios).  So if you buy Star Wars on iTunes, you also “own” it on MoviesAnywhere, and on Vudu, and on YouTube, and on Amazon.

 

At least on MoviesAnywhere native, you can download the movie for offline viewing.

 

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

58 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

Thanks @Nick1Ø66for confirming. It's annoying that one cannot find these types of answers through an internet search. But then getting helpful feedback from other users is part of the joy of being in a community like JWfan.

 

 

To be clear, you can't download purchased movies/shows to the Apple TV device itself. But if you've downloaded something to your iPhone or iPad, you can stream it via Airplay to the Apple TV.

 

Which, now that I think about it, you might be able to do the same on a Roku, since the Roku supports Airplay (though not the Firestick). 

48 minutes ago, mstrox said:

i don’t know what countries have the option, but MoviesAnywhere collects your movie purchases and then barfs them out into all the other services (for movies from most, but not all, of the major studios).  So if you buy Star Wars on iTunes, you also “own” it on MoviesAnywhere, and on Vudu, and on YouTube, and on Amazon.

 

At least on MoviesAnywhere native, you can download the movie for offline viewing.

 

Isn’t Movies Anywhere, despite the misleading name, US only?

[mstrox 6,651]

It makes sense - America is the center of the world!

[1977 1,743]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

To be clear, you can't download purchased movies/shows to the Apple TV device itself. But if you've downloaded something to your iPhone or iPad, you can stream it via Airplay to the Apple TV.

 

Yeah, I'm actually wanting to stream downloaded iTunes movies from my PC as my iPad is an ancient 16GB model. Unfortunately only movies can be purchased in my territory, not series. 

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

I know my wife downloads Netflix content to her tablet for travel sometimes, but it seems like a lot of the other streamers are reluctant to offer that

 

Disney+ at least also has that function:

 

[LaloCoyoacan 46]

The Apple TV device is the ONLY one you can use to stream content from the Apple TV app and view all your rented or purchased titles from iTunes. 

The newest version of the Apple TV device works perfectly fine even if you don't have a 4K TV (which is my case) and you can add apps w/o any problem. 3rd generation and older devices come with preestablished apps and you can't add more.

You can stream Netflix w/o problem, what @Mr. Who was pointing at is that there is a "continue viewing" list which include every other platform except for Netflix.

The Apple TV device won't let you see your rented or purchased series or movies w/o connection (because it doesn't storages them, like when you do that on your Mac, pc, etc), but you can definitely air play them from your iPad if you don't have connection.

@Jay Ted Lasso and all the content from the Apple TV app is completely different from the iTunes Store, and the only way to see the content from the iTunes Store is through that specifically app.

[Jay 37,370]

Brilliant post, lots of good info!

 

I assume if you use an ipad to kick off an airplay through the AppleTV box, you can then turn the ipad off, as the box itself is now grabbing the movie from the internet and not using the ipad any more right?

[1977 1,743]

That's an interesting question @Jay, I'd like to know the answer to that.

 

I downloaded the Apple TV app on my Amazon Fire stick yesterday and after signing in with my Apple ID was able to stream a movie purchased via my iPad (not using Airplay as that is not available on the Fire stick). Very chuffed this works and thanks to everyone in this thread for the guidance.

 

I still plan to pick up an Apple TV device at some stage so that I can still access downloaded iTunes movies should Apple decide to remove any of them from the store after purchase (I heard that is a thing).

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

1 hour ago, LaloCoyoacan said:

The Apple TV device is the ONLY one you can use to stream content from the Apple TV app and view all your rented or purchased titles from iTunes. 

 

That's...not true. I have both the Firestick and Roku, and the Apple TV App works fine on both of them, including purchased iTunes content. Moreover, you can Airplay Apple TV content, including purchased content, from your iPhone to Roku just fine.

 

1 hour ago, LaloCoyoacan said:

Ted Lasso and all the content from the Apple TV app is completely different from the iTunes Store, and the only way to see the content from the iTunes Store is through that specifically app.

 

Also not true. I see and can play all my purchased iTunes movies & shows on my Apple TV, the Apple TV Apps on my iPhone, iPad, Firestick, Roku and NVIDIA Shield (and yes, I have them all ).

[Jay 37,370]

10 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

I downloaded the Apple TV app on my Amazon Fire stick yesterday and after signing in with my Apple ID was able to stream a movie purchased via my iPad

 

Always nice when something you want to do can happen without spending any money!

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

 

18 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

I still plan to pick up an Apple TV device at some stage so that I can still access downloaded iTunes movies should Apple decide to remove any of them from the store after purchase (I heard that is a thing).

 

You can't download iTunes movies to the Apple TV device, only to your iPad or iPhone.

 

[1977 1,743]

You can stream downloaded movies that are on your device including Mac or PC to an Apple TV, or so I have read.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

Just now, JTWfan77 said:

You can stream downloaded movies that are on your device including Mac or PC to an Apple TV, or so I have read.

Yes!

[LaloCoyoacan 46]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

I assume if you use an ipad to kick off an airplay through the AppleTV box, you can then turn the ipad off, as the box itself is now grabbing the movie from the internet and not using the ipad any more right?

That is correct, but also the movie can be stored in the iPad or another device and can be airplayed

45 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

That's...not true.

Also not true.

My bad, apologies for the misinformation. So I can confirm that the content previously bought from the iTunes Store can be viewed on the Apple TV app, and you can buy more content from this app. 

[mstrox 6,651]

Yes, I can watch all of my iTunes (video) content on the AppleTV app on Roku.