You can read this guy's review to see what you think. After I read it, I found he was very heavily biased toward Apple and the Apple vaporware TvOS apps. Plus, he really seemed to downplay any Roku strengths.

Ranks them (all the latest hardware from each company):

1. AppleTV
2. Amazon Fire TV
3. Roku 4
4. Chromecast

Link: http://qz.com/536410/review-of-streaming-media-players/

Probably a hardcore Apple user. I think the Apple tv should be in a category by its self. With DVD and Blu-ray declining, people will be looking at these online stores to buy and rent there movies. The Apple tv only supports itunes....Yeah, I know, the app store will fix that. Wake me when you find an itunes competitor on the Apple tv. Most people who buy the Apple tv are doing so on name alone, I mean, "Apple is the good stuff" right? Put Apple tv in the , if you buy all and only Apple stuff, you need this one category.

Yesterday on MacBreak weekly, the guys were talking about a review that put the ATV on top. I assume it was the same survey. Even they conceded that the appeal of the ATV was 1) iTunes and 2) Potential. One of the guests expressed disappointment in the ATV until he installed Plex. The blogger was almost comical in his interpretation of reality...

They all offer the most popular services, like Netflix, HBO, and Hulu, and work without much of a hassle.

But not Prime, Sling TV, or Kodi.

Buying the device is a bet that...Apple TV will only get better as developers build more apps for it.

Happy people do not buy products based on promises of eventual goodness.

Coming in a very close second is the Amazon Fire TV, which has the best interface and streaming quality of all these devices. It’s also the ideal way to take advantage of Amazon Prime’s increasingly great video selection, which you can’t get from Apple. If all you care about is watching TV shows and movies, the Fire TV is your best bet.

I wonder what the blogger does with his ATV which is not movies or tv.

The Roku 4, meanwhile, is worth considering if you’re already accustomed to its software, want to support a smaller company, or subscribe to television service from Time Warner Cable, which has a superb Roku app that will let you enjoy live TV without a cable box. (Amazon and Apple may offer something like this in the future.)

Talking about d@mning with faint praise. I think the TWC thing goes at the top of the paragraph.

And the Chromecast is a good option if you want to bring your shows on the road or need to save money. It’s not as full-featured as its larger competitors, but works very well and fits in your pocket. I only wish it had a workaround for connecting to hotel Wi-Fi systems, like the similarly sized Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku Streaming Stick.

Great to take on the road unless you are in a hotel? If this guy had a clue, he would know that Amazon's stick has captive portal functionality and also fits in the pocket.

I’m not much of a gamer, but I like the idea of expanding the definition of television to include games and more.

This is what he does with his ATV which is not movies and tv shows! I am pretty sure the definition of television was expanded to include games and more in the 70s. FTV lists 1219 games this morning among 4207 apps and games.

Finally, we’re figuring it out.

Keep trying!

Roku should of done something with the interface for firmware 7.0 and possibly add some advanced streaming features like 24 framerate and bitstream hd audio. It has been a long time since they changed and they seem happy while competitors keep coming out with new things. but roku seems to just stay stagnant. A remote locator is the new feature...

I was rather baffled by his review of the remotes. For the Apple remote, he notes that it's "not always the best", that the touchpad is hard to use, that you can't orient the remote by feel, and that it can break if you drop it. For the Roku remote he notes that the headphone jack is a "killer feature", and is the only one with a remote finder. He then summarizes that Apple has "the most interesting and versatile remote". What? Did he read what he just wrote?

--Mark

On my Roku 4 I watched the new CNET Prizefight and see that the Roku 4 beat the new apple TV and is the Prizefight winner.

TL;DR: don't bother clicking.

Heyitsrick wrote:

...this guy's review ...

I guess the red flag should have been 'this guy's review'. The whole thing is a fail. His TL;DR is 5 paragraphs. Non sequitur nonsense.

Is Hey_it's_Rick trying to generate web traffic for that site? I don't know why else he would post a link to that garbage.

Ok lets be honest this is just a junk review.

I'll take issue with both the top two spots. Apple TV is darned nearly closed ecosystem that's only useful to people who have a large itunes video library that they purchased before things like Ultraviolet existed. Sure they new unit allegedly has "apps" but it's largely useless for anything else.

Likewise the fire TV tries hard to be a closed system, but they're stuck with android's terms which prevents them from being nothing more than a vehicle to sell amazon content in the same way apple tries to sell theirs. Not to mention that There's no good ultraviolet app on the Fire TV. Before someone jumps in and says flixster, flixster is garbage. You get roughly half your library and can only stream in SD. If not for Kodi, the fire tv wouldn't even be an afterthought. Of course this could all change if Amazon joins the ultraviolet consortium.

This is a Roku forum but I would have placed the Chromecast above the Roku 4..

My list:

1) Roku 3
2) Chromecast
3) Amazon Fire TV
4) Roku 4 (fan, heat, & other issues oh my)
5) Apple TV

If Roku can solve the 4's issues then it might move up on my list.

I have the new Apple TV and it's terrible. The remote is horrible and there is not much in the app store. Also the lack of Amazon really kills the Apple TV in my opinion..

Y2Bogus wrote:

Likewise the fire TV tries hard to be a closed system, but they're stuck with android's terms which prevents them from being nothing more than a vehicle to sell amazon content in the same way apple tries to sell theirs.

Not sure how you define 'closed', but you can side load any number of apps on the Fire TV. I just side loaded Kodi and FireStarter on a Fire TV Stick. It's pretty slick. You can use FireStarter to manage how the FTV looks at startup and what some of the remote buttons do. I start up in the FTV GUI (which I like) and jump to Kodi by pressing the home button. Double pressing the home button returns me to the FTV GUI. Not sure you can be much more open than that -- no need to jailbreak, no developer mode restrictions.





If you like the Roku's tiled user interface, you can just use FireStarter as your application manager...

I mentioned kodi in my original post, and I qualified it by saying that the android licensing scheme that allows amazon to fork the android OS for their product, forbids them from locking out sideloading. If not for that, Amazon would more than likely have kept the unit limited to amazon purchased content.

raqball wrote:

This is a Roku forum but I would have placed the Chromecast above the Roku 4..

My list:

1) Roku 3
2) Chromecast
3) Amazon Fire TV
4) Roku 4 (fan, heat, & other issues oh my)
5) Apple TV

If Roku can solve the 4's issues then it might move up on my list.

I have the new Apple TV and it's terrible. The remote is horrible and there is not much in the app store. Also the lack of Amazon really kills the Apple TV in my opinion..

explain why when Roku 3 can't play 1080p youtube, hbo go or showtime anytime? also doesn't support DD+ on them. While Fire TV/Apple TV does all of the above. I've been waiting for a fix for youtube reverting to below 480p... I've gave up on them giving us 1080p suppport.

boostlag wrote:

raqball wrote:

This is a Roku forum but I would have placed the Chromecast above the Roku 4..

My list:

1) Roku 3
2) Chromecast
3) Amazon Fire TV
4) Roku 4 (fan, heat, & other issues oh my)
5) Apple TV

If Roku can solve the 4's issues then it might move up on my list.

I have the new Apple TV and it's terrible. The remote is horrible and there is not much in the app store. Also the lack of Amazon really kills the Apple TV in my opinion..

explain why when Roku 3 can't play 1080p youtube, hbo go or showtime anytime? also doesn't support DD+ on them. While Fire TV/Apple TV does all of the above. I've been waiting for a fix for youtube reverting to below 480p... I've gave up on them giving us 1080p suppport.

I said it's my list NOT your list...

The Roku 3 just works and it works well. No fan noise, no heat issues, tons of channel options, I like the GUI (except for the ad taking up 30% of the screen) and I like the headphone remote.

The new Apple TV is terrible! I have one and it's sitting in my bedroom right now. I do not like the FireTV GUI and Firestart has some issues / bugs..

As I said, that's MY list not yours..

raqball wrote:

boostlag wrote:

raqball wrote:

This is a Roku forum but I would have placed the Chromecast above the Roku 4..

My list:

1) Roku 3
2) Chromecast
3) Amazon Fire TV
4) Roku 4 (fan, heat, & other issues oh my)
5) Apple TV

If Roku can solve the 4's issues then it might move up on my list.

I have the new Apple TV and it's terrible. The remote is horrible and there is not much in the app store. Also the lack of Amazon really kills the Apple TV in my opinion..

explain why when Roku 3 can't play 1080p youtube, hbo go or showtime anytime? also doesn't support DD+ on them. While Fire TV/Apple TV does all of the above. I've been waiting for a fix for youtube reverting to below 480p... I've gave up on them giving us 1080p suppport.

I said it's my list NOT your list...

The Roku 3 just works and it works well. No fan noise, no heat issues, tons of channel options, I like the GUI (except for the ad taking up 30% of the screen) and I like the headphone remote.

The new Apple TV is terrible! I have one and it's sitting in my bedroom right now. I do not like the FireTV GUI and Firestart has some issues / bugs..

As I said, that's MY list not yours..

I dont think anyone has ever said they wanted lower res and lower sound quality.