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Apple original content
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Kathlyn and I have pretty much one of every major new television system out there: Apple TV4 (after having owned 1, 2 and 3 before that), Amazon Fire TV, Android TV boxes like Goobang Doo, Chromecast, and Roku (which we’ve also owned in every iteration since they began a decade or so ago).
Which one do we like the best? That’s easy, Roku. It is the best by far. Even Kathlyn, who is an Apple girl all the way down to her Apple Watch, prefers the Roku and never uses the Apple TV4. Why? I asked her once and her reply was quite telling considering her love for all things Apple.
She told me that she found the Apple TV interface (even on 4) to be nowhere near as easy to use and as simple as Roku’s interface. Roku does exactly what you need and not an ounce more. Simplicity, something that Apple seems to have forgotten — especially in Apple TV4.
I had to smile when Apple’s next big thing rollout announced the ability to search and catalog video in Apple TV4 as if it were the Second Coming. Roku has had that for years. Ditto for Android TV. (But in fairness to Apple, their implementation is a tiny bit slicker while the overall interface goes to Roku by a long shot.)
I only watch network live television for sports, everything else we watch comes off of Roku 4. We control what we want to watch and when we want to watch it.
After our cable company’s TiVO box broke down three times, I told them to come get it and get it out of here. We now use a simple cheap cable box and have given up on TiVO — which we’d been trying to like because so many of our friends like it. We do not see the fascination. Roku set up properly is like TiVO on steroids. Instead of waiting for shows to air so you can record them, in many cases, using our Roku, we can find shows in entire seasons — often in multiple seasons. (Yes, I know where the on-demand section is in TiVO and while it is cool, it is nowhere near as cool as a Roku set-up by yours truly — which many of my friends now own and have me set it up for them.)
Last night while we were on Amazon Prime TV (using the Amazon Roku app of course) ???? Kathlyn noticed a show called “Forever” that she thought looked interesting. But Amazon wanted $3 an episode for it. So, we watched a teaser we found for it somewhere and noticed it was made by Warner Bros., and I said to Kathlyn, “I’ll bet it might be on the ABC or CW apps because there’s a lot of WB stuff there.” So we went looking through ABC. No joy. Then on to CW Seed and sure enough, the entire season was there, free. Take that Amazon!
That seems to be the way that we do TV now. Apple TV is nice but we give it a solid 3 out of 5 stars. 5 we reserve for Roku.
Your mileage may vary.
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLCCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
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Roku search is cool but is a bit misleading, mainly because everything defaults to pay services and those with whom Roku has agreements in place. Finding free things is not high on their list of priorities. ????
We have yet to test this part of Roku Search against Apple TV’s search. But as of the last time we tested this, it was pretty much the same — you are being aggressively pointed to pay options with free options either not showing at all, or they are so far removed as to be almost non-existent.
But as I said in my point about “Forever,” if one does a bit of exploring and uses what many here already know about programmers and the relationships they have with whom, you can use that knowledge to find many things that others might miss or have to pay to watch.
We’ll be starting “Forever” tonight. Thanks to CW Seed. It’s a great service if you haven’t checked it out.
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLCCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
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Craig Seeman said: “I’d really want a single elegant subscription service at least for all Apple’s services.”
To which Shawn Miller replied: “Why wait for Apple, you can get this from Amazon today.” ☺
One of the biggest obstacles that Kathlyn and I have to using our Apple TV4 is that Apple does not support Amazon. As Amazon Prime members, we have a lot of content over on Amazon and Apple’s stand against Amazon is a big strike against building much into the Appleverse. Your mileage may vary.
Roku does support Amazon and has both the Amazon Video and Music apps. As I am working, I often listen to many of the albums I have bought over at Amazon over the years — which when Amazon started up Amazon Music, they knew all the albums I had bought from them and they started giving me access to the digital versions of those albums.
BUT, that said, we NEVER buy our movies or TV shows on Amazon. That is done using UltraViolet and we host them at VUDU. We also get to share our account legally with five people, so we have our kids, Tim Wilson, and one other person who have access. Now *that* is cool. Not all of our movies and TV shows are available in the share function — such as Disney, who refuses to let them be shared — but most are.
When we are traveling, we use Flixster Video because it supports UltraViolet and allows you to download and play SD movies on your phone and tablet — and if you remember to bring your $39 Chromecast and plug it into the hotel TV’s USB port, you can cast your programs onto the TV. VUDU for HD and 4K, Flixster Video for when you’re traveling and need lower bandwidth SD.
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLCCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
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[Ronald Lindeboom] “Roku does support Amazon and has both the Amazon Video and Music apps. As I am working, I often listen to many of the albums I have bought over at Amazon over the years — which when Amazon started up Amazon Music, they knew all the albums I had bought from them and they started giving me access to the digital versions of those albums.”
I didn’t know that Roku supports Amazon Music and Video. This alone makes it very attractive to me. I only have a few shows that I watch on Amazon, but I like the idea of having Netflix, Hulu and my Amazon libraries on the same device.
[Ronald Lindeboom] “BUT, that said, we NEVER buy our movies or TV shows on Amazon. That is done using UltraViolet and we host them at VUDU. We also get to share our account legally with five people, so we have our kids, Tim Wilson, and one other person who have access. Now *that* is cool. Not all of our movies and TV shows are available in the share function — such as Disney, who refuses to let them be shared — but most are.
When we are traveling, we use Flixster Video because it supports UltraViolet and allows you to download and play SD movies on your phone and tablet — and if you remember to bring your $39 Chromecast and plug it into the hotel TV’s USB port, you can cast your programs onto the TV. VUDU for HD and 4K, Flixster Video for when you’re traveling and need lower bandwidth SD.”
This sounds like a great setup, thanks for sharing Ron. You’ve got me interested in Roku, UltraViolet and VUDU now!
Shawn
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