Apple TV 4k? Do i have to put up with that goddawful UI or is there an alternative device I'm not considering?

by Bradalax

Been looking at this for a while now. I have an LG B7 55" Oled TV, that is fed from my Sony AVR, and everything plugs into the AVR, 4k Blu Ray player, PS3, Xboxone, Roku Streaming stick plus.

I cut the chord earlier this year so all my content is from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Now TV, Youtube, BBC Iplayer, spotify, Amazon Music and Plex streamed from my Roku and 4K Blu Rays.

I'm needing to replace the Roku, because its on the fritz, i think it got too hot and got fried a little.

Apple TV 4K at this point seems to be the front runner in terms of it will support all the apps I use and handles proper Dolby vision etc. But its pretty expensive, and as in the title, I can't stand the UI of apple devices or apps. But could live with it.

Nvidia shield doesn't support NowTV

Firestick & Roku don't seem to support as many formats?

John Lewis in the UK are doing the Apple TV 4k 64mb for £199 and you get the two year guarantee, and a year of Apple TV.

Any other suggestions I should look at? Or does anyone just use the TV builtin apps?

EDIT: Thanks for all the input. I went out and got the Apple TV this morning. All looks great. But my god it took 90 minutes just to sort out and unlock my old Apple accounts!

Modna

Can't really help you but just want to pile on for Apple TV. Whoever thought a damn "touch pad" was ideal for a remote was a god damn moron.

scumb4ll

From what I've found:

Roku has all apps except BT sport no dolby vision and no framerate matching on Netflix

Apple TV has all apps but no NowTV boost - so 720p stereo only and no watchlist

Shield has no NowTV, no All4, no Apple TV+, no BritBox and non ideal framerate matching, does do TrueHD/Atmos pass through on local files

Amazon Firecube has no NowTV or BT Sport

Those are the main contenders for all in one streaming devices and none have it all

I have

A 2015 shield for Plex.. Faster and more file options than the B7 internal app.

A NowTV 4K box for UK catch-up apps and NowTV with boost - iPlayer app on B7 skips frames for me and NowTV boost doesn't do 50fps for sport on LG app.

I use the internal B7 apps for Amazon and Netflix to get DV/Atmos and good framerate matching (and would do the same for BritBox and Disney if I had them). I wish there was one device to do it all....

THE_Celts

I agree the remote is awful, but what’s wrong with the UI? It’s clean, ad free and incredibly smooth.

Sorry, but the only other device that’s going to give you that kind of experience is the Shield. The ATV and Shield are best in class, and after that it’s just Roku & Amazon sticks (both of which are cluttered with ads) and crappy Chinese Android boxes.

rdqmatos

When I was living in the uk I had nowtv on my shield

BiggussDikkuss

The other major problem with the UK, Europe and Australasia is that you need a device that supports near flawless 25/50fps for local IPTV (App) streaming services - AND - you also need to support 24p Netflix / Prime Video etc. and you want a hands off auto Frame Rate matching smooth video playback experience.

The Apple TV 4K has that nicely covered and it works - Reliably - vs anything coming from the USA centric Android TV, external media player stables, that do not even have to consider 25/50fps:

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208288

Otherwise expect juddering video playback, experimental & unreliable frame rate matching hacks OR going into Android settings all the time manually changing output Hz. All that frankly is a major PITA, especially after long term usage.

I live in a region that needs 24p / 25 / 50 fps support and the Apple TV 4K handles it all nicely (hint set output to 1080p/50Hz or 2160p/50Hz) with Match Frame Rate ON

YouTube you really are better off using the inbuilt TV App for that one. At least you will get HDR and likely good motion support for the highly varied Frame Rates YouTube content streams with.

ANY Infra Red remote can be setup for usage with the Apple TV 4K:

https://9to5mac.com/2020/07/22/apple-tv-remote-control/

You do not need a 64GB Apple TV 4K for streaming everything, the 32GB one is just fine. Even better is refurbished models when available for cheaper prices:

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/FQD22B/A/Refurbished-Apple-TV-4K-32GB

Also 1 year free Apple TV+ is included with every new ATV 4K purchase no matter where you buy the device from.

Stiltzkinn

Apple TV is the only with ad free UI, new Android TV homescreen ads is garbage, same as FireTV and not so in your face ads on Roku.