New AppleTV

[kayoh190]

That was my experience as well, though this was a few years ago. It doesn't appear it has gotten any better.

I just bought a brand new 4K Sony TV last month, and it's not any better. Prettier maybe, but not any better. Still feels like an afterthought.

 

[LevelWing]

I just bought a brand new 4K Sony TV last month, and it's not any better. Prettier maybe, but not any better. Still feels like an afterthought.

How is the 4K TV? I've been thinking about getting a new TV and wasn't sure if this 4K thing is worth it or not. I didn't want a 3D TV when that craze hit and 4K TV's are still pretty expensive.

 

[RJM62]

This is the interface to Netflix using my streaming-enabled Samsung Blu-Ray player:

It's plain, boring, old-fashioned, some might even say ugly. But it's also perfectly usable, in my opinion.

I'm not looking for anything fancy. I care about the movies and programs, not the "app."

Rich

 

[kayoh190]

How is the 4K TV? I've been thinking about getting a new TV and wasn't sure if this 4K thing is worth it or not. I didn't want a 3D TV when that craze hit and 4K TV's are still pretty expensive.

It's 55", and at that small a size I'm not sure there's a huge, noticeable difference between 1080p and 4K content from across the living room. I went with 4K mainly to have the higher resolution available when I nerd out and have my computer connected to it.

 

[LevelWing]

It's 55", and at that small a size I'm not sure there's a huge, noticeable difference between 1080p and 4K content from across the living room. I went with 4K mainly to have the higher resolution available when I nerd out and have my computer connected to it.

That's about the size I'd be looking to get as well. I just looked up the prices and it doesn't seem very unreasonable, lower than I thought they would be. I'll have to start doing some research on them and see what the best value is. Thanks for the info.

 

[kayoh190]

That's about the size I'd be looking to get as well. I just looked up the prices and it doesn't seem very unreasonable, lower than I thought they would be. I'll have to start doing some research on them and see what the best value is. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, the prices have definitely come down. I think there was only about a $200 difference between my 4K and the 1080p version, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 4K.

It's certainly a beautiful television.

 

[Captain]

ATV and Chromecast are my sole TV providers. I'll take Google and Apple over ComCast and DirectTV any day....especially Google. Not sure why Rich hates Google so much but I think they're the best company on earth bar none.

 

[kayoh190]

It's plain, boring, old-fashioned, some might even say ugly. But it's also perfectly usable, in my opinion.

Hey, if it works, it works.

I'm a big user of Plex, and the Plex app on my TV is terrible. I'm glad Apple opened up the AppleTV - I'm hoping Plex will become available there soon. It's the only reason I own a Roku, and it'll be nice to consolidate devices.

 

[SoonerAviator]

Go through it seven times, and then get back to me on that.

Rich

You have to be a statistical anomaly to have that happen seven times. In any case, I believe there's a "skip registration" option, or you can delete the info after the initial registration with the Roku 3/4. So, you can get around the CC info if you want to . . . just as an FYI

 

[RJM62]

You have to be a statistical anomaly to have that happen seven times. In any case, I believe there's a "skip registration" option, or you can delete the info after the initial registration with the Roku 3/4. So, you can get around the CC info if you want to . . . just as an FYI

I'm an anomaly in a lot of ways.

And actually, it was nine times, but two didn't involve payment information of any kind, as far as I know. All the rest included credit / debit card numbers and/or checking account information.

The two that didn't were the V.A. laptop theft and the OPM breach. And frankly, I'm not a hundred percent sure that the latter didn't have some financial information tucked away in there; but if it did it almost certainly would be outdated by now.

I've adopted a pretty simple policy as a result of repeatedly having to go through the aggravation of having to replace cards and close accounts: No one gets to store my payment information. If they insist, I go elsewhere.

The one exception is Adobe because I actually need their stuff more than they need me. So Adobe has a special card that is used for no one except them. If they're hacked again (they were one of the companies that previously lost my PII) I only have to cancel that one card. The same card would be used for any other vendor that I really needed and that insisted on one. But so far, Adobe's the only one that wouldn't budge. Even Netflix deleted my payment information and told me I could pay with gift cards.

So yeah, I'm picky about services that want me to register and store payment information. Other than Adobe, I haven't found one that's important enough to me to let them do it.

On the plus side, one good thing about being a statistical anomaly is that all my cards always get replaced before they're swiped out. And I was able to daisy-chain all the free credit monitoring I got, so I doubt I'll ever have to pay for it again.

Thanks for the Roku information in any case. The last one I had was, I believe, a Roku 2; and they definitely would not let me remove my payment information if I wanted to keep using the device. That is why I am no longer a Roku customer and use the Blu-Ray player instead, even though it has fewer options.

Maybe Roku has smartened up since then. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been burned enough times to make me reluctant to share financial information.

Rich

 

[jetrep]

I cut the cord a few months ago. Picked up the Roku 3 and I'm loving it. Also have a chromecast but never used it much. I'd rather not use the phone to control my TV. I also picked up an antenna which works great but I don't use it much. Browsing through channels is too painful.

I don't do Apple but I'm guessing it will be similar to the Roku which is great.

I've resisted buying a new smart TV as the reviews all seem to say the interfaces are lousy.

There are a few brands out there that have built in roku so those may be good.

Sharp, Insignia (Best Buy brand), Hisense, Haier,and TCL (available at Sam's Club)

 

[Jeffythequick]

I cut the cord a few months ago. Picked up the Roku 3 and I'm loving it. Also have a chromecast but never used it much. I'd rather not use the phone to control my TV. I also picked up an antenna which works great but I don't use it much. Browsing through channels is too painful.

I don't do Apple but I'm guessing it will be similar to the Roku which is great.

I've resisted buying a new smart TV as the reviews all seem to say the interfaces are lousy.

There are a few brands out there that have built in roku so those may be good.

Sharp, Insignia (Best Buy brand), Hisense, Haier,and TCL (available at Sam's Club)

I love that I never lose the remote with my Apple TV.

It's on my wrist. (Apple Watch).

(There are those that say that I'm a fanboy, but the Apple products work for me. If whatever brand your using works for you, I say, "Great!" It'll only make the next generation of products from all producers even better.)

 

[SoonerAviator]

I love that I never lose the remote with my Apple TV.

It's on my wrist. (Apple Watch).

(There are those that say that I'm a fanboy, but the Apple products work for me. If whatever brand your using works for you, I say, "Great!" It'll only make the next generation of products from all producers even better.)

Same with Roku, has apps for Android, Apple, and Windows Phone if you wish to use it as a remote.

 

[RJM62]

ATV and Chromecast are my sole TV providers. I'll take Google and Apple over ComCast and DirectTV any day....especially Google. Not sure why Rich hates Google so much but I think they're the best company on earth bar none.

It's funny you should mention that because I've been wondering the opposite.

So many of us, pilots especially because we tend to value our freedom, worry about Big Brother monitoring our every move by way of agencies like DHS, TSA, NSA, and so forth; and for good reasons, in my opinion: We're watching our rights, our freedoms, our privacy, and our way of life eroding away.

And yet many (not all) of those same people willingly give away their most personal information to companies like Google and Facebook who know who we are, where we live, where we travel, where we work, how we get there, where we stop to pee, who we know, how often we see them, what we eat, where we eat it, where we shop, what we buy, what plastic we use to pay for it, what pills we take and for what maladies, what we like, what we hate, what movies we watch, how we watch them, what papers we read, what forums we visit, what we say on those forums, who we vote for, what kinds of cars we drive, what kind of planes we fly, what fuel we use, how we pay for it, who we ****, where we **** them, and whether we need Viagra to do it.

Not only this, but we give them all this information knowing that they admittedly sell it all to the highest bidder, because all of it is valuable to someone. And when those "someones" demand even more data, all they have to do is let Google, Facebook, et. al. know, and they'll get it, by gosh, because those someones -- not us -- are their customers. We're just the product; and those someones, not us, are who Big Data answers to.

That's about as plain as I can make it. Hopefully now you can understand why I hate Google. Or maybe not. But one thing's for sure: For the life of me, I sure as **** can't understand why you don't.

Rich

 

[JimNtexas]

The Roku 3/4 have the same capability (and more) as the ATV. So unless you are locked into the Apple universe, there are better options. Plex/etc make great media servers if you already have a lot of downloaded media.

Because Roko doesn't sell content it may be the best choice for user not locked into one ecosystem.

 

[Jaybird180]

Rich
I am trying to parse your words but cannot understand why the references to s.p.i.n. is there

 

[RalphInCA]

It's funny you should mention that because I've been wondering the opposite.

So many of us, pilots especially because we tend to value our freedom, worry about Big Brother monitoring our every move by way of agencies like DHS, TSA, NSA, and so forth; and for good reasons, in my opinion: We're watching our rights, our freedoms, our privacy, and our way of life eroding away.

And yet many (not all) of those same people willingly give away their most personal information to companies like Google and Facebook who know who we are, where we live, where we travel, where we work, how we get there, where we stop to pee, who we know, how often we see them, what we eat, where we eat it, where we shop, what we buy, what plastic we use to pay for it, what pills we take and for what maladies, what we like, what we hate, what movies we watch, how we watch them, what papers we read, what forums we visit, what we say on those forums, who we vote for, what kinds of cars we drive, what kind of planes we fly, what fuel we use, how we pay for it, who we ****, where we **** them, and whether we need Viagra to do it.

Not only this, but we give them all this information knowing that they admittedly sell it all to the highest bidder, because all of it is valuable to someone. And when those "someones" demand even more data, all they have to do is let Google, Facebook, et. al. know, and they'll get it, by gosh, because those someones -- not us -- are their customers. We're just the product; and those someones, not us, are who Big Data answers to.

That's about as plain as I can make it. Hopefully now you can understand why I hate Google. Or maybe not. But one thing's for sure: For the life of me, I sure as **** can't understand why you don't.

Rich

Go ahead and build a nice deep bomb shelter to live in Rich and buy lots of tin for your hats, hope you enjoy your life down there.

I for one, even though I have thought much about the subject, just am not bothered by Google and others knowing a lot about me. Just doesn't bother me.

If by knowing me it allows them to target ads to me that are actually relevant to my life, so that I can continue to get free information via a powerfully useful Internet, than great! Makes my life more enjoyable. Sure beats the days of being bombarded by useless info.

If by knowing me, and others like me, it allows them to focus on develop products that are are useful - than great! At least they are not wasting time and money and resources on things that are not needed.

 

[denverpilot]

^^^ every smart TV I've owned (two Sony and one Samsung) allows you to launch and install apps without any registration process.



That said, I've also found the apps for smart devices to be vastly inferior to the same apps made for the AppleTV and Roku.

Adding for Rich... The Samsung apps on our new TV don't require any sign up as far as I can tell. They're a little but not overly buggy and less featured than their ATV equivalents.

 

[Captain]

Rich~

Couple points. Google is not FaceBook. I wouldn't trust FB with the combo to a broken bike lock. Google, otoh, I fully trust will all my data. There are reasons for both positions.

Google does not sell your data. They sell agrogated data. An advertiser can buy an ad for everyone who's searched for lawn mowers and if you have you'll get the ad. But the advertiser doesn't see you specifically. Besides, smarter ads are a good thing. If you're searching for lawn mowers presumably you're in the market for a lawn mower. Why wouldn't you rather see an ad for something you actually want versus a tampon?

Lastly, Google freely gives back what data they take. For example, open google maps and press the hamburger menu(3 dots in upper left on most phones). There an option for "Time Line" that will show you your complete history of location data that they have collected and they match that with photos you took to provide a true timeline for you. You stupid phone provider collects the exact same data but try to get it from them. Not gonna happen but they'll be more than happy to sell it to any LEO in the country for a fee and a lack of a court order doesn't slow them down one second.

Again, bar none, Google is Americas best companies fostering good practices and an open ecosystem.

 

[FastEddieB]

Everything's a tradeoff.

Yes, it's a little unnerving to think my every move is being tracked.

Then again, it's quite handy when Waze has me get off GA400 an exit early to avoid a huge traffic jam, or late at night warns me of an object in the road ahead that I miss, largely because I slowed down due to the warning.

It's a brave new world, and everyone will have a different comfort level with the apparent loss of privacy involved.

I find it a worthwhile trade, YMMV.

Full disclosure: I'm a Google shareholder.

 

[RJM62]

Go ahead and build a nice deep bomb shelter to live in Rich and buy lots of tin for your hats, hope you enjoy your life down there.

I for one, even though I have thought much about the subject, just am not bothered by Google and others knowing a lot about me. Just doesn't bother me.

. . . .

Okay, so if you "think much" about something, but then decide that it doesn't bother you, anyone who disagrees is in the tin-foil hat camp?

You're not even worth talking to.

Rich

 

[FastEddieB]

My unit arrived last night.

By coincidence, I listened to the latest MacCast walking the dogs this morning before setting ours up:

http://www.maccast.com/2015/11/01/maccast-2015-10-31/

Let me just say for now that my setup experience pretty much mirrored Adam's: fairly straightforward but clunkier than it needed to be. The on screen "keyboard" interface is especially atrocious. But love the remote!

Overall satisfied and will report back later on our way to our impressions after a few more days of use.

 

[kayoh190]

I just bought one today. So far I like it well enough - the fact that Plex is available is a huge deal for me, and worth the price alone. The jury is still out on the remote - I find myself overshooting the target when swiping left and right, but perhaps it's merely a matter of getting used to it.

Wish it were 4K on general principle (not sure that I'd notice the difference anyway), but it's hard to get too ****ed about a product that's only $149 (I got the 32GB model).

 

[FastEddieB]

The jury is still out on the remote - I find myself overshooting the target when swiping left and right, but perhaps it's merely a matter of getting used to it.

You can adjust that in "Settings" - I think it has "Slow" "Normal" and "Fast".

But I know what you mean, and may try "Slow" if I don't adapt after a while.

 

[RJM62]

I just bought one today. So far I like it well enough - the fact that Plex is available is a huge deal for me, and worth the price alone. The jury is still out on the remote - I find myself overshooting the target when swiping left and right, but perhaps it's merely a matter of getting used to it.

Wish it were 4K on general principle (not sure that I'd notice the difference anyway), but it's hard to get too ****ed about a product that's only $149 (I got the 32GB model).

The remote actually turned me off when I looked at it. I like old-fashioned buttons. My Blu-Ray player's remote has dozens of them. I don't know what most of them do, and I don't think some of them do anything; but I do like having them. There's something oddly sensual about their rubbery feel.

Rich

 

[FastEddieB]

Handle your new remote carefully...

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2015/11/treat-your-new-apple-tv-remote-with-kid-gloves-it-breaks

At $79 for a new remote - over 1/2 of the price of the base AppleTV, I'm already looking for a protective case for mine!*

To Rich's love of buttons...there's no accounting for taste!

When I pick up my DVD player remote, I have the opposite reaction - so many buttons arranged poorly and often labeled cryptically and tiny, have me bemoaning poor design. We often watch TV with the lights turned down, and God forbid we actually have to use that god forsaken device to do something...well, you get the idea!

*Let me know if anyone finds a case being sold for the new remote - no joy so far for me.

 

[RJM62]

Handle your new remote carefully...

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2015/11/treat-your-new-apple-tv-remote-with-kid-gloves-it-breaks

At $79 for a new remote - over 1/2 of the price of the base AppleTV, I'm already looking for a protective case for mine!*

To Rich's love of buttons...there's no accounting for taste!

When I pick up my DVD player remote, I have the opposite reaction - so many buttons arranged poorly and often labeled cryptically and tiny, have me bemoaning poor design. We often watch TV with the lights turned down, and God forbid we actually have to use that god forsaken device to do something...well, you get the idea!

*Let me know if anyone finds a case being sold for the new remote - no joy so far for me.

Maybe some Plasti-Dip would help? Just tape off the front and spray the rest of the thing. It'll give it that sexy, rubberized feeling and help cushion it if it falls.

As for me, I'll stay with my buttons.

I don't care much for touch screens or swiping in general, whether on remotes, phones, or most other devices. I prefer function over form, and I find buttons more functional. I also can't help but feel that touch screens are way too delicate. They also require clean hands, which complicates things when the phone rings while I'm eating chicken wings, working on an engine, etc.

But I guess I'm in the minority. When my BlackBerry Q10 arrived, I took a picture of it and texted it to my daughter. "LOL! Buttons!" she replied. To my knowledge, no one else is even making phones with real keyboards anymore.

The only places where I prefer touch screens are on POS systems and on auto / aircraft navigation systems. They make sense there. They speed up interaction, and usually you have clean hands when flying, driving, or operating a cash register. For the rest, give me buttons any day. Even on my BlackBerry I kind of wish I'd waited for the Classic with the track pad to come out. It's not that the touch screen is hard to use. I just don't care for touch screens very much.

Rich

 

[FastEddieB]

Lengthy discussion on yesterday's MacBreak Weekly.

Lots of tips and tricks.

No podcast app yet, but there are three TWIT apps, and the free one is fine.

 

[LevelWing]

I bought the new AppleTV today and so far I'm very impressed. Easy setup. There's more apps than I thought there would be this early, which I'm glad to see. The remote is functional for the most part though searching is still difficult because you have to select each letter individually. I have the "Remote" app on my iPhone which worked with the last generation AppleTV but so far I haven't been able to get it to work. The Siri function on the remote is great and certainly makes things a lot easier.

Boxes like this are likely the future of TV. I can watch some live TV, such as CNN, and there's games. I'm sure the games will continue to get better as time goes on.

 

[rpadula]

To Rich's love of buttons...there's no accounting for taste!

When I pick up my DVD player remote, I have the opposite reaction - so many buttons arranged poorly and often labeled cryptically and tiny, have me bemoaning poor design. We often watch TV with the lights turned down, and God forbid we actually have to use that god forsaken device to do something...well, you get the idea!

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/17/8...apples-brand-to-make-a-tv-remote-look-special

 

[RJM62]

You have to be a statistical anomaly to have that happen seven times. In any case, I believe there's a "skip registration" option, or you can delete the info after the initial registration with the Roku 3/4. So, you can get around the CC info if you want to . . . just as an FYI

I finally got around to calling Roku yesterday, and they do in fact have a special link that allows users to register their devices without providing a payment method. You can't skip registration altogether, and it will keep nagging you for a payment method, but the device will work. So I re-activated my Roku 2.

They also accept PayPal as a payment method now. If it turns out that there's stuff on Roku that I actually want to buy, I'll give them a PayPal address. As long as I specify that they require a PayPal login for every purchase, which does seem to be an option, the risk is pretty negligible.

The Roku representative was very helpful. I explained that I had nothing against Roku in particular, but neither had I had anything against any of the other reputable companies whose breaches resulted in my data being compromised. I am just trying to limit my exposure. "No worries," she said, and immediately sent me the link to a registration form with a "skip" option for payment information.

Once I had the Roku back online, I also took out an Amazon Prime trial. So far, the free video offerings on Amazon don't have me doing back flips. But the video side of things just needs to be okay, not spectacular, to make the Prime membership worth it to me. The free 2-day shipping on most items and the monetary credit for orders specified as "no rush" (which would be most of mine) are the other side of the value. I'll poke around some more on the video side of Prime some more during the trial. There's probably something in there that will make it worthwhile.

Rich

 

[Jim_CAK]

You guys that have cut the cord - Are you using TV antennas for local TV? Any recomondations?

 

[Mason]

You guys that have cut the cord - Are you using TV antennas for local TV? Any recomondations?

I'm using one of THESE on my roof. Might be overkill, but my reception is amazing.

I am also using a ChannelMaster DVR, records OTA in HD.

 

[FastEddieB]

You guys that have cut the cord - Are you using TV antennas for local TV?

I would if I could, but live in a valley too far from population centers to get a signal.

 

[denverpilot]

We were "cord cutters" way before it was cool and whether ironically or just as a sign of not being wiling to put up with waiting for things to steam on our crappy rural "broadband" of 5Mb, we recently went back to a dish setup.

We were ten year Dish Network customers before but we decided to go DirecTV and Genie this time and frankly, I couldn't be happier.

Especially with NFL Sunday Ticket. I can't believe I was not doing that.

I know from the techie side of things that an OTA antenna is providing the best possible HD on full data rate broadcasts, and I know the stuff I'm watching is compressed, but they've really done an impressive job on the codec.

The number one annoyance with the Apple TV is they still don't have a variable bitrate codec. Netflix does. Staring up an HD show on Apple is a "your show will begin in 21 minutes" event out here. Netflix, it starts cranking away at the best possible resolution it can manage to get from the available pipe, and that's so much nicer. Same with Amazon.

 

[LevelWing]

Especially with NFL Sunday Ticket. I can't believe I was not doing that.

This is the biggest reason I don't get rid of satellite altogether. Otherwise, there's very few channels I watch. I never understood how advertising that you get over "130 channels" or whatever the case is was all that appealing.

 

[colojo]

Which actually brings up another question that's peripherally related to this thread...

I sometimes ponder buying an actual smart TV. Right now I'm using a wide-screen computer monitor coming off the Blu-Ray player. But I'd like something a little bigger.

Do any of the companies that make Smart TVs allow them to be used without having to register them with the TV manufacturer or provide a payment method? In other words, I'm looking for one that I can just plug in, connect to my Netflix (or whatever) account, and use, without having to create a new account. Are there any such Smart TVs out there?

Thanks.

Rich

I have a couple Samsung SMART TV's purchased in the last 9 months. On them we can watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. just by opening the appropriate app and logging into our accounts on these services. Kind of like a built-in Roku. They've been working great.

 

[dans2992]

I was initially excited to get the new AppleTV, but the number of movies available to _rent_ has decreased lately. Now, the only option on many of them seems to be "buy" and not being a person who re-watches a movie I've seen, I refuse to spend that much...

 

[denverpilot]

I was initially excited to get the new AppleTV, but the number of movies available to _rent_ has decreased lately. Now, the only option on many of them seems to be "buy" and not being a person who re-watches a movie I've seen, I refuse to spend that much...

Jobs was the negotiator with the content providers, starting with music and later removing DRM from the music. Cook isn't gonna be able to seal the deals.

That's why they moved AppleTV to an "app" and gaming platform. The network based content providers hate Apple, Netflix, etc and slowly built and are building other ways to deliver their goods on their terms.

Netflix fought back by creating their own content which generally is excellent.

Apple has nowhere to go but down or more expensive in content delivery, unfortunately. Some seasons of popular TV shows are above $35-39 now. Those started around $24.

Content providers pushed the prices up to make their other more "bundled" delivery partners that have to take the crap channels along with the useful ones. They prefer the delivery mechanisms that insert advertising. It's all they know.

 

[FastEddieB]

Some seasons of popular TV shows are above $35-39 now. Those started around $24.

Hulu works for us for the handful of TV shows we watch*. Netflix works for older shows.

We rarely rent movies, maybe three classics over 3 or 4 years - all on Amazon, IIRC. We generally wait for them to come to Netflix or Amazon Prime - our Vizio TV has that built in.

The whole system is still kinda clunky, but improving. Right now I have today's Meet The Press playing on my 47" Vizio from my iPhone running the NBC News app via AirPlay - convoluted, but it works and it's free.

*CBS is making it difficult. We'd like to watch the current season of "The Good Wife", but they're making it nearly impossible without paying for CBS All Access, which we're not going to do.