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| Min-Chin-Chu-Ru... Speed with Glare |
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Is that a Firestick? TV illiterate here | |||
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Fighting the good fight |
No, but it's the same concept, just from Apple rather than Amazon, who makes the Firestick. The standalone Roku, Apple TV, Firestick, etc. devices all do basically the same thing: It's a box that you plug into your TV that allows you to stream video content through the Internet onto your TV via apps. (Nowadays, many smart TV manufacturers are skipping the intermediary aftermarket box, and are just building their TVs with an integral operating system and interface from Fire/Roku/Apple/etc. No need for a separate box; it's now all built in to the TV and its menu.) | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
We still have one. A 27" model that just keeps chugging along. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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More light than heat |
I just switched to an AppleTV and reconfigured my home theater after growing weary of the Android TV interface on my Sony. I'm a fan, particularly if you already are in the Apple universe. My favorite is the ability to effortlessly cast video from your phone to the TV. It was a giant PITA with the Google interface. My wife prefers her Roku upstairs and that's the way I like it. _________________________ "Age does not bring wisdom. Often it merely changes simple stupidity into arrogant conceit. It's only advantage, so far as I have been able to see, is that it spans change. A young person sees the world as a still picture, immutable. An old person has had his nose rubbed in changes and more changes and still more changes so many times that that he knows it is a moving picture, forever changing. He may not like it--probably doesn't; I don't--but he knows it's so, and knowing is the first step in coping with it." Robert Heinlein | |||
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Nullus Anxietas |
Depends on what you like. We have iPhones and iPads, and I have an Apple Watch. Integration with Apple TV was a plus. You may be bypassing your use of the smart features on the TV by using a streaming device. You may not be bypassing the TV's data collection and reporting of your use. If you read the ToS and follow the links to privacy and data sharing for some of these "smart" devices you may be surprised to find to what you agree.
I don't know about Roku's data collection and sharing policies, but that's another reason we went with Apple TV over all the others: Apple's privacy policies. To each their own. We had a 2nd Gen. Roku device. I never liked it. That was replaced with Android TV (now called "Google TV," I think?) when we first got the networked OTA tuner (see below), then Amazon Fire TV, lastly Apple TV devices. Your understanding is incorrect. They've come out with at least one new model since we moved to them a couple years ago or so, and they receive regular firmware upgrades/updates. Same with our OTA networked digital tuner and whole-house DVR. There are apps for Android/Google TV, Fire TV, and Apple TV streamers. Not for Roku. According to one developer of such apps: Roku makes working with their ecosystem a PITA, so they don't bother. "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven!  |
I'm talking about the hardware. It's my understanding that Apple has not updated the Apple TV hardware in a few years now? Compare that to the Roku which now comes as a TV, a stick or a small box. | |||
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| When you fall, I will be there to catch you -With love, the floor |
I bought a new LG a few months back. Hated the "Smart" startup. I found a menu item that changes it to the "dumb" setting which is much better for my needs as it allows access tyo the apps whenever I need them. | |||
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Optimistic Cynic |
Absolutely! But you will have to hook up some sort of "smart" device to decode any signal/stream supplied by your content provider, e.g. a set top box from your cable company. If you get content from something like YouTubeTV, a computer will do, or something like a Roku or Amazon Fire. I have used a number of these content boxes, and I will say that the user interfaces are not all that much better than those provided by the TV manufacturers. Right now I have a Raspberry Pi 400 hooked up, mostly to watch movies and other downloaded content I have on disk. Of course, the size and resolution of the monitor makes a difference in the quality of the experience, but if it can take an HDMI input, you have many many options for the decoder part. Don't forget audion, most monitors audio capabilities are abysmal. The audio will feed through HDMI as well, but some content boxes provide other options. And the other component assumed present in a typical TV setup, a remote control, needs to be considered. Most of the content boxes have some sort of remote included. But if you are feeding the monitor through a PC, this can be a little more of a challenge to provision. Don't expect a $100 PC monitor to provide the same video experience as a $2K TV, but you certainly can watch TV on it (assuing the right supporting equipment). There are even TV cards that can be included in the PC chassis to do TV decoding and capture, etc. | |||
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| Nullus Anxietas |
The 3rd Generation Apple TV 4K (HDR10+) debuted in Oct. 2022. By all accounts I've read it's still the most powerful streaming device on the market. Ok ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
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quarter MOA visionary |
Meh, it does work pretty well as does the Nvida Shield. The Shield albeit a little long in the tooth by comparison is still a worthy competitor. I think you will see some changes in this space in the future. Everyone competing for a TV OS, there will have to be some shake out. In the mean time always know it is fairly simple and not terribly costly to go a different direction from Amazon to Apple to Roku to GoogleTV and others. The differences are minor although as pointed out in another thread Paramount + and the inability of some OS to use a higher resolution audio/video (as on my Samsung TV OS -built-in) is disappointing. .02 | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
Yeah, that's an example of one of the 0.1% differences between these smart TV platforms. Paramount+ will only stream 4K/HDR/5.1/Atmos content on the Big 4 smart TV platforms: Roku, Apple, Android, or Fire. Users with other smart platforms, like any of the manufacturer-specific smart TV OSs or using external gaming devices like Xbox/Playstation, still can get the Paramount+ app and watch all their content, but can only stream in 1080P and Stereo. But that's an inexplicable outlier. As far as I've seen, Paramount+ is the only streaming app that limits full quality audio/video to only a handful of smart platforms. Every other streaming service app works the same from one smart TV platform to the next. Another example of one of these minor differences is that a few of them have their own video streaming app that's only available on their own devices, like Roku and their Roku Channel app. But it's not top tier content, mainly being old movies and shows that they can get the rights for dirt cheap (and which are usually also available on other apps too), so it's not worth ditching whatever's already working for you and getting a Roku solely to access the Roku Channel app. Most of the other in-house streaming apps aren't locked to one type of device. Amazon's Prime Video streaming service still works on all the other smart TV platforms, not just Fire devices. Same with Apple's AppleTV+ streaming service, which works on all of them, not just Apple TV devices. | |||
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The sooner Speed Queen decides to start making TV's ,the better. Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency. Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first | |||
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Member |
Yeah, he’s screwed. Best thing you can do is never hook a new one up to the internet. Unless it’s flickering, doing something it shouldn’t, let it be and leave it alone. Rtings will have settings to dial in the picture and avoid custom calibration. They get in the ballpark to call it good enough. Brands, etc, is so variable. All about how much you/he would want to spend. LG’s C2 OLED is about the best bang for the buck out there if you can still find one as they’ve moved to the C3. If wanting to stick to LED, I’d definitely go for one of the Sony FALD models. If it’s just about $ and that’s it. Figure out size he wants. Go to Rtings and their reviews will have absolute best ($$$$), bang for the buck, and cheapest options. For an online source they can be trusted as they do extensive reviewing, calibration, and post all their data. They give you ratings for what you’ll honestly do with the panel. And definitely get a stick, an ATV, and do not use the native apps on the panel nor connect it to the internet. I have multiple friends who did not listen to this and ended up having to buy a new panel. Fucker fried. Then other friends with the same exact model, who did listen and bricked it out of the box, thing is still running like a champ. A panel needs to be a good panel, and not a computer too, or streaming platform too. I use the 4k ATV’s in every room. What am I doing? I'm talking to an empty telephone | |||
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| Smarter than the average bear |
Wow. That’s a name I haven’t thought of in quite some time. Curious if you ever distributed or repped any 12 volt product? | |||
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| Thank you Very little  |
Link Costco has a 55 inch Hisense 4K on sale for $259 free delivery and 3 year warranty... Yeah it's got Google TV in it but that or ROKU is par for the course, so it would be a good TV for the money. | |||
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If you get a smart TV and want to make it dumb just do not connect to any network. It will nag occasionally but you can just ignore it. Also during set up just say no to everything. If you connect it to any streaming device it goes back to being somewhat smart. | |||
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| quarter MOA visionary |
Yes, we did some 12v ~ car amps I believe. Most of what I recall was home audio, I still have a couple of the separates > power amp, tuner and a pre-Dolby surround sound unit. I still deploy a power amp in my system, the other stuff is stuck in a closet. I personally don't have any of their 12v but I do still have a few old school car power amps from some other manufacturers, mostly from the nineties that still work. | |||
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| Get my pies outta the oven! |
I’m not sure that I really follow some of you guys and your posts here with the seeming-paranoia about Roku or other devices collecting your user data. Do you not realize every time you pick up your smartphone that is happening? Every time you go anywhere on the internet, that’s happening. | |||
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| Nullus Anxietas |
Some of us don't believe that because we can't stop all data collection we shouldn't bother trying to stop any data collection. "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
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