Hi,

I'm looking to reduce my Prime footprint. Increasing disappointed in their services, the Fire TV experience is trending to crap, and they are crossing certain lines for me.

I'm looking to replace my Fire TV. Seems like Roku 4 and Apple TV are potential candidates (support UHD, higher end audio, Netflix, Viki and Prime content).

Any recommendations between the two?

I have an Apple TV box and its pretty good

have never tried Roku

I have had all three and pick the Roku currently. It lets me have all of the large content providers and isn't dependant on the apple infrastructure. My apple tv randomly crapped itself and the replacement cost was high. The Roku replacement cost would be far cheaper. The rokus perform well and I e had no issues besides an occasional restart being needed. I also like the variety of apps offered by Roku and the ability to stream my cable service etc.

If you are into the apple brand and invested in the rest of the line then I imagine that would make more sense.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
... the Fire TV experience is trending to crap, and they are crossing certain lines for me.
I'm looking to replace my Fire TV.

Out of curiosity, what about Fire TV are the negatives to you? As far as your inquiry, I have Fire Sticks, Apple TV's, and Google Chromecasts - never had Roku. I like the Chromecasts the least because there is no remote control other than using apps on your phone for Netflix, YouTube TV, etc. I don't really have a preference between Apple TV and Fire Sticks other than the Apple TV is able to access my Apple Music account.

If you have Apple products already (iPhone, Mac computers) use Apple TV.

If you don't have Apple products, get the Roku.

I use Roku devices and TV's, as my cable company streams easily on them, and Apple doesn't give me any added features as I don't have iProducts to interact with.

I’ve had 3 or 4 AppleTVs over the years, and I’ve always been happy with them, especially my current AppleTV 4K. Roku may be good and all, but I’m an Apple Universe guy. My daughter has a Roku and it does its job, but I still prefer my setup which I’m used to.

I have two Apple TVs (gen 3 and gen 4), two smart TVs and one Fire Stick. Which sounds like a lot for a guy who doesn't watch a lot of tv!

I like the Apple TV box, but I'm afraid that Apple is going to dump it, as they are moving to an online subscription model.

The Fire Stick is nice. Live TV plus on-demand, pretty much solves the cord-cutting problem.

Gibb nails it perfectly above!

Never tried a Firestick and have as few Apples as possible. Don't like Apple's politics nor their planned obsolescence on some of their products and how they treat those products once obsolete. Been happy with ROKU for several years ... but use it mostly for streaming Amazon Prime video (and Pluto) while trying to go to sleep at night. Don't think I'd ever refer to ROKU as "higher end audio" (may be "higher end" than Firestick, dunno). For streaming music, which I do most all day, I have Sonos.

I have a lot of Apple products but still use the Roku Ultra. Had the Premiere (smaller, cheaper, wifi only no ethernet) but the Ultra kicks its ass.

I also have a lot of media (movies, tv shows) on a PC and have Plex media server installed and Roku has a Plex app so the Roku plays the media and (more importantly) catalogues and organizes it. Super cool!

I don’t see the benefit of Apple TV. We use iPhones and iPads for their primary purposes but their use is irrelevant to how / what we want to stream on a TV.

The Roku concept is both flexible and, so far, resistant to obsolescence. Yes, you will periodically replace the particular device / model with an upgraded version but they are cheap and easy to replace. And, it’s not as if competing devices also don’t need to be replaced.

We've had a Roku 2, Android TV (Xiaomi MiBox 3 and MiBox S), Fire TV (Gen. 2 and current non-4k stick), and Apple TV 4K.

Of them all, the Apple TV 4K has far-and-away been the best experience--and that's with the integration with our other Apple devices aside.

I can't speak to the current Roku devices. We use an OTA TV system for which there's no Roku support for a variety of technical and logistical reasons, so it has not been in contention for us recently. I know I never cared much for the one Roku device we had.

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
I have two Apple TVs (gen 3 and gen 4), two smart TVs and one Fire Stick. Which sounds like a lot for a guy who doesn't watch a lot of tv!

Same here

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
I like the Apple TV box, but I'm afraid that Apple is going to dump it, as they are moving to an online subscription model.

Not sure what that means. E.g.: How would people view their on-line subscription services w/o a streaming device?

Apple TV is a streaming device. (And more, but that's another discussion.) Apple TV+ is Apple's streaming service. They fill different roles.

We've got three Rokus of various types. All do what they are supposed to except I've had pairing issues with one remote. Been using the smart phone remote control app on that one until I can figure out if I really need to buy a new remote. Aftermarket remotes are cheap so I'll probably end up going that direction.

Now, since we are almost exclusively Apple on all of our hand held devices, if I were to replace one today it would probably be an Apple TV. They have been talking comeing out with a newer, less expensive model for some time now. Don't know if that will ever happen though.

Brief excursion, but what system are you using for OTA, ensigmatic?

A graceful, user friendly (ie wife’s perspective) OTA DVR has remained somewhat elusive over the years. We use a Tivo but they’ve long had their limitations and she gets annoyed with swapping inputs from Tivo to Roku.

We use Roku, since we started with that - even though we use Apple for most everything else.

We just upgraded the downstairs TV to a TCL with Roku inside it, so it saved me another Roku box.

quote:

Originally posted by FHHM213:
Brief excursion, but what system are you using for OTA, ensigmatic?

See my post in Streaming TV Component Review

quote:

Originally posted by FHHM213:
A graceful, user friendly (ie wife’s perspective) OTA DVR has remained somewhat elusive over the years.

Perhaps best to bring this conversation over to the thread cited above, rather than muddy-up konata88's thread? I've followed-up to your above comment there.

quote:

Originally posted by NavyGuy:

We've got three Rokus of various types. All do what they are supposed to except I've had pairing issues with one remote.

We have an older Roku. Every now and again it loses communication with the remote. Re-booting the Roku fixes it and everything works for a month or two before the Roku box needs to be re-booted again.

Personally use an Apple TV is since my other devices are apart of that ecosystem.

For senior members of the family, Roku seems to be easier to navigate and the remote usage is easier for senior hands versus Apple's touchpad.

Thanks guys!

Seems kind of like a toss up between Roku Ultra and Apple 4K. I'll read all the comments more closely to see if I can glean something to break the tie.

Fire TV has been giving me the spinning circle or the 3 dots more frequently and for longer durations over time. I have to keep going to Home and/or force stop / clear cache for apps and/or reset the device. The UI is now painfully slow - it doesn't refresh content and significant lags when scrolling. And apps occasionally crashing now.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by NavyGuy:

We've got three Rokus of various types. All do what they are supposed to except I've had pairing issues with one remote.

We have an older Roku. Every now and again it loses communication with the remote. Re-booting the Roku fixes it and everything works for a month or two before the Roku box needs to be re-booted again.

Like I said, you need to periodically replace the hardware. My aging iPad has its limitations. But a new Roku is a lot cheaper than a new iAnything.