I'd say Fire cube. I have an Apple tv , Air tv mini and Fire cube and it gives the best performance
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I have AppleTV and FireTV Cube ... hate the apple TV love the FireTVCube.
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How about the newer ‘ Chromecast with Google TV ‘ dongle.
So far it has worked well for me with Tablo, HDHomerun, YouTube TV,
etc.
Is this unit in the same category as AppleTV TiVo Stream, etc?
(I just saw the Apple TV app is included on Chromecast)
It’s roughly comparable/equivalent to the TiVo Stream 4K. Slightly different Home Screen, roughly the same hardware/processor/storage, basically the same price, but a couple of additional limitations, (The Chromecast with Google TV (CCGTV) does not support picture-in-picture (PIP), not does it allow for running the DVR server on it.)
What are some of the better options for PIP?
- Best – Apple TV
- Better – Nvidia Shield
- Good – TiVo Stream 4K, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
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Just got the Apple TV 4K and love it! Works great with my phone as I do not have to put any passwords in. Thanks for tip!
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This is going to be personal preference for a lot of it. The interfaces are not exactly the same for Channels on Android/Fire vs. Apple TV. But, the Apple TV gets new features first so that is important. And for me, with a very large library and Kids in the house, the Apple TV has some library organization capabilities that the others don't. At some point that will probably be at parity. The only negative things about the Apple TV are that its expensive for such a long time from release, and its remote has some pretty big pros/cons. We mitigate the remote with a cheap universal and use them both depending on what we are doing (One for All Streamer at ~ $20). I have both Android an Apple TV in the house and much prefer the Apple TV for being really fast, huge buffer, and clean interface with ZERO ads and such.
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I have been using the Channels app on Chromecast with Google TV with great success. This device is the latest $49 Chromecast). Channels operates very well with Live TV and DVR'd TV and Movies.
I know channels is not making an app for roku but when it comes to a clean U.I..... roku is probably the best. Sometimes they put a small add at the bottom but there interface is similar to apple, most of you'd apps on 1 screen with an add to the left advertising different shows to watch. I use emby & channels so I get my guide through emby but I know from emby forums & here, developing software for the roku player is a real P.I.T.A. I'm hoping in the future roku makes more options available for developers when customizing their software for the device because I think hands down roku has the best U.I. amazons u.u is just way to cluttered with pay for movies & crap. Other then roku, the best U.I is apple tv, but the remote sucks.
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I’ll throw my vote in for Apple TV 4K. As others have mentioned:
Ads - Apple TV has none. You manage your content and apps as you see fit with no annoying banners or suggestions.
Hardware - most robust option available. Super fast and smooth with constant support and updates.
Ease of Use - I’m in the PRO Apple TV remote club. I love how simple and easy to use it is once you’ve become familiar with the touchpad. The interface is super familiar and very easy for anyone to use. You can put your most used apps on the top row and tuck everything else into a folder. Super easy for the wife and kids to use also.
Channels Server/Client - I have 5 Apple TV’s throughout the house and they all work great together sharing content from the DVR or live TV. It’s also very easy to manage each device with the recent update to control everything from the server settings.
I have a few other clients I use including Android TV, TiVo Stream 4K, and Amazon Fire Stick. I can tolerate them, but really hate the ads and the interface lacks any real organization in my opinion. They are great cheap alternatives for TVs that don’t get much use, but I much prefer the Apple TV as my daily driver.
ICYMI, the OP went with ATV.
Typo
The Apple TV box sounds excellent. I have tried Sling, YouTube TV
Nvidia Shield, etc.
I love the user interface and layout of DirecTV. It’s old school
display of recorded shows, upcoming recordings and a fair amount
of user configuration is useful.
Does Apple, or anyone, offer the kind of features DirecTV does?
Thx.
Apple TV and Nvidia Shield are hardware devices. Sling, YouTube TV and Direct TV are software applications.
All three applications will run on both Apple TV and Shield devices. The features of Direct TV are consistent across both devices.
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Do any of the hardware of software systems out there provide (display) the
list of recorded shows. Kinda along the lines of the old Tivo hard drive boxes,
cable DVR's or DirecTV?
We are old and not adapting to the streaming approach.
That would be a function of the software design, not the Apple TV or Shield devices. I don't know is the short answer as I'm not familiar with the Direct TV interface. I've not seen any of the streaming apps display recordings like TiVo.
You're best approach is to sign up with the different streaming services, load their app on either the Apple TV or Shield and see which one best matches what you want.
Check out the link and keep in mind, you can install all of these on either the Apple TV or Shield. All offer a free trial so you can test them out.
If you mean you want an integrated a list of streaming shows that looks like the live TV program guides or the "My Shows" recordings lists on TiVo or cable/Direct boxes, then I can say that TiVo and Sling are attempting to do that on the TiVo Stream 4K. I'm sure there are others, but I'm not sure any of them do it well.
I'm managing everything in separate Fire TV apps here: Channels DVR app for live TV and recorded TV, Netflix app for Netflix, Prime app for Prime, Disney+ app for Disney+, and yes we forget where stuff is sometimes. But I say that's a nice problem to have! So much content, lol.
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Yeah, the wife does not like having to search around or switch apps to find
what she is after.
Thanks for the ideas. Still looking.
This sounds a lot like the current UI of Channels, to me. [shrug]
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