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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