Gonna Scrap Apple TV

[aced411]

I bought a 3rd gen Apple TV, and I absolutely love it but...... Whenever I am at my Girlfriends house, her Roku just never stops blowing me away! Netflix, Crackel, Hulu Plus, Amazon on Demand, ect....! The content never ends. I'm thinking of selling my Apple TV to trade in for a Roku. I know Apple does not respond to these forums, but I hope they read them. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add more content.

I have both and have used both extensively. Roku is a far more reliable and diverse. Apple TV has a better Netflix UI and can handle higher quality video. Higher bit rate videos like those made from the apple TV handbrake atv3 setting push the roku too hard so in that case you get an unreliable experience, but that's not Roku's fault. Apple TV can be infuriating with iTunes sharing dropouts and occasional Netflix issues.

Some people claim their apple tv experience has been hassle free. I don't know if those people have cable or 100% rely on streaming like we do. For me owning both was the best decision. My recommendation is to buy a roku and keep your apple TV around for at least airplay. Besides who knows what future updates might hold for apple's black box

 

[CocoaPuffs]

ATV2 had exploits that were the same as iPhone/iPad and didn't require additional work.

Obviously those same exploits used to JB latest iPhone/iPad do not work ATV3, and thus ATV3 remains unjailbreakable.

Someone will have to basically dedicate his/her time to focus on exploiting ATV3, or maybe get lucky with other device that will also work with ATV3.

 

[bobr1952]

I have both an ATV2 and Roku. I use my ATV everyday to stream music to my HT--and also use it to rent iTunes content. I use Roku for Amazon content--and use both for Netflix. Although if Apple added Amazon then I probably would no longer need Roku but there is close to a zero chance of that happening. So it looks like both are indispensable to me.

(I should add that I don't jailbreak--so having both ATV and Roku is fine for me)

 

[CocoaPuffs]

I feel like a retard repeating this all the time...but XBMC does offer Amazon plug-in, which means if you jailbreak your ATV2, you wouldn't need Roku.

 

[spiderman0616]

I just did the opposite.

I had the Roku 1 XD and the Roku 2 XS. I just sold the XS and got Apple TV 3.

Roku is a great little box. It has a lot of content choices--there are a lot more "channels"/"apps" available for Roku than there are on Apple TV. We are cord cutters, so we rely heavily on HuluPlus and Netflix. So why did I switch?

1. When we rent movies, buy music, subscribe to TV shows that aren't available on Netflix or Hulu, all in iTunes. We are big iTunes Match users. We are big fans of PhotoStream. There are two iPods, an iPad, and an iPhone in our house as well as a MacBook. My point? Our digital life lives are mostly in iOS/iTunes. Apple TV can't do Hulu, but Hulu recently added AirPlay support, so we can AirPlay HuluPlus to the Apple TV or watch it on our other TV on the PS3.

2. Home Sharing. I can home share files from our downstairs computer to the Apple TV in the living room. This was possible on Roku as well, but Roku is very picky about what file formats it will read. Even when I plugged in an external hard drive right to the Roku box, it would play some MP4 files and not others. There never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to it.

3. An unexpected reason: The picture quality on the Apple TV seems way better. I thought the Roku did HD content pretty well, but there was a noticeable difference in quality on the Apple TV. My wife wouldn't have necessarily noticed that, but I definitely did. I watched a trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man on the trailers app, and I was blown away.

I can clearly see why Apple TV was kind of a dud when it first came out. This box would have been much lamer without iCloud. But in its current state, it's like a central home entertainment hub where all of our content can be consumed all because of iCloud.

The only thing I'm not thrilled with is that my iPhone 4 and my wife's iPod Touch 4th gen do not do HD mirroring. The only way we can AirPlay HuluPlus (without jailbreaking, which I'm not willing to do) is from my iPad 3, which is always with me, and doesn't do her much good when she's home and I'm not. So for that, she still has to use the AV adapter and plug it right into the TV. But in my eyes, that's a small price to pay.

 

[jimthing]

New info!

Does anyone have more reliable info on the hacking currently happening on JB-ing the ATV3; please come and let us all know.

(I tend to get pissed-off with trying to keep-up with those XBMC/Plex forums, as the info is unclear with mixed messages coming from all directions constantly.
They never seem to offer a straight-forward section on their sites' where clear up-to-date info is put for each device, so we don't have to traipse through their forums all the time to pick out the details of what the current situation is!).

appletvhacks would likely have any info posted once its available

For everyone's information, it looks like a non-jailbreak method has been found, as quoted on http://www.appletvhacks.net here:
Plex now works on non-jailbroken Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3

Haven't done it yet myself, but looks like it may need more work before being worth doing. Anyone tried this yet, and if so any thoughts on usability?

 

[Idgit]

Haven't done it yet myself, but looks like it may need more work before being worth doing. Anyone tried this yet, and if so any thoughts on usability?

Yeah, I've done it. It works well, but is still in the earlier stages. Fortunately, development is currently progressing at a decent pace. You can read the PlexConnect roadmap here.

 

[E.Lizardo]

I have both the ATV and a Roku (you can own both you know), but we really do not use the Roku that much. While i would like to see Apps on the ATV, TBH i am already paying for netflix and i have most of what we watch in iTunes so i do not see the need to pay for Hulu or any of the other stuff.

I'm just the opposite.I don't buy or rent from iTunes,so that's something I don't use.Most of my use is Netflix and Amazon prime since I already had prime anyway.Honestly most of the hundreds of Roku channels are public domain junk or just websites like break.com,but the two channels I mostly use make it worth it.Plus it plays Angry Birds!!!*yawn*
Anyway they both have strong points and I am glad I have both.ATV for content on my computer and streaming music to my home theater,plus airplay is nice sometimes.Roku is my workhorse for Netflix+Amazon,plus it has plex with no workarounds needed.
They compliment each other well,and I really hope Apple does more to compete in this market,that last update was worthless to me.

And WTF is with the downvotes on the OP?Hilarious!
Wait...How do you even get downvotes???

 

[E.Lizardo]

I think you miss the point entirely.

To start with, the portable iOS devices have largely heavily all been JB'd now, hence the community around the hacking of them continues as it's always done since the earliest iOS breaks.

This thread is specifically talking about the ATV3, which users want to plug into the 2nd/3rd/4th TV's in their homes with the client software versions of Plex or XBMC, in order to have content stream from where their main TV usually is connected to (for example) a Mac Mini –with external storage hanging off it containing their whole video/audio libraries– which thus has the main server software for Plex or XBMC.

ATV3 offers 1080p streaming from server to client (which ATV2 doesn't): that's the whole reason for a jailbreak of the device to be important to several 100,000 users.

Hence surely a great incentive for XBMC/Plex specific hackers to get into the thing for both their own usage and the mass XBMC/Plex community as a whole.

It is frustrating to wait this long,but other devices are so cheap why not get one of those?Yes it is an additional box,but it sounds like it's really important to you and you can have what you want tonight for less than $100 US.You can always sell your Roku if the ever do jailbreak the ATV,which is more doubtful every day.

 

[jimthing]

It is frustrating to wait this long,but other devices are so cheap why not get one of those?Yes it is an additional box,but it sounds like it's really important to you and you can have what you want tonight for less than $100 US.You can always sell your Roku if the ever do jailbreak the ATV,which is more doubtful every day.

No one has to wait anymore; a new non-jailbreak method of adding Plex to ATV 3 has arrived recently! See:
Plex now works on non-jailbroken Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3

 

[E.Lizardo]

No one has to wait anymore; a new non-jailbreak method of adding Plex to ATV 3 has arrived recently! See:
Plex now works on non-jailbroken Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3

Yep I heard about that.Wish Apple would add Amazon though.