My first thought was: what were all those people on MacRumors whinging about? I was expecting a disaster: it really isn't.
For example, the "horror" of the straight-line keyboard and entering login details. I didn't find this difficult at all. Frankly, I found it much better than the ATV3 experience. And, of course, the set-up of the box itself can be done via your iPhone. (Slight frustration here: it has to be connected to a wifi network for this. So a certain amount of faffing to set that up and then get the ATV4 to try again.) I love the remote: very easy to use, although I agree with everyone else that the scrolling direction is the opposite of what you'd expect. Perhaps an update will give you the option to reverse it.
The ATV4 turns my tv off if I send the box to sleep. It controls my TV's volume. It turns my tv on if the ATV4 is asleep and I wake it up. Sadly, it doesn't seem to change the input to the correct one, so I'm still having to use my TV's remote for that. Still, nice to have volume control. (I have an eight-year old Sony.)
Apps: Netflix downloaded almost instantly. It seems much crisper than the one on my Amazon Fire TV. Same interface so far as I can tell. The only difference: Siri can talk to it. I tested it with "Gabriel Macht", who stars in Suits. I thought my dodgy pronunciation would throw it. Not at all. It picked out Suits for me straight away. I then played the programme (it started very quickly) and tested Siri's abilities. It was able to skip back and forth, I loved the "what did she just say?" feature. (Though I had to tell Siri to turn the subtitles off. It didn't seem to do this automatically, though I didn't wait long.)
Great news: the NowTV app is up and running. Really beautiful. So much better than the NowTV box (which is a Roku 3, apparently, and it's going in the bin because it's redundant now). Very sharp. No Siri, sadly. Yet.
I didn't look for an ITV Player app. I tried AirPlaying it from my iPad. It didn't work. I could get sound but not video. I know there's no BBC iPlayer, but it's on its way. So the Amazon box isn't redundant yet: I'll definitely be using it for iPlayer. And, of course, Amazon Prime, and I'm guessing we may never see an app for that. So I guess I'm stuck with two boxes. I did manage to AirPlay iPlayer from my iPad, but it wasn't a great experience.
My final thought was: this is a good box that's going to become a great box in time.
My conclusions? I thought I'd be basically using the ATV4 for AirPlay. I won't be. It's not a great experience. And it's not really necessary for what I want. I'll be using the box for Netflix and NowTV. Maybe I'll buy movies from Apple, maybe I'll continue to buy them from Amazon. But I'll probably switch to Apple. The picture seems better and the Siri integration is nice.
I'm basically going to be a two box household: ATV4 for Netflix, NowTV and pay-per-view movies and tv. Apple Fire TV for BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime. (And my iPad for ITV Player.) When the iPlayer app comes out, the Amazon box will just be for Prime and that might mean I'll end up very rarely using it.
I'm giving ATV4 four stars right now. I think it'll be five stars soon.
For example, the "horror" of the straight-line keyboard and entering login details. I didn't find this difficult at all. Frankly, I found it much better than the ATV3 experience. And, of course, the set-up of the box itself can be done via your iPhone. (Slight frustration here: it has to be connected to a wifi network for this. So a certain amount of faffing to set that up and then get the ATV4 to try again.) I love the remote: very easy to use, although I agree with everyone else that the scrolling direction is the opposite of what you'd expect. Perhaps an update will give you the option to reverse it.
The ATV4 turns my tv off if I send the box to sleep. It controls my TV's volume. It turns my tv on if the ATV4 is asleep and I wake it up. Sadly, it doesn't seem to change the input to the correct one, so I'm still having to use my TV's remote for that. Still, nice to have volume control. (I have an eight-year old Sony.)
Apps: Netflix downloaded almost instantly. It seems much crisper than the one on my Amazon Fire TV. Same interface so far as I can tell. The only difference: Siri can talk to it. I tested it with "Gabriel Macht", who stars in Suits. I thought my dodgy pronunciation would throw it. Not at all. It picked out Suits for me straight away. I then played the programme (it started very quickly) and tested Siri's abilities. It was able to skip back and forth, I loved the "what did she just say?" feature. (Though I had to tell Siri to turn the subtitles off. It didn't seem to do this automatically, though I didn't wait long.)
Great news: the NowTV app is up and running. Really beautiful. So much better than the NowTV box (which is a Roku 3, apparently, and it's going in the bin because it's redundant now). Very sharp. No Siri, sadly. Yet.
I didn't look for an ITV Player app. I tried AirPlaying it from my iPad. It didn't work. I could get sound but not video. I know there's no BBC iPlayer, but it's on its way. So the Amazon box isn't redundant yet: I'll definitely be using it for iPlayer. And, of course, Amazon Prime, and I'm guessing we may never see an app for that. So I guess I'm stuck with two boxes. I did manage to AirPlay iPlayer from my iPad, but it wasn't a great experience.
My final thought was: this is a good box that's going to become a great box in time.
My conclusions? I thought I'd be basically using the ATV4 for AirPlay. I won't be. It's not a great experience. And it's not really necessary for what I want. I'll be using the box for Netflix and NowTV. Maybe I'll buy movies from Apple, maybe I'll continue to buy them from Amazon. But I'll probably switch to Apple. The picture seems better and the Siri integration is nice.
I'm basically going to be a two box household: ATV4 for Netflix, NowTV and pay-per-view movies and tv. Apple Fire TV for BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime. (And my iPad for ITV Player.) When the iPlayer app comes out, the Amazon box will just be for Prime and that might mean I'll end up very rarely using it.
I'm giving ATV4 four stars right now. I think it'll be five stars soon.