Roku Has Nearly Finalized AirPlay 2 Support

[ikramerica]

Will instantly make my discount Sharp TVs more valuable than my more expensive Sonys and LGs.
[doublepost=1552318906][/doublepost]

Apple literally sells the Apple TV at cost.

The problem is the AppleTV was designed to play games nobody wants to play or develop. It has extra horse power that is mostly wasted.

 

[Nikhil72]

Hope it drives the cost down of the overpriced AppleTV. I love it but cannot justify the price difference over the Roku.

The premium is worth it to avoid the terrible UI of Roku, Fire, and all the cheaper media streamers.

 

[wigby]

"Buggy as hell?" I wonder if you got a bad one. I don't hear many complaints, other than price, about Apple TV. For me, it was worked pretty much flawlessly from the start, and Siri on it is great.

If you re-read their post, you might realize that they were talking about Airplay being buggy, not AppleTV.

But I do find AppleTV 4K (and previous gen to lesser extent) to be extremely buggy, at least the apps are. If I try to resume watching anything in the TV app, it fails and only seems to work if I go straight to that program. HBO constantly requires a login but if I ignore it, I can proceed anyway, Netflix and Hulu require semi-daily force quits in order to launch or function correctly. Prime Video works OK but its web interface is clunky and should be rewritten. These issues might not be Apple's fault but they are Apple's problem because they are part of the app store that Apple has approved.

 

[lostczech]

As someone who uses appletv as their main video consumption device and as a HomeKit hub it’s worth every penny. I have a regular 4th generation in the bed room and a 4K one in the reliving room. I’ve been able to get rid of traditional cable and save money monthly no longer needing to pay equipment fees

But how is it worth it over a Roku? I'm in the same boat, I have a Roku for every TV and I don't pay equipment fees either. Why pay double/triple/QUADRUPLE (compared to Roku Express)?

 

[lexvo]

Does a Roku display photos in full resolution/full screen?

I am asking this because Apple dropped native Airplay for third party apps. Only Apple's Photos app can do native Airplay and display photos full screen. I know I can screen mirror and Airplay but photos are not full screen or not full resolution then.

 

[AngerDanger]

Roku Has Nearly Finalized AirPlay 2 Support

I like to imagine there's one programmer yawning, outstretching their arm in the process, and coming so close to typing the last semicolon.

 

[dumastudetto]

I think it's bad allowing low-cost operators to offer AirPlay 2. You'll always get the best experience if you go with the Apple device. Apple shouldn't help cheapen the experience for consumers.

 

[lostczech]

I think it's bad allowing low-cost operators to offer AirPlay 2. You'll always get the best experience if you go with the Apple device. Apple shouldn't help cheapen the experience for consumers.

If they didn't have their video streaming service coming out soon I'm sure they wouldn't have allowed this. They just want the largest footprint for when it does come out.

 

[Soccertess]

Hope it drives the cost down of the overpriced AppleTV. I love it but cannot justify the price difference over the Roku.

You love Apple TV? Do you love the remote? Or the limited functionality?

I hate it. Roku is better all around.

 

[_Refurbished_]

You should see a doctor about that...

I did, the prescription was an Apple TV.

 

[medazinol]

Cn't wait for this! I used to have an AppleTV but ditched it in favor of the Roku Ultra 4K. It's so much more flexible and has a better remote with a built-in headphone jack

 

[imola.zhp]

You love Apple TV? Do you love the remote? Or the limited functionality?

I hate it. Roku is better all around.

Different strokes for different folks, I've had ATV since ATV2? and love it. We have one on each of our 3 TV's, we dont have cable or staellite, just an antenna in the attic that we can pick up local channels on.
Whats the complaint with the remote?
What functionality am I missing out on?​

 

[tharitm]

Probably in time for the press event in end of March.

 

[w5jck]

I cannot speak for the new Apple TV 4th gen or 4K models, but my 3rd gen ATV sucks. Of course the newer models allow loading additional apps whereas mine doesn't. But the remote is pathetic, and interface blows chunks. I bought it to mirror my iPads but found that I rarely do that as I really don't seem to have much reason to. My ATV gen 3 collects dust on a shelf. The specs for the ATV 4th and 4K models does indeed blow away the specs of the Rokus and Fire TVs, but I think I will stick with my Rokus and Fire TVs. I don't game though. I only watch TV/video.

Roku has the best interface, but it pukes all over Hulu with Live TV. At least my Roku Ultra 4K 2018 pukes on it. My Roku Express seems to do much better with Hulu with Live TV. But neither perform as well with Hulu with Live TV as my Fire TVs. But even though the Fire TVs seem more reliable than the Rokus, Fire TV tries to force Amazon Prime Video offerings down your throat all the time. That is very annoying!

I will say though that the new ATV has Gigabit ethernet whereas the Rokus and Fire TVs that I own that have ethernet offer only 10/100, so about 86 Mbps is the maximum you will get on them using ethernet. I have 200 Mbps internet. With my Fire TV Stick 4K I get WiFi DL speed of 135 Mbps but only 86 Mbps when hard wired to ethernet. Not that it really matters as 86 Mbps should be overkill for streaming live TV. The Roku Ultra gets about 86 Mbps with ethernet and 77 Mbps with WiFi. The Roku Express only gets about 37 Mbps speed via WiFi, but it still does remarkably well streaming live TV.

 

[adamw]

This is awesome news! ROKU and ROKU TV must be top sellers at Wal-Mart, as I see them everywhere in Wal-Mart stores electronics departments. I love my TCL ROKU TVs, and having them support Apple's Airplay 2 would be a real excellent feature!

 

[DaveN]

As someone who uses appletv as their main video consumption device and as a HomeKit hub it’s worth every penny. I have a regular 4th generation in the bed room and a 4K one in the reliving room. I’ve been able to get rid of traditional cable and save money monthly no longer needing to pay equipment fees

Same here. I have a 4K in my bedroom and a 4th generation in the living room. I think any streaming device allows you to cut the cable cord but I also use one of the Apple TVs as a HomeKit hub. I picked up the 4K AppleTV during a DirecTV Now promotion so no complaints about the price. That was a sweet way of getting me through some long winter nights. Dropped the subscription in the spring and was going to pick it up this winter but DirecTV Now raised their prices so it wasn't worth it. I just watched more iTunes, Netflix, and Prime movies/shows.

Even without the DriecTV Now promotion, my other AppleTV was worth it when you consider that it isn't much more than the cost of a month and a half of cable TV subscriptions. Now if the cell phone companies give cable internet companies a run for their money and offer decent internet access prices, that would cut my costs further. May not happen though. I see cell phone companies only undercutting cable internet prices by a couple bucks max and will likely want more just because.

 

[coolfactor]

Roku is really gaining ground.

 

[Vanilla35]

I think it's bad allowing low-cost operators to offer AirPlay 2. You'll always get the best experience if you go with the Apple device. Apple shouldn't help cheapen the experience for consumers.

They originally were banking on selling a lot - but now they're focused on growing services asap, so they're making deals and trying to get Apple services to as many people as possible (on other platforms), as quickly as possible.

 

[linb1234]

Plex is a privacy nightmare, as are the other services. Here's just one example from Plex. This is how your dossier gets built. Google, Facebook and others also buy this data. Resist!

"When you use the Services to watch, listen to, or record content from a third-party content provider or source such as any officially supported Third-Party Content that Plex streams to Plex apps, trailers and extras from IVA, the Plex Watch Later or Recommended features, or use of our Live TV and DVR service, we may collect information related to that media interaction. For example, we may collect what program or movie you are watching and when, your interaction with any static or video advertising, etc. We may also collect your device information and device location, for example, by using your IP address or by asking for your zip code. We may use this information to run and improve our Services, provide advertising and marketing to you, as well as share anonymous OR aggregated versions of the data with third parties."

I run Plex through my VPN. Took a bit of effort to get it set up properly so it worked, but it's just fine now, VPN works for both server and player.

 

[panjandrum]

This is good news. Once the latest gen Apple TV came around I just couldn't support purchasing them any longer. It wasn't too bad when the Apple TV was about double the cost of competitors, but now it's close 4x the cost of competitor products with similar features. Plus it has an awful, truly awful, remote. Airplay is the only reason I still keep Apple TVs around, it will be great if I can move people to Rokus (Roki? Roken?) in the future (especially as they support industry-standard media-servers, rather than just streaming from iTunes. Supporting those is a huge factor in favor of non-Apple streaming devices.)

Downsides to Roku? I think they must own majority stock in major battery manufacturers. That WiFi remote the newer models use eats the AAA batteries (stupid idea, should have gone with AA) for lunch and spits them out. I've never seen a remote chew through batteries like these things. A new set about every 2 months (for alkaline batteries).

 

[asdfjkl;]

Sounds awesome. Those with a Roku 3, have you had problems with the batteries on the remote draining the batteries in just a few days? I found a lot of discussions on it. Seems to be a widespread issue that is making it a pain to use my roku.

I've had a Roku3 for years and never experienced that.

 

[nexusrule]

Well that would solve the problem of Apple providing a low cost streaming stick. I understand why Apple would want to offer AirPlay 2 on a TV as part of a built-in Roku OS, I’m a little more confused as to why Apple would allow it to work on a cheap streaming stick. That seems to compete with Apples core business. Although I guess it would be hard to limit AP2 to a built-in TV OS only if the same OS was more or less available on other devices, like Android TV OS and Roku.

So if Apple does this, the real question is what does an actual Apple TV offer over this implementation on another, cheaper, device?

I guess "sticks" are so cheap they become very popular. And for Apple is probably more convenient to sell the software to the sticks producer than making its own cheap device. As far as the Apple TV fate I don't know, maybe they see more profits in licensing and having their subscription services everywhere right now. But that's not reason enough to just discontinue the product before seeing how the market actually evolve.

 

[truthertech]

I run Plex through my VPN. Took a bit of effort to get it set up properly so it worked, but it's just fine now, VPN works for both server and player.

Nice solution. I wish Apple would offer VPN as most folks won't go through that effort you describe or even understand how to do so.

 

[HJM.NL]

Hope it drives the cost down of the overpriced AppleTV. I love it but cannot justify the price difference over the Roku.

I don’t see any future for the AppleTV when using a modern smart tv. I’d rather have a Smart tv with support for HomeKit and airplay 2 than another separate box called AppleTV. The development of AppleTV compared too Smart TVs is imo very slow.

 

[Vanilla35]

I don’t see any future for the AppleTV when using a modern smart tv. I’d rather have a Smart tv with support for HomeKit and airplay 2 than another separate box called AppleTV. The development of AppleTV compared too Smart TVs is imo very slow.

This is a point that no one is talking about. Basically how slow apple is at updating their products and services, which is counter intuitive to a industry which is rapidly growing.