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Roku's New Remotes Feature an Apple TV+ Button
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What do you mean when you say "how well Airplay works" with 1080?
A headphone jack? That's . . . I don't want to seem judgey, but that seems like a ridiculously unnecessary bit of hardware to me. Maybe I'm out of the loop. Do people currently plug headphones into their remotes?
I don't know what you mean what do I mean. I mean how well does it work? Not sure how else to phrase it. As I mentioned up thread, AirPlay on a Samsung TV that I used was fine with music, but pretty awful with videos, in a way that you just don't get on the Apple TV.
I play mostly YouTube videos when using the AirPlay. It instantly connects to my Samsung and Panasonic Plasma TV's. No stuttering, no audio dropouts and there's no visual evidence that's it's being streamed from another device. I play directly from my MacBook and iPhone. No issues.
Often when you want to watch TV late night and not disturb your mate lying next to you the headphone jack can be very handy.
We specifically replaced the Roku remote with the one with the headphone jack. We needed some kind of wireless/wired headphone setup with a mid-to-low budget 4K TV for an elderly family member with kind of special needs. They have trouble hearing the TV speakers and a surround sound setup in a bedroom is...not ideal. Replacing the remote was pretty cheap and easy enough they could use it.
We've yet to figure out another (low cost) option since when you use the remote like this it drains the batteries insanely quickly. Regular wireless headphones won't work for him since the power button is...too confusing in his case. The Roku remote is the best bet, yet, unfortunately.
Not sure if the similar setting you can use in the Roku iPhone app would be a better option? Doesn't sound like it but thought I'd mention in case you weren't aware of it.
I think it's because the Roku devices themselves don't support bluetooth audio, so it's the best solution for using headphones while watching through the Roku. Agree it's not an ideal solution. Another reason I love my Apple TV: two easy clicks away from sending the audio straight to my AirPods with absolutely no fuss.
Just a quick word about these: I've done some relatively thorough testing of the Roku Stick vs. the Ultra devices as we want to replace our aging Apple TVs in an education environment with another device that handles Airplay. At this point I strongly advise staying away from the "Stick" models. These models have fundamentally different designs and it's pretty obvious when thinking about it that they won't work well for many users.
I cover the issues in some detail here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...reaming-players-and-tvs.2267114/post-29689293
I cover the issues in some detail here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...reaming-players-and-tvs.2267114/post-29689293
Roku home screen -> Load Plex -> Browse to movies section.. that takes a good 20 seconds. Not to mention scrolling to find the movie or typing in a search. Do you have some magical power where you pick up the remote for 2 seconds and select what you want to watch?
But using the Roku app on the iPhone allows the user to use wireless headphones. In fact you don't have to use the Roku remote. You can use the iPhone to control the entire TV experience. The Roku is currently an overall better value than the AppleTV.
I assumed you meant much longer than that. I've never found the tag to be annoying when holding to the remote for the normal amount of time it takes to select something to watch.
Rechargeable batteries will save your life if you're constantly using audio through the Roku remote.
Haven't actually tried since I got AirPods, but previous experience trying this wasn't great, the audio was poor quality and would often drop out even when using a wired connection to my phone.
Obviously you're right it's better value. But so are almost all non-Apple products. I pay for Apple because of the quality premium and the ease of inter-compatibility.
Yeah I agree the only time i can manage to accidentally pressed I am messing with it or i forget which remote I'm using as I have multiple roku's.
We considered it since we have a couple extra iPhones laying around, unfortunately he has a tendency to touch the screen whenever he handles a touchscreen device. We even considered something like an iPad--larger, less room for him to accidentally press random buttons on the app--but we nixed that idea when his latest pair of wireless headphones "stopped working" and he threw them out (...the battery died, so they turned off and he couldn't turn them back on..). Don't want to find out he threw out an iPad or an iPhone (even if it is an extra out) in a fit.
So for now its the Roku remote + stock in batteries or having the TV turned up so loud that I can hear it on the other side of the house even with his door shut.
Same here. I use mostly all Apple except for the Roku. The AppleTV has gigabit ethernet and the Roku is still stuck on 10/100 so wired connections on the AppleTV will take great advantage of my 1Gig Xfinity plan and the Roku can't. I know the AppleTV is a better machine but I wouldn't say $100 better than the Roku Ultra, especially when you can't expand memory.
Yeah, we thought of that too. Except for some reason I can't seem to "train" him to change the batteries. I've given up.
It's an incredibly useful feature. It makes it very convenient to listen with headphones that aren't bluetooth.