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mattg3

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2010
417
20
ma.
Thinking of buying a refurbished Apple tv to put Youtube on my Samsung 8500 tv.Dont want to subscribe to any paid services and wondered what else is free on Apple TV?
 
I think YouTube is the only free channel on the :apple:TV. Everything else is subscription based. If you're looking for lots of free content, I'd get a Roku instead. Not all of their channels are good, but there are a heckuva lot of them.
 
Free stuff: YouTube, Vimeo, movie trailers, podcasts, everything in your iTunes library, anything you can airplay from your iPhone or iPad

Paid stuff that's worth the cost: Netflix, occasional movie rental from iTunes store

Depending on your country, you also have access to Hulu and other paid services, like NHL, MLB, NBA
 
I think YouTube is the only free channel on the :apple:TV. Everything else is subscription based. If you're looking for lots of free content, I'd get a Roku instead. Not all of their channels are good, but there are a heckuva lot of them.
Roku would be perfect but it doesnt carry YouTube
 
Roku would be perfect but it doesnt carry YouTube

Yes, it does. There's a private channel, VideoBuzz, which is YouTube. You can side load it. I did it in 2 minutes on the first day I got my Roku 3 having never used a Roku before nor having ever side loaded anything.

Many of the free Roku channels are religious programming and B Noirs and a really peculiar number of paranoid UFO/doomsday sort of channels. Many channels have commercials. But there's also PBS, tons of news channels, many other free movie, documentary and tv show channels, more radio stations than I'll ever have time to check out, etc. There are hundreds and hundreds of private and beta channels with new ones being added every day; it's impossible that you wouldn't find something that interests you. You can also access your podcasts, "airplay" using the free Twonky app on your iOS device and/or the paid version on your Mac, and plug in a USB hard drive and a micro SD card. And you can set up Plex. For paid content, you can't get better quality films via legal streaming in the US than Fandor and Hulu+'s Criterion Collection libraries. I was in the position of choosing between the Roku and Apple TV in a fully Apple environment and went with the Roku because it just has so much more to offer that it became a no-brainer. If/when Apple allows more channels/apps, I'll consider that new iteration of the Apple TV, but as things stand the Roku 3 is simply a better buy.
 
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Looks like a Roku 3 is in my future.Could someone explain side loading? Thanks
 
Uhh...why not use the thousands of applications already built into the Samsung 8500? If you're talking about the F8500...Samsung flagship plasma that is. They have more applications than Apple TV. YouTube, Hulu, Amazon, lots of free stuff, and a whole market to download more.
 
No its not the plasma.Its the 4 year old LED that required a purchased dongle to connect with internet that I never bought for 100 bucks.
 
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