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Who's dumping their ATV for Amazon Fire TV

An app store for the ATV just can't come any sooner!

So excited for the future of TV!.. These small steps (from anyone and everyone) are good for innovation in the living room.. And God knows it needs it! I wouldn't trade my ATV a new Amazon Fire TV.. No way.. But I'm soooo glad it's out there. Keeping Apple and everyone on their toes.

Good things coming.
 
caligomez said:
An app store for the ATV just can't come any sooner!

So excited for the future of TV!.. These small steps (from anyone and everyone) are good for innovation in the living room.. And God knows it needs it! I wouldn't trade my ATV a new Amazon Fire TV.. No way.. But I'm soooo glad it's out there. Keeping Apple and everyone on their toes.

Good things coming.
Click to expand...

Great point of view!

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But doesn't Plex work with any smart tv?
 
IlikeMacsSoMuch said:
Here in Canada we don't have half the choices that you get in USA on Amazon video. Netflix is ok but still, a lot of content in not accessible. Unless one uses VPN, which I do but it doesn't have the WAF so it's a no go
Click to expand...

Here in the UK Apple appear to have been totally eclipsed by just about every other content provider, their offering is abysmal. I simply cannot understand Apple's thinking other than they saw their market as the USA and took their eye off the ball elsewhere.

TBH I haven't used mine in months and I'm buying very little off iTunes these days. There is so much content out there from other content providers why bother with Apple? My Smart TV has twice the content for UK viewers than Apple, most of which is free.
 
Since Plex is officially supported on fireTV (Plex on the fireTV AppStore and Plex blog), it might replace my aging Mac Mini.

For all my other needs, the Apple TV Is still fine.

I will wait until WWDC before buying though...
 
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Lankyman said:
Here in the UK Apple appear to have been totally eclipsed by just about every other content provider, their offering is abysmal. I simply cannot understand Apple's thinking other than they saw their market as the USA and took their eye off the ball elsewhere.

TBH I haven't used mine in months and I'm buying very little off iTunes these days. There is so much content out there from other content providers why bother with Apple? My Smart TV has twice the content for UK viewers than Apple, most of which is free.
Click to expand...

iTunes offer is the same in canada then anywhere else, tv wise, the problem is with the television network
 
I got my Fire TV this afternoon. I ordered it with the game controller. I still will use my ATV3 for most things, but it will be nice to be able to watch my Amazon Instant Video without having to Airplay it. Plus, the games aren't bad, even though it just came out yesterday.
 
Not

Not dumping anything. But if Amazon Fire had existed when I bought my third active and used Apple TV, would I have bought it? No. I would have gotten an Amazon Fire. I've got Apple TV on three TVs/Projectors in my house. And they work well. But I would have gotten something else. This is some real competition.

Apple got beat on this. Not terribly. Apple's hardware can beat this if they want. But right now they have some legit competition in a space and price point that they had only marginal and under advertised competition (like Roku, which is great, but is never going mainstream).
 
Is there anyway to get audio and video podcasts on the Roku or Fire tv? that is one of the big things i use the Apple tv for
 
Lankyman said:
Here in the UK Apple appear to have been totally eclipsed by just about every other content provider, their offering is abysmal. I simply cannot understand Apple's thinking other than they saw their market as the USA and took their eye off the ball elsewhere.

TBH I haven't used mine in months and I'm buying very little off iTunes these days. There is so much content out there from other content providers why bother with Apple? My Smart TV has twice the content for UK viewers than Apple, most of which is free.
Click to expand...

Apple could certain push it more in the UK but I wouldn't be inclined to say it was abysmal, I still buy most of my films via the Apple TV.

Apple probably pushed harder in the States as there is/was more direct competition which will probably change now with Amazon Instant films being available in the UK as well.

I think a lot of this has to do with studios as well as people up the movie industry food chain still view the commercial aspect of it in the walled garden per country view. :roll eyes: The industry as a whole really needs to embrace the internet and start thinking globally there is no sensible reason now for staggered film release dates and dividing the zones in the way they do.

As to the OP's original question no I certainly wouldn't dump my aTV I have 4TB of films which is about 700 films sitting in iTunes half of which is iTunes purchased I'm hoping the next revision of the aTV would add a hard drive but I won't hold my breath waiting. The fTV does interest me from a jailbreaking point of view. Android top set boxes can support touch screens with a bit of tinkering so I might have a play around with one.
 
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TBH what I'm doing mostly now is adding more and more content to my Synology NAS then using the DLNA capabilities of my SMART TV to stream from the NAS direct to TV. This is a better solution than ATV. Why should I need to always have iTunes active on my PC in order to watch content I have paid for?

I really think Apple need to look again at their business model for media. Whereas they had much of this stuff sewn up only a few short years ago this is no longer the case. They are in danger of going the same way as MS i.e. failing to react quickly to a changing market.

Clinging on to the old ways of iTunes like a drowning man is not the way to go. Even trying to give yourself more storage space by moving iTunes onto external media is made difficult when trying to use that same material with ATV.
 
As Far as Plex Roku vs Plex Fire, the version on the Fire is based on the Android version and its a bit nicer especially UI Wise as opposed to Roku's version that is hobbled by their UI Restrictions
 
I think the Fire TV will still have the issue of Tablet apps not looking good when blown up to TV size, The Plex and Youtube Apps are still the old versions. The Nice thing about the ATV is the apps all look great. and hopefully when they add an app store, it will be apps that were developed specifically for the ATV.
 
Those of you who are thinking of getting a FireTV for use with Plex may want to hold out a bit. At the moment there are profile issues preventing audio playback other than 2ch stereo (i.e., all audio gets transcoded to 2ch). The developers are aware and working on a fix, but speaking as a semi-disappointed early adopter (my FTV arrived yesterday morning), I wish I had held off.

On the plus side, the unit itself is blazing fast and once the kinks get worked out it should make for a serviceable Plex client.
 
Lankyman said:
TBH what I'm doing mostly now is adding more and more content to my Synology NAS then using the DLNA capabilities of my SMART TV to stream from the NAS direct to TV. This is a better solution than ATV. Why should I need to always have iTunes active on my PC in order to watch content I have paid for?

I really think Apple need to look again at their business model for media. Whereas they had much of this stuff sewn up only a few short years ago this is no longer the case. They are in danger of going the same way as MS i.e. failing to react quickly to a changing market.

Clinging on to the old ways of iTunes like a drowning man is not the way to go. Even trying to give yourself more storage space by moving iTunes onto external media is made difficult when trying to use that same material with ATV.
Click to expand...

Then you must be lucky in the formats that your TV accepts as video content. My not-so-old Sony TVs have a real limited range of formats and I'm not going to recode all my NAS based stuff just for that. I'm sticking with my general purpose media players until they go belly-up and then I'll look at moving to the ATV. Maybe then I'll have to recode to a new format.
 
I dumped my 2 second gen Apple TV's for over $400 for the 2, and got 2 Roku 3's. I like them much better because there are tons more apps, and I can plug a USB hard drive of thumb into it. The Apple TV was too limited for my needs. I'm probably going to pick up the Amazon Fire just to see if it's an improvement over the Roku's
 
drsox said:
Then you must be lucky in the formats that your TV accepts as video content. My not-so-old Sony TVs have a real limited range of formats and I'm not going to recode all my NAS based stuff just for that. I'm sticking with my general purpose media players until they go belly-up and then I'll look at moving to the ATV. Maybe then I'll have to recode to a new format.
Click to expand...

Most though not all are MP4's. Never have trouble with MP4's so knowing that I rip all my DVD's to that format.
 
Lankyman said:
Most though not all are MP4's. Never have trouble with MP4's so knowing that I rip all my DVD's to that format.
Click to expand...

Just checked on my Sony again and the only formats that I can play are : AVCHD and MPEG2. I've re-enabled System Update so maybe there's been a recent F/W update, but I'm not holding my breath. This TV is from 2011 so I'm not going to change it soon !

All my NAS stuff has been stored in .iso format except those that refused to play ball. These few are in .MKV. Most general purpose Media Streamers will play this but ATV won't so I know I'm going to have to recode if I do change.
 
There's just not enough there for me to jump ship. Maybe if they got HBO Go and Airplay? For what they're offering, it should have been less expensive. The Chromecast has set a new value bar.
 
i may get a FireTV once the WWE Network and MLB.tv apps are out (and hopefully plex is fixed by then). My wife seems to have the ability to crash any HTPC i set up, so maybe the FireTV would be perfect.
 
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