Apple TV, new Roku Ultra, or new Google Chromecast?

[Juicy Box]

maybe Nvidia Shield comes close but it costs the same as ATV

I don't have any experience with the Nvidia Shield, but looked into it a while back. It seems to be almost on par with the ATV4K.

IIRC, the Nvidia Shield isn't quite as powerful as the ATV4K, but there are things you can do with it that you cannot do with the ATV4K, such as use it as a Plex server.

I would say that it is the ATV's closest competitor when it comes to power and ability.

Whether or not that’s worth the $100+ premium is up to the individual consumer

This is definitely true.

Even at three years old, the ATV4K is the best streaming box, but just because it is the best, doesn't mean it is worth the extra cost if all one wants is a simple Netflix and Disney+ streaming box.

 

[Jus711]

I don't have any experience with the Nvidia Shield, but looked into it a while back. It seems to be almost on par with the ATV4K.

IIRC, the Nvidia Shield isn't quite as powerful as the ATV4K, but there are things you can do with it that you cannot do with the ATV4K, such as use it as a Plex server.

I would say that it is the ATV's closest competitor when it comes to power and ability.



This is definitely true.

Even at three years old, the ATV4K is the best streaming box, but just because it is the best, doesn't mean it is worth the extra cost if all one wants is a simple Netflix and Disney+ streaming box.

The only thing the ATV4K won’t do for me is passthrough Atmos for Kodi, which I’m sure is an intentional hardware limitation for anti-piracy. It also won’t do HDR through Kodi but I think that’s due to Kodi 17 and will hopefully be fixed by version 19 since 18 was skipped on tvOS. The Xiaomi box will passthrough Atmos but it’s a rarity in that regard from most of the boxes I’ve tested, and the Android TV interface is horrid. I’ve also been impressed by the premium components in the ATV4K, I have 400 meg internet service and I get the full 400 through the ATV4K over wifi and Ethernet which aids in streaming large files. Every other box I’ve tested maxes out at 200 and generally sits in the 100-150 range.

 

[mattym42089]

What do you use for cable? I just upgraded to the Chromecast because the new interface is amazing at bringing together Youtube TV with all of the streaming services. It is the best experience for people with Youtube TV. You can actually get the new chromecast free if you pay for a month of Youtube TV.

 

[Packers1958]

I got the GTV Chromecast on Saturday, sent it back yesterday. Too buggy. I have Youtube TV, but the issues trying to set it up with my LG 2016 OLED tv was a pain. Sometimes it would show my tv had 4K60 resolution, next time I turned the tv on, that resolution was no longer available on the GTV and defaulted to 4K30. The only way to get 4K60 back, was to do a full reset on the GTV. Would work fine until I turned the tv off and back on again. Then there was the issue that the GTV is using a Dolby Vision profile that doesn't work with a 4 year DV capable tv. All other devices do, so why didn't google make the DV profile it uses to be backward compatible? Will try the new Roku Ultra when it comes out later this month that supports Dolby Vision.

 

[cwerdna]

I dislike the the remote (mainly the touchpad) on the ATV4 and ATV4K. Would much rather have a d-pad, like most other devices and previous gens of ATV.

And, ATV4 and ATv4K are expensive...

 

[Juicy Box]

I dislike the the remote (mainly the touchpad) on the ATV4 and ATV4K. Would much rather have a d-pad, like most other devices and previous gens of ATV.

While there are a few advantages to the touch pad, I too would much rather have a D-pad.

I guess the Siri Remote was Apple's attempt to fix something that wasn't broken, and failing at it.

It is especially strange that Apple went with a touch pad when a lot of the tvOS UI would benefit a lot more from a D-pad over endlessly swiping the touch pad.

For example, the tvOS version of Photos. If the user has a lot of photos, it is horrible swiping down tens of thousands of photos to find one in particular.