Left Apple TV for Android TV because of more options.

[cavemanit]

Hey guys,

I just left my Apple Tv for an Android Tv device due to not having any external storage connection capacity and very limited options in terms of apps. Anyone on the same boat with me about being annoyed at Apple for not having even the most basic functions like external storage connection, app downloads, etc or am I the only one? I have a macbook, iPhone, but I don't use airplay.

I searched around on Amazon and found an Android Tv Box for like 70 bucks. http://www.amazon.com/Orealo-Dual-C...1853604&sr=8-2&keywords=android+tv+box+orealo

Received it last week and can't rave enough about it. I'll post a more detailed review later on this thread, but I'm liking everything so far.

 

[purplekush604]

Hey guys,

I just left my Apple Tv for an Android Tv device due to not having any external storage connection capacity and very limited options in terms of apps. Anyone on the same boat with me about being annoyed at Apple for not having even the most basic functions like external storage connection, app downloads, etc or am I the only one? I have a macbook, iPhone, but I don't use airplay.

I searched around on Amazon and found an Android Tv Box for like 70 bucks. http://www.amazon.com/Orealo-Dual-C...1853604&sr=8-2&keywords=android+tv+box+orealo

Received it last week and can't rave enough about it. I'll post a more detailed review later on this thread, but I'm liking everything so far.

Good to hear that! Im thinking of grabbing myself a ouya unit. I dont own a apple tv or any xmbc machine. Have a ps3 and cable.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Better than roku?

 

[Fanaticalism]

Better than roku?

Does Roku let you stream your own movies? OP wanted something with local storage as well.

I know Samsung released their own cloud based device with 2TB of local storage but is not compatible with other devices.

 

[MRU]

In the advent of smarter TV's; most new TV's allow you to put a memory stick or hard drive into their usb port and playback movies stored on them.

 

[tbayrgs]

Personally, the allure of being able to attach external storage to my media playback device or TV never rubbed off on me. Having all of my media storage on one central computer, and thus ready to be streamed to any number of TV's in our home, while also being readily accessible for loading onto any number of portable media devices is far more attractive than have it attached to a single TV.

Now, I have an always on desktop and can certainly understand how this setup would be less desirable for those working off laptops or only needing access on a single TV.

I've used both Apple TVs and the latest Roku 3. Both get the job done though I personally prefer the tight integration of the Apple TV with my Mac and iTunes Library. We don't need many apps so those native to the Apple TV are generally all we need. If there is something else not available, AirPlay from an iDevice usually fills that need (i.e. Amazon Instant Video). If one desired access to a greater library of apps, the Roku would probably better meet your needs.

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Does Roku let you stream your own movies? OP wanted something with local storage as well.

I know Samsung released their own cloud based device with 2TB of local storage but is not compatible with other devices.

I used PLEX to stream my personal library to a Roku box--worked just fine.

 

[Assault]

Does Roku let you stream your own movies? OP wanted something with local storage as well.

I know Samsung released their own cloud based device with 2TB of local storage but is not compatible with other devices.

Yes, Roku allows you to stream/play from your own server, NAS, harddrive or from a USB stick.

 

[Vegastouch]

Roku beats em all

 

[cavemanit]

Thanks for the response guys! I appreciate it!

Good to hear that! Im thinking of grabbing myself a ouya unit. I dont own a apple tv or any xmbc machine. Have a ps3 and cable.

Thanks! In all honesty, there has been a lot of problems with the Ouya. My friend bought one and they said that they poorly combine gaming/media together. It's not that it's not a good idea to combine both, it's just Ouya didn't do well combining it.

Better than roku?

I actually owned a roku 2, which is decent, but the Android Tv I just bought leaves it in the dust. It's due to the Google Play store - It's exactly like having the full Android OS on your tv screen - without having to mirror your phone.

Does Roku let you stream your own movies? OP wanted something with local storage as well.

I know Samsung released their own cloud based device with 2TB of local storage but is not compatible with other devices.

Yes, the Roku lets you stream your own movies by connecting an external hd into the usb slot.

In the advent of smarter TV's; most new TV's allow you to put a memory stick or hard drive into their usb port and playback movies stored on them.

Yes, but newer tvs are a hell of a lot more expensive. Can't afford that type of entertainment system just yet. hehe.

Roku beats em all

Why do you say so? Care to explain?

Personally, the allure of being able to attach external storage to my media playback device or TV never rubbed off on me. Having all of my media storage on one central computer, and thus ready to be streamed to any number of TV's in our home, while also being readily accessible for loading onto any number of portable media devices is far more attractive than have it attached to a single TV.

Now, I have an always on desktop and can certainly understand how this setup would be less desirable for those working off laptops or only needing access on a single TV.

I've used both Apple TVs and the latest Roku 3. Both get the job done though I personally prefer the tight integration of the Apple TV with my Mac and iTunes Library. We don't need many apps so those native to the Apple TV are generally all we need. If there is something else not available, AirPlay from an iDevice usually fills that need (i.e. Amazon Instant Video). If one desired access to a greater library of apps, the Roku would probably better meet your needs.

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I used PLEX to stream my personal library to a Roku box--worked just fine.

Thanks for the awesome response. I guess for me personally, I like to have a full operating system on my tv screen. The unit I just bought lets you directly download apps from the Google play store - whatever apps are available, you can download it. For instance, I downloaded an alarm app and set it to wake me up early in the morning. So my tv has become a bigger version of my phone - in a way.

 

[kenknotts]

Hey guys,

I just left my Apple Tv for an Android Tv device due to not having any external storage connection capacity and very limited options in terms of apps. Anyone on the same boat with me about being annoyed at Apple for not having even the most basic functions like external storage connection, app downloads, etc or am I the only one? I have a macbook, iPhone, but I don't use airplay.

I searched around on Amazon and found an Android Tv Box for like 70 bucks. http://www.amazon.com/Orealo-Dual-C...1853604&sr=8-2&keywords=android+tv+box+orealo

Received it last week and can't rave enough about it. I'll post a more detailed review later on this thread, but I'm liking everything so far.

Only plays at 720p, my Apple TV is full 1080p. Not interested. Besides, Apple TV is cheap. Most movies are $15-$18 while the BluRay disc will cost $25 or more. Also, Apple TV has Netflix, Youtube and all kinds of apps built in this thing doesnt appear to have. Even if it does, 720p is a deal breaker.

 

[Assault]

Only plays at 720p, my Apple TV is full 1080p. Not interested. Besides, Apple TV is cheap. Most movies are $15-$18 while the BluRay disc will cost $25 or more. Also, Apple TV has Netflix, Youtube and all kinds of apps built in this thing doesnt appear to have. Even if it does, 720p is a deal breaker.

Not sure why anyone would buy that monstrosity, especially when we have PC's that stream to roku at 1080p, you can use Play On, Plex, XMBC, multiple plug-ins, all OTA TV shows from NBC, cbs , etc are now streamed freely within hours of the on air broadcast and so on. If access to the play store on your TV is a priority though, I still wouldn't buy that thing. Google is replacing Google TV with Android TV and will likely merge with chromecast, so at $35 its still the better option.

But for my money, Roku 3 is the best box on the market for video content. Bar none.

 

[mattopotamus]

Personally, I have been really happy with the content offered....HBO, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix and most things on my ipad I can airplay. I don't really have a reason to switch to anything else. I just need HBO and Showtime to offer their services without needing a cable provider and then I would cancel my TV service.

 

[fredaroony]

Roku beats em all

Roku and Plex has been great. I hadn't tried it for a while as it used to have issues but I have been playing all my media through for 3 weeks now and not one single crash.

 

[Fanaticalism]

Personally, the allure of being able to attach external storage to my media playback device or TV never rubbed off on me. Having all of my media storage on one central computer, and thus ready to be streamed to any number of TV's in our home, while also being readily accessible for loading onto any number of portable media devices is far more attractive than have it attached to a single TV.

Now, I have an always on desktop and can certainly understand how this setup would be less desirable for those working off laptops or only needing access on a single TV.

I've used both Apple TVs and the latest Roku 3. Both get the job done though I personally prefer the tight integration of the Apple TV with my Mac and iTunes Library. We don't need many apps so those native to the Apple TV are generally all we need. If there is something else not available, AirPlay from an iDevice usually fills that need (i.e. Amazon Instant Video). If one desired access to a greater library of apps, the Roku would probably better meet your needs.

----------



I used PLEX to stream my personal library to a Roku box--worked just fine.

Yes, Roku allows you to stream/play from your own server, NAS, harddrive or from a USB stick.

Thanks, I did not know that.

----------

Only plays at 720p, my Apple TV is full 1080p. Not interested. Besides, Apple TV is cheap. Most movies are $15-$18 while the BluRay disc will cost $25 or more. Also, Apple TV has Netflix, Youtube and all kinds of apps built in this thing doesnt appear to have. Even if it does, 720p is a deal breaker.

You cannot compare the quality of BD to any streamed format. Go over to AVS Forums and see all the side by side technical comparisons. Couple this with the compression and lack of lossless audio codecs, and forget about it. In fact, Apple is the worst of online content providers from a quality perspective... VUDU would be the best in this category.

Another big advantage of VUDU is offline viewing without local storage consumption. This is huge for traveling. iTunes also takes forever to download a movie, and I have a 50MBPS plan on my home wifi.

 

[Cnasty]

Ability to AirPlay from iMac to AppleTV XBMC makes AppleTV a pretty easy win for me.

Let alone anything I want from my browser on the mac or ipad.

 

[Assault]

Ability to AirPlay from iMac to AppleTV XBMC makes AppleTV a pretty easy win for me.

Let alone anything I want from my browser on the mac or ipad.

This is what I believe Google is moving to with Android TV. Not sure if Chromecast will also be involved or if Android TV will incorporate Miracast?

Speaking of Miracast, TV and Android phone/tablet manufacturers have been moving to the Miracast standard, so no set top box is needed. If this standard takes off, the Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV may soon be a thing of the past.

 

[cavemanit]

Thanks for all the responses guys. They've been great!

So here is just my review of the product so far.

This thing has ALOT of ports - by far the most I've seen on any Tv Box's. So you can hook up basically almost anything here.

Here are the hardware specifications:

• CPU: Allwinner A20 Dual Core 1.2GHz A9 CPU
• GPU: Mali 400 Quad Core GPU
• Storage: 4GB Storage
• WiFi: RealTek 802.11 b/g/n

Here are the software

• OS: Android 4.2.2
• Web Browser: Google Chrome
• DLNA: Supported
• Video Playback: Up to 1080p
• Music Playback: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV
• Picture Viewer: Yes
• Video Playback: MPEG-2, H.264, MPEG-4 at 1080p

The unit came with a

• The Unit
• Remote
• Power Adapter
• A/V Cable

The remote can be compared to your typical dvd/blu ray player remote - except that it has the option of having the mouse as a cursor! This is one of the best features of this device because it's like having a computer monitor on your screen without the mouse/keyboard! You can move the cursor around via the directional pad.

So enough about the hardware, let's talk about the Android OS. Here is what the homepage menu looks like:

The first thing I did was hookup my external hard drive and checked out the quality of the video image - this is what I bought the device for! I played Kung Fu Panda You can't see it in the image (camera sucks in the dark) but the quality was excellent! Based on my assessment, I would say the video played in 1080p - I'm not overstating!

Next I logged into my wifi network and visited the app section to play Netflix.

I played The Office. Again you can't see it from the image, but the quality was excellent. It also played 1080p.

I was curious about the Google Chrome web browser so I checked it out. It was very easy to browse around! You can't see the mouse cursor from the image below, but you can easily navigate around the web without a mouse/keyboard. Although you can hookup a mouse and keyboard if you want! I was using it mostly for looking at some news items

So I haven't really played around in terms of games and play store - still have to once I get some time. I bought it mainly for hooking up my external hard drive to watch movies or connect to the internet to watch Netflix. However, whatever app is in the Google Play Store, you can download it! So this device is capable of delivering tons of content right into your television. Think of it like an Android phone on your big screen - only it fits and does not dilute the image quality of the screen.

 

[Cnasty]

What does it mean from your link when it says "XBMC support"?

This would be a great addition to the bedroom TV if I can run XBMC easily on it.

 

[Abazigal]

For me, I still love my Apple TV, for the airplay mirroring capabilities it brought to the classroom. It is awesome being able to project my iPad screen wirelessly to the whiteboard M control it from anywhere in the classroom.

At home, I use a combination of air video and air play mirroring to stream any movie from my iMac to my iPad to my tv. Sadly, airplay mirroring seems quite buggy in iOS 7, with connection frequently dropping in the background, so here's hoping Apple fixes that with a patch soon.

 

[Sylon]

I never had a problem with storage, playability, etc with my Apple TV. All of my iTunes-purchased movies are stored on my external HDD, which is connected to my Airport Extreme and acts as a cloud server. All I have to do is find the movie on my ATV and it's good to go. Plus, any random video clips I download online I can just put into the Home Movies section of iTunes and then use Home Sharing to the ATV.

Never had any interest in apps, I only use 1 or 2 of the ones on my ATV anyway. Frankly, for $100 the ATV is the best bang for your buck device out there for me. Other people might think differently, but for me it's perfect.

 

[purplekush604]

Which system would you recommend for a noon who wants hbo shows, to new and old movies, local Canadian channels, and basically anything an apple TV 2 can do. I've heard the ouya is pretty good for this, and I hear people saying good things about the roku on here. Any suggestions, and tips would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[cavemanit]

What does it mean from your link when it says "XBMC support"?

This would be a great addition to the bedroom TV if I can run XBMC easily on it.

You can run XBMC on it easily by going to the settings I believe. It's built right into the device so you don't need to root it.

For me, I still love my Apple TV, for the airplay mirroring capabilities it brought to the classroom. It is awesome being able to project my iPad screen wirelessly to the whiteboard M control it from anywhere in the classroom.

At home, I use a combination of air video and air play mirroring to stream any movie from my iMac to my iPad to my tv. Sadly, airplay mirroring seems quite buggy in iOS 7, with connection frequently dropping in the background, so here's hoping Apple fixes that with a patch soon.

Thanks for your response. I would love to do airplay mirroring except that I don't want to purchase another macbook to play my movies on. The one I'm using is for work only and it cost $2500 (with retina display) - though it's worth the investment.

I never had a problem with storage, playability, etc with my Apple TV. All of my iTunes-purchased movies are stored on my external HDD, which is connected to my Airport Extreme and acts as a cloud server. All I have to do is find the movie on my ATV and it's good to go. Plus, any random video clips I download online I can just put into the Home Movies section of iTunes and then use Home Sharing to the ATV.

Never had any interest in apps, I only use 1 or 2 of the ones on my ATV anyway. Frankly, for $100 the ATV is the best bang for your buck device out there for me. Other people might think differently, but for me it's perfect.

Cool. I might consider these options. I'll go research on it some more. I think the airport extreme is a nice device.

Which system would you recommend for a noon who wants hbo shows, to new and old movies, local Canadian channels, and basically anything an apple TV 2 can do. I've heard the ouya is pretty good for this, and I hear people saying good things about the roku on here. Any suggestions, and tips would be appreciated.
Thanks

You can download the HBO go app on the Android tv I believe. Additionally, since it supports XBMC, it can in theory run Canadian Channels. I haven't tried it yet though, but it's possible based on some of the articles I've read.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Sorry, but i've tried heaps of options and Roku 3 beats them all. It handles my Netflix, Amazon and Huluplus subscriptions. I can directly plug media into the USB port on it and I can watch my 800+ movies on my home server by using the Plex client you can download for it.

Last but not least i've found its killer feature to be the headphone jack on the remote - It's extremely handy.

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But for my money, Roku 3 is the best box on the market for video content. Bar none.

^^ I agree!

 

[purplekush604]

You can run XBMC on it easily by going to the settings I believe. It's built right into the device so you don't need to root it.



Thanks for your response. I would love to do airplay mirroring except that I don't want to purchase another macbook to play my movies on. The one I'm using is for work only and it cost $2500 (with retina display) - though it's worth the investment.



Cool. I might consider these options. I'll go research on it some more. I think the airport extreme is a nice device.



You can download the HBO go app on the Android tv I believe. Additionally, since it supports XBMC, it can in theory run Canadian Channels. I haven't tried it yet though, but it's possible based on some of the articles I've read.

Thanks for the reply, have u tried the ouya or just the roku3?