? To those with other Netflix devices

[Che Castro]

How would you rate the ATV2 in terms of picture quality & interface as far as Netflix is concerned compared to other devices

Ps3,wii, bluray players and what ever other device you have Netflix on

 

[blevins321]

PS3 and ATV2 are relatively on par in my opinion. ATV2 is maybe a little bit more fluid. Quality-wise, they have the same picture and audio quality. Buffering seems to take about the same amount of time as well. My Tivo on the other hand...it only uses the instant queue that you make on another device. So it's borderline terrible.

 

[mstrze]

I have it on Wii but it's a no-brainer that ATV quality is better since Wii only displays 480p.

 

[j2048b]

haha no freaking way! the atv netflix sux, and i mean bad, at least with the ps3's version, as your internet speed becomes better the picture adjusts to become better as well,

if you press the info button, or selet, you can get a small screen in the top left corner on the ps3, and it shows your image go from sd to hd, and either from low to high, in my experience the atv 2 video is always crappy, not un watchable, but def not on par with my ps3.

 

[Cliff3]

I have a Roku XD in addition to the Apple TV. The Roku experiences routine green screens when connected to my Denon AVR and is unusable with that device. I moved it upstairs to the master bedroom and connected it to the Samsung LCD tv I have up there and it's fine. I replaced it downstairs in the family room with an Apple TV.

Picture quality is about the same between the two devices, assuming the Roku provides a picture at all. I prefer the Apple TV user interface to that of the Roku.

 

[SAIRUS]

It's a toss up between PS3 and the Apple TV for me. The interface is not so hot on the PS3, but it gets a lot better when you add a keyboard to it.

If you can keep up with PS3 updates, I prefer the PS3. Quality holds pretty well, and it has 5.1 as well.

If it really came down to it, PS3 wins cause it also has a blu-ray player and more file support.

 

[robabroad]

How would you rate the ATV2 in terms of picture quality & interface as far as Netflix is concerned compared to other devices

Ps3,wii, bluray players and what ever other device you have Netflix on

I have a TiVo Series 3, TiVo Premier (latest) and an LG Blu-Ray player. In general, I prefer using my ATV (v2).

A couple observations.

• ATV has a much better interface. TiVO and LG only show what's on your Netflix queue.
• ATV seems to have buffering trouble and will occasionally hang (over WiFi, Aiport Extreme). TiVo is much more willing to drop to a lower bit rate to keep up. ATV never drops the bitrate as far as I can tell.

Cheers.

 

[NachoGrande]

The last time I used my PS3 It required a disc not sure if it's still the case. I like the ATV UI much better than Wii (which is awful)

 

[blevins321]

The last time I used my PS3 It required a disc not sure if it's still the case. I like the ATV UI much better than Wii (which is awful)

It doesn't require a disk anymore..it's a download

 

[rohn]

I have a Samsung Bluray player with Netflix. I find the ATV produces a much cleaner picture.

 

[btbrossard]

In comparison to the Xbox 360-

The ATV tries to provide a more fluid experience. I've never had the ATV pause to switch quality levels from SD to HD.

The 360 would pause for a second to switch from SD to HD or from HD to SD. We use a 6 mbps dsl connection at home and most of the time, the 360 would be in HD, but if anyone else used the connection, it would start switching back and forth between quality levels frequently, which was distracting.

The 360 has a quality level indicator, showing 1-4 bars and an HD icon when in HD. The ATV has no indication of quality.

The 360 displayed which movies or tv episodes were already watched and had a progress bar to show what percentage of the show was watched. The ATV has no way to indicate if you've watched a show or movie. This can be frustrating if you're watching a tv series with many episodes and you forget which episode you watched last.

The ATV has a much better looking interface. When you have a movie selected, you can get much more info about it (Actors and Directors) than the 360. You can then also click on the actors name and see what else is available by that actor.

With the 360, you can use your Kinect to talk to Netflix if you want (play, pause, fast forward, rewind). I feel stupid talking to my TV, so I gave up on this.

To watch Netflix on the 360, you must have a Gold Live account in addition to a Netflix account. This runs about $60 if purchased annually. If all you're doing with your Gold account is watching Netflix, it adds unnecessary cost. This is why we ditched the 360 for Netflix and got an ATV. Almost pays for itself.

In general, I like the ATV experience better, but it does have some flaws. It appears that Apple went over the top to keep the interface clean, which is nice, until you want to know which shows you've already played or want to know the video quality you're watching.

EDIT TO ADD- Also have a Vizio TV with Netflix built in. All though the interface has been updated since we bought the TV, it's still clunky and slow. But in the end, it does play the videos.

 

[slothrob]

The ATV has no way to indicate if you've watched a show or movie. This can be frustrating if you're watching a tv series with many episodes and you forget which episode you watched last.

For TV shows, my experience has been that, if you watch the episodes in order, the indicator advances to the next unwatched episode the next time you select that show.