jaredwsmith
jaredwsmith

@gruber asks:

If Apple were to get out of the streaming hardware game, what’s the next best choice?

Maybe the answer to this is Roku, which generally seems okay from the user interface standpoint. But I’ll tell you what, I was most excited about the Apple TV 4K update this past spring because it was a great opportunity to get away from my “smart” TV’s terrible UX and lay the groundwork to get into Thread. The “smart” TV worked maybe 80% of the time, was slow a lot of the rest of the time, and has continually over the past several years just randomly uninstalled apps that were no longer supported just a year after I got it.

TV makers, take note: There is an untapped, high-end market for “dumb” TVs that take an input and display them. I think you would be very surprised at just how popular they would be.

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mcg
mcg

@jaredwsmith I love my ATV and hope Apple doesn't leave that market. Yes it's expensive, but it's so much better than anything else on the market, and privacy respecting. Last I looked at Roku it did a good bit of tracking.

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jaredwsmith
jaredwsmith

@mcg Yeah, Roku having pervasive tracking wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. I love the ATV simply because it is reliable and responsive. (And I can run RadarScope on it!)

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mcg
mcg

@jaredwsmith Oh! I didn’t know RS was available for it. Nice.

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jaredwsmith
jaredwsmith

@mcg Yep, and if you’ve already bought it from the App Store, everything comes along already at no additional charge (even pro subscriptions).

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gruber
gruber

@jaredwsmith Also: 4K is not 4K is not 4K. Resolution is the least important quality among compression, color balance, HDR, etc. Ted Lasso looks better on Apple TV than on Roku’s best box.

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jaredwsmith
jaredwsmith

@gruber So, so, so true. Even binging Voyager in SD looked better on the Apple TV than the "smart" TV. Would absolutely be devastating to lose the ATV in this market.

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