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Comment by tssva | Hacker News Reader

As a counter annecdote, I can't stand Apple TV. The user interface is a disaster compared to Roku and the remote made me want to throw it against the wall everytime I used it.

I bought a TCL Roku TV as a secondary TV. It is fast, the interface makes sense and the apps are easier to navigate because the remote actually has a variety of buttons which can be used. The remote also doesn't change the channel or cause inputs on the TV to switch because someone accidentally grazed it.

Based upon my experience with the Roku TV I replaced the Apple TV on my main TV with a Roku Premiere + and sold the Apple TV on eBay for over twice what I paid for the Roku box. My TV viewing experience is much more enjoyable. As an added bonus when I have house guests they can actually figure out how to use the TV without a 30 minute training session.

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I have three Roku TVs. The main one we use also has an AppleTV connected to it. The Rokus interface is slow, advertising takes up half the screen and the hard coded buttons on the remote get sold to the highest bidder. We have one with the defunct Rdio channel and another with CBS News. Who would ever choose CBS News?

On top of that, the CEO of Roku outright said on a podcast that they aren’t trying to make money on hardware- they want to make money by selling your data.

All that being said, they are great, cheap TVs and the Roku app with renote control and remote listening is nice.

Roku is still the best smart tv platform.

Apple TV is about 1000% better when you ditch the supplied remote and instead pair a normal querty-style Bluetooth keyboard. Nearly everything in the UI works with the combo of arrow keys + return key, and you can actually type text for searching instead of stabbing around with the crappy remote, or trying to make Siri work.

Probably not so true for tvOS games, but for the usual use case of Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, settings, etc., a keyboard works great.

I don't think this was meant to be but this is a more damning indictment of the Apple TV than my original post. If your TV viewing solution requires connecting a bluetooth keyboard to be functional than you are doing something wrong.

Siri actually works pretty well for me on tvOS, unlike iOS where I find it worse than useless.

“Siri, play the song X in Spotify.” “I’m sorry, I can’t do that right now.”

I won’t win any argument over price or the remote, although a case for the remote makes it at least tolerable.

I wonder how much this has to do with the apps we use and the generation of Roku. I mostly use a few apps: Plex, Netflix, Prime, Tablo and iTunes. On the TCL I have, the Roku is clearly underpowered. The UI is sluggish and both the Plex and Tablo apps struggle with 1080p content. During the Olympics, the NBC app barely worked.

Anyway: choices are good.

I have had a completely opposite experience. My TCL Roku TV is interface is fast and can easily handle 4K HDR content.

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